The Ranch

by Sean Liscom

  THE RANCH.

  BOOK 3

  THE RANCH: BOOK 3: A LEGACY OF DARKNESS

  by SEAN LISCOM

  Published by Creative Texts Publishers

  PO Box 50

  Barto, PA 19504

  www.creativetexts.com

  Copyright 2019 by Sean Liscom

  All rights reserved

  Cover photos used by license.

  Design copyright 2019 Creative Texts Publishers, LLC

  The Ranch Logo is a trademark of Creative Texts Publishers, LLC

  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

  The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual names, persons, businesses, and incidents is strictly coincidental. Locations are used only in the general sense and do not represent the real place in actuality.

  Kindle Edition

  THE RANCH.

  BOOK 3

  SEAN LISCOM

  To my good friend, Scott Foust.

  You are one of those friends we don’t hear from often but Denise and I know you are always a phone call away.

  You have been super supportive of everything we’ve set out to do and you always manage to find a way to help out.

  You are the epitome of not only a good friend but a best friend.

  Thank you, Scott!

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  EPILOGUE:

  CHAPTER 1

  Thursday, August 31, 2017

  “You should see yourselves,” the rough male voice said. There was something eerily familiar about it. He chuckled a little. “You see, I told you girls, didn’t I? The looks on their faces would be purely magical, priceless even!” the man said. The two women stepped farther into the light. They were identical twins. I knew one as Kari, Braden knew the other as Isabella. When the man stepped into the light. My heart stopped.

  “OH….” Jill said quietly.

  “MY….” I whispered.

  “GOD….” Braden finished.

  “Is that any way to greet your father and your sisters?” Jack Sterling asked as the trio closed to a few feet from us. I felt my knees go weak; my head was spinning. I wasn’t even sure if I was still breathing.

  The fine line that separates reality from imagination was suddenly gone. What had only a few minutes before been a straight, defined path, had become shrouded in a mist of skepticism and fear. Just before I’d lost sight of that path, I could swear I’d seen a “Dangerous Curves” road sign. I also knew things were travelling far too fast to even attempt negotiating those twists and turns.

  There are times when reacting too slowly can save your life. For instance; you have a blowout on your car at 70 MPH on the freeway. Reacting slowly can keep you from doing the opposite and rolling your car. This wasn’t one of those times. This wreck was going to happen.

  Just like the blowout, I was experiencing the sudden onslaught of emotions. Panic.... Surprise.... Anger.... Most of all was fear. Pure, unadulterated fear. You know, the kind of fear that leaves you unable to speak or scream. The fear that leaves you unable to move, let alone run for your life. The fear that can cause time to stop along with your heart.

  A slight breeze picked up in the late summer night and it felt like a blast straight out of the arctic, in the dead of winter. I could feel the goosebumps on my arms and neck. Even though I was sweating profusely, my entire body was frozen. All I could do was stand there, mouth open, thoughts racing. My mind was beginning to explode with questions for the man before me, my father, Jack Sterling. Every thought stopped just short of exiting my mouth. The words probably couldn’t get past the fact that my heart was jammed firmly in my throat. That’s probably the same reason I hadn’t taken a breath either.

  Was I dead? Was this the spirit of my father coming to take me into the light? That thought left as quickly as it had come only to be replaced by another, darker notion. Maybe he had come to take me to Hell.... I stood, unmoving, as he began to cover the last few steps between us. This was it. This is how it all ended.

  He stopped less than an arm’s length away. I could smell him now. The slightest hint of body odor with just a hint of diesel fuel. The only scent of him that I could remember was his cologne. He’d always been clean shaven, wearing a pressed blue or black suit and that damned cologne. He reached for me, and as much as I wanted to, I was unable to pull away. I wanted to run away screaming like a small child. I could feel my muscles tremble as his hand came ever closer.

  “You better breathe before you pass out,” his voice sounded like a cannon in my ears. When he put his hand on my shoulder, it felt as if I had been hit by lightning.

  “Son-of-a-bitch….” I whispered.

  “I’ve been called worse.”

  “You…. You’re…. Dead….” I had to force the words past my parched lips.

  “For some reason, I get that a lot! I’m afraid you’re stuck with me a bit longer!” he laughed a good belly laugh. I tried to back away from him but only made it a half step. The truck we were standing in front of blocked my escape.

  “This can’t be real,” I heard my wife say from my left side. I’d completely forgotten she and my brother were both here. My father took a step to his right and I followed him with my eyes.

  “I can assure you, Jill, this is quite real. I hear you married this scoundrel. Did I hear right?” he asked as he pointed his thumb toward me. She simply nodded, her ice blue eyes as big as cup saucers, her mouth hung open. He smirked and glanced back at me, then his gaze shifted to my brother who was standing to my right. He moved to stand in front of him, again, my eyes tracked his every movement.

  Braden locked eyes with Jack and I could see the muscles in his jaw flexing. From what I’d heard, the last time these two were this close together, it ended with fists being thrown. Jack took a moment to eye him from head to toe before he spoke.

  “You’re not gonna break my nose again, are you?”

  “The thought crossed my mind, Jack.” he said evenly, calmly.

  “It’s good to see you too.”

  “What the hell is this all about? Why are you here?” Jack seemed to ponder his question before he took a couple of steps backward. The expression on his bearded face shifted to something more serious.

  “We need to talk.”

  “I think you’ve got some explaining to do…. Dad,” the sarcasm in Braden’s voice wasn’t lost on anyone.

  “We’ll get to that, Braden. I promise.”

  “You bet your ass we’re gonna get to that!” he growled.

  “Well then, why don’t we quit standing around out here and go back to the house. Your wife, Megan, was kind enough to prepare a late dinner for all of us,” Jack remarked. He looked back to me and Jill. “I believe we have a lot
of catching up to do.”

  With that, he spun sharply on his heel and strode smartly back toward the gate and his waiting troops. I watched as Kari and Isabella fell in with him and the trio disappeared into the black night from whence they had appeared.

  “Did that really happen?” I asked no one in particular. There was a moment of silence. I think the three of us were pondering the very same question.

  “He’s not getting the ranch, Jason. If he thinks he is, it’s gonna be over my dead body,” Braden said quietly.

  “Until 10 minutes ago, we all thought he was dead. Let’s see what he’s got to say for himself....”

  “Knowing that bastard, this can’t be anything good,” Braden interrupted and began to follow everyone back through the gate. That left me standing in front of the Suburban, Jill at my side. Both of us watched Braden’s form vanish into the night.

  “Wanna know something, Jason?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Since I started hanging around you Sterling’s, since I’ve become one of you, I’m beginning to understand just how crazy things are in the Sterling world.”

  “I’d say things just got a whole lot crazier and I’m willing to bet, you ain’t seen nothin yet,” I muttered and moved past her, toward the driver’s door. She went to the passenger side.

  After the truck was parked and the children unloaded from the back seat, we made our way to the house. Braden was in the middle of a group hug with his wife, Megan and their two teenage daughters, Kalin and Allison. Megan first saw Jill carrying six-year-old Luke on her shoulder and she started toward us. When she saw me walking with 12-year-old Tara, she stopped on the steps of the deck.

  “My word! Who do we have here?” she asked excitedly.

  “This is Luke and that’s Tara. They both could use a real meal and a place to sleep,” Jill answered.

  “Kalin, Allison! Go downstairs and get extra blankets and the cot from the storage room. Set it up in your room, please,” she ordered the two teens without ever taking her eyes off us.

  “Yes, ma’am!” they replied and took off into the house.

  “I heard you had dinner ready. Did they finally make it out here with supplies from Elko?” Jill asked as Megan relieved her of the child on her shoulder.

  “No, not yet. I slaughtered a pig and everything else came from the garden. We finally got some coffee though,” Megan replied heading through the front door. “I’ll set these two up in the girls’ room. That way you guys can have some privacy in the dining room.”

  “You’re not joining us?” I asked.

  “Not this time. I’ve already had a day and a half to get to know the man, your father,” she scowled slightly.

  “Not impressed?”

  “Nope,” she held out her hand and took Tara with her toward Kalin and Allison’s room. Jill and I made the left into the dining room. Braden was now trailing behind and by the sour look on his face, he was ready to have it out with our father.

  To my surprise, Jack was seated on the left side of the table, near the center. One of my sisters on either side of him. Braden and I shared a quick look and then took our seats at opposite ends. In the center of the table was a huge serving platter of pork ribs and steaks along with all the corn on the cob and green beans you could ask for. There were also two carafes of coffee and two pitchers of water.

  “When we arrived here yesterday, we weren’t really sure what to expect,” Jack mused. “The look on Bill’s face when he got to the gate was very much the same as yours was tonight. I’m pretty sure he repaid me when I asked about Allen. Man, that was like a knife to the heart finding out he was dead.”

  “Where is dad?” Jill asked sliding into the chair to my right.

  “I asked him to sit it out for this little get together. We’ve got a lot of family business we need to discuss tonight.”

  “I see.... Do you want me to leave?”

  “Nope. Your last name is Sterling. If you can put up with him, you’ve earned the right to sit with us as family,” Jack said with a wink and nod in my direction.

  “Okay,” she replied sheepishly.

  “What do you mean, you didn’t know what to expect?” I asked, pouring myself a glass of water.

  “We knew the ranch was operational. Thanks to our assist down in Vegas, we knew you all had survived and were on your way back here. I didn’t know what kind of shape this place would be in though,” he smiled.

  “Why didn’t you just contact us? You had to know the frequencies we were using?”

  “Couldn’t risk it,” he said as he stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth.

  “Why?”

  “We needed to maintain the element of surprise where Ray Judge’s forces concerned,” Kari spoke from his right side while he chewed.

  “You could have sent a runner if you were worried about the airwaves being compromised,” Jill spoke.

  “Yes, we could have but in order to keep up the ruse, we needed to keep you in the dark too. If you or Ray had known about us, this might have been over before it ever began. Ray would have simply destroyed the ranch,” she explained.

  “I see....”

  “I got a question, Jack,” Braden said a little too loudly from the other end of the table. “You mind explaining how our family got so much bigger?” Braden pointed at the young women on either side of him.

  “Which version do you want?” Jack asked without ever looking up from his plate.

  “Huh?

  “Do you want the version in which I walked away from the two of you and started a new family, OR, would you prefer the version that includes you driving me away so that I could never tell you about them? Which one would soothe your conscience, Braden?” he asked, still refusing to make eye contact. Well shit, I thought to myself. Remember that unavoidable wreck I was talking about earlier? It just happened. That didn’t take long.

  “How about you just explain the whole sister thing?” I asked trying to minimize the carnage. By the look on Braden’s face, he was about to blow a gasket.

  “Fair enough. I remarried in November of 1989,” he began around a mouthful of green beans. “A beautiful woman from Costa Rica. Her name is Olivia. Your sisters were born on June 4th, 1991. Does that answer your question?”

  “Half-sisters,” Braden remarked still glaring at Jack.

  “Semantics,” Jack fired back, finally locking eyes with my brother.

  “It’s more than that! You show up here proclaiming we have HALF sisters and you just expect us to buy that? Bullshit!”

  “Kari and Isabella are related to you by blood, Braden. They are your sisters. YOU are the one hung up on this,” Jack pointed his fork at him. “Might I remind you; this is probably an argument that you of all people, might not want to have.”

  “Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “You really want to go down this road? We can. Until now, there are only two people in this room that know most of the truth and only one of us knows it all....” Jack’s voice trailed off and he held Braden’s glare.

  “I don’t know what you think you know but I KNOW that Kari and Isabella are only HALF sisters, if that,” Braden said through clenched teeth.

  “Fine, you wanna go there, let’s go there,” Jack calmly put his fork on his plate and sat up straight. “Does Kalin know that Allison is ONLY her HALF sister? Does Jason here know that she is ONLY his HALF niece?” I watched the color drain from Braden’s face.

  “How do you know that?” he asked just above a whisper.

  “I know everything that you two were up to right up until I disappeared.”

  “How did you know that?” Braden repeated the question

  “Did you know I was there the day you and Megan got married?” Jack asked casually. “I was. I watched you two get married in the park. I was there the day Kalin was born. Hospitals are easy. Someone sees you walking around with a mask and scrubs on, they don’t think twice about it. Throw in a good fake ID and act l
ike you know what you’re doing, like I said, easy. I actually held Kalin the day after she was born,” Jack picked up his fork again and stabbed a green bean with it.

  “I also know how difficult it was for Megan to get pregnant with her. After she was born, the doctors told you and Megan that she probably wouldn’t be able to have another child. Two years later, the two of you went to the fertility clinic in Denver. They tried and tried to give you the second child you so desperately wanted. They told you that the only way that was going to happen was if they used a donor egg. Any of this hitting home yet?”

  Braden sat with a blank face just staring at Jack. “Your insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost, well north of $100,000 if I remember right,” Jack continued. “You went home, devastated. Then a week later you got a call and the clinic told you the insurance company had reversed their decision. They told you your co-pay was only going to be $8,000, which, I might add, you happened to have in your bank account. I played the part of your insurance company. Allison was my gift to you.”

  “I....”

  “You had no idea and that’s the way I wanted it. You still haven’t answered my question though. Is she any less your child or Kalin’s sister?”

  “No….”

  “So, it makes no difference if she only carries your half of the genetic material?”

  “No,” Braden whispered finally breaking eye contact. He looked as if he had just been kicked in the groin.

  “Braden, you can hate me all you want. Hell, before this visit is over, you may very well break my nose again,” Jack chuckled. “But please, don’t take your hatred of me out on your sisters. They had no choice in the matter. None of this is their fault.”

  “But....”

  “No. This conversation is over. What was said at this table, stays at this table. Understood?” Jack asked when he heard Kalin and Allison coming up the stairs from the basement.

  “Okay,” Braden replied weakly. Just then, Megan entered the dining room. She was on her way to the kitchen for cups and plates for Luke and Tara.