Calvin Hernandez was speeding. The needle on the speedometer was approaching eighty. He didn’t care. The crosswinds were whipping against the side of his pickup truck, and the skies were darkening with clouds as though even the heavens had had enough. Soon the dark clouds would open up and a torrent of cold rain would soak the front range. Cal could only hope that he got to the Denver city limits before the roads grew slick with rain and the visibility lessened to zero.

At least the weather made it very unlikely that any cops would feel inclined to call him out on his speeding. He had a reason. He could just tell the police that he was speeding because his father was in the hospital. Except if the policeman heard that Cal’s father was Joseph Hernandez, he would wonder why anyone cared if old Joe died.

The tires on the big pickup slid going around a curve, and Cal spun the steering wheel to keep the truck on the road. The last thing he needed was to wind up in the ditch. He should slow down. There was no good to be had in pushing the big truck to travel more than eighty on the narrow two-lane highway. It wouldn’t get him there any faster.

But Cal could not stop thinking about the phone call he’d gotten from his adopted sister, Jesse, just that afternoon. She didn’t call him very much anymore. Or rather it was sporadic. And the relationship between the two of them was so very complicated. She wasn’t his sister. He didn’t think of her as his sister. And yet Cal had watched Jesse grow up. He had stood back and tried to help her as much as he could as she grew from gangly girl to a very beautiful young woman. Now, at twenty-one, the feelings and emotions that hit him every time he heard her voice or saw her or even smelled her perfume were enough to send him crashing to his knees.

A dark shadow darted across the road. Cal cursed and swung the wheel wide while trying gingerly to pump the brakes and keep them from locking up. The big dual rear wheel truck began to swing from side to side. Cal touched the brakes a little harder. Then harder still. The truck wasn’t getting any fuel, but it was still gathering speed as he headed down a hill into the valley where Denver was located.

Another dark shadow darted across the road. This time he caught sight of antlers. Mule deer, a whole slew of them on both sides of the road as they emerged and tried to cross from one shoulder to the other.

“Shit,” Cal groaned.

He heard a thump. His headlights briefly spotlighted a set of antlers on the front passenger corner of his hood. The animal went down, and Cal heard the shatter of plastic as the lens of his headlight shattered. The truck lurched as he ran over the deer and pushed it aside.

At that very moment, the heavens opened up and a sheet of water hit the truck’s windshield. Cal suddenly could not see where the road was on the lonely stretch of highway. He flipped on his wipers, but the water was falling too quickly. The inside of the windshield began to steam over. He flipped on the defroster, and the air roared to life in the cab.

This was a bad beginning. Cal hated leaving the ranch anyway. But as the first lights on the outskirts of Denver twinkled to life in the gloomy evening, Cal felt a lurch in his midsection. He still had to get all the way to the hospital. He was missing a headlight, and there was no telling what else on the front of his pickup, thanks to his run-in with the poor deer. And he had no clue what would be waiting for him at the hospital.

The city skyline came into view. The amount of traffic picked up. Lanes were added until Cal was scooting along in a line of other cars all heading in the same direction. The city closed in, and he felt as though his chest was constricting to the point where he could not breathe. He hated the city. He hated coming in from the ranch. He hated leaving the ranch at all, especially to go to the city or, more specifically—to see his father.

The hospital’s lighted sign was like a beacon. Cal exited the highway and went around and around the parking lot trying to find a place to squeeze his truck into a spot. Finally he found a parking space at the very back of the lot. He didn’t care. It would be a mile hike to the front doors of the hospital, and that was okay.

He spotted four other HLC-branded pickup trucks in the parking lot of that hospital. It told him that all of his brothers were here. That should have made him feel better. Not because he got along with his brothers and enjoyed spending time with them. It was more that they were skilled at running interference with their mother and father. If Joe Hernandez was in the hospital, then it was a sure thing that his mother, Avery, would be in a very sad state. The woman was loyal to a fault, even to a husband who had been anything but loyal to her.

The truck that Cal did not see belonged to Jesse. Where was she? He’d expected her here. He had dreaded the chance to see and talk with her as much as he had eagerly anticipated it. As he walked his way into the hospital, he felt his mood darkening. Jesse wasn’t here. He was about to be inundated by family drama. And there was a good chance that he was going to lose his temper and spill secrets that were not his to share.

“Cal.”

Oh, that was freaking perfect. Laredo was only a year younger than Cal. In fact, less than that. Laredo was his father’s favored child and a notorious kiss-ass. He generally annoyed the crap out of Cal. His first instinct was to put his fist in Laredo’s face and keep walking. But something in his brother’s expression stopped him.

The two brothers looked alike. In fact, all of the brothers looked alike. They had their father’s curly black hair and their mother’s brilliant blue eyes. They had swarthy complexions that seemed to stem from a genetic predisposition to being outside. Or perhaps the Hernandez brothers were still sporting a tan that one of the ancestors had received on the range nearly a century before.

But there was something indefinably different about Laredo right now today. Cal could not put his finger on it, but this Laredo was not the total douchebag that Cal had been expecting. He stopped walking and narrowed his gaze at his brother.

Laredo gestured toward a coffee shop chain just a few yards away from the hospital entrance. “I came down for coffee.”

“Okay.” Cal didn’t know what else to say.

Laredo lifted his coffee and took a sip. “Do you want one?”

“Sure.” Was Cal surprised? He didn’t know. This was his brother, but they weren’t exactly on social terms. They did not talk or share coffee or do much of anything else that might be considered friendly.

Laredo headed back over to the coffee shop. The line was short. That was likely because it was almost six o’clock in the evening. Who got coffee at that hour? Except Cal was a pretty old-school cowboy, and he could use coffee at any time during the day. So, when Laredo handed Cal a steaming cup of black coffee, Cal didn’t spend any time wondering if his brother had poisoned the brew. He just inhaled the rich scent and then sipped the bitter liquid and savored it on his tongue.

“Now.” Laredo pointed to a couple of seats. “Let’s sit down, and I’ll bring you up to speed before you head upstairs.”

“Okay?”

What was Laredo talking about? This was a heart attack and possible surgery—at least according to Jesse—not a production that required a briefing before Cal went up to see his own family. Still, if Laredo really thought that Cal needed an update, then it was the least he could do.

The two brothers took a seat in the small waiting area facing the windows and the parking lot beyond. The rain was still coming down in sheets. The sky was black and the asphalt looked blacker. It was as though the world was covered in tar and the sucking death of it was all that was left.

“Dad had a heart attack,” Laredo began.

Cal waved his hand impatiently. “Jesse told me all this.”

“Yes, but she didn’t get all of it.” Laredo shook his head. “Jesse refused to come to the hospital. I don’t know where she is, but I decided to let her go. Mom called her when it happened, and she went to the hospital, but I think something must have happened between the two of them. Jesse won’t pick up her phone or answer texts. We’ve all tried.”

Cal did not say anything about that. It would have been highly unusual for Jesse to ignore Cal’s calls or texts, but he wasn’t willing to get into that right now. This wasn’t the time or place.

Laredo seemed to realize that Cal wasn’t going to talk about Jesse. Laredo sighed. “There’s a blockage in Dad’s heart. They’ve already got him prepped for surgery. They have to put a stint in. He’s apparently been battling high cholesterol for years but won’t listen to his cardiologist or anyone else about his diet.”

Cal grunted. “Is that really surprising to you?”

“No. Not really.”

“Then, why are we talking about it?” Cal took a sip of burning hot coffee. It scorched his tongue and trailed like acid down his throat. He didn’t care. It helped to center him. “So, he’s going to have surgery. He’s going to have restrictions. Why is this a big deal? Mom spends most of her time trying to mother him to death. It’ll be good for her.”

“Actually, Mom is leaving him.”

Okay. Now Laredo had Cal’s full attention. In fact, Cal could hardly process what his brother was saying. Their mother was leaving their father? Why? What would possess the woman to leave after decades with Joe? Why bother? What? Was putting up with him suddenly too much after she’d been doing it for so long that she’d practically become a professional?

“Mom says that he’s been cheating on her for years.” Laredo shrugged. “I don’t know much about that.”

Damn. The way Laredo was staring made Cal really uncomfortable. Was Laredo trying to get confirmation or something? If he was, Cal wasn’t going to give it. He wasn’t talking about this. At all.

“Met has already told us that this is true.” Laredo sighed. He took another drink of his own coffee and then put his palms around the paper cup as though he needed the warmth.

Cal was surprised that his youngest brother had finally spilled the beans. The poor kid had been carrying that secret around since he was twelve years old. Why now? Or was their mother’s decision to rock the boat going to change everything?

“So, Mom is leaving,” Cal said hoarsely. He cleared his throat. He needed to get a grip. “I don’t see how this changes anything. Can we just go upstairs? I want to talk to our mother.”

“About what?” Laredo pointed at Cal. “We all know that you have information you don’t share. It’s not a secret. Not really. You were nineteen when Jesse came to live with us. You were probably aware of a lot of things about our parents that the rest of us weren’t.”

“What are you driving at?” Cal finally came right out and asked. He drank more coffee. He was running out of coffee. It was tempting to go back and get more. It at least gave him something to do with his hands. “Just say it.”

“Was Dad really having an affair with Amelia Collins before she was killed in that accident?” Laredo’s tone was flat and his voice was sharp.

Cal sat back in his seat. Then he gave up and stood. He couldn’t remain seated anymore. There were too many thoughts running through his head. Memories were like that. They plagued you for years and years until you finally learned to put a leash on them. Then, every once in a while, they would slip their leash and sink needle-sharp teeth in your psyche once again.

“What’s wrong?” Laredo asked. There was something so very pointed in the way he spoke that Cal had no doubt his brother was perfectly aware of what kind of memories he was dredging up. “You didn’t think that anyone else knew you were keeping that secret for Dad?”

“It’s not that simple,” Cal finally managed to reply. “You’re acting like it was just an affair.”

“What else would it be?” Laredo stood up too. He pointed at Cal. “Are you keeping that secret because secretly you know that Dad fathered a child on Amelia Collins?”

“What?” Cal swung his neck around so fast he felt as though his spine might snap. “You can’t be serious.”

“Is that why you’re protecting that secret? You don’t want anyone to know that Jesse is really our biological sister?” Laredo was on a roll and Cal was too speechless to intervene. “Is that why you’ve never allowed yourself to touch Jesse or even to think about her like that? You know that she’s really your sister?”

“Listen to yourself!” Cal managed to say. He hated how weak his words sounded. He could not even convince himself that he was telling the truth. How was he supposed to be convincing his obviously skeptical brother?

Cal shook his head. He could not handle this any longer. It was ridiculous. The whole thing was ridiculous. It was bad. Laredo had it all wrong, and yet he didn’t realize where he’d missed what could have been considered the most obvious details.

“I think you’re just keeping a secret to protect the family,” Laredo said quietly. He started walking toward the elevators. “I think you’ve always kept that secret. And I respect you for that, but it’s time to let that secret out. We all need to know what’s really happening in our family. You have no idea how much crap all of this has caused. You stay out on that ranch and you hide. But the rest of us are dealing with this bullshit every single day.” Laredo paused and held out his hand to indicate the bank of elevators. “So, let’s go come clean with our brothers, shall we?”

Cal snorted. Sometimes he thought that Laredo should have been the lawyer and not Cisco. Except Laredo had a habit of being way off. And this time he was so far off that he was going to make an even bigger mess by pretending that he knew what he was talking about.

Cal wasn’t signing on for that. This whole trip had been a bad idea anyway. He didn’t want to see his father. And he was pretty damn sure after a decade of ostracism that his mother didn’t really care to see him either.

So, with that in his mind, Cal turned and walked back out the front doors of the hospital. He could hear Laredo calling his name. That didn’t slow him down. He didn’t know where he was going to go. Maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe he should just go home, but he was afraid it wasn’t time for that just yet.