Guiltily he looked away, lowering his eyes. The ranch, the money, balancing the weariness of twenty hour days, especially recently with foaling so close, with juggling the finances of debt repayment against the day-to-day running of the ranch. It had all served to take him away from the one thing that was important in his life— his family.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he finally asked as calmly as he could. He didn't want her spooked at his question, but he needed to know.

"I didn't want to kill my baby, Jack," she whispered. "I knew you would want me to."

Jack blanched. The taking of life, especially that of a tiny defenseless baby… To Jack, it was a baby from the moment of conception. He may have thrown the idea at Riley, but he couldn't condone abortion, didn't believe in it for so many reasons. But this was his sister, his beautiful gentle fragile sister, and the baby inside her would kill her, take her away from him as sure as murder.

"Elizabeth—"

"You would have made me see it was the only way. I couldn't let you do that. Jack, I couldn't."

"Who is the father? Why didn't I know you were seeing someone?"

New tears sparkled in her eyes, and she shook her head, obviously unable to form the words.

Jack looked at the tears, fear sudden in his heart, "Beth, tell me, who is the father? Who did this to you?"

Beth lifted her head. "Please, Jack, don't make me tell you. I'm not ready to tell you, please." Her voice shook with despair, one hand on her belly, the other on her heart, where, Jack knew, the scars were hidden under her thin summer dress.

Panic rose in him. For so many years, he was the brother, the father figure, the one she always ran to, the one who held her hand as she slept after her last surgery.

"Did he… force you?" he demanded.

"No, he— I—"

"Shh, it's okay." He couldn't do this to her. What would it achieve? Forcing her to face who the father was wasn't going to solve the problem. "Hush, darlin', it'll be okay…"

She started to rock, not listening to him. "I can't— I can't," she whispered between sobs, turning away and closing her eyes to hide her grief from him. "Please don't make me, I can't. I'm so scared, Jack! I don't want to die, and I don't want to lose my little girl!"

She was the four-year-old in a hospital bed. She was the ten-year-old sobbing because she couldn't go to normal school like her brothers, and she was the fourteen-year-old who was told she would never carry a baby to term. She was his beautiful baby sister, and Jack could deny her nothing. Leaning up, he eased her into a hug, rubbing soothing patterns on her back, his words slow and careful.

"It's okay, shhhh, we'll do this together. We'll do this. It'll be fine. Shhhh, baby girl."

Chapter 5

Riley glanced once more at the clock. It was three hours and forty-three minutes since Jack had left, and his head was still spinning with the enormity of what he'd done. God! Maybe he was more like his father than he'd ever imagined. This wasn't him. Lost in thought, his fingers curling at the corner of a map, right then he wouldn't have heard if the ceiling had fallen in. Jim was suddenly standing next to him, his hands in his pockets and a concerned look on his face. Riley startled like a spooked deer.

"How did it go?" the older man asked sympathetically. Riley sank deeper in the couch in a dejected slump. "I'm guessing he didn't agree?"

Riley was silent, his head down, not wanting to look Jim in the eyes. Guilt was eating away at his insides.

"Not at first, but I think maybe he will," he finally answered. He flinched when Jim sighed, knowing what was coming next.

"You used it, didn't you?" There was fury in Jim's voice, and a very present disappointment. "Riley, for God's sake! You said you wouldn't go that far!"

Riley looked up. "I didn't have a choice, Jim."

"I'm so disappointed in you, Riley Hayes."

"Jim—"

"You went ahead and did exactly what you promised you wouldn't do. You are a better man than this. Much more than your God-damned daddy or your pissant brother."

"Have you ever thought that maybe I'm no different than them?"

"You're a good man, a hard worker. Look at what you've done at Hayes Oil."

"Exactly. Look at what I've done, and look at it being snatched away from me."

"Your father and the whole break-them-then-make-them shit. You can't let him destroy your self-respect."

"I had to," Riley said firmly. "I had to use it. Campbell was going to walk."

Jim moved closer. "You know Steve is never going to forgive you."

Riley lifted troubled eyes. He knew Steve would disown him if he ever found out it was him who had done this. Steve had talked to Riley in confidence. He snorted. What did he mean, if? That was where Campbell was now, checking on his sister, asking her if it was true, finding out she had kept secrets from him.

Steve had needed a friend, had talked to Riley in confidence. "Beth is pregnant and I am so scared for her. What do I do?" he'd asked, a hand over his own heart where he wore matching scars to Beth's, a victim of the same fragile pulse as Beth herself. For all that there was ten years between them, Beth was important to Steve and had been since they'd met in the hospital when they were under the same surgeon.

Riley had been drunk, another night where his failures chased him to drink. He had felt sorry for the Campbell girl that night, given a shoulder to Steve, said all the right things. Then he had forgotten it all as he fucked a blond girl in a backroom, up against paper towels and bleach until she screamed his name, and he lost it with his face buried in her neck. Steve had been hurt that night, had needed a friend, and instead had got something-to-prove-Riley. Riley had apologized the next day, they'd hugged, and nothing more had been said. Not until he'd blurted it out to Jack today, with no remorse but just one purpose. To get him to agree.

Jim touched him on the shoulder. "I hope it was worth it."

"Yeah," Riley muttered. "So do I."

Riley's secretary's voice echoed in the silent room. "Mr Hayes, I know you said no calls, but I have Jack Campbell on line three." Riley said nothing. His teeth worried his lower lip again, and he tasted the metallic tang of blood as he lifted the receiver.

"D ranch, now. Bring the contract," was how Campbell started, and then he added almost too quietly to hear, "I have terms."

Chapter 6

Riley was aware that his coming to the D ranch had to be akin to the enemy at the gate. No one actually knew what had happened all those years before when Donna and Alan had married and Gerald struck oil on his own. But the bitterness, the anger, that Gerald and Alan had filtered to Jeff Hayes, was being carried on with all the delicious enmity that Jeff seemed to enjoy as much as Riley's father. Riley didn't hold the old grudges and couldn't really see why he should. It had all happened long ago and was nothing for him to worry about. Still, if he could use it against his dad, then that was a good thing, however he managed it.

As Riley's low car bumped and scraped over the rutted and potholed track, he cursed that he hadn't thought to drive one of his off-roaders instead. The damage he was surely doing to the red sports car as each hole shook the frame didn't bear thinking about. He felt like a fish out of water, seeing the rough edges of this growing horse operation, and he wondered at the customers who had to traverse the way to get to their horseflesh without damaging their cars.