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“Then you will give me first option?”
“When the time comes. . . .”
Dustin appeared relieved, but there was something else that he was hiding from her; she could read it in the shadows of his eyes.
“Dustin.” She touched his sleeve lightly. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Dustin walked away from her and pushed his hands into the back pockets of his slacks. His shoulders slumped in defeat. “Well, maybe I shouldn’t be telling you this,” he grumbled, condemning himself. “It’s all water under the bridge now.”
Tiffany’s heart nearly stopped. Was Dustin going to admit that Devil’s Gambit was alive and siring foals as part of an incredible charade that would rock the Thoroughbred racing world on two continents? She felt almost physically ill with dread.
“Ellery was involved with a woman back then.”
“Oh, God,” she whispered, rocked to the very core of her soul as she began to understand what Dustin was saying. She felt cold all over; her heart was heavy in her chest. “A woman that Zane was in love with?” she guessed, praying that she had misunderstood her brother-in-law.
Dustin’s brows quirked at Tiffany’s familiar use of Sheridan’s name. He let out an angry oath. “More than that, I’m afraid. She was Zane Sheridan’swife, Stasia.”
Tiffany sucked in her breath and her throat began to ache painfully. Truth and fiction began to entangle in her confused thoughts. What was Dustin saying? “Wait a minute . . .” Dustin was giving her too much information and it made her head swim. She had thought he was going to confess about Devil’s Gambit, but instead he had brought up Zane’s ex-wife . . . andEllery. Dear God, was that why Zane had come to the farm, his gray eyes filled with revenge? Had he pretended interest in her only to throw her off guard? “Nancy Emerson said something about Zane’s wife running out on him, but not with Ellery. The man’s name was—”
“Ethan Rivers.”
Tiffany swallowed against the dread flowing in her blood. “No.” She had to deny what Dustin was suggesting and her shoulders slumped.
“Tiffany, listen!”
She shook her head and fought against hot tears. “Are you trying to tell me that Ellery used an alias?” She clamped her fingers over the top rail of the stall for support.
“Sometimes.”
Pained blue eyes delved into Dustin’s murky gaze. “But why?” Alexander’s Lady sensed the tension and snorted.
Dustin waved off Tiffany’s question as if it were insignificant. “Sometimes it was just easier . . . if people didn’t know we, Ellery and I, were brothers.”
“I don’t understand.”And I don’t think I want to. It would be easier not to think that Ellery used me in the past and that Zane is using me still. . . .
“You don’t have to,” Dustin said harshly and then softened a little when he saw her stricken face. “Tiffany, it really doesn’t matter, not now. When Ellery and I were first getting started, we had to do a lot of . . . maneuvering to get established. Sometimes, when we were in Europe trying to sell some of our stock, it was just easier for Ellery to pose as a rival bidder to drive up the price of one of our own horses. Once in a while it backfired and no one bought the horse in question, but other times, well, we came out of it a few dollars richer. We didn’t really hurt anyone by it.”
Tiffany’s eyes grew round with horror. “Oh, no?” she rasped as anger replaced despair. She leaned against a post for support, but her blue eyes blazed with rage. “You can justify it any way you want, even give it such fancy terms as ‘maneuvering to get established,’ Dustin, but I think what you and Ellery did was manipulate people and the system to pad your wallet.” Tiffany felt sick inside, empty. “That’s illegal—”
“Probably not,” Dustin denied. “Immoral, maybe, and probably unethical—”
“And crooked.” She saw the fury spark in his eyes and she forced control on her own anger. “Oh, Dustin. Why didn’t Ellery tell me?” she asked in a broken whisper. Her knees threatened to give way. She had been married to Ellery, loved him in her own way, and he had betrayed her trust.
“Hey, don’t get down on Ellery,” Dustin said as if reading her thoughts. “This all happened before he knew you, and he did a hell of a lot for you and your bum of a father. Where would you have been if Ellery hadn’t supported you, paid your way through college, and then married you?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But the lies—”
He touched her chin and lifted it, forcing her to look into his eyes. He felt her tremble with rage. “Look, it’s over and done with,” Dustin said, his eyes searching hers. “Ellery’s dead. . . .” He lowered his head and would have kissed her if it hadn’t been for the question she had to ask.
“Is he, Dustin?” she demanded, pulling away from him and wrapping her arms protectively over her breasts.
Dustin was visibly stunned. “What kind of a question is that?”
“A legitimate worry, wouldn’t you say?”
“Tiffany, listen to what you’re saying!”
“How do I know that he isn’t alive and using that alias . . . Ethan Rivers . . . or another one for that matter, in Europe somewhere?” Her hands were shaking at her sides. “For all I know, he could be living in France or England or Ireland, racing horses, married to someone else.” She was rambling and she knew it, and she had to get hold of herself before she tipped her hand and gave her act away.
