by Lane, Soraya
They were silent again a long while. Chase didn’t know if it was because his granddad was trying to think what to say or his breath was hard to catch.
“Did you give her any reason to believe that you wanted more from her?”
Chase shook his head. “We were friends. Friends who got carried away on graduation night.”
“What do you want me to tell you, son? That you should fight for custody? That you should put a ring on her finger? That we should put the full force of our legal team to work to punish her?”
Chase started the engine again, not liking sitting idle. “I just want someone to help me figure out the hell of a mess I have going on. I hate her, but I don’t. I like the kid, but…”
“You don’t know about being a dad.” His granddad shrugged. “I don’t have the answers, Chase, but what I can tell you is that I’ve never lived my life with regrets. When I saw the way your father started treating you boys, I acted. Offered him money to clear out and he took it real fast. It was the best thing I could have done for you all, even though at the time it was damn hard after you’d lost your mom. I didn’t want to look back and know I could have done something and didn’t.”
“So you followed your instincts, listened to your gut. That what you trying to tell me?”
“Damn straight.” He coughed again, this time taking longer to stop, his breathing raspy. “I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but take your time. Make a decision with a clear head. Put all the bullshit behind you and look forward. Do what’ll make you happy, because before you know it you’ll be at the end of your life looking back like I am.”
Chase reached for his granddad’s hand and squeezed it, looked him in the eye.
“We’re not letting you go yet,” he told him, blinking away tears, the blinding stab of emotion one he wasn’t used to.
“All I’ve ever wanted was for you boys to be happy.”
“And we are, Granddad, we are.”
“Then figure out how to fix your Hope situation real fast. Because I want to meet this grandson of mine before I kick the bucket.”
Chase pulled back onto the road, grimacing at his granddad’s choice of words. But there was no denying what was happening, they just had to enjoy every last minute with him while they had the chance.
Chapter 14
“So you’re telling me that you boys can catch the goddamn asshole just from looking at this screen?”
Chase laughed. “God, I’ve missed you.” He patted his granddad on the back and passed him the iPad. “You still getting that nurse to teach you about Twitter?”
They all laughed as Nate passed Granddad a small shot of whiskey in his favorite crystal glass.
“I tell you, boys, I might not have learned a whole lot about Twitter, but having that beautiful nurse lean over to show me what to do…” His granddad raised his eyebrows and took a sip. Chase noticed that his hand was shaking as he slowly brought the glass back down again, leaning back into the deep-buttoned leather sofa. They were in the library, Granddad’s favorite room of the house, talking shit and taking turns staring at the iPad.
“Some things never change, huh, Granddad?” Nate asked, pouring them all another couple of shots.
“I’ll appreciate a gorgeous woman till I take my last breath.”
Chase stared at the man who’d raised them. All of them sitting around like this, it reminded him of growing up. He remembered sipping his first whiskey with Nate as their granddad had looked on, not laughing at them as the potent alcohol had burned their throats and left them coughing, gasping for breath. And that’s why you boys aren’t ready to drink yet. When you can hold your liquor in here, then we’ll talk about it. It had been a lesson and a half, and one that they’d taken great pleasure in watching Ryder deal with a few years later.
“So, Granddad, ah, about Hope.”
Nate and Ryder stayed quiet, sitting back and nursing their drinks. He already knew what they thought, that he needed to man up and just deal with the fact that he was a father, but he wanted to talk about it with all of them, now he’d had more time to process the conversation he’d had with the old man earlier.
“You decided what you want to do?”
Granddad’s voice was shakier than it had ever been, but his tone was still deep, his presence commanding. Even half the weight he’d once been and with shoulders that were starting to stoop, he could still command the attention of the toughest of audiences; there was no doubting he was the patriarch of a billion-dollar empire. But he was also their grandfather, and a damn good one at that.
“I want to know what you’d do. If you were me.” Chase sipped his whiskey, savoring the velvety taste of the dark liquid on his tongue before he swallowed. “What decision would you make?”
“I think that life can throw a lot of curveballs at a man, Chase, but it’s how we deal with those challenges that defines us.”
Well damn. Why did he know his granddad would go and say something so goddamn profound as that. They’d already had that conversation, but he needed more from him.
“So I should just forgive her? Do you honestly think that’s what I should do?”
He received a shake of the head in response. “No. But you need to remember that the boy, your son, had no part in this. If you want to be a man about this whole situation, then that’s what I’d be telling myself.”
“And Hope?” he asked, knocking back the rest of his drink. “What the hell do I do about Hope?” He ducked his head, shutting his eyes for a moment as he leaned into the leather. “I already know that I’m going to be the boy’s dad, step up, but what about her?”
“Only you can decide what to do about Hope. Did you love the girl?”
Chase’s eyes popped back open. Suddenly all eyes were on him, his brothers staring at him. But they weren’t mocking him. A quick scan of both their faces told him they were waiting for his answer, that they were taking the whole thing as seriously as he was.
“Just thinking about what she did makes me want to…”
“Did you love her?” His granddad’s deep voice silenced him as he asked the question again.
Chase stood up and took the bottle from the coffee table, pouring himself another nip and tipping it straight down his throat. When he finished he nursed the glass in his hand, staring down into it before raising his eyes. “Yeah,” he finally said. “I loved her so damn much, and I was too stupid to ever tell her.” He shook his head. “You know what I did? I screwed every other woman I could to try to get her out of my system, and when that didn’t work I thought I’d make her jealous. Look where that got me.”
“So do something about it now,” Nate said, twirling his glass and setting it on the table. “Make it right.”
“Even after she lied to me?” Chase wasn’t convinced. “You can’t seriously tell me that you’d give her a second chance, Nate. I know you wouldn’t.”
“No,” Nate replied, his eyebrows shooting up. “But I’m one stubborn son of a bitch, and I also don’t have a kid out there in the world. A kid that’s living right here in Texas who needs his dad.”
Chase scowled. “So I should forgive her just like that? Just because I want to be part of the kid’s life?” Part of him wanted to do exactly that, but he didn’t believe that his brothers or his granddad would if they were in his shoes.
Ryder laughed, leaning forward. “No, you idiot.”
Chase watched as his brothers exchanged glances with Granddad, pissing him off when they all chuckled.
“You need to man the hell up because it’s so damn obvious that you still love her.”
Now it was Chase scowling at Ryder. “I don’t trust her and I’m so angry with her that…”
“Hold up,” Nate interrupted, taking the iPad from Granddad’s lap and staring at it with an incredulous look on his face.
“What?” Chase asked, jumping up at the same time as Ryder so they could see the screen.
“Would you trust her if you knew she was right ab
out Randy?” Nate asked.
Chase stared at the screen, watched as his foreman bent and removed the dummy canisters from the freezer. He steeled his jaw, grinding his teeth together as reality hit. Son of a bitch! He would have trusted their foreman with his life, wouldn’t have suspected him for a second. Hell, even when Hope had voiced her concerns he’d as good as laughed her off.
“Randy? As in our foreman, Randy?” Granddad asked.
Chase nodded, meeting his granddad’s furious, cold stare.
“Get my shotgun, boy. There’s only one way to deal with shit like this.”
Chase put a hand on his shoulder, not letting him get up. “I’ll deal with this,” he told him. “And we’re not shooting him. The last thing we need is one of us holed up in jail for murder.”
His granddad grunted. “I’d be dead before they locked me away. I say let me at him.”
They all ignored him.
“What’re we gonna do?” Nate asked, putting the iPad down and standing, fists balled at his sides. Ryder mirrored their older brother’s stance.
“We’re gonna teach the asshole a lesson, after we find out why in God’s name he’s double-crossing us.”
“And what about the girl?” Granddad asked. “You gonna make that right, too?”
“She lied to me. She had my baby and she kept it from me all these years. I’m not just going to forgive her.”
Granddad held up his glass for a refill and Chase watched as Ryder obliged before putting the bottle well out of his reach.
“Far as I can see and from what you’ve told me, she was a young woman doing what she thought was right at the time. She ever asked you for money?” Granddad asked.
Chase shook his head. “No.”
“She ever asked you for anything at all?”
“No.”
Chase watched his granddad, never broke his gaze.
“Then how ’bout you cut the lady some slack and think long and hard about what you want. Maybe, just maybe, she was in love with you, too. Don’t be a fool, son, that’s all I’m saying.”
Nate placed a hand on his shoulder as he passed, squeezing his fingers against him. Chase took a big breath, watched as his brothers headed for the door. He turned back and nodded, knowing that no matter how pissed he felt right now, his granddad was probably right.
“I’ll think about it,” he finally said.
“Good.” Granddad took a big gulp of Wild Turkey, clearly happy to be back home and able to get his hands on his favorite drink again. “Go easy on the girl, but teach that goddamn foreman a lesson for me, you hear?”
Chase laughed and waved as he walked out of the room. “Good to have you back, Granddad.”
“Son, it’s damn good to be home.”
“Come on,” Nate called out. “Let’s forget all about women and deal with this shit.”
“Way too close to home,” Ryder muttered as they all marched out the door.
It sure was. And now he was going to have to go apologize to Hope, because she’d been right all along, and if it hadn’t been for her he would never have even suspected the one man on the ranch he’d have trusted with his life.
* * *
They ran silently, slowing down when they reached the barn where they’d been watching Randy only moments earlier. Chase took a deep breath and flexed his hands before balling them into fists, ears pricked as they heard a noise from inside.
“He’s still in there,” Nate murmured. “You still want to deal with him?”
It was dark out, but they were all standing together and he could see Nate’s face. “Yeah, I’ll do it. Just stick close in case I need you.” Just his luck, Randy would be armed, and he liked to be prepared.
They moved with stealth past one side of the barn, then the floodlight flicked on, detecting movement, and Randy appeared, hurrying out.
“Not so fast,” Chase demanded, stepping out of the shadows, flanked on each side by his brothers.
“Chase?”
Randy looked panicked, his eyes darting left then right, before looking back at Chase. “Geez, you frightened the life out of me.”
“What you doing out so late?”
Randy cleared his throat and took a few steps backward. “Just checking everything was in order. Making sure the, ah, horses that were in for the night had enough hay.”
Chase just kept staring at him. “Seems like we just had another break-in.”
He fought hard not to laugh at the expression on Randy’s face. His foreman was trying to look surprised and failing miserably. “You need me to take a look around with you? We need to catch this son of a bitch.”
Chase glanced sideways at Nate, then Ryder, before leveling his gaze on Randy, the security light still flooding the area with brightness. “Don’t play games, Randy. You’re the son of a bitch we just caught red-handed on camera.”
He went to run, dodged sideways, but Chase was faster and grabbed him by the arm to pull him back before landing a punch to the man’s jaw.
“You seriously thought you could do this and get away with it?” He laughed, towering over Randy as he cowered. “No one fucks with us, Randy, you know that.”
Chase pushed him hard, smiling when he hit the ground, sprawling backwards. “Who did this with you?”
“Just me,” Randy panted out. “No one else.”
“You sure about that?” Chase asked, clenching and unclenching his fist. Randy spat out blood and stared up at him. “The quicker you talk the less likely I am to pound your face to a pulp.”
Chase wasn’t a fighter. He threw a good punch and knew how to look after himself, but he didn’t get off on brawling. But Randy had betrayed them. They’d treated him like family for years, and he’d gone and done this to them.
“It was just me. I was paid to do it.”
Nate stepped forward. “By who?”
Chase was looking at Ryder, took his eyes off Randy for a second, but it was one second he shouldn’t have lost his focus. The foreman was on his feet like a man half his age, swinging a punch that clocked Chase in the eye.
“Fuck!” he swore as he threw a punch back, only managing to clip the side of Randy’s head. It was Nate who took him down.
“Who was it?” Chase demanded.
“Larry Eaglewood,” Randy finally uttered, nursing his head, blood pouring from his nose. “He paid me to sabotage anything on the ranch that he thought would hurt you. Wanted to see you boys knocked down a peg.”
“Larry?” Nate echoed. “What the hell have we done to piss him off so bad?”
“He’s hurting,” Randy continued, clearly happy to talk if it saved him running into a fist again. “Ranching ain’t profitable like it used to be, and he’s got no oil to drill.”
“Yet he had enough spare cash to pay you,” Chase muttered. He didn’t believe him for a second, was certain he was just trying to get their neighbor in trouble to take the heat off him. “I call bullshit.”
Randy looked terrified, eyes wide. “I…”
“You want Nate to slam that fist of his into your face again?” Chase glanced at Nate, saw his brother flex his fingers again.
“Fuck! Fine, it was me.”
“Why?” Nate asked. “We’ve treated you like family all these years and you just decided to betray us?”
“I was sick of seeing you boys drive around in your expensive damn cars, making out like you own the world. I wanted to see you hurt, wanted you to…”
“Enough,” Chase growled out. “I don’t give a fuck what you thought or what you wanted, you’re done here and I’m gonna make damn sure there’s not another ranch in Texas that’ll take you on.”
“You should have just paid me that raise I asked for,” Randy muttered.
“You’re already paid more than any other foreman I know, a whole lot more, not to mention the house we gave you rent-free to live in,” Nate snapped. “You’ve been the highest paid foreman in Texas for years.”
Chase took a step back, not wan
ting to deal with Randy any longer. There was somewhere else he needed to be.
“Clear out,” he told him. “Grab your things and be off this ranch within the hour. Piss off and don’t come back.”
Silence echoed around them. He ran the ranch, and that meant neither of his brothers would second-guess his orders.
“You still here in an hour, I’ll call the sheriff and have you arrested. You hear me?”
Randy hung his head, nodded even though the movement must have hurt like hell.
“You guys okay if I clear off for a bit?” Chase asked, looking at his brothers.
“Go get her,” Nate said, slapping his back. “And tell her she was bloody well right all along.”
Chase touched his eye and wished he hadn’t. “I’ll see you soon.”
Chapter 15
A noise at the door made Hope jump. She muted the television, put down her half-empty glass of wine, and listened, waiting to see if she could hear anything. A light knock echoed out again and her body froze—who the hell would be at her door at this time of night?
She bent and unplugged the table lamp closest to her, clasping it tight and walking toward the door. It might not be much of a weapon, but if she had to defend herself she’d rather have something in her hand.
“Who is it?” she called out, pleased that her voice sounded a hell of a lot braver than she felt.
“It’s Chase.”
Hope let out a big gasp of air, her heart pounding so loud it was in danger of beating straight out of her chest. She flicked the top safety lock and then the main one, swinging the door open and finding Chase standing on her doorstep.
“You frightened the life out of me,” she said.
He grinned, the gorgeous smile of his that came complete with a heart-melting dimple and made her forget everything else. For a second at least.
“Were you planning on hitting me with that?” he asked, his smile stretching even wider when she held up the lamp.
“Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time when I thought an intruder was about to break into my house,” she muttered.