alibi—”
“Are you crazy?” Colton asked incredulously.
“Leave her alone!” Mitch commanded.
Denver gave Colton a shake. “And get the hell out.”
“Not until she admits what she and her father planned—”
“No!” Mitch cried, shaking. “She had nothing to do with it!”
“Then who—” But the question died on Colton’s lips, and Tessa, horrified, met Mitch’s tortured gaze.
“No—Mitch—”
Denver swung around, staring at Tessa’s brother.
“It—it was my fault.” Mitch’s voice cut through the anger simmering in the air.
Tessa couldn’t believe her ears. Wouldn’t. “No, Mitch—”
“It’s the truth, damn it!” Mitchell’s face was pale, his eyes clouded with self-loathing.
“What the hell?” Colton said as Denver dropped his hands.
“I altered the books,” Mitch admitted slowly, “I—I was ripping off the ranch.”
“No!” Tessa cried, walking to him. “Don’t—”
“It’s true.”
“I won’t believe it.”
He turned pleading eyes to Tessa. “I’m sorry, Tess. So sorry.”
“Don’t even say it,” she whispered, disbelieving. Not Mitch—not the brother who had helped pull her out of her own emotional rubble.
“It’s true, damn it!”
Colton’s eyes fixed on Mitchell.
“I was in trouble—gambling debts—and so I started taking some money, a little here and there. Denver’s father was catching up to me. I didn’t mean to start the fire—it was an accident.”
“You bastard! You lying, cheating, murdering bastard!” Colton growled, starting across the room.
Denver held him back. “Let him finish,” he said, but his voice was harsh, his blue eyes frigid.
“Don’t do this,” Tessa whispered, “You don’t have to—”
“I do, Tess,” he said, his eyes pleading with her to understand. “It’s been too long. I should have told everything right up front, but Dad insisted that it would only be worse for me.” Mitch’s body was shaking. “God, I’m sorry!”
“Curtis was in on this?” Denver hissed.
“Not really.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“He didn’t know. I’d been stealing from the petty cash in the office, and I knew old man McLean was on to me.” His eyes turned dark with the memory, his breathing irregular. “I—I was going to rip the ranch off one last time and take off. But something happened, I don’t know what.”
“Oh, God,” she murmured.
Colton tried to break away from Denver’s grip. “You were paying off gambling debts, and it cost my family their lives?” he roared. “Christ, what kind of man are you?”
“And you ‘accidentally’ caused a fire that consumed the whole damned stables and everything in it?” Denver hissed.
“Stop it! Please, all of you,” Tessa commanded. “Stop it!”
But Mitch wasn’t finished. “I used to smoke,” he said. “I was nervous, and I guess I must have dropped my cigarette in the straw in the stables before I went up to the office. By the time I took the money and changed the books the downstairs was already in flames. I opened all the stalls I could and left.”
“You bloody bastard!” Colton lunged again, but Denver held him back.
Tessa’s eyes were bright with tears, her insides ripping apart. Her world was out of kilter on its axis, spinning crazily out of control. “You could have told me,” she whispered.
“You were already destroyed because of Denver!” he spit out, then lost some of his fire. “Dad thought it best if no one said anything. I’d already had a couple of scrapes with the law—Oh, hell, Tess, why do you think Dad drinks so much? Why do you think it’s been worse since the fire? Because he took the rap for me, damn it!”
Denver released Colton. “Two people died in that fire, Kramer!” Colton thundered. “Two people!”
“I know it.”
“What kind of a miserable bastard are you, Kramer?” Denver demanded, his temper exploding. “My parents and seven horses burned to death! And all this time, you knew. Your father knew! Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”
“Denver,” Tessa whispered, seeing the anguish in his eyes, the throbbing of the arteries at his temples.
“Oh, God, I don’t know,” Mitch whispered, his eyes red. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry?” Colton bellowed. “Sorry?”
Denver’s teeth clenched. “Why the hell didn’t you tell anyone? And don’t give me that baloney about doing what your father wanted! That’s just plain crazy. You ran because you were scared. Because you were a coward.”
“Yes!” Mitch choked out, his eyes swimming in tears of remorse.
“Just listen to him!” Tessa yelled, defending her brother. “Can’t you see how hard it is?”
“Harder than this?” Denver asked, stretching his fingers wide, his webbing of reddish scars more visible than ever before.
Mitchell was shaking. “Dad was sure that I’d be sent to prison for ... involuntary manslaughter. He told me to join the Army—to get away. Let things die