To Claim a Wife

“This is it.”

Reno’s gruff voice penetrated the fog of pain and memory. It took her a moment to realize that the elevator had stopped and the doors had slid open.

“To the right and down the hall.” Reno’s low murmur prodded her to move. She stepped forward and walked in the direction he’d indicated.

With every step she took, the dread she felt grew. She’d failed every other test her father’s animosity and neglect had placed before her. Suddenly, she had no real confidence that she’d fare any better with this last one.

Caitlin walked into the heat of late afternoon. Her rental car was parked some distance from the hospital’s main entrance, so she started toward it, reaching into her shoulder bag for the sunglasses she preferred to wear while driving.

She didn’t know what had become of Reno. He’d vanished sometime after she’d filled out papers and was led to a room to have the blood sample drawn.

She rejected the idea of hanging around the hospital until her father was awake. After her first visit, she was certain there was no point in putting herself through a second one. If Jess Bodine had gone twenty-three years without softening toward his only child, she doubted that two hours would bring any significant change of heart.

The depression that had plagued her after her mother’s death was suddenly as heavy and fresh as it had been back then, but Caitlin resisted it. That and the mercurial temper that seemed to go hand in hand with it. She’d matured in these last years, become solid emotionally. Life’s little aggravations had no power over her. Her brief lapse after her father’s bombshell was just that—a lapse, nothing more.

As she reached her car and got into its stifling interior, she thought again of Madison.

How close they’d been, sharing their angst and agonies, making their own good times, whether on Maddie’s visits to the Broken B or during Caitlin’s visits to their grandmother’s mansion in Coulter City. No one cared when they wandered off, no one cared that they’d run wild, so long as they didn’t annoy their guardians.

The worst thing about the aftermath of Beau’s death was not that Caitlin had been banished from the Broken B. The worst thing had been how swiftly and completely Madison had turned against her. Maddie had known how much Caitlin had suffered, being supplanted by Beau. In the end, that knowledge had made it impossible for Caitlin to convince her lovesick cousin that she hadn’t deliberately caused Beau’s death. Madison had sided with everyone against her, and nothing Caitlin had been able to say convinced her otherwise.

The old gloom settled around her heart. Besides Jess and Maddie’s absent mother, Rosalind, Maddie was her only living relative. The reminder deepened her sadness.

When Caitlin pulled her rental car out of the parking lot onto the street, she caught a glimpse of the interstate highway sign. She was tempted to pick up her things at the motel and drive back to San Antonio. She could catch a plane to Montana by tomorrow.

Her father would be dead soon, perhaps in a matter of hours. He was probably right about her not being his child. A man surely couldn’t despise a child unless he was certain he had cause. She could drive away now and forget him and everything else, once and for all. She had nothing here, not even the Broken B. Now it would all go to Reno....

It was the thought of forever losing even a part of the ranch that finally made her go back to the motel with the intention of staying on in Coulter City.

The Broken B was home, such as it was. She’d missed the land, wild beautiful land that stretched for forty thousand acres beneath the wide Texas sky. Montana was beautiful, but Texas was home. The ranch she’d worked on up north couldn’t compare with the deep attachment she still felt to the Broken B.

The strong unbroken spirit she’d been blessed with stirred forcefully. If she had any hope of getting even a portion of what remained of her birthright, she had to stay. The stubborn will that had helped her survive the emotional devastation of her upbringing wouldn’t allow the thought of Jess Bodine denying her the Broken B.

Even if the blood test went against her, surely the fact that she’d been publicly claimed and raised as Jess Bodine’s legal child would give her some standing in the courts. She still had the large inheritance from her grandmother at her disposal. If she had to, she might be able to find the right lawyer and file suit to contest the will. It might take years, but the thought of thwarting Jess Bodine’s last hateful deed was tantalizing.

Reno was the only member of his family worthy of getting a piece of the Broken B, but if she had to, she’d go to war with him to keep him from getting it all.

CHAPTER TWO

RENO got out of his pickup and walked to the motel door. Number ten was Caitlin’s room. There were out-of-state license plates on most of the nearby parked cars, but there were also two late-model rentals. One of those was probably hers.

Jess’s condition had worsened, and the doctor told Reno it was time to notify his family. He’d called Madison St. John, Jess’s niece, but she’d been vague about a last visit, particularly when he’d told her that Caitlin was back. He hadn’t expected much from Madison. She wasn’t the quiet, sweet kid she’d been before Beau’s death. She was filthy rich now, spoiled by her money and her self-centered lifestyle, a social butterfly with iron wings and a razor tongue. It might be just as well if she stayed away from Jess.

Reno forgot about Madison St. John as he reached the door of number ten and knocked sharply. He’d tried to call Caitlin’s room earlier, but there’d been no answer. It was past time for supper, so he assumed Caitlin had eaten. He damned sure hoped she had. He wasn’t in the mood to take her anywhere but the hospital, and there wasn’t much time.

He knocked again, louder this time, and was about to go back to the hospital without her when the door opened.

For a female who’d projected such poise and confidence earlier, Caitlin was surprisingly reluctant to open the door wider than a crack. He glimpsed the towel on her head and the skimpy robe she was wearing. He felt his lips move into an irritable line.

He wasted no time on preliminaries. “Get dressed.” He stepped forward and pressed his hand on the door, but Caitlin pushed from her side to keep him from entering.

“Come back later.” Her voice sounded breathless, as if she were a little afraid of him.

He pressed on the door hard enough to demonstrate that he meant business. “You don’t have later. The doc says his time’s close.”

Reno watched the spasm of shock in her eyes. She immediately released the door and stepped back.

“I—I’d like to dry my hair,” she said as she clutched the front of the short robe and took another step back. She was bare-legged from midthigh to her toes. Reno stepped inside and closed the door with a snap.

He could smell her shampoo and the clean scent of female skin. Without her usual jeans, work shirt and boots, Caitlin looked small and vulnerable. With her mane of hair hidden in the towel, nothing distracted his attention from her face.

And her eyes. Her lashes were black from the lingering dampness of her shower and her eyes were so blue they glowed like starlit sapphires. The natural beauty of her face took his breath away. The sight of her bare legs and his very male urge to see the rest of her bare made every nerve below his waist heat and tingle.

“Cover yourself.”

His angry growl startled her into movement. She flitted away from him so suddenly that he was reminded of a fleeing doe. His gaze followed as she grabbed some clothes from an open suitcase. He didn’t breathe normally until she shut herself in the bathroom.

Reno paced the room, furious with himself for his reaction, furious with her for affecting him so strongly.

He was fair-minded enough to acknowledge that she hadn’t done anything improper, he had. He would never have forced his way into the bedroom of any scantily-clad female. He’d never had to. Why he’d pushed his way in on her when she wasn’t decent defied reason.

Caitlin was dressed in a surprisingly short time. In moments she was out of the bathroom, tearing through one of her suitcases. Her hair was out of the towel and hung in wet disarray down her back. Reno gritted his teeth at the sight until her frantic movements made an impression on him. He could see her hands were shaking. She got a brush and a hair dryer, then dashed back to the bathroom. This time, she didn’t bother to close the door.

Reno winced as she yanked the brush through her hair. That she was in an almighty hurry made him feel faint regret. He hated the turmoil she made him feel. Though he marshaled his anger by stoking his grudge against her, he could stand to let her punish her hair only a handful of strokes before he spoke up.

“No need to tear it out.”

He’d barked the words and managed to startle her again. Her reaction reminded him of the past. Most of the time, Jess had only used one tone of voice with his daughter: harsh and loud. He’d never seemed to notice or care whether anyone else was around or not when he’d upbraided his only child. Reno ignored those times because Caitlin had sometimes deserved a scolding. He’d always assumed Jess spoke more kindly to her the rest of the time. But then, he’d lived on his own ranch near San Antonio before Beau’s death, so he’d been around infrequently.

Why he suddenly questioned Jess’s treatment of Caitlin irritated him. Jess hadn’t been an especially affectionate man, but he’d doted on Beau and had been an attentive husband to their mother. Jess had been too good a man, too fair, to treat his daughter harshly without reason.

Caitlin continued to brush her hair, but she was only marginally less rushed about it. Moments. later, she turned on the hair dryer.

Reno waited impatiently, although he was aware that no more than five minutes passed before she switched off the dryer and hastily brushed her hair again. When she finished, she hurried out of the bathroom and shoved the brush into her handbag. Neither of them spoke as they left the motel room.

You don’t have later, Reno had said. The moment he’d spoken, Caitlin’s refusal to allow her father another shot at her vanished. Jess might be moments from death. Now that the time had really come, and so suddenly, she was once again reduced to foolish hopes and impossible dreams.

Impending death had a profound effect on other people—she was certain it would on her—so perhaps it would have a positive effect on her father. The cynicism Jess Bodine had pounded into her warned that nothing had changed, but the hope she knew she’d have until her father took his last breath urged her to grab for this last chance.

She was shaking so hard when she tried to dig out the car key that she dropped it on the concrete and managed to kick it with her boot. She’d started to retrieve it when Reno stepped over and swung down to snatch it up.

“You’re ridin’ with me.”

His gruff tone was harsh and sent her gaze streaking to his. The flat hard look he gave her hurt; the way his gaze shifted from hers communicated his reluctance to bother with her.

Too terrified to waste time arguing, she went with him to his truck. It surprised her when he opened the passenger door for her, then shut it once she was inside.

Her tension climbed higher as Reno drove swiftly through town to the hospital. He only paused for stop signs and red lights. Fortunately, at just after 9:00 p.m. Coulter City traffic was relatively light, so they pulled into the hospital parking lot in record time. It seemed to take forever to park and get into the hospital. By the time they reached the ICU floor, Caitlin’s heart was pounding with anxiety.