“We wanted you to stop,” Kelly shouted.
Simon had no idea his aunt had a problem. Every time the families got together, he never suspected anything was wrong. Sure the girls seemed put off by their mother when they were younger, but he figured that was just the way things were with kids and their parents. He’d butted heads with his dad and mom all the time.
His aunt dressed in designer clothes and wore an audacious amount of jewelry. Even now, he wondered how much the gems and gold weighed on his aunt’s hands. She must get tired waving them around all the time. The necklace with the three-inch-square purple stone surrounded by dime-size round stones must have cost a fortune. He and Josh used to joke that Aunt Bea pretended to be royalty with all her giant jewels. Now “Country Queen,” their childhood nickname for Aunt Bea, didn’t seem so funny. The woman had a problem, and her family had suffered because of it. No wonder his dad had to send them money all the time. No wonder he and Bea hadn’t gotten along. Wayne had to have been tired of supporting her habit. She might not be doing drugs, but her addiction was no less destructive when she chose fanciful items over feeding her kids.
“If he hadn’t left it all to that bitch . . .”
“You’d squander it all away,” Anne finished. “We know why he did it, so you wouldn’t spend it all on everything, anything, and nothing that meant a damn thing.”
“I’m glad he left it to her,” Kelly said. “The ranch means a lot to her. She and Colt are married now. They’ll run that place and be the kind of family we never were.”
“How can you say that? How can you take her side?” Aunt Bea raged.
“Because she paid off the credit card debt you put on my card when you stole it from my wallet. She paid the two-year lease on the apartment I rented so I can go back to school. She isn’t a bad person. She helped Anne, too.”
Anne nodded. “She paid off all my debt so I can start fresh. She even gave me an interest-free loan to start my own business.”
“What?” Shock filled Aunt Bea’s voice.
The same shock that rushed through Simon. He had no idea his cousins contacted Luna and asked for her help. He had no idea that Luna gave it so easily and generously.
“That woman you want to condemn isn’t out to keep it all for herself. She didn’t ask Uncle Wayne to leave it to her. She’s trying to do what he asked of her and take care of what he left behind. That includes us,” Anne added.
“But you want to take it from her and you don’t care who gets hurt. Daddy loves you. He’d do anything for you, and you use that to hurt him again and again.” Kelly’s voice cracked.
“It stops now.” Anne’s voice held conviction, along with the sadness she couldn’t hide. “You’ve gone too far, Mom. He’s facing serious jail time. He could have killed Colt. Do you have any idea how much he’s agonized over that since it happened?” Anne asked.
Aunt Bea looked stricken, like she’d never considered that Uncle Harry might regret helping his wife.
“Of course you don’t,” Anne went on. “You only think of yourself. You don’t see the dark circles and bags under Dad’s eyes. You don’t see the strain you’ve put on him. Oh, he’ll cover for you. He always does. He’ll come up with a dozen and one excuses for what you made him do and why. He helps you, but you can’t help him.”
Kelly turned to Mr. Lindy. “She can’t pay your retainer or the bail money. I’ll contact Luna and see if she will help. I don’t know if she will, seeing as how her husband was the one who got hurt, but I think she’ll have enough compassion to at least pay for a lawyer for my dad.”
Aunt Bea’s face turned dark red with rage. She vibrated with it. Even from ten feet away, Simon felt it radiate off her.
A deputy brought Uncle Harry, his hands cuffed behind him, out of the back, where they must have had him locked up. Kelly and Anne ran to him, wrapping their arms around his middle and hugging him close. Uncle Harry bent and kissed each of them on the head. His head came up and his weary gaze landed on Aunt Bea, who seethed, looking at her daughters’ obvious allegiance to their father and not her.
“She won’t get away with this.” Aunt Bea stormed past Simon, whipping him in the side with the chain strap on her designer purse as she headed for the door. She threw it open and walked out without another word, not even a Sorry for hitting him.
He might not have noticed it before, but that bag probably cost a fortune. A fortune she didn’t have to begin with. He rubbed his hand over the small hurt, easing it almost instantly.
“Simon, what are you doing here?” Kelly asked.
“Josh called,” he answered. “You two going to be okay?”
“We’re used to dealing with Mom’s messes.” Anne hugged her dad again. “We’ll get through this one even though it is a million times worse than anything she’s ever done. Losing Uncle Wayne really messed her up.”
Yes, it did, if she was willing to try to kill someone and use her husband to do it.
“Girls, your mother is grieving. She needs time . . .”
“Stop it, Dad. We don’t want to hear it,” Anne snapped. “Now come over here and talk with Mr. Lindy. He’ll tell you what you need to do to avoid spending the rest of your life in prison. You will do as he says,” she ordered.
The group moved off to use a small conference room at the other end of the office. A deputy stood guard outside, making sure Uncle Harry didn’t decide to make a break for it.
Another deputy led Josh out of the back.
Simon didn’t have time to deal with his brother. He turned for the door, some inner sense telling him to go after Aunt Bea. He didn’t like the way she looked when she left, and he feared she’d do something even more stupid than what she’d already instigated.
“Simon, wait! I need your help. Post bail for me.” Josh stood before him with his hands cuffed behind his back.
“Did you help Uncle Harry try to kill Colt?” Simon asked, eyeing the door his aunt left through, knowing he shouldn’t stall but go after her. Right now.
“No. I had nothing to do with that.”
“Then what did you do?” Simon nodded and said what he already knew. “Peeping through her windows, making that threatening call.”
Josh’s gaze fell to his feet. “I might have also taken some rather graphic pictures of them in bed together.”
“Let me guess, you thought you might blackmail her with the pictures.”
Josh couldn’t help the grin that crept across his face. Simon saw it appear every time Josh got caught for something he thought funny but was really just wrong.
“Maybe,” Josh confirmed Simon’s suspicions.
“That’s really fucked up, you know that?”
“It’s child’s play compared to what Aunt Bea and Uncle Harry did.”
“That doesn’t make it any less despicable.”
“She deserves a little public humiliation after seducing our father, taking our inheritance, and hooking up with that cowboy so she can keep it all to herself.”
Simon shook his head, finally seeing everything more clearly through his grief and disappointment that his father hadn’t trusted him. His dad had a point. Kelly was right, Dad had left it all to Luna because they couldn’t be trusted with it. They’d have tossed it all away without a thought and wondered why there wasn’t more being handed over to them.
“Dad left you quite a sum of money. Bail yourself out.”
Simon spun around and went after his aunt, hoping she’d gone home to cool off and maybe order some useless shit off the Internet. Deep down, he feared he knew exactly where he’d find her.
Chapter 35
Luna jumped at the sound of breaking glass. She flipped off the burner beneath the skillet of frying ground beef and rushed around the counter toward the living room. Colt had gone down to the stables a half hour ago to check on the horses one last time before they ate dinner.
“You fucking bitch,” Bea shouted, swiping her hand across the foyer table and sending the planter
s and framed pictures crashing to the floor. She’d broken the front door side window pane so she could reach in and unlock the door.
Luna stopped in her tracks, shocked by the sheer rage and destruction before her. Bea grabbed the photo of Luna with Wayne off the wall, held it in both hands, and smashed it against the side of the table. Glass went flying everywhere.
“Bea, stop,” Luna coaxed in a soft voice.
“You did this,” Bea screamed, slamming the frame down on the table again. Her heavy purse bounced at her side, but it didn’t fall off her shoulder.
Luna didn’t know if Bea meant that Luna or Wayne had done this, but it didn’t really matter. Bea’s anger remained squarely pointed at Luna.
Bea dropped the frame with a clatter on the tile, then pointed one bedazzled finger at Luna. “You spoke to my girls. You turned them against me.” Tears shimmered in Bea’s fury-filled eyes.
“I’ve spoken to both your daughters. You’ve raised two lovely women.” Luna hoped her outward calm eased Bea, but it only agitated her more.
“You gave them money.”
“They asked for my help and I gave it to them. Wayne would have wanted me to do that for his nieces. He spoke of them often. He loved them dearly.”
“He always wanted a daughter,” she said absently.
Luna felt as if he’d found a little piece of that dream with her. He’d certainly treated her like family.
Colt bolted onto the porch and stopped short just inside the front door, looking at her first, then down at the mess Bea made. He ran past Bea and came to her, taking her by the shoulders. “Are you okay, honey?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded.
Luna saw the swift change in Bea and wished she’d had a few more minutes to wind down Bea’s anger.
“He took the piddly amount of money our parents left us and built this place from nothing. Oh, he paid me back the money I gave him to get started, but he should have left me half of this place. He wouldn’t have had it without me!”
Luna clamped her hand on Colt’s forearm to silently ask him to be quiet.
“Sounds like you sacrificed during those early years to help your brother.”
Bea’s mouth compressed and her eyes narrowed. “I did. We came from nothing. Nothing! And how does he repay me, he leaves his whore everything.”
“Watch it,” Colt warned.
Luna held Colt’s arm, even as he took a step toward Bea, ready to toss her out of their house. “Wayne wanted me to look after this place and his family.”
“How are you looking out for us?”
“I helped your daughters.” Luna pointed out the very thing Bea already knew but hated to acknowledge, because all she really wanted to talk about was how Luna was going to help her. Or more accurately, that Luna would hand everything over to her. “I paid out the rest of the million to Simon even though I didn’t have to. I’m trying to be fair.”
“Fair. Is it fair my husband is in jail?” Bea yelled.
“He tried to kill me,” Colt said evenly.
“He wouldn’t have done any such thing if you’d just sold the ranch and given me my money. I thought I made it clear when you moved in you weren’t welcome here. I thought you’d see that you’re not cut out for this place. You can’t even keep your horses healthy.” Bea’s eyes shined with hysteria and mirth.
“You vandalized the house. You poisoned the horses.” Luna couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to, but she had to face the truth that Wayne’s sister would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.
Bea stuffed her hand into her purse and pulled out a gun. “You took everything from me. Now I’m going to take everything from you.” She leveled the gun and pointed it directly at Colt’s chest.
Luna jumped in front of Colt and held up both hands. His settled at the sides of her shoulders. He tried to pull her out of the way, but she held firm, protecting him. “Don’t do it. Don’t do this to your daughters. They need you. Your husband needs you.” She needed Colt. She wouldn’t let anything more happen to him because of her.
“He’s going to jail. My daughters think this is all my fault.” Bea shook the gun at her. “It’s yours.”
Luna kept one hand up and took a tentative step toward Bea. Colt tried to hold her back, but Bea shot her gaze toward him, moved the barrel of the gun in his direction, then back to Luna and back and forth until Colt stilled, knowing he could very well set off Bea and she’d just start shooting at both of them.
“Bea, I understand you’re upset.”
“Upset. I’m pissed off that you get what you want and I’m left with nothing! It’s not fair,” she whined. “You can’t have it. It’s mine.”
“Aunt Bea, put the gun down,” Simon said from the doorway.
Bea’s head whipped around to her nephew, as surprised as Luna was to see him standing there.
Luna seized the opportunity and the split second Bea took her gaze and aim off her and Colt. She rushed Bea and grabbed her wrist, trying to pry the gun out of Bea’s hand. “Let go.”
“No,” Bea wailed.
Luna fell forward with Bea as Colt tackled the older woman from behind. The gun went off, kicking back in both their hands, then dropping from Bea’s fingers. Colt held Bea down with his hands braced on both her arms, his big body holding her, wiggling, to the floor.
Luna sat back on her knees and grabbed the gun off the floor before Bea could get hold of it again.
Colt moved off Bea and flipped her around to face them. Bea screeched and tried to slap Colt across the face. He grabbed her wrist before she smacked him, then held it tight. “Stop, or so help me God, I’ll deck you.”
Hysterical, with tears and black makeup streaking down her face, Bea didn’t give up the fight. Angry that Bea would try to hurt Colt even now, when he had her at a complete disadvantage, Luna held her hand back and swung, slapping Bea right across the face, whipping her head to the side. Luna’s hand stung, but she got what she wanted. Stunned silence.
In that moment, when they all held their breath from the sickening crack Luna’s hand made against Bea’s cheek, they finally heard Simon’s garbled gasps and looked up toward the front door, where Simon lay on his back, half in and half out the door. Bright red blood spread over his chest.
“Colt, call an ambulance.” Luna bolted for Simon and slid to her knees beside him. She tossed the gun onto the porch and pressed both hands over the hole in Simon’s chest. Blood oozed through her fingers. He stared up at her, his eyes filled with pain and disbelief.
“Hold on, Simon. Help is coming.” Luna turned back to Colt, who’d pulled his cell from his pocket, put it on speaker, dialed 911, and rattled off the address, simultaneously tying Bea’s hands together with the cord he’d ripped free of the broken lamp Bea trashed along with all the other stuff on the table.
Bea sobbed uncontrollably. “I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean to shoot him. It’s all your fault.”
“Shut up,” Luna shouted.
“It should have been you,” she yelled back.
“Say another word and I’ll gag you, too,” Colt snapped.
Simon gasped for another breath, then stopped breathing altogether. Luna took her hands from his bleeding chest and waited to see if more blood pumped out. It stopped, along with the rise and fall of his chest.
“Nooo. No. No. No.” She placed her hands back on Simon’s chest and pumped. “Come on, Simon. It doesn’t end like this. Come back,” she demanded, pushing up and down on his ribs.
Colt slid in beside her, leaned down, and gave him a breath.
A sheriff’s vehicle pulled into the drive, lights flashing. Luna knew the odds of saving Simon’s life were slim to none when they were this far out of town.
“We need a med flight,” she yelled to Deputy Foster. “Now.”
“It’s on its way,” he called, rushing toward them.
He disappeared into the house, then dragg
ed a kicking and screaming Bea out by holding her around the waist and pulling her along. Luna took a kick to the back, but barely noticed.
“Get that crazy bitch out of here,” Colt yelled.
Luna kept pumping Simon’s chest. Deep down, she prayed he lived. A weight settled on her left shoulder and a sense of calm came over her. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt as if Wayne were with her. After all, the last time she saw him had been eerily similar to this.
“You have to live, Simon. Your dad would want you to live.”
Luna locked eyes with Colt. He reached over Simon and placed his hand on her cheek as she bounced up and down on Simon’s chest. “You’ve got this, honey.”
His confidence in her gave her the courage to keep going, keep trying, because Wayne would want her to never give up on his son.
Everything happened so fast and too slow. Time seemed to speed up and slow down at odd moments. Like waiting for the helicopter that seemed to take forever. The way the life-flight medics rushed Simon on board. The questions she and Colt answered at length and over and over again until she finally stopped talking altogether and stared down at her bloody hands, until Colt covered them with his own and kissed her on the forehead.
She didn’t know when everyone left. She couldn’t even say who came and went. She didn’t know how she ended up clean and in bed, tucked up against Colt’s warm body in the dead of night.
She stared into the dark night at nothing. Numb from the inside out, she stared and waited. For what, she didn’t know.
Out of the dark came a soft voice she recognized so well. It drew her back from the emptiness and made her reach for the love that made everything in her life better.
“You’re okay. I love you.” Colt hugged her close with the arm he kept banded around her waist. Her head rested on his other arm. She turned her head and pressed her lips to his big biceps.
She rolled in his arms and faced him, pressing her palm to his rough cheek. He cupped her face and stared down at her, though it was hard to see him in the dark. She didn’t need to. She read the worry in the way he touched her.
Her Renegade Rancher EPB Page 30