Look-Alike Lawman. Glynna Kaye

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СКАЧАТЬ down at the comatose Belle Colby, hooked up to medical paraphernalia of every imaginable kind, Grayson harbored the same frustration as his siblings at not being able to get desperately needed answers to their questions.

      Although his siblings had picked up rumors from a former neighbor of the then still-intact family, what was the real reason Belle and his dad split? Why had they separated Maddie and him from their twin counterparts? The boys had been two, the girls not much beyond six months. Why had his father led him to believe Sharla Wallace was his birth mom?

      Grayson gripped the black, leather-bound Bible in his hands. Did Belle know who’d sent these Bibles to him, his twin brother and two sisters? He and Maddie had received them in June, after their dad headed out on his six-month medical mission and not long before Grayson went undercover. No postmark. No return address. Later, Violet had found one on the seat of her car after church and Jack’s had turned up on the hearth of the home he was renovating.

      They all held the same handwritten, anonymous note, the words of which were burned into his memory.

      I am sorry for what I did to you and your family. I hope you and your siblings, especially your twin, can forgive me as I ask the Lord to forgive me.

      When he and Maddie each received a Bible and identical note, they’d initially been puzzled. Then they’d laughed them off, thinking someone had them confused with somebody else. At that point they hadn’t any idea they each had a twin. But someone had known—and for some reason felt guilty about it.

      Who? And why?

      Gray shook his head as he continued to watch the quiet rise and fall of Belle’s breathing. Would she ever be able to answer their questions?

      The most pressing question of all, however, was where was his dad? No one thought much about it when he didn’t return calls while on a mission trip. He wasn’t big on checking in and worked in remote areas with limited phone reception. Then in August it was discovered he’d left his cell phone at one of his stops in Blackstone, Texas. Probably got hundreds of miles down the road before he realized it, intending to swing back and get it later. Not too much concern at that time.

      But in September when Grayson returned from his assignment, the family enlisted him to find their dad so they could get answers to their family mystery. Not long into his search he’d learned that his father appeared unwell at one location. Jack had followed up, going down to search the migrant camp where he’d last been spotted. He’d come up empty-handed except to confirm that when last seen, their father appeared feverish, coughing and maybe not quite lucid at times. Now they were greatly concerned and Gray’s own investigation had escalated.

      His heart heavy, he sat down in a molded plastic chair next to the bed, placing the mystery Bible on his knee. From the moment he laid eyes on her, he’d had no doubt that Belle was his mother. All the kids including him looked like her. None of them resembled their father. Although he hadn’t yet looked into her eyes, he’d seen almost three decades’ worth of photographs of her when he’d first come to the home of his long-lost siblings.

      For the thousandth time in the past four weeks, he willed himself to remember something—anything—of his first two years with his birth mom. But not even a shadow of her remained.

      Incredibly, the woman he and Maddie adored and had grown up believing was their mother wasn’t their birth mother, although she was their little brother, Carter’s, mom. The whole thing seemed like a dream—or a nightmare. He still hadn’t grasped that Violet and Jack had lived separate lives, raised by this woman whose life he and Maddie should have shared as well.

      He reached for his mother’s warm but seemingly lifeless hand. Ran his thumb over the back of it. Said a silent prayer, then spoke aloud. “It’s me, Grayson. Jack’s brother. Your son.”

      Did that sound weird or what?

      She didn’t stir.

      “I, uh, understand you never wanted Jack and Violet to pursue finding their father.” He cleared his throat. “But we need to track Dad down. Let him know what’s going on here. I know he’s okay. He’s gotten caught up in his work like he often does. He’s a doctor now. A good one. Did you know that? A missionary doctor much of the time.”

      He shook his head, wondering about the wisdom of pouring all this out to the woman in the bed. Could she even hear him? Understand any of it?

      “I’m a police officer in Fort Worth. That’s why the others are counting on me to find him. I’m sorry if that’s not what you want us to do. We don’t mean for it to upset you.”

      He gently squeezed her motionless hand. “But don’t you worry. Things will turn out fine. All of us kids are grateful we’ve found each other. Maddie’s even moved from Fort Worth and will be marrying your ranch foreman, Ty. Doesn’t that beat all?”

      He paused to catch his breath, not used to rambling on in a soliloquy. “Violet and Jack are both engaged to fine folks, too. Keira’s a vet, which will come in handy at the ranch, and Landon’s an old friend of mine. So lots of weddings in the works, and we need you there to help out.”

      Silence permeated the room, except for the wall clock ticking away the seconds as he breathed in the antiseptic scents clinging to the Spartan space.

      “Nothing in the plans like that for me.” He chuckled, but memory flashed unbidden to the captivating Elise Lopez. Why couldn’t he get her out of his head? “So don’t go getting your hopes up. I think I’m destined to go it alone. You know, the dedicated lawman route.”

      “Oh, yeah, the dedicated lawman,” a familiar female voice whispered from the doorway. His sister. The original one. Maddie. “Leaving scores of women pining in his wake.”

      With a grin, he turned to look at her. Who’d have thought a polished, twenty-five-year-old former assistant at the glamorous Texas Today magazine would be standing here in Western-flavored garb, hair swept into a ponytail? She still had a stylish city flair, but what a difference a few months had made.

      “Pining women, huh?” He stood, tucked the Bible under his slinged arm and quietly moved to join her in the hallway. “You know something I don’t know?”

      “Hey, I have more than a few girlfriends at Texas Today who still talk about the time you escorted me to that company cookout. Believe me, they’d sell their BMWs for a chance to get their hands on you.”

      “Would hate for them to make that kind of sacrifice for a sorry specimen like me.”

      “Yeah, right.” Maddie grinned, then motioned to the doorway behind him. “So how’s...Belle today? Seems strange to call her Mom, doesn’t it?”

      “Can’t do it myself.”

      Maddie rested a hand on his arm and they moved a short distance down the hall, out of Belle’s earshot—if she could hear them at all.

      “But she is our mother, Gray. You and Jack might have doubts about your male parentage, but you only have to take one look at her and know we’re hers.”

      His spine stiffened. “I don’t have any doubts about my male parentage. I’m not buying into that Fort Worth woman’s tales. She sounds like a troublemaker to me. Dad’s my dad and that’s all there is to it.”

      No way would he even speculate he was Joe Earl’s offspring—a guy that on the best of days you wouldn’t СКАЧАТЬ