Page 1 of In Bed with the Rancher

One

Driving north on the back roads of Texas, Wade Sterling was trying to get away from a storm.

He’d been on the Gulf, fishing, when the weather had cut his trip short. He’d received warnings of violent storms developing farther out in the Gulf and heading toward the coast. He had docked near Corpus Christi and was now driving north. When he had a little more distance between him and the coast, he would turn east to get onto Interstate 45 North into Dallas.

He had called home and told his mother he was safely back on land and he would be home in a few days, maybe even a week. He had learned long ago to overestimate how long he’d be gone or she’d get worried. He suspected he would be caught in rain driving home, so the trip might take longer than usual.

Now, however, the forecast called for possible flooding. To keep his mind off the weather, he thought about things he needed to do when he got home. Before he drove to Bar S Ranch, he wanted to stop at his condo in Dallas. He needed to go by his office because he had real estate holdings he should check on and other business matters to attend to.

He and his rancher cousins, Cal Brand, Jake Reed and Luke Grayson, had all contributed money to build a new arena in Fort Worth to replace a popular old arena that had burned down. The city wanted a grand opening and he and his cousins needed to agree on a date. He should get with his cousins and get that date settled.

Sadness gripped him when he thought about his cousin, Cal. Cal had been a rancher, as the rest of them were, but he wanted life on the wild side, too. He had done undercover work for the government. He’d said two more years and he would retire to his ranch. When Wade contacted Cal about donating to build the new arena, Cal was enthusiastic and sent more than they’d planned, saying he was sure the builders would find a use for the money. Two months later, his family received word that Cal had died in an accident on the Atlantic Ocean. The surviving cousins attended the memorial service held by Cal’s family. Wade shook his head. He would miss Cal who was interesting, fun, and a good rancher.

Another of Wade’s cousins had had a sad event. It was two years ago when Luke’s wife and baby boy were killed in a car wreck. Luke no longer was as light-hearted as he had been before losing his family and Wade could understand why. It made him sad and he wondered if Luke would ever be the happy person he once was.

A deep rumble of thunder warned Wade he wasn’t going to beat the storm.

His thoughts shifted to getting home.

Which led to thoughts of Olivia, and his need to break things off with her.

Though she was beautiful and exciting to be with, she was getting too serious. He didn’t want to marry—not ever. Problem was, she did, and she made it obvious. Just the thought of marriage sent a chill down his spine. He never wanted to marry and risk having a kid like his twin. His identical twin. Identical in looks but not in temperament and personality. Not at all. Wynn had caused trouble as far back as Wade could remember.

Wade thought about the latest example. Last month, when he had stopped by his parents’ home and waited for their return from the grocer’s, their landline phone rang. He answered, in case it was a business call for his dad. Wade had just started to say “Sterling residence” when a woman’s frantic voice cut him off.

“Wynn, this is Violet,” she said in a nasal twang.

“I’m not Wynn. I’m—” was all he could get out before she interrupted him.

“Wynn, don’t lie to me. I recognize your voice. You listen to me.” Wade could hear the desperation in her tone as her words poured out louder and faster. “Your cell number has changed and I couldn’t find you. Don’t you dare hang up. We have a deal. You’ve been good about sending money, but it hasn’t come this month. I need it, so get it to me. I’ll keep my part of our bargain as long as you keep your promise and the money comes. I’ve stayed out of Dallas and no one knows about our child. If you want it to stay that way, get the money to me.”

Shocked, Wade forgot about telling her who he was.

“It’s in the mail, Violet,” he said instead and hung up. He had given an answer and cut her off in the manner that Wynn would have done. She might learn Wynn had a twin and she had talked to the wrong brother, but he didn’t think she would tell Wynn because she had given away his secret—Wynn had a child.

Stunned, Wade could imagine Wynn trying to hide the mother and the baby. Wynn’s tastes ran to gorgeous, sexy women, but he didn’t care if they were strippers in the worst nightclub in town or the cream of Dallas society. He always found the sexy beauties, but some of them he never took to meet the family. Violet, for one, he assumed.

He wondered about his folks not knowing their first grandchild. It might be just as well, and Wynn was paying regularly to bury the secret. He assumed Wynn had good reason to keep his baby a secret, so Wade would also, but it hurt to think there was a child out there that they’d never know and who would never know them.

He knew when his brother finally got around to marrying,

it would be a dazzling beauty from a prominent, wealthy family. Someone like Olivia. Olivia would be a good match for Wynn because she could hold her own with him. Strong and bright, she would be a good influence on him.

For now, Wade would keep Wynn’s secret. Wynn was a dad—that alone was an incredible shock. Another shiver ran down his spine. He couldn’t imagine Wynn raising a child. He was still a child himself in many ways. But now he was a dad who probably had never even seen his own child. That wouldn’t surprise Wade at all.

Wade thought about his own situation. He didn’t want marriage or fatherhood at this point in his life, yet if he had a baby with a woman, he would want that child in his life. For just a moment he felt a pang and wondered if he would miss out on a lot by avoiding marriage. Then he had to laugh at himself. He didn’t even have a woman in his life, since he was about to part ways with Olivia.

He kept his eyes on the road and pressed on the accelerator, trying to beat out the pending storm. But he couldn’t outpace his thoughts. There was another problem, far more worrisome, on his mind. A few months ago his ranch foreman, Cotton Daniels, had told him that one of the cowboys was regularly receiving money from a man who drove to the ranch. Cotton happened to be taking out cedar trees when he saw the cowboy, Denny White, drive on a ranch road while a car came from the opposite direction and they parked facing each other. They didn’t see Cotton because he was in a thick stand of cedars and his four-wheeler was out of the way. Initially he’d just passed it off as a gambling debt or some such, except the men were acting so secretive. The next month, about the same time, he saw them again near the gate.

Wade couldn’t help but worry why someone was paying Denny.

Nor could he stop thinking this was another of the sneaky things Wynn was involved in. Wade had learned years earlier, if trouble occurred in his life, his twin was usually involved.

Throughout his life, Wade had never understood his twin’s jealousy or his anger if Wade got something and he didn’t. Wynn was their mother’s favorite of her four children and he made certain he stayed that way. She was the one person on Earth that Wynn seemed to care about and went out of his way to keep happy.

Wade shook his head and sighed. When he got back to Dallas, he was going to have to deal with Wynn. He doubted if Wynn had delt with Denny face-to-face, but he felt certain that Wynn was behind whatever Denny was getting paid to do. Now he had to worry about that as well as Wynn’s baby. His twin needed to tell the truth about his child. And he would have to wring out of Wynn if and what he was paying Denny to do. In the meantime he needed to give Cotton authority to fire Denny if he saw good reason. He trusted Cotton’s judgment completely.

A clap of thunder brought Wade’s attention back to his surroundings. The thunder rumbled ever closer. The bumpy county road had mesquite scattered on either side. To his left was a deep canyon with a creek at the bottom. It was a small stream, but in a storm, Wade knew how streams could become white-water rivers and flood the surrounding area. He didn’t want to get caught in a storm on a back road that was unknown terrain.

He hadn’t seen another vehicle since he left the coast. He didn’t have to worry about traffic, so he sped up, hoping to get to the next town before the storm hit. In minutes, the first big drops splashed on the windshield and then a gray sheet of blinding, torrential rain swept over his pickup.

Once, when he glanced in his rearview mirror at the sprays of water going up in his pickup’s wake, he thought he saw headlights in the distance behind him. The rain was too intense to be sure. He soon swooshed around a curve and a sea of water was in front of him. As the road dipped, he pumped his brakes, but it was too late to prevent driving into the water rushing over the road, and then he felt the pickup leave the road and he was floating, swept up by the water.

Frantically, Wade yanked off his coat. If he went into the water at the bottom of the canyon and had to swim, he didn’t want to be wearing a coat.

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