Winchester Christmas Wedding (2 page)

Still smiling, Collins picked up the phone and dialed. “I'm sorry to bother you in the middle of the night, Elizabeth, but I have an assignment for you that can't wait.”

Twelve hours later

“Lizzy?” Anne McCormick looked shocked to see her. “What are you doing here?”

Elizabeth “Lizzy” Calder hadn't known what kind of reception she would get at the McCormick Ranch this close to Christmas—especially showing up unannounced. Fortunately she had the perfect excuse—she was here to see her childhood friend.

“I had to come, Anne,” she said honestly. “You've been in my thoughts ever since I heard about your mother. I am so sorry. I came as soon as I could.” Anne's mother, Joanna McCormick, had been arrested for murder and, after making a deal for her life, had been sent to Montana state prison.

“I'm sure you were devastated when you heard,” Anne said stiffly. “More likely you weren't in the least bit surprised. We both know you never liked my mother.”

Lizzy couldn't lie—at least about that. Joanna McCormick had been one of those cold, distant people who had ice water running through her veins. It had come as
no surprise when she'd heard Joanna had committed a murder.

“Your mother and I weren't close, but you know I care about you,” Lizzy said honestly. “How are you doing?”

Anne shook her head, then burst into tears. Lizzy stepped to her, hugging her friend. She did care about Anne. That much of the visit wasn't a lie. They were childhood friends and had once been very close.

“I'm so sorry.”

“Oh, Lizzy, it's just been horrible.”

“Tell me what I can do.”

As her friend drew back from the hug, she smiled through her tears. “I wish there was something someone
could
do. But I am glad you're here anyway.”

Lizzy tried not to show her relief. Anne hadn't been happy to see her. There had been the chance that she would turn her away, especially this close to Christmas and considering the fact that the two of them had drifted apart.

While she was sincere in her concern for her friend, Lizzy had a job to do and she never let anything get in the way of that. She'd worked too hard to get where she was, and she owed too much to Roger Collins and the agency. And right now she needed to stay here because of the ranch's proximity to the Winchester Ranch—and hopefully to TD Waters, if that was really where he'd been gone.

Leaving her travel bags at the bottom of the stairs, Lizzy and Anne moved into the once familiar living room. It had been redecorated since Lizzy had been here last. All the leather, wood and antler furnishings
had been replaced with light-colored fabrics and white wicker. The room felt cold, like the day outside where a half foot of snow covered the ground and only a weak December sun shone through the window.

“Is Janie home, as well?” Lizzy asked of Anne's younger sister.

“She just arrived this morning.”

The three of them couldn't have been more different. Anne, blonde and blue-eyed and chubby. Janie, small and dark. Lizzy, redheaded, gray-eyed, tall and gangly. Their appearances were only the tip of the iceberg in their differences. Anne was quiet and easygoing, Janie moody and volatile, and Lizzy…well, she had been the wild one when they were kids. Up for anything.

That was how she'd broken her arm after falling out of the barn's hayloft. She had loved being daring, especially when it came to riding horses. The faster the better was her motto. She remembered how her father used to worry about her when he'd see her racing across the prairie on one of the ranch horses.

Lizzy took a seat in one of the wicker chairs, wishing for the old, deep leather couch that she and Anne used to curl up in to giggle and talk, eat popcorn and watch old Westerns.

As she looked around, she yearned for something familiar in the room. She didn't want to believe that everything had changed here, not at what had once been her most favorite place in the world.

With a start, she saw that the old framed photographs that had covered the far wall were gone. They'd been replaced with a huge, ugly piece of modern artwork.

“What happened to the photographs?” she asked in
alarm. There'd been photos of her father and Anne's stepfather, Hunt, along with Lizzy and Anne as girls and even black-and-white snapshots of long-ago visitors to the ranch.

Anne shrugged. “Probably in the basement.” Her look said she wondered why Lizzy would care. “You can help yourself to any you want. They'll probably get thrown out after we leave.”

“Thank you.” Lizzy looked at her friend and felt her heart go out to her. “You won't be staying at the ranch then?”

Anne shook her head. “Janie and I are selling the place. Mother's signed it over to us.”

The thought broke her heart. “What about your dad?”

“Hunt's my stepfather,” Anne said, a warning in her tone. “Unfortunately, Mother never divorced him, but he said he doesn't want any of the money so I guess that is something.”

Lizzy didn't think she could hurt any worse. She hated that Anne, and she was sure Janie, felt this way about the man who had been the only father either of them had known. Joanna had been married twice before to two other men. None had lasted, leaving behind three children, Jordan, Anne and Janie.

“I'm sorry to hear that,” Lizzy said. “About the ranch and the way you feel about Hunt.” She'd loved Hunt like a second father. And she'd heard it was Joanna who'd refused to divorce Hunt—not the other way around even though they had lived apart for years now.

“I told you,” Anne said with an edge to her voice, “things have changed around here.”

She nodded, unable to speak. So much had changed after her father died—like summers at the McCormick Ranch. He'd been the ranch manager and best friends with Hunt. Anne had been like the sister she'd never had—at least during the summers. The rest of the year they'd all been away at different boarding schools.

Lizzy had lived for her summers when she could get back to the ranch, her father, her friend and the horses she loved. She and Anne spent long days horseback riding, not just around the McCormick Ranch, but sneaking onto the even larger Winchester Ranch to the northwest.

It had been a game, seeing how close they could get to the Winchester Ranch lodge, terrified that Pepper Winchester might see them and…well, they'd heard stories about how mean she was and had no idea what she might do.

Lizzy's father, Will, had loved this ranch and had worked it until he died. Her happiest memories were here. As she looked around the room, she could no longer imagine her father—or any other ranch hand for that matter—in this room.

As her gaze settled again on Anne, she tried to accept that a lot more had changed than just the furnishings. Including Lizzy's real reason for coming here.

“I'm glad your sister is here with you,” she said to fill the uncomfortable silence. Since college and her father's death, Lizzy hadn't seen as much of Anne. At first they'd kept in touch through emails and phone calls, but even those had been scarce the past few years. “How is Janie doing?”

Anne glanced toward the stairs and lowered her voice.
“I'm worried about her. You know how close she and Mother were.”

As close as Joanna McCormick could be to any human being, Lizzy thought. Joanna loved horses and hadn't seemed to have any love left over for her husband and her children. “I'm sorry.”

She knew firsthand what it was like to lose a parent. She'd lost her mother at the age of three. All she knew about the pretty woman from the photographs her father had shown her was that her father had loved his wife more than life.

“If I hadn't had you,” he used to say. “You were my reason to go on living.”

Lizzy still missed her father desperately. Was that another reason she'd jumped at the chance to join the agency? Roger Collins had said it was like a family. That's why she had been excited about coming back here for this assignment. This had once been home.

“I wish you had called before coming, though,” Anne said. “As much as I appreciate it, I'm afraid you being here will upset Janie.”

“What will upset Janie?” asked a voice from the stairs.

They both turned to see Anne's younger sister standing halfway down the steps. Janie was still small, wiry, with dark hair and eyes like her mother. Even though Anne hadn't been Hunt's child, she resembled him.

The thought startled Lizzy. Was it possible Anne and Janie had different fathers? And why hadn't she thought of that before, since the sisters were so different in every way? After all, Anne and Janie's older brother, Jordan, had had a different father than his half sisters.
Jordan had died in a ranching accident before Lizzy was born.

“Why would a visit from my sister's friend upset me?” Janie asked smiling as she came down the stairs to give Lizzy a hug.

“You look great, Janie,” she said and then realized how that must sound. Unlike Anne, Janie
did
look great. Anne's skin was pale with dark shadows under lifeless eyes. Janie was radiant, eyes almost too bright.

“My sister and I mourn losses very differently,” Janie said, crossing the room to hug her sister. Anne looked as surprised by Janie's show of affection as Lizzy had been. Neither of them believed it was real, she thought uncharitably.

“So how long are you staying?” Janie asked. Before Liz could answer, Janie rushed on. “Stay through the holidays,” she said impulsively. “It will be just like old times, won't it, Anne?”

Lizzy saw a look pass between the sisters. She opened her mouth to say she wasn't sure how long she would be staying, but this time Anne cut her off.

“I'm sure Lizzy isn't staying that long,” her old friend said pointedly. “After all, she has a job. I'm sorry, I've forgotten what you said you do.”

“I'm a consultant for companies planning to expand,” Liz said, giving her the practiced spiel.

“How horribly boring,” Janie chimed in with a laugh.

“I'm sure they can get along without you for a while. I mean, how many companies are expanding in this poor economy? I'll tell Alma we have a guest so she can add another plate.” She headed for the kitchen humming to herself.

“We should get you settled into the guest room,” Anne said, abruptly getting to her feet.

It wasn't until they'd carried Lizzy's bags up the stairs to the guest wing that Anne spoke again. “You see why I'm worried about her? She's taking all of this much worse than she's letting on. I'm afraid of what she's going to do.”

“Do?”

Anne didn't answer, but Liz had a bad feeling it involved the Winchesters and that old rumor about Anne's stepfather, Hunt, and Pepper Winchester.

“I need to see to some things,” Anne said distractedly.

“Make yourself at home.”

There was only one thing that could make Lizzy feel at home here. She changed and headed for the stables. The Winchester Ranch was only a few miles away—if you went across the country the way a bird flies—and it was time she got to work.

 

P
EPPER
W
INCHESTER HAD BEEN
more than a little surprised when her son Worth showed up at the ranch for the wedding days early. She hadn't even been that sure he was coming for the wedding. She'd never understood Worth. Nor him her.

“I need to talk to you,” he said now as he stepped into the parlor and closed the door behind him.

She'd been reading quietly in front of the fire, but now she put her book aside, seeing that he had something on his mind. She watched him fidget nervously and felt her stomach tighten. Whatever it was wasn't anything good.

“I know your secret,” he blurted out, avoiding her
gaze. “I know the real reason you were a recluse the past twenty-seven years.”

She said nothing.

He finally looked up, his eyes locking with hers for the first time in years. “I need money. I need you to give it to me.”

Pepper Winchester studied her son, astonished. After all these years he'd finally grown a backbone?

“You aren't really blackmailing me, are you?” she asked amused.

“I'm serious.”

“I can see that.” Pepper thought of her long-dead husband, Call. He would have been as shocked as she was to see Worth—or “Worthless” as Call had always referred to him—standing here making demands.

He looked away. “I wouldn't ask except…”

“You're desperate. Gambling? Drugs? High-priced call girls?”

Worth shook his head angrily. “Don't make fun of me.”

“I was merely asking what put you in such a…dire predicament that your only option was to blackmail your mother.”

“I'm so glad you find this amusing,” he said, anger reddening his cheeks. “I hope you find it as hilarious when I go public with your not-so-little secret.”

She studied him for a long moment. Any other woman seventy-two years old facing a man Worth's size might have been frightened. She could see that he was desperate, that this was a last-ditch effort to save himself. But from what?

“I'll need to know where my money is going,” she said.

He shook his head, his dark gaze glittering, almost with malice. “No, that's not part of the deal.”

“What makes you think I will give you the money, then?”

Worth smiled. Unlike her other sons, he was even less handsome when he smiled. Of her five children, Worth was the one she'd worried about the most. He'd always had the darkest disposition, the most secretive personality. Before this moment, Pepper would have said she couldn't imagine what Worth was thinking.

“How much money are we talking?” she asked, though she had no intention of giving him a cent.

“How much of the Winchester fortune is left?”

She raised a brow.

“I know Virginia's been here for months trying to get her greedy little hands on it,” Worth said. “But I assume she wouldn't still be here if you'd given her any. I want my share.”