The Cowboy's E-Mail Order Bride (20 page)

“I tried to scare her off for you, Ethan, but she didn’t scare,” Lacey said. Did she really think that pouting, baby-doll look was going to lure Ethan away less than 24 hours before his wedding day? This went beyond jealousy, Autumn thought. Maybe Lacey was mentally ill.

“You told her we were having an affair,” Ethan said. “That’s messed up.”

She thinned her lips in a tight smile. “I did what I thought was best and you’re going to thank me for it when you see what I found on her computer. She’s been lying to you all along, Ethan! Haven’t you ever wondered why a woman like her would answer a damn YouTube video? Look at her - the minute I saw Autumn I knew she was hiding something. She’s a knockout – a city girl. And she’s not stupid – anyone can see that. So why would she respond to a video made a by a drunk-ass cowboy? Why get engaged to someone sight-unseen? I figured right from the start either she was crazy, in trouble, or running some scam of her own. And I was right.” She swung the laptop to face him. “Did you guys not do any kind of research on her?”

Ethan gaped at her and Autumn’s heart sunk. Lacey must have found the notes she’d written for the story the first few nights she was in town. She jumped to her feet and lunged for the computer, but Lacey snatched it out of her grasp.

“See? She doesn’t want you to see, because she knows exactly what I’m going to show you. She’s a total faker, Ethan. How could you not even do a search on her name?”

“I hate computers – you know that!”

Autumn didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She saw her wedding slipping away – her life with Ethan slipping away. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare and she didn’t know how to wake up before she lost everything she held dear.

“Autumn’s a writer, Ethan. For CityPretty – one of the hottest, sleaziest women’s magazines out there.

“Who cares? She quit when she came out here,” Ethan sputtered, and looked to her. “Right, Autumn? You quit before you met me?”

Autumn stared back, tears filling her eyes. She’d always deflected questions about her former life. They talked about him – the ranch, the money problems, his family, the garden, their future plans. He’d assumed she’d tied up any loose ends from her past life and she’d let him think that.

“No, Ethan. She didn’t quit. She writes feature pieces for them. If you read them, you’d know she’s not the sweet little thing she’s pretending to be. She’s a total bitch. Want to know what she’s working on right now?”

He kept staring at Autumn and nausea grew within her until she pressed a hand to her throat. She would never live through this, let alone salvage her relationship with Ethan. She was going to die right now. “What?” he asked, his voice thin.

“How I Became an E-Mail Order Bride. I don’t think it’s catchy enough – you’d better work on that, Autumn.” Lacey shot her a look both malicious and triumphant. “She’s got lots of notes. Tons of photographs to go with the article – I bet she gets paid double for supplying the images, too. Pretty savvy girl you got there. You look mighty hot, cowboy.”

Autumn swallowed hard as Ethan finally tore his gaze from hers and reached for the laptop.

This was it.

She’d lost him for good.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Ethan tried to shake off the creeping darkness that fringed his vision as he scrolled through the pages of Autumn’s notes. “Shit.” His chest felt tight and it was hard to breathe. It was all a lie? Autumn had been lying to him?

In her notes, she wrote about making her video – all the tricks she and Becka – Becka? He glanced up at the girl, who wouldn’t meet his gaze – had used to make her supremely attractive to the cowboy who’d put up the wife-wanted video. She described the plane ride to Montana, her first glimpse of him and his friends at the airport – the swirl of raw testosterone in the air that caused her heart to pound.

Yeah, right.

The notes went on and on. The dinner at DelMonaco’s – after his lame attempt to get take out food instead. Getting it on in Rob’s truck and then finishing at the bunkhouse. Taking a picnic lunch to him on the range at the suggestion of his creepy neighbor, Rob – the one who liked to lure women home to make porno flicks.

Jesus.

Lacey was right – incisive, snarky. Autumn hit every nerve a guy could have until he felt like he’d been flayed alive. And she was going to publish this?

“Ethan – it’s not what it looks like.”

He glanced up and met Autumn’s beseeching gaze. Her eyes were shining with tears, a trick she used all too often, he realized now.

“Looks pretty clear cut to me,” he ground out, hardly recognizing his own voice.

“I don’t understand, Autumn. Who is this? What’s happening?” Teresa waved at Lacey who still hung over Ethan’s shoulder.

“What’s happening is your daughter faked this whole thing,” Lacey said, her face alight with a vicious triumph. “Your daughter needed a subject for an article. She answered a want ad for a wife, came out here and fooled Ethan into thinking she’d really marry him and instead she planned to take off just before the wedding and write an expose about the whole thing. She was going to roast him in front of the whole nation – a big, fat joke – a stupid cowboy who wanted a wife and got duped instead. Of course, she didn’t realize she was the stupid one – the whole ad was a fake.”

Teresa shook her head. “Autumn? What’s going on?”

“Mrs. Leeds,” Ethan scraped back his chair and rose to his full height. “What’s going on is the wedding is off. Your daughter and I are done. I don’t know if you are in on it or not and at this point I don’t give a damn. Collect your things, get out of my house and get the hell out of Montana. All of you!”

His heart nearly gave out when he saw Autumn’s face. Pale as a sheet, stricken, desolation writ large in her eyes. Those lying, scheming, cheating eyes.

She probably had a boyfriend back home – some metrosexual guy who didn’t give a damn if his girl slept with a cowboy as long as she brought home a good story to tell. And made a few bucks off of publishing the story. God damn it all to hell.

He slammed through the restaurant, shaking Jamie off when the man caught up with him.

“Ethan, I’m driving. You can’t get behind the wheel like this.”

“The hell I can’t!”

“I’m not going to let you. Give me the keys. Now!”

Jamie was right, he could hardly see through the haze of red in front of his eyes, let alone navigate a highway without killing someone. He wanted to kill someone, though. He wanted to rip someone to shreds.

Instead, he allowed Jamie to push him toward the passenger seat and soon they were out on the highway, cruising as fast as the speed limit would let them.

He was thankful the man kept his mouth shut. The last thing he needed right now was pity. Or advice.

Ten minutes passed before Jamie opened his mouth. “You know that’s Lacey back there, showing you those files. You didn’t even ask Autumn if it was true.”

“It’s true.” He’d seen it in Autumn’s eyes.

“There might be an explanation.”

“Doubt it.” He knew enough of the world to know people did things for several basic reasons. Greed. Desire. Or hate. Greed in this case.

“Autumn deserves a chance to give her side.”

“Does she?” They rode in silence for several minutes. “Shit.” His head bowed under the crushing weight of all his dreams collapsing on him.

“What?”

“Autumn’s pregnant.” Or at least he thought she was. Had she faked that, too? Could you fake a pregnancy test? “I think.” He met Jamie’s brief, pitying gaze. “I don’t know.”

Jamie slowed the truck and pulled to the side of the highway. “I don’t think you can run from this one, Ethan. It’s fucked up every which way from Sunday, but you need to see it through. Things weren’t right on your side at the beginning, either, remember? The ad was a joke and by all rights we should have sent Autumn home on the next flight when she landed at the airport, but you didn’t because you were attracted to her and you wanted to see how things turned out. You fell in love with her over time and changed your mind about the joke.” Jamie shrugged. “The joke became real. What if it’s the same way for Autumn?”

Ethan felt a pang of guilt. Jamie was right, he hadn’t been truthful with Autumn, either. “What do you mean?”

“What if she answered the ad as a joke – as a funny way to write an article? Then, when she came out here she fell in love with you and decided to make the marriage work. She got pregnant, she’s been sleeping with you for weeks, right? Hell, she figured out how to save the ranch and got the two of us to be business partners!”

“That could all be for the story.”

“Sure, it could be. But is it? How far did those notes of hers go?”

Ethan tried to think back. There was the picnic, getting the ring…and hardly anything after that. She’d stopped writing about their relationship and she hadn’t even downloaded any more pictures.

“The first couple of days, I guess.”

“See?” Jamie leaned forward. “Just like you – it started out fake and then turned real. Shouldn’t you at least give her a chance to say something?”

Ethan leaned back in the seat and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t know.”

“I do.” Jamie started the engine and spun the wheel around.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Autumn faced the people grouped around the table, feeling like she’d been suddenly stripped in public and made to confess her deepest sins. Becka was pale and wide-eyed, her sister confused and alarmed. Her mother was steely-eyed and Autumn dreaded that conversation the most. Teresa hated lies and would not abide a daughter who could perpetrate a scam like this, even if she had fallen in love for real and given up any idea of writing the article weeks ago.

Rob got to his feet. “Autumn – I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Lacey slammed her fist down on the table so hard the silverware jumped. “Of course you should have said something! You want Ethan to marry a lying whore? What kind of woman does something like this?” She pointed to the words and photos still visible on the laptop screen.

Autumn cringed. Why had she done it? What was wrong with her that she’d ever considered taking on such a story? She’d proceeded from such stupid assumptions – that a man who advertised for a wife was an idiot. That cowboys in general were ignorant – ripe for exploitation. She thought of how she and Becka had laughed until they cried milking every stereotype while they made her video – how she’d considered it perfectly acceptable to have a fling with a man who stated up front he was seeking a wife, and then go home and write about it. She’d been subverting her values for years in order to reach some kind of success, and what did she have to show for it?

Hell, CityPretty magazine as a whole was an exercise in exploitation. If she wasn’t skewering someone or something for her readers’ benefit, she was writing articles calculated to leave them dissatisfied with their lives or worse. The day she called her editor and quit was one of the happiest of her life. She hadn’t realized what a strain it was to work there until she’d felt the relief of letting the job go.

She’d been a jackal, making a living off other people’s unhappiness.

And Lacey was right – she’d been a whore.

She’d come out here and practically spread her legs for the story. Yes, she was attracted to Ethan – more than she’d ever been attracted to any other man – but she slept with him without knowing him, without understanding the pressures his own life put upon him. She’d gambled with his heart.

She’d gambled with a child’s life.

Because she had worked to humiliate the father of this child just so she could make a buck, even if she’d changed her mind and called the article off. And now, this child would grow up with a father who hated its mother. Nausea soured her mouth and she stood up, unsteady on trembling legs. She had no job to support the baby. She’d have to beg her mother for help, move back home.

Was it fair to live 2,000 miles from the baby’s father? What about visitations?

Would paying child support be the straw that broke Ethan’s back?

No wonder Ethan had run from the restaurant – she thought her own heart would break it hurt so bad. All she knew was that she had to get out of here as fast as she could. She had to get home – to New York. She would fall on her mother’s mercy, go back to school, get a real job – a high paying job.

She’d get a nanny to raise her child. And she wouldn’t take a dime from Ethan. In fact, she’d help pay off his debts, too. Their baby deserved a chance to learn to ride a horse, to help Ethan fix fences and care for the livestock. To one day stand beside Ethan and survey land that had been in the Cruz family for generations.

Would the child hate her for what she’d done? Would she be left all alone in New York as her son or daughter fell in love with the ranch and chose their father over her?

Blind with tears now, her arms already aching for the loss of a child she had yet to hold, she pushed away from the table, first stumbling, then running as fast as she could. She found the ladies’ room just as the heaving ache in her belly overwhelmed her, and she fell to her knees in a stall gasping, then was sick until her stomach was empty and she could be sick no more.