Page 26 of Texas-Sized Secrets

Her question made him pause while tying another strand of barbed wire to the next cut piece of wire. “Did you know Tyler Jones?” He wrapped the wire, using more force than necessary.

She shook her head. “I didn’t know him personally, but I’d heard about his accident. Such a shame. He was so young. Twenty-four, right?”

“Twenty-four, with a brand-new baby and a young wife.” He hooked the come-along to the second wire and cranked it several notches. “Despite what the newspaper said, he didn’t have an accident. He was run off the road while out investigating a call from someone who’d called in a suspected cattle rustling. The sheriff sent him out there alone, no backup. It was my night off, but I heard the call over my home scanner.” Reed cranked the wire tighter, his lips set in a thin line. “I called the sheriff and told him Tyler needed backup. When he refused to send it, I offered to go myself. The sheriff ordered me to stand down. I refused the order. I found Tyler’s car. I was the one who told his wife. She just held her baby and cried.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Parker Lee knew better.”

“So you quit?”

“I couldn’t work for a man who didn’t care enough about the people who work with him.”

Mona nodded. “What keeps you here?”

“I came back to the panhandle to be close to my mother after she’d had a stroke.”

Mona’s heart squeezed. “I can understand. I wish I’d had more time with my mother and father. Is your father still alive?”

Reed didn’t answer.

After a minute passed, Mona got the message. “I’m sorry. I take it he is and you two don’t talk much.”

“I recently learned the man I thought was my father was only my stepfather and not a very good one at that.”

“And you don’t know who your father is?” Her breath caught in her throat. “Your mother never told you.” Mona turned away, grabbing for the bandanna she’d stuffed in her back pocket before the tears fell. She couldn’t tell anyone who the father of her baby was. The stakes were too high.

What had been Reed’s mother’s reason? Only a mother determined to protect her baby would keep a secret for so many years.

“No, my mother never told me. She let me believe my stepfather was my real father until last night.”

Mona spun to face him. “I’m sorry.”

“Actually it was a relief. For years, I thought he couldn’t love me because of something I did. But it wasn’t because of what I did, but who I was.”

Mona crossed over to where Reed stood and laid her hand on his arm, feeling awkward but wanting him to know she cared. “It must have been tough to hear something like that.”

He grabbed her wrist and held it away from him. “Will you lie to your child?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my baby. No one will know who the father is, including the child. At least until he or she is grown and can understand my reasons.”

He stared at her a long time before he let her go. “It’s your business.”

She rubbed her wrist and put distance between them. Yeah, it was her business, and Reed wasn’t. She’d do well to remember that.

* * *

WHAT HAD COMEover him? Mona wasn’t his mother. For that matter, he didn’t know the reasons his mother had kept her secret. Many women who’d been raped didn’t tell because of the shame they felt. Had his mother felt too ashamed to go to the police? Or had his father been someone of influence who could have hurt her more or taken her baby away from him.

Had Mona been raped like his mother? Was that why she was afraid to say anything?

A quick glance at the woman willing to face a herd of wild boars gave him his answer. No, shame wasn’t it. If she’d been raped, she’d have gone to the nearest law enforcement agency and told them.

Then again, she seemed as aware of Parker Lee’s shortcomings as a law enforcement official as he was. Whatever her reason for keeping her secret, as he’d told her, was her business.

Reed hammered another nail into the fence post and moved on to the next wire, stretching it taut. He ratcheted the come-along, testing the tightness with each click of the crank.

On his last crank, the wire snapped at the other end. “Get back!” he yelled and dived for the side, but too late. All he could do was fling himself to the ground, cover his face and hope for the best. Because his end was still tied to the come-along, the long strand contracted like an accordion, whipping back toward Reed.

---