by Natalie Dean
“Ted—oh. Ms. Parker. Hello.” Why on earth was she calling him? And not from the mechanic shop phone either. “How ca—”
“Did you mean what you said about things not having to be awful? About a… a compromise?”
Silas didn’t answer for a moment, his brain trying to catch up. “What do you mean by that?”
“Just come to the courthouse in the city. I’ll explain everything when you get here.”
And then she hung up.
That was… that was not what he expected. Was he suddenly in some sort of espionage movie? He didn’t think so. Why would he go into the city when the woman had pretty much had no compunction telling him how little she thought of him? She hadn’t even been very polite, and she was the one that called his phone.
“Hey honey, what’s going on? Does your dad need something?”
Silas looked to his mother, where she was kneeling in the dirt on the chunk of her garden reserved for seedlings that needed to be planted later in the spring and at the cusps of summer. They were having a nice time together, and he didn’t really want to leave her…
“No, but there’s something I need to do in the city. I’ll see you later tonight, okay?”
“Of course, dear. Drive safely. I’ll have plenty to do tomorrow if you want to join me.”
He smiled at her, wiping his hands on his thighs. He could smell the fresh earth and greenery all around them, with the faintest hint of different herbs just starting to reach maturity. It was a good combination, and one that made him feel welcome. At home.
“Yeah, Mom. That sounds nice.”
* * *
It took longer than he liked to get to the courthouse. Traffic was abysmal, and the parking was worse. He wasn’t sure where to meet the woman, but his question was answered when he spotted her figure standing on the steps, arms crossed and her posture stiff as she paced.
He strode toward her quickly, but his rate slowed when his eyes were able to pick out more details of her.
She wasn’t in her normal mechanic’s jumpsuit, instead wearing a formal-looking dress in a pretty, powder blue and nude wedges on her feet. Her red hair was up in a bun, with that one bleached streak at her temple making a stark stripe through the bright, coppery color.
She looked stunning, like a classic pinup girl, except with bigger biceps and a softer frame, generous curves and muscles all packaged up together to make a real lovely picture.
But then he saw the expression on her face and all those thoughts fled his head. She did not look happy. What was wrong?
Her eyes finally landed on him, and the look of relief that crossed her features made him wonder what exactly was going on.
“You came,” she said, walking quickly toward him. “I didn’t think you would.”
“I gave you my card for a reason. I’m glad you called.”
“Right. Right.” She looked over her shoulder as if she was worried about someone watching them, then quickly strode forward to close the distance between them. She linked her arm through his, then pulled him along. “There’s a nice area with benches we can walk to. Let’s go there. Away from here.”
“Sure. Whatever you want.”
Silas thought she was acting very mysterious. A new vulnerability replaced her cold demeanor from the shop. Mainly, though, he couldn’t get over how different—how beautifully feminine—she looked in her dress and heels. He didn’t want to pay attention to it, especially considering how upset she looked, but he also felt like he couldn’t help it at the same time.
She let go of him when they reached the area that she had been talking about. It was an almost promenade-like area with trees on either side and plenty of benches overlooking a park just across the street. But she didn’t start talking right away, instead crossing her arms again and beginning to pace.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Silas asked.
She looked at him, then her eyes slid away, then back to him again. “My brother got into some trouble.”
“Oh?” What else would he say to that?
“One of your friends, or maybe even a business rival, who knows, came to our home and played us. He set us up, and now he’s trying to force our hand and have us sign over our property to get Roman out of trouble.”
The words tumbled out of her mouth, one right after the other, and it was about the opposite of how she had been that night with the baseball bat. Its juxtaposition was a little off-putting, but he did his best to listen.
“Whoa, slow down. What’s going on?”
She took a deep breath. “There’s a man who’s been trying to snatch up our property. He goaded my brother into a fight and now my brother’s in jail. They want a half a million dollars for his bail. We can’t afford that, but Cartwright said if we sign our business over, he’ll cover it.
“But we’re not going to sign over our business. We can’t. But I also can’t let my brother rot in jail until his trial. It’s clear that shark has connections in there, and who knows what he’ll do to Roman. So, I need that five hundred thousand dollars, but he knows I have no way of getting it.”
Silas kept quiet a moment while his brain caught up with the moment. “Are you asking me to give you half a million dollars?”
Her face went pale and the look that crossed her features was heartbreaking. “No! I mean… yes. I suppose that’s the long and the short of it. I… I shouldn’t have called. This was a dumb idea.”
She turned to go, but he caught her arm. “Wait, no, I offered to help. I’m just trying to understand everything. What I’m getting is that your brother has a high bail and you think—wait. Did you say Cartwright? As in Philip Cartwright?”
“I don’t know his first name actually.”
Silas felt his brain piecing things together. Philip Cartwright was the third son of his dad’s frenemy, if either of the old men would ever admit to something like that. Their businesses tended to run adjacent to each other, and more often than not, they ended up getting into a bidding war on property. But if Cartwright was around… well, that didn’t bode well.
“If he’s willing to pay off a half a mil’ for y’all, then that means he’s more than interested in your property.”
“Oh yeah, he’s interested. Although sometimes I think that half of it is that we shut him down so hard and hurt his pride.”
“To be honest, I’d rather pay it off for you than have his fingers in it.”
Her eyebrows raised. “Wow. He has to be pretty slimy if he’s a sleaze among the other sharks.”
“Is that what you see me as? A shark?”
She swallowed then glanced away from him. “What if… what if it wasn’t you just paying it off. What if it was more… an investment in our business?”
“An investment?”
“Yeah, you pay this and I’ll, uh, I can provide mechanical help for anything on your ranch. Andre taught me most everything I know, and I’ve got several certifications in other heavy mechanics besides cars.”
“Really? You get tractors in your shop often?”
“No,” she answered quickly, honestly. “But I graduated a year early, so I went to the local tech school and got every certification they had. Then I went to an apprenticeship for a while up north. Andre was willing to pay for me to stay up there a few more years, but I wanted to come back home, so I did.”
“Heavy machinery then?”
“Yeah. Tractors, trailers, threshers. A large smattering of equipment. I could be real helpful. Normally a specialist costs close to thirty dollars an hour salaried and about forty-five when they’re on call or freelance, so you’d have me for a couple years or so.”
Now Silas was the one who was pacing. He hadn’t expected to come to the city and basically be offered an indentured servant sort of situation.
It wasn’t that five hundred thousand was a lot of money. He’d spent that much before. But it was a lot of money to just give to someone, even if they were offering their mechanical expertise.
“You k
now, the easiest solution would be to let me buy out your father’s business and be done with all of this.”
“No. Absolutely not. We’re not selling out. So it’s either make a deal with me now or let this Cartwright fellow string up my brother like some sort of scarecrow.”
“You wouldn’t give in even to save your brother?”
“You think my brother wouldn’t throttle me if I didn’t do everything in my power to save our family’s shop?”
“Right. Fair enough.” He licked his lips, his heart thumping far too loudly in his chest. All of his mind was telling him not to, but that wasn’t what came out of his mouth. “Alright. I’ll do it.”
Her eyes went wide, and she looked stunned that he had agreed. “What? Really? You will?”
He nodded. “But only if you and your father meet up with me, my brother Solomon and our lawyers to make an official contract. I want this one hundred percent legal, for both of our protection.”
He watched the column of her throat as she swallowed hard, pink rising up her throat until her cheeks were flushed. “Can we keep my father out of it? Please? I really don’t want him to have the stress if I can help it.” Silas wasn’t sure about that, but he decided he could compromise.
Besides, he was probably making a terrible choice as it were.
“So, shall we go inside and get your brother out?” he said.
“Really? You’re not going to make me wait until we sign the contract?”
“You said you don’t want your brother in jail, right? Well I don’t either. Let’s say that this is a sign of trust, between the two of us.”
She nodded. “Right, some trust. I suppose we’re going to need a lot of that, considering I’ll be working for you for the foreseeable future.”
“Yeah, ha-ha. That’s right, I suppose.”
And wasn’t that something? He hoped that he hadn’t made a really dumb business decision for no reason.
One thing for certain, his dad would absolutely flip his lid if he found out.
So Silas would have to make sure that he didn’t.
Ever.
10
Theodora
It’d been two days since her brother came home and, so far, neither Andre nor Roman was aware of Teddy essentially signing away her soul.
Well… metaphorically.
She was sure that she had probably made the wrong choice, that she had sunk herself deeper into a trap with rich folks who were used to playing on levels that she couldn’t even imagine. But she didn’t see how she had any other choice. Whenever she saw her brother around their home, it made her that much more certain that her choice was the right one.
But that didn’t stop the nerves in her stomach from twisting and bubbling as she headed out the door. Silas—she had thought to pay attention to his first name as he’d signed the papers to release her brother—had texted her the day previously to show up at an address to sign the contract he had talked about. She couldn’t help but feel like she was walking into the lair of some sort of monster.
Which was silly, because Silas was definitely doing her a solid. And that was putting it mildly. He was essentially giving them another chance, subverting Cartwright and also giving her a chance to hone her skills that she hadn’t really been able to work on since she came back home.
“Hey, where ya headed to?” Roman asked, eating the last of the leftovers from the night previous. Andre had cooked quite the spread and, while it had been delicious, her stomach had been too twisted into knots to eat more than a couple mouthfuls.
“Just out. My last morning off got interrupted.”
“Ah, fair enough. Look, I’m sorry for causing all this… drama, I guess you could say.”
Teddy crossed over to him and kissed the top of his head. “Thank you for everything. You don’t have to apologize.”
His strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her to him. “You know you’re my sister, right? No ifs, ands or buts about it.”
There was that warm, wonderful feeling that was always so good at reminding her that she wasn’t alone, that she was exactly where she needed to be. She had done the right thing to get him out, even if it terrified her.
“Yeah, I do. I promise.”
“Alright, well head out. Have fun.”
“Oh yeah,” she said, trying not to sound too sarcastic. “So much fun.”
* * *
It didn’t take her too long to catch the bus and ride it down to the richer part of the city, where the businesses sort of separated the riffraff from the upper echelon. Although when she got out, she got lost trying to find the exact building.
But even with that, she arrived at a nondescript rental that looked like it was used for fancy meetings and other corporate shindigs about ten minutes earlier than she was supposed to be there. Oh well, she figured she might as well head in.
So she did, following the directions that Silas had texted her, and that was how she found herself opening a door and stepping into her official contract signing.
It felt like there should have been ominous music in the background, the kind that played whenever a character in a movie was making a choice that would doom them later. But instead, there was a polite greeting from the occupants.
Because there were occupants. As in plural. Another handsome man was standing beside Silas while a more nondescript one sat at the table with a stack of papers in front of him.
“Hello, Ms. Parker,” Silas said, cracking that same charming smile. “This is my brother, Solomon, and this is our contract lawyer, Chris.”
“You can call me Teddy,” she said, stepping forward and shaking their hands.
“Alright then, Teddy,” the lawyer said, looking professional but amiable. “Shall we get started? I’m told that you run your own business, so I’m sure your free time is quite valuable. I’ll try to get through this as fast as possible.”
“Thanks,” she said uncertainly, waiting for the two Miller brothers to sit before she did as well. “I appreciate that.”
“Of course. Now, let’s get started, shall we?”
They did, and she was surprised that it actually wasn’t that painful of an experience. They established what she owed and her services, as well as when she needed to be on call. She was going to be spending her full day off—Tuesday—at the ranch, doing maintenance and upgrades on their vehicles and equipment that she was familiar with. Then she was supposed to come in Sunday after she finished her deliveries, and for the other four days, she was only on call.
There were stipulations about holidays and how much she could work in a single week and things like that, but there didn’t seem to be any underhanded tricks. It was a straightforward payback of the half mil that he had essentially lent her.
Sooner than she thought, they were wrapping things up, and things were gearing toward a goodbye. She was relieved, to be entirely honest, because she was on edge from being around the rich strangers.
“How is your brother doing, by the way?” Silas asked as she stood, surprising her. She hadn’t expected him to care.
“Good, good. He said it was mostly boring in there.”
“Well that’s good.”
“Oh, I was meaning to ask Ms. Par—I mean, Teddy,” the lawyer said, standing as well. “Who is representing your brother?”
It took her a minute to get what he meant, and when she did, her stomach sank. “We, uh, we really haven’t gotten that far. He has a public defender, last I knew.”
“Ah, well, if you want to change that, I recommend you get right on that. It can take time to find the right match.”
“Uh, thanks. I’m not really sure that we can afford that right now, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
A strange expression crossed the lawyer’s face, but they nodded instead of saying anything. “Of course. I hope you have a great day, Teddy. It was great working with you.” A quick glance to the brothers showed that they, too, were wearing that same dubious but polite mask.
She
quickly moved her gaze away, not wanting to be caught staring. Sure, they were cute, but she didn’t want to send the wrong message.
“Yeah, you too.” She knew that expression meant something, but she didn’t have the energy to puzzle it all out.
She had enough on her plate as it was.
11
Theodora
It was Teddy’s first day on the ranch, and she was nervous.
She’d been spending far too much time nervous, but there wasn’t much to do about it. She’d made a five-hundred-thousand-dollar deal behind her family’s back and was trying to fulfill it while also keeping it a secret. She was also going to be spending time working on a property that was worth millions of dollars.
That was insane. Every time she thought about it, it made her nauseous all over again. But she tucked that away and steeled herself. She did what she had to do to protect her family, and that would have to be enough.
She arrived at the worker area of the ranch, having borrowed one of the junkers abandoned at their shop, and was surprised when it was none other than Silas standing there to greet her.
Except, he wasn’t alone. He looked like he was standing next to… a copy of himself?
She approached uncertainly, sure that she was seeing things, but the closer she got the more she realized that yeah, they were the spitting image of each other.
Twins? Why did that seem so uncanny?
“Hey there, glad to see you made it alright,” Silas said, cracking that same charming grin. “This is my brother Sterling. We wanted to make sure you got in alright. We figured we’d show you around so you could get settled in.”
The other nodded. Once she was right up near them, she could tell that there were a few minute differences between them. One was ever so slightly broader, and one had a slightly darker rush of stubble. But other than that, they were both dark-haired with brown eyes so deep that they were almost pitch black. But instead of being scary, or unwelcoming, there was something captivating about those umber depths.