Mystic Danger 2: From the Ashes Read Free Page A

you—did you think of that?” She turned to Rance. “I apologize for my son’s rudeness, but he still has issues he’s working on since Sarah’s death. They didn’t part well.”
    Rance moved forward. The hell with what he thinks. He wants to be an asshole, let him. I got what I came for, the chance to meet Sarah’s family and say thanks. “That last day, when you and your sister fought? She saw your point—she just disagreed. She felt that gambling wouldn’t affect your father the way that you thought it would. What’s between you and your dad has nothing to do with gambling. The alcoholism is his problem—you aren’t to blame. Neither are your brothers and your mother.” Rance drew a deep breath, watching the shocked expressions on both Haley’s and Jake’s faces. “I’m sorry, but Sarah would want you to know that she doesn’t blame you for the argument. In the words I feel are coming through me from her, It is what it is. Time to get over it.”
    Jake suddenly caught his mother as her legs buckled. He helped her into the booth where he’d been sitting then slid in beside her, staring at Rance. “My sister used to say exactly that. How…? There’s no way you could have known…”
    “Exactly.” Rance was beyond mortified that he’d ratted himself out like that and invited the O’Reilly family to make fun of him. Or worse, to become frightened of him. Bad enough that he scared the hell out of himself.
    Haley cried softly and brought a napkin from the table to her face, wiping her eyes and nose, sniffling. When Jake tried comforting her, she shook her head. “I’m okay. Just surprised—that’s all.” She finished wiping her face and looked at Rance again, her eyes imploring. “What else has Sarah told you? Did she say why she died?”
    Jake lifted his hands to his face, running white-knuckled fingers through his hair. “Mom, you aren’t buying this? It’s a scam! I must have said something to Colin, and maybe Colin told him while he was in Las Vegas, preparing to bring the bodies of his brother and his wife home. Did you think of that?”
    “Colin left Las Vegas when Sarah’s body was released,” Haley said.
    “Then he said something to this man while he was in the hospital. I mean, he was right there, in the same damned hospital, for the transplant to occur. No?”
    “Wrong,” Rance corrected him. “I was miles away in Henderson when your sister was killed and taken to the hospital. I’ve never met Sarah’s husband.”
    “Ah, but you know who I’m talking about, right? How is that?” Jake’s voice left no doubt that he thought Rance was full of crap.
    “The same way I know that you turned down a scholarship to at least half a dozen universities nearly ten years ago. You could have played professional baseball by now, but you chose to stay home and help take care of your mother and younger brothers.”
    Jake scoffed. “Oh, hell, it’s no secret that my dad drinks and that I used to play a bit of ball. You could have gotten that information anywhere.”
    “Want me to tell your mother what you and Sarah really fought about the night before she left for Las Vegas?” Rance asked.
    The man before Rance looked as if Rance had cold-cocked him. His handsome face paled, and his eyes darkened.
    “Enough!” Jake’s voice was quiet, but it might as well have been a clap of thunder.
    His mother told him to be silent. “I told Summer to get hold of Rance and bring him to me. I wanted to talk to him. Surely, you don’t suspect Summer of gossiping about our family, do you?”
    Haley patted Rance’s hands. “You stay for supper. We’ll put this one out on his boat if we have to, but I want to hear more. Promise me you’ll stay.”
    Jake held out his hand to help his mother from the booth. Rance could see the rise and swell of Jake’s chest as he fought to keep his emotions under control. But hell, Rance had come this far in revealing information, he might as well go the rest of