The Rancher's Surrender Read online

  She hadn't been able to put him out of her mind. The way he'd taken care of Constance. The way he'd helped them from the very beginning here at the ranch, even when their being here had destroyed his inheritance. The way he continued to remain civil when she'd continued to turn him down on his offer for a partnership.

  But it was far more personal, like the way he'd looked that night in the barn, all fierce and hot as he'd stared down at her mouth in a way that told her exactly what was on his mind. And then there was the way he'd kissed her today in broad daylight out in the middle of the field, how his hands had felt on her body, snugging her close to his hard, warm one.

  Heat seeped into her at just the memory, warming her from the inside out, and she didn't think the feeling was entirely uncomfortable.

  In fact, she sort of liked it.

  "Zoe?"

  It was a bit mortifying to realize everyone was staring at her, clearly waiting for some sort of a response, and she had not a clue as to who had even spoken. "Um … what?"

  "I was saying," Cade repeated with amusement, "that there is something else I wanted to go over with all of you."

  "Oh. Okay."

  He looked at each woman in turn, his expression kind but suddenly serious in a way that had them each leaning forward. "I have a small lead on Constance's son," he said. "Ethan Freeman."

  "Yes!" Zoe whispered in triumph.

  "Small lead," Cade qualified with real regret. "So don't get too excited yet. All I have is the fact he apparently stayed in a motel not far from your foster home on and off during the period in which the three of you arrived."

  "So he knew where his daughter was!" Zoe interrupted, unable to help herself. This was news indeed, for not one of them bad memories of their father, not even a name. Each of them—Maddie, Delia and herself—felt they'd been in the sole custody of their mother before they'd been left at the home.

  Now this, the news that one of them had had a father who did know where they'd been taken.

  "Did Ethan visit the foster home?" Delia asked.

  Cade sighed and sifted his fingers through his dark hair in frustration. "Still working on that. Those records aren't easily accessed."

  "Surely the Fontaines would tell you." Zoe couldn't imagine them holding back. The couple that had run the group home had raised countless kids with as much love and affection as they had available. Not easy when facing both financial and legal barriers on a daily basis, not to mention kids who didn't always respond well to their environment, having been shifted around too many times to count.

  They'd been lucky on that score, Zoe reminded herself, looking at her sisters. They'd been happy and well-cared for, and had gotten to stay in one home for their entire childhood.

  The Fontaines had been responsible for that, for fighting for long-term care. This is why Zoe knew they'd do everything in their power to help them now. No way would they purposely hold back information. Not when one of their kids could learn about their past.

  "Unfortunately, it's not so simple," Cade said. "The records aren't kept on the premises at the house. It's all in the system. It's got to go through the courts. And we all know what that's going to be like."

  "Like pulling teeth." With a soft, heartfelt oath, Zoe surged to her feet, unable to remain still. Delia joined her in the pacing, holding her hand, silently uniting them.

  Maddie remained frozen in her chair, quiet, and Zoe realized it had been some time since her sister had spoken. Concerned, Zoe stopped behind her, put a hand to her tense shoulder. "Maddie? You okay?"

  She nearly leaped out of her skin. "Fine." But she spoke quickly, and out of breath. Her skin had lost all color.

  Delia frowned at Zoe, lifting a questioning shoulder. "Are you sure, baby?" she asked Maddie, smoothing a strand of Maddie's hair off her forehead.

  She nodded, but remained quiet.

  It had always been this way, for as long as Zoe could remember. She and Delia curious for any dollop of information about their past that they could soak up.

  And Maddie, always stubbornly mute and miserable in the face of the memories; unable, or unwilling, to talk about them.

  Zoe had long ago figured out that Maddie didn't want her past dredged up. Zoe herself didn't remember much from her first years with the Fontaines, remembered even less of her life before them. But she did remember Delia and Maddie from the beginning.

  Remembered also that Maddie hadn't spoken, much less laughed or smiled, until she'd turned five, though to this day Delia and Zoe didn't know why or what Maddie had suffered to cause such a trauma.

  Growing up in a group home with lots of people had been rough for Maddie, but with Delia and Zoe sticking by her, eventually she had come out of her shell. If Maddie was Constance's granddaughter, that also meant Constance's son could have caused Maddie's early emotional problems.

  Zoe drew a deep breath and straightened. No reason to feel this murderous toward a man who might be innocent. A man who might be her father, not Maddie's at all.

  Cade sighed. "I'm sorry I can't tell you any more, that's all I have. But I'm going to get those records and I'll do what I can to figure out if and when Constance's son visited the home. And which of you he visited. At the moment, it's our only lead."

  "Why are you doing this?" Delia still held on to both of her sisters in an unconscious gesture of unity.

  Zoe felt that unity and was thankful for it, but knew Delia needed this togetherness even more than she did. She thrived on bossing them all around. And on loving them.

  "I would think the why of it is obvious," Cade said quietly. "I'm trying to solve the mystery of the inheritance."

  That silenced Delia for a moment, but not Zoe.

  "You said Constance was happy with knowing it was one of us." What if there was a catch? What if all this could all be taken away from them?

  "She was," Cade said firmly. "I told you. When she learned about the three of you, about your past and how close you were, how you considered yourselves true family, it didn't matter to her which of you it was. She wanted this land to go to the three of you."

  "Then why does it matter to you which of us it is?" Delia asked, eyes narrowed, voice cool as a cucumber.

  "Because it should matter to you," he replied calmly.

  "It doesn't." Maddie's voice was surprisingly strong as she lifted her head and spoke for the first time. "I think maybe it's best if you just leave it alone, Cade."

  Leave it alone. The words echoed in Zoe's head. She couldn't, God, she couldn't. She had to know where she came from.

  Cade looked at Zoe, as if he instinctively knew the inner battle she waged.

  Was she willing to let it go to ease her sisters' minds? he asked silently.

  No. No, with every fiber of her being, she had to know. Not because she wanted to be owner instead of her sisters, but because for the first time in her life she wanted to truly belong. She wanted a past.

  She felt the weight of her sisters' thoughts, felt, too, the weight of the guilt of her own selfishness.

  Could she let it go? For them?

  Truth was, she could and would do anything for her sisters, though her heart ached at the prospect of dropping it. Of never knowing the truth. A truth she'd been wondering at her entire life.

  What had happened to her mother? If she let it go, she would never know.

  And then there was another matter entirely, one that couldn't be ignored. "We can't pay you," Zoe said finally, with immeasurable sadness. "It's kind of you to want to solve the mystery, but we don't have the means to pay you. We're hardly above water here as it is."

  "I know." Cade looked at her with understanding. "But the fee is taken care of, Zoe. That's one thing you don't have to worry about."

  Ty.

  He showed up everywhere, even here, in the most private part of her life.

  She drew a deep breath and faced yet another problem. The fact that she was far more indebted to that man than she ever wanted to be. She owed him, a perfect