Calder Storm (24 page)

“But you did. It was…” Sloan hesitated, searching for the words. “…like you suddenly didn't trust me.”

“It might have seemed that way. Look, I'm sorry. What more can I say?” A trace of frustration was in his voice.

“I don't know,” she admitted, looking down.

“Sloan.” With one finger, he tilted her chin up and tipped his head toward her. The kiss was gentle and persuasive, an attempt to heal the rift. She responded, but without much eagerness, and Trey decided not to press for more than that. Instead, he cocked his head and smiled a little wryly. “This is a rotten time to have our first misunderstanding, isn't it?”

Sloan managed a small but conciliatory smile of agreement. “I suppose it is.”

“It was bound to happen some time, though. There are always bumps in every road. This is just one of them. We'll explain everything to the family at dinner tonight.” Before he ever finished the sentence, her glance shot to him, a battle light in her eyes. Trey spoke quickly to defuse it. “Like you said, your relationship to Max was never a secret as far you were concerned. And there's definitely no reason to keep it from them now.”

Mollified by his reasoning, Sloan agreed. “You're right.”

“Still love me?” he asked, a touch of joshing humor in his look.

“Most of the time,” Sloan countered, matching his tone.

“Mmmm, I'll have to work on that,” he murmured and kissed her soundly. Yet neither could so easily banish the shadow of doubt that had fallen on them. A loss of trust, however momentary, was not something easily forgotten.

 

That evening Chase was at his customary place at the head of the table, with Jessy seated on his right and Laredo next to her.
Cat was just about to take her seat opposite Chase when Trey and Sloan walked into the dining room.

“Excellent timing,” Cat declared, all smiles. “We were just about to start without you.”

“We would have saved you something, though,” Laredo inserted with a grin.

Normally the easy family banter would have been a welcome thing, but not tonight. Not for Trey. Yet he managed a smile. “You're all heart, Laredo.” He escorted Sloan to the two remaining chairs, pulled out one for her and sat down in the one to Chase's left.

“Has anyone heard the forecast?” Jessy glanced around the table. “Is it supposed to snow all night?”

“I don't know,” Cat replied. “I did have the radio on in the kitchen, but obviously I didn't listen when they gave the weather.”

Aware that the conversation was headed for a discussion of the snow and its effect on the next day's agenda of ranchwork, Trey spoke up. “Before we get started, there's something Sloan and I want to tell you.” Discreetly he reached over and curled a hand over Sloan's. “As you all know, Sloan's parents died when she was a little girl, and her father's business partner served as her legal guardian until she came of legal age. But what you don't know is that man happens to be Max Rutledge.”

The instant of silence was electric as all eyes focused on Sloan. But it was Chase's reaction that Trey watched. He knew his grandfather's conviction that Rutledge posed a potential threat to the family colored the thinking of everyone else. Chase didn't make a sound, but his eyes narrowed in a hard and close study of Sloan.

Laredo was first to break the silence, his gaze pinned on Sloan. “That's a vital piece of information to omit, don't you think?”

“If there's any fault in this, it's mine,” Trey spoke before Sloan could answer. “She called him Uncle Max. I don't know how many times she mentioned him. But it never crossed my mind that they might be the same person.”

Laredo sat back, one arm hooked over a corner of the chair's
backrest while his other hand idly fingered the silverware. He looked all loose and indifferent, but he was alert, every sense tuned to Sloan.

“The trouble we've had in the past with Rutledge, I suppose you're claiming that you weren't aware of it.” His statement bordered on a taunt.

Stung by it, Sloan reacted with a forceful denial. “I wasn't.”

He released a derisive breath. “That's what I thought.”

“It's true!” No longer finding any comfort in the warm clasp of Trey's hand, Sloan brought both of hers up to rest against the table edge as she leaned toward Laredo, her hands balling into determined fists. “I didn't know anything about it until Trey told me a little while ago. How could I? I was out of the country when Boone died, and he was already buried when I got back. Uncle Max didn't seem to want to talk about it, so I never asked for details.”

“Being out of the country the way you were, obviously you wouldn't have seen any of the initial press coverage, but what about later, at the inquest? Miss that, too, did you?”

“I think you forgot I lived in Hawaii!” she flared.

“Back off, Laredo,” Trey said in warning.

Sloan instantly turned an angry glare on him. “I can defend myself! I don't need your help.”

Chase raised a hand, keeping it palm down and patting the air. “All of you, calm down,” he stated in a reasonable voice, then directed his next remark to Trey. “Laredo's questions are ones that need to be asked. Since Sloan seems willing to answer them, we're willing to listen.”

“Thank you.” Sloan said, but with a touch of curtness that indicated resentment still simmered below the surface.

Cat reached out to her in sympathy. “I hope you can understand what a surprise this is to all of us.” Yet behind the concern in her expression, there were questions and a hint of suspicion.

“That has become very obvious,” Sloan replied, again in that clipped tone.

Once more Laredo picked up the questioning. “So, when was the last time you saw your dear old Uncle Max?”

For a split second she said nothing. “Understand that I have called him Uncle Max since I was old enough to talk. It's become a habit. Who knows? Maybe it was some subconscious way of pretending I actually had a family. But we were never close. I barely spent any time at all with him after his wife died. He was always busy or gone somewhere. As for the last time I saw Uncle”—Sloan caught herself and immediately rephrased it—“I saw Max, I had dinner with him—it must have been somewhere around the last of February or the first of March.”

“And you're saying you haven't talked to him since?” Laredo's voice was dry with disbelief.

“I never said that at all!” Sloan snapped in answer. “You asked when I saw him last, and I told you.”

“Then you have talked to him?” Laredo made it a question.

“Probably two or three times. No, it was definitely three times.”

“Obviously he knows about your marriage to Trey,” Laredo guessed.

“As a matter of fact, I talked to him shortly after we became engaged. He called me in Hawaii about some papers I needed to sign. While I had him on the phone I told him the good news.”

“I'll bet he congratulated you, didn't he?”

“And why shouldn't he?” Sloan fired back. “He was happy for me.”

“I'll bet he was,” Laredo agreed, then slanted a look at Chase. “Want'a bet the prenuptial agreement was his idea?”

Sloan rushed to his defense. “He was trying to protect my interests. It's what he's always done.”

“I'm curious, Sloan,” Cat inserted. “Why didn't you invite him to the wedding?”

“There wasn't any point. He had already told me there was some business trip he had to make that couldn't be postponed.”

“He did send us a wedding present,” Trey volunteered.

“That sculpture thing,” Cat remembered.

“So you talked to him twice more since he phoned you in Hawaii,” Jessy said, shifting the discussion back to Sloan's contact with Rutledge.

“Yes, I called to thank him for the wedding present, and the second time was to let him know about…our baby.” She paused a beat and her gaze raked the table, her posture defiantly stiff and proud. “Regardless of what you think, I never deliberately tried to conceal my association with…Max…from you. If I had wanted to keep it a secret, I never would have left the envelope with his name and address on it out for Trey to see. I would have hidden it.”

Trey was the only one other than Sloan who knew the card had been buried in the middle of a stack. He couldn't help wondering if she had forgotten that detail.

“Let me make sure I understand this right,” Laredo said. “During those phone calls you had with Rutledge, he never mentioned that he had any dealings with the Calders in the past?”

“No, he didn't. For that matter, none of you have said a single word about him until now,” Sloan retorted.

“Until now, there wasn't reason to,” Laredo replied smoothly.

“And there isn't one now!” Sloan insisted, the volume of her voice raising in proportion to her anger. “Trey told me that all of you think Uncle Max was behind the problems you had in Texas. But you'll never convince me that he had anything to do with it. It makes absolutely no sense at all. The man has a multibillion-dollar empire to run. He wouldn't stoop to something like that. That was Boone's style.”

“I admire your loyalty, Sloan,” Chase told her “But in this case I think it's misplaced.”

“Well, I don't. He's no more guilty of anything than I am.” There was a betraying quiver of her chin as Sloan looked around the table, daring anyone to say differently. “You know, it's really a shame you didn't do a background check on me before I married Trey. Then you could have made sure I was a suitable mate.”

“That's enough of that talk, young lady,” Chase said sharply. “Here at the Triple C we don't judge people based on their past.”

“Really?” Sloan looked at him in hot challenge. “And just what do you call this?”

Laredo answered for him. “It's an attempt to get at the truth. After all, you're asking us to believe an awful lot of coincidences.”

“I don't particularly care what you believe! Everything I said was the truth, and I know it. That's all that matters to me. And if you don't like it, that's just too bad.” Angrily, Sloan shoved her chair back from the table and stood up. “Excuse me, won't you?” she said tightly. “I seem to have lost my appetite.”

Head high, she walked out of the room. Trey pushed his chair back and threw a dagger-sharp glance at Laredo. “You didn't have to be so hard on her,” he muttered.

Eyebrows raised, Laredo reminded him, “There was only one hostile voice at this table, and it didn't come from any of us.”

“The way all of you ganged up on her, what did you expect?” Trey challenged before going after Sloan. With long strides, he caught up with her just as she placed a hand on the stairway's newel post. The instant Sloan felt the touch of his hand she went rigid.

“Let me guess—they have more questions.” Her voice wavered.

Trey guessed she was close to tears, but she refused to turn and look at him. “I wouldn't know. I just wanted to make sure you're all right.”

“You mean, after being interrogated like a criminal?” This time her voice did catch on a near sob.

“In your shoes, I'd probably be as angry and upset as you are. But try to look at it from their side—”

“How can I when ‘their side' makes no sense at all? Uncle Max has never done anything to them. It's ridiculous that they think he did.”

Like the rest of his family, Trey knew Max Rutledge had created all the trouble at the Cee Bar; Boone had been nothing more than his puppet. But any attempt to convince Sloan of that would only lead to another argument, and she was upset enough as it was.

“You just need to give them some time, Sloan,” he said, know
ing himself that the family would judge his wife based on her present and future actions, not her past associations. That was the way things were done on the Triple C—that was the Calder way.

“Please, I know they are your family, but right now I just want to be alone for a while.”

Trey wasn't certain that it was a wise decision for her to be alone. At the same time he was reluctant to insist that she return to the dining room.

“If that's what you want,” he finally said. “How about if I bring up a tray for you later?”

“I don't care. That's fine.” She moved away from him, climbing the stairs.

Watching her, Trey saw the hand she placed under her protruding stomach. Her chin was up and her back was ramrod straight, but he was struck by how alone and vulnerable she looked. It was a sight that aroused all his protective instincts. He abruptly turned from the staircase before he could give in to the urge to go up those stairs with her.

Reluctantly, he retraced his steps to the dining room. As he approached the archway, he heard the comment Cat made.

“I always wondered why Sloan never talked much about her past. Maybe now we know.”