Page 1 of Lie for a Million

CHAPTERONE

“Ineed help. I’m pregnant, Mrs. Culhane. The baby isFrank’s.”

The words replayed against the throbbing beat in Lila Culhane’s head as she hung up the office phone and sank into the leather banker’s chair that had been her late husband’s.

Raking her blond hair back from her face, she muttered a string of unladylike swearwords. Wasn’t it enough that Frank was dead—murdered in the stable with the unknown killer still at large? Wasn’t it enough that Frank’s grown children and ex-wife were scheming to evict her from the house and ranch that had been her home for eleven years—the home she had rightfully inherited?

Evidently it wasn’t enough. Fate had just thrown Frank’s pregnant mistress into the mess—a young woman Lila had learned about only one day before Frank was discovered dead from a massive injection of fentanyl.

What now?

She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. The house was quiet with the recent visitors gone. She could hear a trapped horsefly buzzing against the window. From the upstairs hallway came the sound of a vacuum cleaner as Mariah, the cook and housekeeper, went about her work.

Lila needed a drink. But this wasn’t the time to dull her senses with alcohol. She needed a clear head to examine her options.

Crystal—that was the young woman’s name. Against her better judgment, Lila had agreed to meet with her tomorrow at the Trail’s End restaurant in nearby Willow Bend. It might have been smarter to have just hung up the phone and have nothing to do with her claim. But she needed to know, at least, whether Crystal was really carrying Frank’s child or lying as a way to get money.

The manila envelope, holding the photos Lila had paid for, was taped to the underside of the center desk drawer. Not that there was a need for hiding it. Frank’s infidelities were no longer a secret.

But that didn’t mean she would share what she’d just learned—especially if Crystal was telling the truth.

Lila’s hand shook slightly as she slid the photos out of the envelope and spread them on the desktop. Without a doubt, the handsome man in the motel room doorway was Frank. With his distinguished looks and air of wealth, he’d never had any trouble attracting women. Lila should have realized long ago that his cheating wouldn’t stop with his second marriage. After all, he’d cheated on his first wife, Madeleine, withher.

As the wronged and angry wife, Lila knew she was a prime suspect in the ongoing investigation of Frank’s murder. But right now, she had even more urgent concerns.

She’d studied the photos before. But now that she’d spoken with the mystery woman in Frank’s arms, she saw the details with different eyes. Crystal had been photographed from behind. Her face didn’t appear in any of the photos—just her long black hair and one of her hands, which rested on Frank’s shoulder. The hand told a story of its own—the drugstore nails and the gaudy rings on three fingers. Lila knew good jewelry when she saw it. The rings were cheap fakes. Crystal was poor and undoubtedly after money. The only question was, how desperate was she?

Paying her to go away might be the simplest solution. Of course, Crystal would have to consent to an in vitro paternity test. If the baby didn’t have Frank’s DNA, that would be the end of the story. But if the young woman was telling the truth . . .

Lila dismissed the thought. She was inclined to believe that Crystal was lying. During her eleven-year marriage, Lila had tried everything to get pregnant. Since she’d given birth to a daughter at eighteen, she knew she wasn’t infertile. And Frank had two children from his first marriage. After a time, when she’d failed to conceive, she’d begun to suspect he’d had a secret vasectomy. But the coroner who’d done his autopsy hadn’t bothered to check. Now it was too late. His body lay in the Culhane family cemetery on a desolate hilltop, within sight of the house.

Nerves quivering, Lila put the photographs away, stood, and walked to the window. The ranch office gave her a view of the stable, the covered arena, and the paddocks beyond, where blooded American quarter horses grazed in the morning sunlight. Beyond the paddocks, in the larger pasture, Black Angus cattle fed on the drought-yellowed grass.

For the past eleven years, as Frank’s wife and business partner, she had given her time, her energy, and her heart to this ranch and its program of breeding and training performance horses. It had become her world, her life. Now, with Frank’s death, everything had been thrown into chaos.

With Frank’s ex and her two adult children plotting to take everything Lila had worked for, the one person she could count on had been Roper McKenna, her horse trainer and manager. But now, even his support was coming into question.

Lila was fighting battles from all sides; the last thing she needed was Frank’s former mistress showing up pregnant.

Without conscious thought, she found herself leaving the house and heading down the cobblestone path to the stable, where Roper would be working the horses that were owned, boarded, and trained at the Culhane Ranch. Weeks ago, she would have taken him into her confidence and trusted him to understand. She might even have told him about Crystal.

But all that had changed after Roper qualified for Frank’s place in the reining event of the year—the Run for a Million. Lila had known he’d be getting a lot of attention. Big horse breeders would be courting him, offering him money and prestige to train in their stables and compete on their horses.

She needed Roper. He’d worked for Frank before he’d worked for her. There was no one else she trusted to manage her horse operation. That was why she’d been prepared to offer him a partnership—the one thing he wouldn’t get from anyone else.

But now she was holding back on the offer. Roper, who’d been her rock, was showing signs of dissatisfaction. The loyalty she’d felt from him was gone—if it had ever been real. Lila sensed that she was going to lose him, and she didn’t know what to do.

* * *

In the covered arena, Roper had just put One in a Million through his paces—the pattern of rapid circles, dashes, and gallops ending in a spectacular sliding stop with a rollback. At the age of thirteen, the legendary stallion was still as sharp as he’d been a few weeks ago, when he’d won Roper a place as one of sixteen riders in the Run for a Million.

The big bay roan had the heart of a champion. But at his age, did he have the speed and stamina to win again?

The decision was Roper’s to make—and he needed to make it soon.

Frank Culhane had qualified for the final event at the March Cactus Classic, riding Million Dollar Baby, a daughter of One in a Million. He’d also planned to ride the promising mare in the Run for a Million. But Frank’s murder, followed by Baby’s tragic death, had changed everything.

One in a Million had been Frank’s horse, winning him more than a million dollars before being retired to stud at the age of ten. In the competition for Frank’s place, it had been decided that Roper would show the aging stallion, but only as a tribute to his late owner. To everyone’s astonishment, One in a Million had caught fire in the arena. His scores had put Roper in first place.

---