Dirty Little Secret

by Jennifer Ryan

  “Wait a damn minute.” Lisa stood and planted her hands on her hips. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

  “No,” Noah answered for Tom.

  “Hey, I gave birth to her.”

  “You were an incubator,” Noah shot back.

  “Enough.” Roxy handed him the papers along with a pen. “Lisa, your daughter made her decision. This is her home, she’s got school and friends. She needs time to grieve John’s death. Uprooting her now isn’t a good idea. She needs stability. Noah and I can give her that.”

  “And I can’t.”

  Noah signed the papers and handed them to Tom. “Luckily, you won’t get the chance to prove the only thing you really want to do is control Annabelle’s inheritance.”

  “Even if she gained custody, John named Noah and Roxy to oversee her inheritance. It’s paid out to her in increments on her eighteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-fifth birthdays. At that time, she’ll control her inheritance on her own,” Tom explained.

  Lisa’s face turned red with rage.

  Noah knew exactly what was coming next and hated the flash of misery he saw cross Annabelle’s face when her mother stood up in a huff. “This is ludicrous. She’s my daughter and I have absolutely no say.”

  “You have no say because you’ve proven the only person you think about is yourself,” Roxy commented, her voice cool and controlled.

  “You don’t know me, or anything about my relationship with my daughter.”

  “I knew since the moment I saw the two of you together that you have absolutely no concern for your daughter’s well-being. Not once have you offered her any words of comfort, held her hand, hugged her close and reassured her everything was going to be all right.” Roxy shook her head. “She lost her father, and the only thing you’re worried about is how much he left her and how fast you can get your hands on it.” The words came out thick with emotion.

  “Easy for you to say since you got the bulk of the estate and control of my daughter’s portion, too.”

  Roxy didn’t respond to the insinuation. “Noah loves his sister. He’ll do everything he can to make sure she’s raised right and her inheritance is protected.”

  “You don’t even know him,” Lisa shot back.

  “I know he held her hand through the church ceremony. He wrapped her in his arms at the cemetery and let her cry out her grief. I saw the way he bent to her ear and offered her the words and sentiments she needed to look up at him and smile. They have a bond. Something you don’t share with her. I know by the way he looked at me when he found out I was named guardian that if he doesn’t like the way I treat Annabelle, he’ll make damn sure I know it and he’ll get a judge to remove me from that position. Not because he wants control of her twenty percent, but because he loves her and wants the best for her. I wish, for Annabelle’s sake, you felt the same.”

  Roxy sighed, gave Annabelle a commiserative look, then turned back to Lisa and pinned her in her steady golden gaze. “You don’t know me, but if you did, you’d take this to heart. Mother or not, if you think for one second I’ll stand by and let you hurt that girl, you better think twice. The operative word in guardian is guard. Believe it when I say, I take that very seriously. Especially, when it comes to you.”

  Impressed, Noah sat back and smiled at the indignant look on Lisa’s face. He’d never seen her speechless.

  Annabelle stared up at Roxy, her mouth open in shock. A smile spread across her face and her eyes lit up with awe.

  Noah and John had stood between Annabelle and Lisa, but neither of them had really stood up for her. Not like Roxy just did. Everyone understood that Annabelle would stay with John, and Lisa accepted that and took the money and never really made trouble. With John out of the way, Lisa saw Annabelle as an easy mark. Not so with Noah by her side, but Roxy had just added another barrier to Lisa’s schemes.

  Annabelle schooled her features again. Never one to draw her mother’s attention, he wondered how long she’d waited to actually hear someone put her mother in her place. More, she needed to hear someone stick up for her. He and John had done so in subtle ways, but it obviously hadn’t been enough. Annabelle needed Roxy’s blunt announcement that she meant to guard Annabelle from her own mother.

  Maybe John had a good idea. Mary was like a mother to them, but Roxy was younger, and Annabelle might respond better to her direct approach. Mary tended to coddle Annabelle. Roxy seemed more inclined to expect more from Annabelle and demand she give it.

  Maybe Roxy was exactly what Annabelle needed.

  She intrigued him.

  Yes, he wanted to know about her mysterious background and relationship with John, but he also wanted to know who she was and what made her tick. What happened to her to give her that stubborn tilt to her chin, challenge in her words, and the confidence to stand up for Annabelle and mean it with every fiber of her being?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Roxy turned her back on Lisa and her pathetic attempts to finagle her way back into Annabelle’s life with the sole purpose of robbing her blind. Roxy knew how it felt to have a mother who cared nothing for you, unless she could act the part to get something from you.

  “I’ve had enough. I’m leaving.” Indignation tinged Lisa’s voice, but the only thing she was mad about was not getting her way. She walked to the study doors without a backward glance.

  Roxy couldn’t help striking one more jab. “Not even a goodbye for your daughter?”

  Lisa let out a very unladylike grunt, turned on her three-hundred-dollar stilettos, and walked out. The front door slammed shut a moment later.

  Roxy went to Annabelle and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Annabelle. Believe me, it’s better she ignores you. Nothing worse than having your own mother kiss and hug you in some overblown show of fake emotion.”

  “I wish she’d stay away. When she’s gone, I don’t have to think about it.”

  “When she’s here, she makes you confront the anger and hurt you always feel, but can numb while she’s away,” Roxy added.

  “Exactly,” Annabelle said on a sigh.

  Noah looked from Annabelle to Roxy and back again. “Let’s just be happy she’s gone. Knowing her, she’ll lick her wounds, spend a fortune to soothe her ruffled feathers, and be back at the most inopportune moment possible.”

  Annabelle frowned, and Roxy took it that Noah’s words had come true on numerous occasions.

  “How do you think she’ll react when she finds out her alimony payments stop now that John’s dead?” Tom grinned, enjoying stirring the pot.

  Noah groaned and rolled his eyes to the ceiling. Annabelle looked disturbed.

  “I’ll send her a letter,” Tom suggested.

  “Fine,” Noah agreed. “Make sure she understands that going after custody of Annabelle, so she can get child support, isn’t going to work either.”

  “I will.” Tom made a note in his day planner.

  “Tom, what else do I need to know about John’s plans for me?” Roxy didn’t hide her irritation that her father, after all these years, pushed her into a corner and made her do what he wanted. And he used her weakness to make her do it: a sister.

  When John visited, he asked about her life, which for her revolved around her sisters. He knew how much her sisters meant to her. How she’d die for any one of them. And now she had another to raise.

  “You can work out the details for running the ranch with Noah. You’ll both sign on the accounts jointly. As you heard, the terms for your inheritance state you have to live here until Annabelle turns eighteen. You have one week to move into the house. After that, you can’t be gone from the ranch more than five days a month.”

  “What? I have a home, friends, a job. You expect me to change my whole life in a week.”

  “Those are John’s terms. Do you know what fifty percent of John’s estate is worth?”

  “That is beside the point. I haven’t seen or heard from him in years and he leaves me a ranch to run, a child to raise
, and expects me to change my entire life at the drop of a hat.”

  “Don’t forget the envelope,” Tom reminded her.

  Roxy glared at the innocuous item. John had already turned her life upside down. What else did he want from her?

  Not one to put off unpleasant tasks, she opened the envelope and pulled out the contents. On top was her copy of the will. Underneath, a sealed envelope with her name scrawled across it. Beneath that she read the property deed and felt every ounce of blood drain from her face.

  She placed both hands on the desk and stared down at the name on the deed.

  The Wild Rose Ranch.

  “Roxy, are you okay?” Noah asked.

  No. She was not okay. This couldn’t be right. He couldn’t own 80 percent of that place.

  She flipped pages and found the business contract.

  Fuck me.

  John had made her the Madam of one of the most well-known brothels in all of Nevada—and her mother’s boss.

  Dirty, rotten, son of a bitch.

  Here she thought John was finally offering her a way out of Nevada and the life her mother chose over her daughter at every turn. Instead, he’d been supporting that lifestyle.

  Now he expected her to run it.

  What did that say about what he thought of her?

  Probably the same thing everyone else thought when they discovered she lived at the Wild Rose Ranch.

  The same thing Tom obviously thought judging by his lascivious gaze.

  She tried to give the Wild Rose Ranch another kind of reputation through her horse training and rodeo competitions. Still, the stain of her mother’s life never washed off.

  “Roxy, just so you understand, the contents of that envelope are yours alone. Noah and Annabelle do not share in that part of John’s estate.”

  “Let me guess,” she replied to Tom’s statement, “they know nothing about this.”

  “It only pertains to you,” Tom confirmed, the grin saying more than anything that he thought this a juicy little secret.

  “God forbid he taint this ranch, his children, and his reputation by admitting how he got his daughter.”

  “I think you misunderstand,” Tom said, giving John the benefit of the doubt when Roxy wanted to rage. “He named you as guardian for Annabelle. He gave you half his assets here. I can only say he kept that separate because it’s your life.”

  “Right.” She pointed to the papers. “You think this is my life.”

  Tom’s eyes filled with confusion. “He included a note. Perhaps it explains things better.”

  “No explanation necessary. He’s made himself quite clear. He’s made me responsible for her. Just like he did when he left me with her.”

  But now she was responsible for all the women who worked there. And the whole damn place.

  Roxy stuffed the contents back into the envelope and ignored Noah’s and Annabelle’s stares.

  Noah didn’t even try to hide his curiosity and asked her point-blank, “What’s in the envelope?”

  “The answer to years of wondering why my father didn’t want me.” The words held a lifetime of scorn.

  “Whatever is in that envelope, I can’t imagine John meant it in a spiteful way. He wasn’t like that.” Noah tried to soothe her.

  She appreciated the sentiment, but the truth remained. “The father you knew, who loved you and cared for both of you all these years, is not the same man I knew.”

  Noah didn’t give up defending John. “I don’t think he meant to insult you. By the look on your face, that’s exactly how you took it.”

  “Noah, you have no idea what you’re talking about, and if you did, you wouldn’t be offering me any kind words.” She went to the bar, poured a dollop of whiskey into a shot glass, and downed it. The sting burned down her throat, but didn’t stop her from thinking. “If that’s all, I’m leaving.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” Tom offered.

  She picked up her envelope and followed him to the door. Noah and Annabelle remained seated, looking tired and overwhelmed.

  Noah stood. “I guess we’ll see you in a week.”

  The halfhearted smiles and nods goodbye told her they both needed time to absorb the changes in their lives.

  She knew how they felt. Only they had all the time in the world.

  She had to get home, settle things at the ranch, talk to her employer about keeping her job, pack, and move to a new place where she had no friends.

  And she had to run a ranch with a man who clearly didn’t want or need her help.

  She let out a big sigh at the daunting thoughts.

  Tom stopped short in the entry before the front door and she ran into the back of him. He spun around and grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her. Or so it seemed until his hands glided down her arms and the back of his fingertips grazed her breasts. She went still and raised her gaze to meet his lust-filled eyes.

  “You’re not what I expected.” His gaze swept down and up her. “When I found out John left you the Wild Rose Ranch . . .” He shook his head, the disbelief quickly turning back to desire. “I was astounded to discover he owned such a place, but to know his daughter lived there. Well, I couldn’t wait to meet you.”

  “Is that right?” She dropped her voice an octave, baiting him.

  Tom responded to the husky tone. They all did. This wasn’t the first time she’d dealt with someone like Tom, who made assumptions about her because of where she lived and how she looked.

  Tom rubbed his thumb over her arm, taking the shiver of disgust as a sign of interest. “I admit, I’ve never been to a place like that, but now that you’re here, I’m thinking all kinds of wild thoughts. You’ll be living here. So close. I hope we can come to an arrangement.”

  He stepped closer.

  It was all she could do not to cringe from his touch as his hand slid over her side and rested on her hip.

  “What sort of arrangement did you have in mind?”

  “You’re so beautiful and sexy. It’ll be hard to wait for your return. I’ll call you when I’d like to meet. Unless you’ll get your own place nearby to work, I’ve got a place picked out. The Mountainside Motel off Highway Nine. Not too far away, yet discreet enough to keep the arrangement just between us.”

  “You’ve thought of everything. Except you neglected to consider one thing.”

  “Oh, of course, the fee.” He gripped her hip tighter. “I’m sure we can come up with something that works for both of us.”

  “Now see, that’s where you’re wrong.”

  He traced his finger along the side of her face, pushing her hair back over her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you mean.”

  “I would never agree to be with you, you fool.” She kneed him in the balls.

  He fell to the floor and onto his side, clutching his junk and wailing like a baby. “You bitch.”

  “That part you got right.” She stared down her nose at him. “Listen good, because I am only going to say this once. Keep your damn hands off me. I am not a prostitute.” She opened the door and walked out without closing it, leaving Tom writhing in pain in the marble entry.

  A few steps from her rental car, Noah caught up to her, grabbed her arm, and spun her around. “Hey, why the hell did you do that to Tom?”

  “He mistook me for a whore. He won’t make that mistake again.”

  Noah’s eyes went wide as he tried to process what she said. “I’m sorry, he what?”

  She shook her head. She didn’t have it in her to explain. “Never mind.”

  “Hell no. What did he say to you?”

  “He was just thinking with the wrong head. I incapacitated the one doing the thinking, so he’ll remember to use the one on his shoulders the next time he sees me.”

  “If he did something inappropriate, maybe he needs a lesson in manners.” Noah turned to get some answers from Tom, and maybe get his own shot in, too, but Roxy grabbed his arm and stopped him.

  In Tom’s impaired
state, he might say something he shouldn’t about the Wild Rose Ranch.

  John didn’t want Noah or Annabelle to know anything about it.

  If they found out, she wouldn’t be welcome here.

  Not that Noah wanted her here in the first place.

  Well, that might not be exactly true. Because the moment she touched his arm, their eyes met, and neither of them acknowledged the electricity snapping between them.

  She dropped her hand and rubbed it down her thigh, trying to erase the tingle, but nothing would diminish something that powerful.

  “Did you want something?”

  Noah stuffed his hands in his pockets. He glanced back at the house, Tom’s moans drifting out the open door, and turned back to her looking uncertain. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  She cocked her hip and stared up at him. “Trying to dissuade me from moving in and living up to the terms of the inheritance?”

  He glared, his mouth drawn in a tight line. “It’s my job to take care of Annabelle.”

  “Our job,” she corrected.

  “Annabelle doesn’t need anyone else in her life who uses her to get what they want.”

  “Let’s get one thing straight, you and me, right here and now. This is our ranch. We run it together now. Annabelle is our responsibility. We make decisions together for her sake. It’s going to be difficult enough for me to come into your home and disrupt the life the two of you have shared all these years. Let’s not make this harder than it has to be by squabbling over who got how much, or who’s known who longer. As far as I’m concerned, this is a fifty-fifty deal between us as far as decisions go. If you’re not on board with that, it’s only going to make things harder for all of us, but especially Annabelle.”

  “Fine. We’ll try it your way. For now.”

  “Great. One last thing to clear the air. I know you’re pissed about the way things got split. I wasn’t part of John’s life, yet he left me the bigger share. You want to be pissed at me, fine. I can take it. But when it comes to making decisions for her, we do it with her welfare in mind, not any grievances we have with each other.”