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“I do, Tess,” he said, his eyes pleading with her to understand. “It’s been too long. I should have told everything right up front, but Dad insisted that it would only be worse for me.” Mitch’s body was shaking. “God, I’m sorry!”
“Curtis was in on this?” Denver hissed.
“Not really.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“He didn’t know. I’d been stealing from the petty cash in the office, and I knew old man McLean was on to me.” His eyes turned dark with the memory, his breathing irregular. “I—I was going to rip the ranch off one last time and take off. But something happened, I don’t know what.”
“Oh, God,” she murmured.
Colton tried to break away from Denver’s grip. “You were paying off gambling debts, and it cost my family their lives?” he roared. “Christ, what kind of man are you?”
“And you ‘accidentally’ caused a fire that consumed the whole damned stables and everything in it?” Denver hissed.
“Stop it! Please, all of you,” Tessa commanded. “Stop it!”
But Mitch wasn’t finished. “I used to smoke,” he said. “I was nervous, and I guess I must have dropped my cigarette in the straw in the stables before I went up to the office. By the time I took the money and changed the books the downstairs was already in flames. I opened all the stalls I could and left.”
“You bloody bastard!” Colton lunged again, but Denver held him back.
Tessa’s eyes were bright with tears, her insides ripping apart. Her world was out of kilter on its axis, spinning crazily out of control. “You could have told me,” she whispered.
“You were already destroyed because of Denver!” he spit out, then lost some of his fire. “Dad thought it best if no one said anything. I’d already had a couple of scrapes with the law—Oh, hell, Tess, why do you think Dad drinks so much? Why do you think it’s been worse since the fire? Because he took the rap for me, damn it!”
Denver released Colton. “Two people died in that fire, Kramer!” Colton thundered. “Two people!”
“I know it.”
“What kind of a miserable bastard are you, Kramer?” Denver demanded, his temper exploding. “My parents and seven horses burned to death! And all this time, you knew. Your father knew! Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”
“Denver,” Tessa whispered, seeing the anguish in his eyes, the throbbing of the arteries at his temples.
“Oh, God, I don’t know,” Mitch whispered, his eyes red. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry?” Colton bellowed. “Sorry?”
Denver’s teeth clenched. “Why the hell didn’t you tell anyone? And don’t give me that baloney about doing what your father wanted! That’s just plain crazy. You ran because you were scared. Because you were a coward.”
“Yes!” Mitch choked out, his eyes swimming in tears of remorse.
“Just listen to him!” Tessa yelled, defending her brother. “Can’t you see how hard it is?”
“Harder than this?” Denver asked, stretching his fingers wide, his webbing of reddish scars more visible than ever before.
Mitchell was shaking. “Dad was sure that I’d be sent to prison for ... involuntary manslaughter. He told me to join the Army—to get away. Let things die down.”
“And so your dad poured himself even deeper into a bottle,” Denver accused. “All because of you!”
“You miserable, lying murderer!” Colton hissed. He lunged at Mitchell, drawing back his fist. He connected with a right cross. Mitchell’s head snapped back, and he reeled backward to land against the wall. His skull crashed into the wainscoting and he slid to the floor.
“Stop this!” Tessa screamed, running to Mitchell’s side. “Get out, Colton! Just get out!” She dropped to her knees as Mitchell, holding his jaw, struggled to a sitting position. “It’s over! Can’t you see it’s over?”
“It’ll never be over,” Colton snarled, as he kicked at an end table, sending it crashing against a far wall, then stalked out of the room.
Tessa’s eyes flew to Denver. His face was taut, his eyes filled with accusations. He stood poised over Mitchell, muscles coiled, nostrils flared, as if he, too, would like to beat the living hell out of her brother,
“So that’s it, Tessa,” Denver said. “Your brother is a murderer and your father a drunk. Hell of a family I’m marryin’ into!”
