by CP Smith
“Two hundred thousand—”
“And four hundred and fifty-six dollars and thirty-three cents. Compounded daily.”
“How the hell do you know this?” Logan growled, angry on Skylar’s behalf. It was one thing to be in everyone’s business, but the town shouldn’t be this informed about their finances.
“My father is president at the bank. Chance woke him in the middle of the night and threatened to pull all his money if they didn’t let him buy the loan.”
Movement caught Logan’s attention, so he looked up. The woman with lust in her eyes was on the move. She was weaving her way through the tables, heading in his direction. He let out an expletive under his breath, knowing she was somehow mixed up in this mess with Skylar.
Jordan turned slowly in reaction to his curse and crossed her arms over her chest when the woman stopped in front of his table. “Look what the cat dragged in. Kenzie Cox.”
“Go make his breakfast, Jordan. A man that—” she scanned Logan from head to toe “—big has to be hungry.”
Jordan rolled her eyes, then retreated to get Logan’s coffee.
“May I sit?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say no, but he changed his mind. She knew something about Skylar and her brothers, if Jordan’s reaction to her was anything to go by. He might be able to play this to his advantage, get more insight into Skylar’s situation.
When she smiled and licked her lips, he knew she was there to flirt instead of pump him for information. He knew the type well and hated the games they played. Some men might be flattered, but Logan wanted to be the one pursuing, not the one being pursued. But after meeting Skylar, the woman before him held no appeal.
Logan jerked his head in agreement, then watched with no small amount of humor as she made a ridiculous production out of sitting in the chair. Her dress rose up on her legs, higher than needed, as an invitation for Logan to take his fill. Logan had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing at the spectacle. He’d known plenty of women just like her. Women who were beautiful without question, but so insecure in their self-worth, they used their beauty as a weapon to get what they wanted, rather than earning it honestly.
“Is there something I can help you with?” Logan finally asked, when she leaned forward so her ample cleavage was on display for him. He kept his eyes on hers, not about to take the bait.
“How long are you in town, Storm?” She let him know with that one question she’d heard everything Jordan had said.
That was the million-dollar question. An hour ago, he would have said he was just passing through. But his reaction to Skylar couldn’t be ignored. He’d left the army to put the pain behind him. To find some semblance of peace after losing everyone who’d ever mattered to him, and then he’d stumbled across Skylar and her brothers. A family of orphans, like himself, trying to survive their own tragic past. A religious man might argue that God had put Skylar in his path. Logan hadn’t seen much evidence of God in his life, but he wasn’t about to tempt fate by ignoring the possibility.
“I’m just passing through,” he lied, not about to discuss his plans.
Her smile turned sultry at that news. “I could make it worth your while, if you stayed longer.”
“Worth my while?”
“Sure. We could get out of here and spend the day in a more relaxing way.”
Logan had no intention of sleeping with the woman, but he was sure she knew more about what was happening with Skylar, so he hedged. “Tell me about Chance Bear, and I’ll think about it.”
A smirk bled across her red lips. “I’m offering you the finest body in Ennis for an afternoon of fun, and you want to know about my ex-husband?”
There it was. The reason Jordan didn’t like her.
Logan scanned her body, playing along with her invitation so he could stall for more information. She was attractive, that much was true, but he’d seen the way Skylar had filled out her jeans. Kenzie wasn’t the finest body he’d seen in that town. Not by half.
“Humor me,” Logan mumbled low. “They’re mostly kids with little money, so why’s he gunning for Skylar and her brothers?”
She pouted a moment then sat back and studied Logan. “You’ve heard of the Hatfields and McCoys, of course.”
“There’s a feud between the families?”
“Yes. One started by Justice Bear, my newly departed ex-father-in-law.”
“Explain it to me.”
Jordan placed his coffee on the table with a thud, glaring at Kenzie before leaving. Kenzie rolled her eyes and sat back with a huff. “They need to hire better help,” she sneered, following Jordan’s exit.
“The feud?” Logan prompted to get her talking. He wanted to be done with the woman as soon as possible.
She sighed. “Fine. I hate Chance, so telling you this will just piss him off. Far be it from me to pass on the opportunity.” She smoothed her dress down before continuing, picking at an invisible thread near the hem. She was good, he’d give her that. She never missed an opportunity to draw attention to her body. “Skylar’s father won a poker hand against Justice Bear, involving five hundred acres before shipping off to the Gulf War. Daniel James sat at the poker game hoping to make a start for him and his high school sweetheart, and everyone knew it. Sarah, Skylar’s mother, was the prettiest girl in town I’ve been told, but came from a poor family. Daniel James was also poor with a drunkard for a father. He was brought up by his grandparents, with no prospects except the military, so her parents hated him. They wanted more for her, thought her looks would land her a rich man, which was why Daniel was so desperate to win the game.
“While James was away in the Persian Gulf, Sarah’s brother became ill. Some mysterious illness that only a thousand people had ever contracted, so there was only anecdotal information and one experimental drug that might help him. Sarah’s family needed money for the medicine and Sarah was desperate to find it. Enter Justice Bear, the richest man in the county. He wasn’t a nice man, but extremely handsome, so when he heard about Sarah’s brother being ill, he saw an opportunity for revenge against Daniel James.”
“Let me guess? He swooped in and saved the day with her brother and behaved like a gentleman while doing it. When he made an offer of marriage to Sarah, she was starstruck because he’d saved her brother and agreed to marry him.”
“Partly. He knew it would take more than being charming to win her over, so he started with charming then offered her parents a million dollars if she agreed to marry him. Sarah and her brother were close. Real close. She would have done anything for him, and she did, to the bitter regret of Daniel James.”
“But it didn’t last because Skylar and her brothers exist.”
She nodded. “Funny that, some women won’t tolerate being belittled and made to feel like dirt by their own husbands. According to town gossip, she tried to take Chance with her when she left, but Justice stopped her and then kept her away from Chance for years. But Chance was raised to believe his mother left him behind to be with Daniel James, which is why he hates his siblings.”
“The courts gave him custody?”
“Sure did. My grandmother told me he lined the pockets of the local judges. Granny also said Chance never left the ranch. He had tutors and a housekeeper who took care of him. The old man did everything in his power to make sure Sarah never saw Chance again. And as far as I know, she never did. She died when he was a teenager and still under Justice’s thumb.”
“So buying their loan? I assume he did it because he’s jealous of Skylar and her brothers since he never knew his mother.”
“Jealous? Definitely. But it runs deeper than that. He hates them for no other reason than they exist. So did Justice. He used to sit on the deck and look down on their little cabin with contempt. He’d wanted to destroy Daniel James just for beating him in a poker game, but Daniel ended up having it all until Sarah died.”
Logan flashed back to the monstrous log home on the outcropping. Bear had been look
ing over their shoulders their whole lives, and now Chance was trying to ruin his own siblings in some misguided need for revenge. Logan’s only family had been his unit. He would have given anything to have them back, so it turned his stomach to know Skylar and her brothers were being terrorized by a man who should have been helping them. “So, he’s finishing what his father couldn’t: the destruction of the James family.”
She nodded. “That’s the word around town.”
Jordan returned with his plate of pancakes. She laid them down in front of him, then leaned against the wall next to his chair, and crossed her arms like she was settling in.
“Don’t you have a grill to clean?” Kenzie snipped.
Jordan raised her hand to stop Kenzie from talking further. “I’ll get back to work just as soon as I find out if Storm here is gonna help Skylar.”
Some would say he had no business getting involved because of his own fucked-up head, but he didn’t care. From the moment he walked up to Skylar’s truck, something had changed. The thread of his thoughts had morphed. Instead of being absorbed with pain and guilt, he was focused on someone else. On their problems instead of his own. Focused on light green eyes that made his cock strain inside his jeans in a way it never had before. He wanted Skylar, that much he knew, but he’d also been trained to serve and protect. He’d failed his unit, his brothers, that night over a year ago, maybe he could help save the James family and find some peace along the way.
“You want Storm to help?” Kenzie laughed the words out in amusement.
“Someone has to, and he’s got the shoulders to take on anything that comes his way.”
“Is that why you’re here, Storm?” Logan didn’t confirm or deny her question. The less anyone knew, the better. Kenzie’s eyes grew wide at his silence. “Don’t tell me you have a thing for little Miss James.” Her laughter quieted the room quicker than a gunshot. “Chance will crush you if you get in his way, so do yourself a favor, honey, and listen to me. Spend the day at my house then hit the road for greener pastures. Skylar doesn’t need you to protect her. Not when she’s got Ty Austen watching her back.”
Logan blinked. Jordan had made it clear that Skylar and her brothers were on their own, so the knowledge another man might have some claim to her hit his gut in a flash of anger. In the same place reserved for his guilt. “Who the fuck is Ty Austen?” Logan growled before he could think better of it.
Kenzie smiled in triumph. “A big burly jock, much like yourself. He’s the local grease monkey, and Skylar dated him in high school. They’re very close.”
“Dated. As in past tense,” Jordan jumped in quickly, looking at Logan. “She dumped him before she left for college to make a clean break, but that doesn’t stop him from hanging around the bar and terrorizing any man who looks at her. He’s so convinced she belongs to him; it wouldn’t surprise me if he tried to take advantage of this situation once he finds out what’s happened. And with Skylar in an emotional state, it could work.”
The tightness in his chest seemed to expand the more Jordan spoke, and he recognized it for what it was. It was the first time since Afghanistan; he felt something other than pain and guilt. Jealousy drowned out the echoes of his brothers’ ghosts and settled in his stomach like a hot piece of lead. Hearing about Ty made him wonder if Jake’s comment about Skylar having enough to worry about included her ex. She was tiny; stood no more than five foot three if his guess was correct, so the thought of some man steamrolling over her made his hands curl into fists.
Both women seemed to be waiting for him to answer some unknown question. He looked between them and went with his gut. It had kept him alive all these years, so he wouldn’t ignore it now. His instinct was telling him to stay in Ennis, Montana. That finding Skylar on the side of the road was no coincidence. He wanted her plain and simple.
“I’m here for Skylar.”
Jordan’s face softened with relief at his announcement, while Kenzie scoffed and stood to leave. “Call me if you get bored with little Miss James.”
“Aren’t you bored already?” Logan asked, as she turned to leave. When she looked back at him, he raised a brow in challenge. “Seems like helping Skylar and her brothers would be a way of sticking it to your ex. You wouldn’t be bored then.”
Kenzie chuckled at first, then considered what he’d said. Her lips pulled slowly into an evil grin before strutting out of the diner with a swing in her hips. He watched her through the window when she leaned down and petted Max with a gentle touch. Seeing that, he decided Kenzie was good people deep down. She just had shitty taste in husbands.
A chair scratched across the tile floor and Logan looked back to find Jordan sitting down at his table. “So what’s first?” she asked. “I can call Jamie, Skylar’s best friend, if we need backup.”
Logan began to butter his pancakes and drizzle them with syrup. “She doesn’t need muscle to solve this problem with Bear, she needs money. Find a bank out of his reach that will loan her the money, and that will stop Bear’s harassment in its tracks. Ask your dad. He may know someone Bear can’t buy off.”
He could see the lightbulb go on over her head. She stood immediately with excited energy and started to leave, then turned back to Logan with another question in her eyes. “You’ll be the muscle if we need you though, right? If Ty tries to use this to his advantage?”
His face shut down at the mention of Skylar’s ex. For months he’d been searching for a place in this world that would help him push back the nightmares. He’d found Skylar instead. Maybe it wasn’t a location so much as who he needed in his life?
“Don’t worry about Ty. I won’t let anything happen to Skylar or her brothers.”
Four
Adulting Is Hard
DUST PARTICLES FLOATED in front of my eyes; the sun’s rays spotlighted them like a dancer on a stage. If I squinted carefully, they looked like diamonds glimmering on the air, like a treasure waiting for me to reach out and scoop up into my palm. Too bad I couldn’t grab a handful and make all our cares disappear, pulling my brothers and me out of our current crisis. Sighing, I scanned the bar for inspiration.
Big Sky Saloon was your typical small-town bar in Montana. It was dark, with a hunting theme throughout. A stage for a band, tables scattered here and there, and an open dance floor in the middle. Over the years, my father had purchased big game heads to put on the walls, emphasizing the hunting theme in case tourists forgot they were in Montana. The deer and moose hanging on the walls kept me company in the mornings before we opened, their eyes following me as I refilled bowls with peanuts or hauled empties the night staff had forgotten to the sink. They even had names. Rocky, the moose, hung over the backbar, while Edgar, the deer, hung over the stage. Edger sported a winter hat with tassels like he’d just come off the ski slopes, while Rocky wore a top hat for a more cultured look. Visitors sometimes curled a lip at the stuffed animals, but I ignored them. In Montana, hunting was a way of life. A way to provide meat for your family. I shrugged off their sneers because I knew for a fact Rocky had died of natural causes. The previous owner had found him dying on his land and put the poor animal out of his misery.
I wonder if someone would put me out of my misery?
“Call the bastard and try to change his mind,” my best friend, Jamie Webb, advised.
I closed my eyes and chuckled. I could almost hear Chance’s amused laughter if I made that call. It would, no doubt, make his year to hear me begging him to do the right thing.
Reaching out, I snagged another Kleenex and put it to my nose, blowing. I’d made it two steps inside the bar before tears of frustration and hopelessness had broken free with so much volume, I had to be dehydrated. That’s where Jamie found me thirty minutes ago. Knees to the floor while my body convulsed with silent sobs. Thank God, neither of my brothers had followed me. I’d made it a point to never cry in front of them since our father died. Until today in the street, I’d held fast to the rule since his funeral.
“Ther
e’s no way I’m calling him. I know Chance, Jamie. Nothing I say will ever change his mind, and I won’t give him the satisfaction of hearing me beg.”
Her brown eyes softened at the vehemence in my voice. “Does the term pride goeth before the fall, mean anything to you?”
I squinted at her. “I’m not prideful. Chance hates us for being born, and you know it. Do you honestly think he’d change his mind if I asked him to? If I got down on my knees and begged?”
She turned her head and looked at the surface of the bar, running a finger across the glossy wood. “Not really,” she finally admitted.
Jamie had been my best friend since first grade. We’d hit puberty together. Discovered boys together. Cried together when her mother died of a stroke, and my father died of cancer. We were the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler of our graduating class—except not as funny. And completely opposite. Jamie was larger than life. Her gleaming black hair flowed around her face in ringlets of curls like a curtain on a stage, silhouetting her amber eyes and Cupid lips. Her mother had been half Flathead, her father white, and the combination was stunning. If she liked you, you were friends for life. If she hated you, her warm eyes would turn deadly, and she’d spit out a curse that left you feeling like you should turn tail and run for your life.
“What am I going to—” I stopped mid-sentence and swallowed to keep from crying again, but my eyes began to fill. A tightness in my chest had grown with each passing second since Chance’s phone call, so I jumped up from the stool and rushed around the bar to grab a bottle of Jack. I needed something to calm down so I could think.
Grabbing a shot glass, I filled it and threw it back, hoping the burn would loosen the stranglehold anxiety had on my chest.
“Better?” Jamie asked.
I raised a finger and dropped my head back, drawing air deep into my lungs. I let it out slowly, hoping with the exhale I could breathe easier, but nothing happened. My chest still hurt.