The Rebel

by Joanne Rock

  “Damn you.” Stressed and out of sorts, she chucked the final pair of socks at the steer horns mounted above the queen-size bed in her suite.

  Was she cursing herself? Marcus? Her fiancé, who hadn’t answered the last three messages she’d left for him? She didn’t even know. But it bothered her that Marcus’s words resonated so deeply inside her, even hours after their talk at the river’s edge.

  She needed to get away from him and all the feelings he stirred. That had been half the reason she’d started packing. But would that even do any good?

  Truth be told, Marcus Salazar didn’t know much about her or her life outside work. He certainly didn’t know anything about her romantic relationship. So she needed to take some ownership of the fact that she’d interpreted his words today as some kind of judgment about her engagement. She’d pulled the meaning out of that conversation.

  Which meant...

  She was the one with doubts.

  Her knees folded, and she dropped down to sit on the edge of the bed.

  Staring down at Eliot’s ring on her finger, Lily wondered how long she’d been questioning her decision to marry a man who’d always been more of a friend to her than a romantic partner. Maybe that’s why neither of them had been able to commit to a date. Why it had always been easy to extend their time apart from each other, the way Eliot had done the day before. Perhaps her initial acceptance of four more months apart was another important clue that he was not the right man for her. And that was something he needed to know sooner rather than later. No delays.

  She needed to call Eliot again. And keep calling until she got through. Because the engagement had gone on long enough. It was time for them both to move forward with their lives and give up the pretense that a marriage was ever going to happen. She hoped he would see that, too, because she truly didn’t want to hurt him. They’d been friends for a long time before the engagement, and she hated the idea of causing a friend pain. But she knew this was the right thing to do. She slid the heirloom diamond off her finger and placed it on the nightstand, at peace with her decision.

  Picking up her phone, she hit the button to contact him through the video call app.

  He answered on the first ring, his dark blond hair and gray eyes flickering to life on the screen. “Just the woman I wanted to speak to. Hello, Lily.”

  He wore a tuxedo shirt and black bowtie, though he looked thoroughly rumpled as he sat in an unfamiliar setting. A hotel lobby, perhaps? She saw a few other people in the background, but no one else was dressed like him. His eyes were sleepy and a little unfocused, reminding her it was roughly five in the morning on his end of the world. Was he just returning to his hotel? The dark shadow of bristle on his jawline suggested as much.

  Nerves surged as she paced a circle around her suite.

  “Hi,” she managed after an awkward pause, surprised to have him suddenly on the line. “I really need to talk to you.”

  “Are you upset that I had to extend my stay here?” he asked wearily. “You know I can’t ignore my dad’s wishes when it comes to this stuff.” He plucked at his bowtie, loosening the knot that had already been crooked.

  “I’m not upset, Eliot,” she assured him, pausing her pacing to ensure her video image was still and focused on his end. “But I’ve been thinking about our engagement. About our mutual willingness to delay it inevitably. And I really think it’s a sign that we need to call it off.”

  He seemed to shake off the weariness, his gray eyes widening as he leaned forward in the seat and shoved a hand through his hair.

  “End the engagement?” he asked, a new urgency in his voice, still wrestling with the knot in his tie.

  “Yes.” She knew it was the right thing to do, but her stomach tensed anyway. “I’m so sorry to do this long-distance but—”

  “What about the merger?” he blurted, forgetting all about the bowtie as he gestured with his hand. Then, as if hearing the way that sounded, he shook his head. “I mean, as much as it hurts to think about ending the engagement, we have more at stake here than just our personal happiness.”

  Frustration mingled with wariness and a touch of wounded pride. But, in all that tangle of emotions, she felt relief that “heartbreak” didn’t seem to be an issue for either of them.

  “I realize that.” Releasing a pent-up breath, she sank into the window seat, careful not to crush the drawn damask curtains. “But marriage is too big of a commitment for us to make it just for business reasons.”

  “We make a great team, though, Lily.” His gaze shifted to something beyond his phone. Or someone. Because he held up a finger as if to say one more minute to a person she couldn’t see. His gaze flicked back to her. “We should at least consider other options before we walk away from the engagement.”

  A hurt deeper than wounded pride surprised her. Perhaps it was because Eliot didn’t seem remotely concerned about the loss of love or companionship in his life—just the merger. Maybe he’d never felt anything deeper for her than friendship and fondness.

  It didn’t help matters that her intuition told her he was gesturing to a female companion. Not that it mattered now.

  “Either we want a real marriage or we don’t.” Lily articulated the argument she’d been having with herself—quietly—for months. “After this conversation I feel certain that you’re not any more ready for that step than I am.”

  In the background, she heard a woman’s tinkling laughter. Eliot glanced up in the direction of the sound—aggravated—before refocusing on Lily.

  “Lily, please—”

  “Rest assured, I’ll return the ring next week. And I’d like to wait until then to break the news to our families.” She wouldn’t keep a priceless family heirloom. Especially from a man whose interest in her seemed more mercenary by the moment.

  “They’re not going to be happy with this decision,” Eliot warned her. “Not your family or mine.”

  “Which is why I’m going to wait to discuss it with my grandparents until I’m back home next week.” Swallowing hard, she didn’t want to think about that talk yet. “Thank you for understanding.”

  “I’m not sure I do.” His eyes went back to whomever he was with. “I’ve got to go, though, Lily. We can talk about this later.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” she assured him, grateful to have the conversation over. “Goodbye, Eliot.”

  She felt no guilt about punching the disconnect button. If he was actually with a woman, Lily was a little surprised he’d taken the call at all. But she was relieved, more than anything, to have ended things with him.

  As Lily felt the weight of the engagement fall away, a new burden settled on her shoulders. Eliot was right that her grandparents were going to be upset with her. Disappointing them was something she’d avoided her whole life, and she knew without question that they would disapprove of the broken engagement. Furthermore, a little voice in the back of her head reminded her, they definitely wouldn’t be happy about how this might endanger the merger of the family businesses.

  As she shut off her phone for the night, she began unpacking her suitcase. Maybe staying in Montana a little longer wasn’t such a bad idea. Just until she figured out how to handle things on the home front.

  It wasn’t that she was hiding from them. Just...weighing her options for the future. Besides, she had a job to do at Mesa Falls Ranch. If things really fell apart with her family and the worst happened—if they disowned and disinherited her the way they did her mother—then Lily would need her job more than ever to pay her bills and secure her future. So right now, keeping Salazar Media intact seemed like the best use of her time.

  Even if it meant facing Marcus again.

  * * *

  Enjoying the access to the stables at Mesa Falls Ranch, Marcus found himself on horseback for the third time in as many days. He’d attended a private boarding school where his fa
ther had taught, and horses had been an integral part of the program. Incoming freshmen bonded over a three-day trail ride, and the students’ relationship with the school’s animals grew from there. Every day at the Dowdon School, there’d been riding.

  So he was comfortable enough on the Appaloosa as he filmed video footage of a team stringing a portable electric fence on a new patch of pasture for the ranch’s cattle. Besides, this excursion took him away from the main lodge, where he’d be sure to run into Lily. To hedge his bets, he’d left at dawn again, shadowing the ranch manager all day.

  Coop had explained that moving the animals more frequently, to smaller patches of grass, was a key element in the green ranching model. In the years that Mesa Falls had been adhering to the practices, they’d seen a strong increase in the health of the grasslands and the wetlands. This model involved changing the grazing areas and, of course, stringing fence a whole lot more often. Marcus was filming whatever parts of the process interested him.

  When his cell phone vibrated, he shut off the camera and grabbed for it fast, seeing it was a call from his brother. He’d left messages for Devon an hour ago, following up on a long email he’d sent the day before about the paperwork their father had left for them.

  “Any idea what the hell kind of papers Dad would have left with a Montana ranch owner instead of giving to his lawyer?” Marcus asked, not even bothering to say hello first.

  “I wish you’d come straight to the point for a change,” his brother deadpanned. “But no. I don’t have a clue. And it seems strange—even for Dad—to keep the whole thing a secret.”

  “He was so careful laying out all his wishes for divvying up the property and his assets.”

  Devon gave a sarcastic laugh. “He had to be, since he knows you and I don’t spend more than five minutes in a room together unless a client is involved.”

  In the background of the call, there were shouts and horns honking, completely out of sync with the yellowed field surrounding Marcus, where the only sounds he heard were dry grasses rustling in the cold air and the creak of saddle leather.

  “Maybe the papers pertain to his mystery business,” Marcus mused. “And we’ll finally learn something about his unidentified sources of revenue.”

  Although Alonzo Salazar had taught English literature at the high school level, he’d always had a lifestyle that suggested he had a sideline, even long before he collected a paycheck with his sons’ company.

  “If the will didn’t reveal anything, there’s no way some musty papers in Montana are going to contain any surprises. It’s something more sentimental. A letter to his grandkids or something.”

  The idea punched him in the gut, since Marcus had zero intentions of marrying, let alone fathering children. He’d seen firsthand how fast a family could disintegrate.

  “No matter.” Despite his father’s failings, Marcus hated to think he’d died disappointed. But Devon was the last person he’d share his regrets with. “At least this explains why he made us promise to come to the ranch together. Clearly it’s something he wants us both to learn at the same time.”

  “I’m working on getting there, believe me,” Devon muttered. “In the meantime, can you lay off Lily? She does a hell of a job for the company, and she’s got enough on her plate without you making her feel unwelcome.”

  Marcus wondered how tough the life of a pampered Newport heiress could be, but he didn’t voice that thought.

  “I’m giving her a wide berth. I can’t promise I’ll do more than that.” He was doing her a favor by staying away, remembering how he’d gotten under her skin the day before. He genuinely hadn’t set out to make judgments about her or her life when they’d gotten into the discussion at the river’s edge. But he’d seen in her eyes when he’d struck a nerve.

  All the more reason for him to let her be.

  “While you’re at it, you could stop accusing her of spying for me. If I wanted some kind of secret updates on you, I think I’d send someone who doesn’t...stand out as much as Lily.”

  A surge of something—defensiveness? Jealousy?—roared through him. The horse must have felt it, too, since she gave a long shudder with a sharp head shake.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Did Devon know that Marcus was attracted to Lily? What if he’d chosen to send her to Montana just because she had a way of messing with his head on another level rather than just spying?

  Regardless, Marcus knew he needed to get his attraction for her under control. But it was a lot easier to manage when they were on opposite coasts.

  “We both know Lily doesn’t exactly blend into the background.” There was a scuffling sound on Devon’s end of the call before he returned. “Look, I’ve got a situation here. I’ll let you know what news I hear from the embassy tomorrow.” Then he abruptly disconnected the call, leaving Marcus more aggravated than before.

  It would be easy to pass off the discontent as part of his old standoff with Devon. And no doubt, that accounted for some of it. But Marcus couldn’t help the underlying concern that his greater frustration stemmed from having Lily too much in his thoughts. He’d upset her enough that she’d mentioned it to Devon, apparently.

  Yet, if she understood what was at stake—that Marcus was using all his restraint to stay away from her—maybe she’d see the situation differently. He didn’t want to impede her ability to do her job. And he still believed they could work together effectively as long as they maintained what had worked in the past—conference calls, emails or group chats. Maybe he’d been too subtle about what he felt for her.

  This time, when he got back to the ranch, he needed to draw the line in a way she couldn’t possibly misunderstand.

  * * *

  Lily toured the ranch’s private spa on her own, having obtained the key from the head of housekeeping. With no retreat guests this week aside from Lily and Marcus, the spa wasn’t currently staffed. But she had wanted to explore as many aspects of the retreat as possible, and this decadent facet of the business was a feast for the senses, from the scented soaps and candles for sale in a display case to the soothing sound of water burbling in the stone fountain.

  After peeking into the various treatment rooms, Lily stood at the front counter and perused the list of spa services, wishing she could indulge herself. The last eighteen hours since she’d called off things with Eliot had been a relief, but stressful, too. He’d messaged her twice, asking her to reconsider, never once mentioning that he loved her or couldn’t imagine life without her. That shouldn’t have hurt her, considering she’d been the one to break things off. And yet it underscored that she’d been blind to what had been missing in their relationship for years.

  And of course, she was worried about what would happen with the merger they’d planned for their families’ companies. Would they be inviting the same kind of corporate unrest that the Salazar brothers experienced?

  She couldn’t answer that. And part of the reason was because she hadn’t told her grandparents about the split yet. Yes, it had business implications that would resonate throughout Carrington Financial and Winthrop Wealth Management. But that fact didn’t have to dictate how she handled her love life. She closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in the scent of lavender and chamomile that permeated the room. The ceiling fan stirred the plants around the stone fountain, the sound calming her frayed nerves.

  Then she heard the thump of boots reverberate on the tile floor behind her.

  Straightening, she whipped around to find Marcus in the spa with her, the main door falling silently to a close behind him. He cast a long shadow with the light falling behind him. A shadow that hovered over her.

  “I’ve been looking all over for you.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. She noticed his cheeks were a deeper tan than the day before. He was dressed for riding in jeans and boots as scuffed and well-worn as any of the ranch hands’.

 
“I thought I’d check out some areas of the property that you might overlook.” She felt oddly naked around him without her ring on her finger. Or maybe it was just being near him in this private place. She tucked her hands in her pockets. “But if you’d rather photograph the spa, I can find somewhere else to go.”

  He’d made it clear from the first day that he was trying to avoid her. That he’d rather she were back in New York. So she planned to stay well out of his way. Even if she owed him a debt of gratitude for helping her to view her engagement in a new light.

  She wasn’t ready to thank him for that just yet, especially when he still believed she was spying for Devon. The idea was an affront to all the hard work she’d done for the company.

  “No. That won’t be necessary.” He sounded emphatic. “I wanted to speak to you.”

  He took a step closer, and she remembered she was still clutching the menu of spa services. She turned back to the counter to set it aside, wishing her heart didn’t gallop quite so much around him. It was one thing to break off her engagement because of a conversation she had with Marcus. It would be quite another to...have anything more to do with him. They were coworkers. Nothing more.

  She remembered all too well what her grandparents thought of her mother when she’d run off with a lover, turning her back on the family.

  Choosing romance over responsibility had devastating consequences.

  “I’m listening,” she said simply, wishing they could have the conversation in a more businesslike setting, preferably with a conference table between them rather than in a space flanked by massage tables and hot tubs.

  “Devon asked me to lay off where you’re concerned.” His eyes glittered with something dark and unreadable. Something compelling. “His words.”

  She’d never met someone so willing to wade right into the fray. To prod at difficult topics and demand answers. There was a reason Devon usually handled the clients, not Marcus.