Million Dollar Marriage (3 page)

“She’s not your type,” Claudia said. “As I recall, you made that fact painfully obvious
to her back in school.”

He knew she was right, but he’d be damned if he’d admit it. “Shoot, if she’d looked
like that back in school—”

“I think that’s the point, cousin,” Matthew volunteered. “You’re tipping the platter.”

Holden straightened the platter and a rib fell off. Shaking her head, Claudia came
forward and took the dish from him. Holden eyed her. “Besides, I don’t remember being
nasty to her in high school. At least, not enough to merit that icy reception.” Anyway,
he’d had his reasons for steering clear of Lucy back then. Reasons…that all still
existed. So why didn’t he just drop it? Why was he still watching her weave her way
through the crowded great room? Why was he still running off at the mouth? “I always
admired her. She…reminded me of Mom in some odd way.”

“She had a huge crush on you back then, Holden.”

“That’s right… That’s right. I used to see her hanging around at practice sometimes,
watching me.” He remembered more than that, too. He remembered that he’d decided she
was far too good for the likes of him. She probably still was.

“I suppose thoroughly ignoring a girl who’s not up
to your standards is something you do so often you’re barely conscious of it anymore,”
Claudia said.

Ignoring her, Holden stared across the crowded room to where Lucy Brightwater was
now chatting with Ryan and Lily. She looked a bit like Lily. Same dark coloring, same
dramatic black eyes. Damn, no wonder Ryan had been in love with Lily for thirty-some-odd
years. A woman like that…

“I’m sure as hell not ignoring her now,” he heard himself mutter.

“Well, you sure as hell ought to be,” Claudia snapped. “Leave her alone, Holden. She’s
not a one-night-stand kind of woman.”

“No. No, I remember that about her. She was always pretty…” He shook his head. “Man,
she sure grew into her looks.”

“There’s a lot more to Lucinda Brightwater than the way she looks. As there is with
most women, not that you’ve ever bothered to look any deeper than the surface.”

Holden shrugged. “Fine. You want to start listing her stellar qualities, go ahead.
I’m listening.” And interested, he thought. In fact, he was dying to know what Lucinda
in the Sky Brightwater had been up to all these years.

Claudia narrowed her eyes at him, then shrugged. “Fine, I will. Lucinda is kind, compassionate
and caring. She’s intelligent and accomplished and sensitive, and a casual fling with
a man like you could do a lot of damage to a woman like her. Leave her alone, Holden.”

As she turned and strode away to set the heaping platter on a table, Holden sent a
confused glance at
his cousin. “You’d think I was the devil himself, the way she acts.”

“Some might say you are,” Matthew said. “Claudia’s a little protective of Lucinda.
They got pretty close during the pregnancy and all.”

Holden tilted his head, lifted a brow.

“Lucinda is Claudia’s doctor. Works over at Red Rock General.”

Holden blinked. “She’s a
doctor?
” He looked her way once more. Damn, she didn’t look like any doctor he’d ever seen.
“Maybe it’s time I make an appointment. I must be overdue for a physical…or something.”
He was only half kidding.

“Hey, I’m offended! I thought I was your favorite doctor. Besides, you’d never get
in to see Lucinda…you don’t have the right equipment.” Matthew grinned at Holden’s
puzzled expression. “She’s an OB-GYN.” Matthew said. “She delivered Bryan. And she
and Claudia sort of…bonded.”

“That’s the Dr. Brightwater Claudia was always talking about,” Holden said as a lightbulb
finally flashed on in his mind. He hadn’t made the connection until now.

“The one and only,” Matthew said, echoing Lucinda’s earlier words. “And she’s not
the kind of woman who would enjoy being judged on the basis of her looks.”

“Then she shouldn’t go around looking like that,” Holden said.

“Give it up, cousin. You don’t stand a chance with her. Go find some bimbo to charm
into your love nest. That woman is out of your league.”

Holden finished his drink in a gulp and set down
the empty glass. “Yeah. That’s pretty much what I always thought, too. But that doesn’t
mean I can’t talk to her, does it?”

Mistake,
his mind cautioned him.
Big, big mistake.

“I’m sorry, Claudia.” Lucinda Brightwater was still a bit shaky. She hadn’t wanted
to come to this party. No, that wasn’t true. She
had
wanted to come. For Claudia and Matthew. For little Bryan. What she
hadn’t
wanted was to run into Holden Fortune. The man who had taken her virginity one drunken
night so long ago she should have been over it long before now. A night that had meant
everything to her. A night with repercussions that were still resonating through her
life.

A night that had obviously meant less than nothing to him.

She was not an awkward teenager anymore. She was not the too smart, too tall, too
skinny girl who didn’t quite fit in. And she certainly wasn’t the same girl who’d
been heart-and-soul in love with the most popular boy in school. A boy who hadn’t
so much as returned her shy hello when they’d passed in the halls. She was a doctor
now. She’d grown into her body and become comfortable, even confident, with her looks.

So how could a brief encounter with Holden Fortune reduce her once again to a quivering
mass of nerve endings, all of which seemed to be standing on end? She’d told herself
that if she ran into him she would feel nothing but coldness—and a bit of her long-time
resentment for the mess he’d made of her life so long ago.

Instead, she felt so many emotions she couldn’t
name them all. Anger, shame…and still a hint of that old attraction to a man who was
never anything but bad for her. Poison.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Claudia said softly. “My husband’s cousin puts
on a good show, Lucinda, but he’s truly not as bad as he seems.”

“You’re forgetting,” Lucinda said with a slightly wry look, “I knew him in high school.”

Claudia tilted her head. “Did…something
happen
between you and Holden back then?”

“What a crazy question!” Lucinda averted her gaze. “Why on earth would you ask me
something like that?”

“Well, you seem awfully…angry with him over something. And it has been a long time….”

Lucinda nodded. “You’re right, it has, and my mood really doesn’t have a thing to
do with Holden.” It was a lie, but not entirely. She’d been feeling like hell for
weeks now. She’d get the results of her ultrasound test tomorrow, and she was dreading
what she’d hear. She had a pretty fair idea about what was going on with her body.

“I probably shouldn’t have taken it out on him,” she said, but she didn’t mean it.

“What
is
bothering you, Lucinda?”

She shook her head. “Oh, the usual. You know, with every baby I deliver it seems I
hear my biological clock ticking louder than before.”

Claudia smiled. “Got that urge, huh?”

“I’ve had that urge for some time now. And my time’s running out.”

“Don’t be silly. You’re only…”

“Thirty-four,” she said, lowering her eyes to hide
the fear she knew she couldn’t hide. “And then there’s the clinic.”

“Still can’t get the funding, huh?”

Lucinda shook her head. “Health care for lower income women around here is practically
nonexistent. And my big plans to change that state of things don’t seem to be going
anywhere.”

“I don’t see why you won’t just let Matthew and I back you.”

“I need several backers, not just one. The amount I need to get this clinic up and
running is too much to expect one person to give. And taking money from friends—especially
the kind of money we’re talking about here—is never a good idea, Claudia. You know
how I feel about that. Besides, the Fortunes aren’t the only wealthy family in Texas.
I want to do this on my own. I just have to convince the local bigshots to open up
their pockets for a good cause.”

“Just know you can count on us if you need to,” Claudia said.

Lucinda nodded and squeezed her friend’s hand. “I do know. And I’m grateful.”

“Come on,” Claudia said, tugging Lucinda toward the back of the room and the wide,
curving staircase. “Let’s go up and see if Bryan’s ready to make his big entrance.”

“Hey, hold on a minute. We’ll come with you,” a voice called from behind.

Lucinda stiffened, because it was Holden’s voice. The voice that could still send
delicious shivers up her spine yet make her want to claw his eyes out all at the same
time. She turned, fixing a false smile onto her
face as Holden and Matthew joined them at the foot of the stairs.

Maria had been quietly observing all of them, watching the women parade around in
their expensive clothes, perfect hair, glamorous nails and real jewels. Watching the
men, who watched the women. Rich bastards, all of them. When it looked as if the party
was in full swing, and most of the guests had arrived, Maria slipped away again, up
to the nursery to collect James. It was time for the big announcement. Time to watch
them all pale with shock when they realized that she had mothered one of their own.
That she wouldn’t be content to be merely tolerated or seen as a former servant, or
as the daughter of Ryan Fortune’s whore. No. She’d be one of them now.

She slipped into the nursery, and leaned over the bassinet, cooing softly. Then she
went still, because all that lay inside was the rumpled, down-soft blanket, and a
large sheet of paper.

“James?” she whispered. What…

A soft gurgling noise made her turn her head sharply toward the massive crib at the
far end of the room. That was it. Someone must have moved the baby. She quickly went
to the crib, only to stop dead again. It wasn’t James staring up at her with wide,
baby-blue eyes and a toothless, dribbly smile. It was Bryan. Matthew’s
legitimate
son.

Oh, God, where was James?

Her heart in her throat, Maria rushed back to the bassinet. Only then did she begin
to panic. That sheet of paper seemed to stare up at her, daring her to look
at it, to read what it said.

With the tip of a fingernail, she lifted the top fold.

“Fifty million…” Maria whispered. Kidnapped! Her son—her James—had been kidnapped!
Mistaken for Bryan Fortune. Whoever had done this probably hadn’t even noticed the
other baby in the crib across the room. Maria hadn’t when she’d first come in.

Fifty million dollars.
Who would give fifty million dollars for an illegitimate little boy like James? Not
the Fortune family. Even if they knew he was one of their own, even if Maria could
somehow prove it to them…no, because James’s appearance in this family would throw
their golden lives into chaos. They’d never pay. They’d let the kidnappers sell him
or…or worse.

Maria’s throat went dry as she backed away from the bassinet and the cruel reality
that was forcing its way into her mind. There was no way to get her baby back. No
way…

Her back touched the crib, and the other child inside it cooed and chirped at her.
She turned.

What if the Fortunes believed that it was Bryan who’d been taken? No one knew James
even existed. What if…

What if she took little Bryan…for just a little while? Just until the ransom was paid
and James was safe again. Then she’d switch the babies back, make it all right. Somehow….

Somehow.

She bent over the crib, gathering Bryan Fortune into her arms. “You won’t mind so
much, will you, little one? I’ll take good care of you, and you’ll be back with your
mamma in no time at all. It’s not so much to ask, is it? To save my baby’s life?”

The baby smiled as if in response, and Maria wrapped him in a blanket and snuggled
him close, smelling his baby smell as tears welled up in her eyes. “God, this all
went so wrong…so wrong…”

She paused on the way out, licking her lips as she looked once more at the note in
the bassinet. This had to look real, it had to be convincing. Cradling the baby close
with one arm, she quickly picked up the note, using the edge of a receiving blanket
to cover her fingers. No fingerprints. She mustn’t leave a trace. She carried the
note to Bryan’s crib, dropped it inside, and hurried away before she could change
her mind.

A
s they walked up the stairs, Claudia and Matthew fell into step, side by side, hand
in hand, leading the way. Leaving Lucinda to walk at Holden’s side. And the whole
time, she swore he never took his eyes off her. She got the feeling he had some special
X-ray vision that could see right through her clothes. Then again, that view was one
he’d seen before—and it hadn’t made much of an impression on him then.

He certainly did seem to be paying attention now, though.

Men. She wished she could think like they did, feel like they did. All she wanted
was a relationship that could develop into something…something like Claudia had with
Matthew. She wanted a husband, a baby…

God, she wanted a baby so much….

But all her efforts at relationships had turned out in one of two ways. Either the
man she was seeing wanted no commitment at all or he wanted too much of one. Mostly
the latter. One man after another had bid her adios when it became apparent that she
wasn’t willing to give up her practice, or her plans of building a clinic, to devote
her full attention to him.

Maybe she didn’t need a man at all. Maybe all she needed was a willing sperm donor.
A one-night stand.

“So, Lucy,” Holden said. “What are you doing after the party?”

She blinked at his interruption of her rather uncharacteristic and slightly shocking
train of thought. She told herself not to imagine his gold-blond hair and sky-blue
eyes on a little baby. The baby that she’d lost all those years ago—maybe the only
baby she would ever have a part in creating. But she imagined it anyway, and an evil
thought entered her mind. About poetic justice. About his potential as a sperm donor.
It was totally unlike her to think of such things as trickery and deception. But where
Holden Fortune was concerned, it did seem justified.

And she already knew he was fond of one-night stands. “Um, why do you ask?”

They’d reached the top of the stairs. Claudia and Matthew were already heading down
the hall, but Holden stopped there, turning to face her. “I don’t know, really. I
guess…I’d like to make up for being such a jerk to you in high school.”

She felt the blush creeping into her face. “So you
do
remember.”

“No, I really don’t. I mean, I remember you, but not the part about being a jerk.
But Claudia says…” He stopped. “I said the wrong thing.”

Lucinda shook her head. For a moment she’d thought maybe that special, horrible, wonderful
night hadn’t been erased from his mind almost before it had ended. But she’d been
wrong. It had.

“Look, I drank a lot in high school,” he blurted, trying to explain his way out of
an awkward moment.

“Dated a lot, too.”

“I wouldn’t call it
dating.
” He gave her a sheepish smile.

“You haven’t changed a bit, have you, Holden?”

“Sure I have. And to tell you the truth, I’m dying to know what I did to make you
seem so…unfriendly now. Why don’t you have dinner with me tonight and we can…talk.”

She narrowed her eyes and stared at him. Why not? If he wanted to wine her and dine
her and take her to bed, why not go along with it? Maybe she’d get what she wanted
out of the deal. A baby. Of her own, with no man and no strings attached. Lord knew,
Holden wouldn’t be the type to demand joint custody. He couldn’t even commit to a
steady girlfriend, much less a child. Hell, he might not even remember having fathered
her baby after the fact.

“I just might take you up on that.”

He frowned at her, wondering at her tone, she was sure. She’d made the words sound
as if they were more threat than promise. “Lucy, what in hell did I do to make you
so mad at me after all this time?”

Before she could even begin to formulate an answer, a heart-wrenching scream echoed
through the house. Lucinda turned her head sharply. “That came from the nursery!”
she said, and a second later she and Holden were running full-tilt.

Holden forgot everything else when he lunged through the nursery door and saw Claudia
sitting on the floor sobbing, a sheet of paper clutched in one trembling fist, while
the other was pressed to her heart. The sight of her almost floored him. White. Deathly,
sickly white. She looked as if something had just
sucked every ounce of life from her body. Even her pale blond hair, usually wavy and
full, seemed to hang limply around her petite face.

“No!” A fist smashed through the nursery wall, leaving a big hole in the plaster.
Matthew swore and jerked his hand free, knuckles dusted white, skinned up and bleeding.
“This isn’t happening!”

“My baby…oh, God, my baby,” Claudia wailed.

“The baby,” Lucinda whispered, rushing first to the bassinet just inside the door,
and then across the room toward the crib, thoughts of SIDS—sudden infant death syndrome—foremost
in her mind. “Is something wrong with the—” She froze at the crib. Then slowly turned
wide eyes on Holden. “Where is Bryan?”

Claudia bowed double, her head in her lap, her shoulders shaking with violent sobs.
Matthew strode toward the door. “Lock this place up, Holden,” he said, his voice coarse
as cherry bark. “Nobody leaves. You hear me? Nobody leaves!”

“Dammit, Matthew, what’s going on here? Where the hell are you going?” Holden demanded,
stepping into his cousin’s path.

But Matthew shoved past him, knocking Holden aside so hard his shoulder slammed into
the wall. “To get the keys to Dad’s gun cabinet,” Matthew rasped, and hit the hall
running.

Holden turned to give chase, then glanced back at Claudia on the floor, not sure who
needed his help more right now.

Lucy knelt beside Claudia, nodded at him once to go ahead, then said, “Holden, wait.”

He turned to see that she’d pried that sheet of paper
out of Claudia’s hand and was staring at it. “Oh, my God,” she whispered.

“What is it, Lucy?”

Lucinda lifted her stunned gaze to meet Holden’s. “It…it’s a ransom note. My God,
Holden, the baby’s been kidnapped!”

He felt the shock as if someone had kicked him in the teeth. Then he shook it off.
“I’ve gotta get hold of my cousin before he kills somebody.”

“Go on. I’ll take care of Claudia.” And she was. Even as Holden hesitated, half afraid
to leave the petite blonde who looked as if she was on the verge of a breakdown, Lucinda
spoke to her, got her to her feet. Anchoring Claudia to her side with a strength that
surprised him, she looked up and nodded at Holden once more. “Go on.”

He went.

He hit the bottom of the stairs about the time he heard glass being smashed. He didn’t
have to look to know the sound was coming from Ryan’s den, or the gun cabinet that
took up most of one wall in that room. People were starting to look alarmed, furrowed
brows turning his way. Holden banged into his brother on the way to the den.

“What the hell—”

“Logan. Listen, seal this place off. Don’t let anyone leave, you understand?”

“But—”

“Someone’s taken Bryan. Block every exit—”

“Bryan?” Logan looked stricken, his bronzed skin paling. One hand pushed through his
sun-streaked brown hair.

Holden waved a hand in the air, signaling Matthew’s
brothers, Zane and Dallas. As they surged toward him with worried frowns, Holden saw
Rosita talking to her husband, Ruben, who was one of their most trusted ranch hands
and almost as much a part of the family as Rosita was. Holden waved him over, as well.
“Have the guys help you, Logan. I have to stop Matthew before he—”

A woman squealed and Holden turned to see Matthew come bursting into the great room
with Ryan’s twelve-gauge Remington in his hands. Matthew’s eyes were wild, and he
was waving that shotgun around in a way that made Holden hope to God it wasn’t loaded.

“Where is he!” Matthew demanded. “Give him to me now!”

“Matthew!” Holden surged forward, gripping his cousin’s shoulders, just as Uncle Ryan
came from another direction to grab his shotgun away from his son. For a man his age,
he was still in peak condition, and he didn’t have much trouble.

“What in the world has gotten into you, Matthew?” Ryan asked.

Matthew stared into his father’s eyes for a moment and then his face just collapsed.
His body seemed damn close to following suit. He sank against Ryan, who suddenly wore
a look of extreme fear as he put his arms around his son and held him hard. Ryan’s
eyes met Holden’s over Matthew’s shuddering shoulders, a question in them.

“The baby’s been kidnapped,” Holden explained, only to see Ryan’s eyes fill with even
more horror.

“God, no!” Then, shaking his head, he slapped his son’s back. “We’ll pay whatever
they ask, son. Give them the whole damned spread and the company along
with it. Everything, you hear me, boy? We’ll get Bryan back. I promise you. Whatever
they want, they’ll have. Whatever it takes to get my grandson back here safe and sound.”

Ryan Fortune lowered his head. “And then…then, they’ll suffer like they’ve never suffered
before. Whoever did this is going to pay, believe me.”

Lily gasped, hurrying forward, clutching Mary Ellen’s arm and pulling her along to
Ryan’s side. Holden was certain both women had overheard what he’d said—apparently,
at least enough to realize what had happened. A second later Holden’s mother broke
away from Lily’s grip to head back into the crowded great room, but Lily kept coming.

Holden stepped away from Matthew when Lucy appeared at the bottom of the stairs and
strode purposefully to his side. She didn’t hesitate, just stuck Matthew’s arm with
a hypodermic, and even as Matthew jerked his head around to object, it was obvious
to Holden he was starting to feel the effect.

Above it all, Holden heard his mother, taking charge. Ordering everyone to remain
calm, to sit down, to keep order.

“I assure you all,” Mary Ellen said in her Lauren Bacall voice, “everything is under
control. We’ll explain all of this in just a few moments, but for now, I’m afraid
I have to ask that no one leave. A crime has been committed. I’ve just spoken with
Sheriff Grayhawk. He’s on his way here now, and asks that everyone stay just until
he gets here and has a chance to speak with each of you.”

The crowd quieted. People muttered, asked questions, but the panic seemed to ease.
No one could see
through Mary Ellen Fortune’s facade if she didn’t want them to. No one but Holden.
He knew his mother better than anyone. She had to be falling apart inside. And yet
she’d already contacted the sheriff and was in complete control. Emotions well hidden.
Ever the perfect hostess. Living with his bastard of a father had certainly trained
her well, hadn’t it?

He glanced at Lucy Brightwater, and felt a surge of misgiving. He shouldn’t have asked
her out. She may look as if she’d changed, but a lady was a lady. And just because
she no longer looked like the sensitive, vulnerable, fragile thing she’d been, didn’t
mean she wasn’t.

“Your mother has everything under control here,” Lucinda said. “Help me get your cousin
upstairs.”

“What about Claudia?” Holden hefted a wilting Matthew into his arms as he asked the
question.

“I sedated her, too. She’s sleeping now. God, Holden, who could’ve done this?”

“I don’t know.” Holden looked behind him as he mounted the stairs, staring at the
stunned, restless crowd. At his brother and cousins, guarding the doors like bulldogs.
At Rosita, one hand on her heart and tears streaming from dark Mexican eyes down over
her plump cheeks. She dabbed at them with her apron, while her husband stood near
another door, watching her worriedly. Ryan clung to Lily and Lily to Ryan. And Mary
Ellen held them all together. She was the rock of this family and always had been.

“You didn’t leave Claudia alone, did you?” Holden asked suddenly.

“Of course not,” Lucinda said. “Vanessa is with her.”

“Good.” He carried his cousin up the stairs. Matthew was still muttering, but semi-conscious
now. Lucinda led the way, opened the bedroom door, and preceded Holden into it.

“Holden!” Vanessa was on her feet and flinging her arms around Holden’s neck almost
before he could finish lowering Matthew to the bed.

Holden hugged his cousin, and then stepped back to brush away her tears and smooth
her hair. “It’s gonna be okay, Vanessa.”

“When I find out who took my nephew, he’s going to be one hurting son of a—”

“That kind of talk isn’t going to help anyone right now,” Holden told her gently.

Vanessa sighed, and pushed a hand through her short, sassy hair. “Maybe not. But I
mean it.” She leaned over the bed, smoothing her big brother’s hair. “Is Matthew okay?”

“He’s just sleeping,” Lucinda explained. “I had to sedate him.”

“I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t been here, Lucinda. God, Claudia was
so—”

“I’m just glad you happened to walk by the bedroom when you did. I couldn’t have handled
her alone.”

Frowning, Holden looked at Lucy, then looked again. Her dark hair was tousled, and
there was a scratch beading with red droplets across one cheek. He quickly rounded
the bed that stood between them. He hadn’t got a glimpse of the scratch until now.
He’d been behind her up the stairs, and before that his cousin’s dead weight in his
arms had blocked his view. Only as he neared her now did he notice how messed
up she was. Then he saw the lamp that was smashed to bits on the floor behind her,
and the table lying on its side.

“My God, what happened?” He palmed her cheek, tipped her face up for a closer look.

“She got a little hysterical. It’s a perfectly normal reaction and I should have expected
it.”

“You’re bleeding.” Holden snagged a tissue from the decorative box on the nearby dresser,
and dabbed the blood away, very gently.

Lucinda rolled her eyes in a mimicry of sarcasm. “Which of us is the doctor, again?”

He offered her a small, shaky smile, and continued dabbing. “Right now, I am. Are
you hurt anywhere else?”

She lowered her eyes, shook her head.