Texas Rebel

by Jean Brashear

  “I can’t hear you. Speak up.” Explain to me why you would destroy what you helped me build.

  “Basement…gun…kill…”

  “Gun? Who’s got a gun?” He glanced over at his chief, who immediately yanked out his own phone. Basement, Jackson mouthed.

  “Ty…help…”

  “Steph, you’re at Enigma? In the basement? With Ty? Say yes or no.”

  “…Yes—no Ty, don’t!” she screamed. Her phone went dead.

  The chief barked rapid orders.

  Jackson burst from the chopper the second it touched down.

  When they made it down to the basement, Steph was curled in on herself, covered with blood, rocking and staring into space.

  “Steph?” Jackson moved toward her, but Mike held him back. “I’m sorry, sir, but we can’t touch anything. We have to wait for the police.”

  Jackson took in the unbelievable sight before him. Ty, dead eyes wide, on the floor next to her in a widening pool of blood—

  A pistol still in his hand.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A week had passed, eight days, actually—or he thought it was eight. He rubbed his forehead. He’d lost track. Damage control took every waking second.

  Not that he slept much. Or well.

  Ty had been his traitor.

  How could he have missed that?

  He was still piecing the story together. Ty had been with him the longest, followed by Steph. He’d held a ten percent share of the company, a gift from Jackson when Enigma really began to grow and Ty agreed to become the public face of the company. Steph held another five, while Jackson retained the majority ownership. He’d been happy to share the wealth with the two people who’d most helped him take Enigma to a new level.

  Ty had pushed to go public with the stock for a long time. It would have meant a huge payday for all three of them.

  But Jackson didn’t want to give up control of the company, not to a publisher and not to a board of directors, not to anyone. He’d built Enigma from the ashes of his dreams, after he’d lost the life he’d hoped for. A homeless teenager, cast from all that was familiar and dear, had built a new dream.

  And Enigma was all he had.

  What he hadn’t known, however, was that Ty had developed a gambling problem, and he’d gotten in deep with unsavory foreign interests tied to one of Enigma’s fiercest competitors, who had offered a joint venture with Enigma after Jackson had refused their outright purchase offer. When Jackson continued to refuse to give up one shred of control of Enigma or take the company public, Ty had gone to extreme measures to dig himself out. Sabotaging the company’s new launch would, he reasoned, force Jackson to turn to that competitor, allowing the foreign interests who had their hooks in him entree into Enigma’s phenomenal reputation and income stream. Once that happened, Ty’s debt would be forgiven by Jackson’s enemies, and he would be allowed to live.

  But Steph had uncovered the traitor. When she’d confronted Ty, he’d taken her prisoner, panic pushing him into a crazy scheme to force Jackson’s hand by threatening to kill her.

  When she’d managed to get away from him long enough to call for help, and Ty had realized that either way, the life he’d known was over, he’d picked up the gun he’d brandished.

  And turned it on himself.

  Jackson should have been here. He should never have left. Ty had been drowning, and in the isolation Jackson demanded for himself, he’d missed all the signs.

  Yes, the man he’d called friend had betrayed him.

  But Jackson had failed his friend. One more black mark on his ledger to go along with all those he’d tried to leave behind in Texas.

  When had he become this recluse who guarded himself so closely, who had forgotten what it was to trust? He’d withdrawn from the world, so locked away, heart and soul, that the open, eager boy he’d been had vanished like fog in noonday sun.

  He stared out the high-rise windows, hands fisted in his pocket. And thought about, of all things, Abby Butler, with her sense of adventure, her readiness to embrace the world, to charge forth without reservation, eagerly drinking in every ounce of joy each moment contained.

  She made his dried-up heart creak open. Made him want to take chances again.

  Yet here he was, with a company that would go under without his vigilance, more so now than ever. He needed to be traveling, reassuring customers and suppliers both. He had to be around, had to take the public role that Ty was no longer there to fill, until things were stable again.

  Still, Sweetgrass Springs called to him.

  No, he hadn’t heard from Ben, or Veronica either. He’d only been able to talk to Abby and Beth once, Abby demanding that he return. She’d been hurt and confused that he couldn’t commit to doing so.

  Sweetgrass made no sense in the scheme of his life. He couldn’t run this company from there. Hell, he couldn’t even get a decent cell signal without a sat phone.

  Yet the town had him by the throat.

  Veronica was always there in his mind, her eyes dark with longing, her sleek, soft skin bared to his gaze, his touch…

  And…his son. Ben.

  He wanted them. All of them. The twins, his sisters, his friends, Aunt Ruby…

  But he couldn’t have them. Not now, at least.

  His phone chimed. Jackson glanced down. Grabbed it fast. “Veronica? Are you all right?”

  “It’s me.” Ben.

  Jackson closed his eyes in thanksgiving. “I’m glad to hear from you.” He didn’t say son, though he wanted to.

  “Mom is…she needs you. You have to come back.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Everything.” Ben sounded very young again and uncertain, a child longing for reassurance. “She’s not…Mom. She’s like a zombie.” A pause. “Are you going to take me away from her?”

  “What? No—Ben, I…no.” Jackson heaved a sigh. “I mean, I’m—I’ve missed so much of your life I can never get back, but…no. I would very much like you to want to visit me. You have no idea how much I wish for that, but—” He closed his eyes. “I’m the one who screwed it all up. I—I was so lost back then, and…I never stopped loving her, but… She did the best she could. She was in a tough situation.”

  “Because of her dad and…me.”

  “You were never anything but a joy to her. I didn’t have to be there to understand that. She loves you with every last breath. You know that, right? Have you forgiven her?”

  “I…don’t know. I mean, I’m not being a jerk to her or anything, but…” The boy’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I feel like a traitor to my da—to David.”

  “He is your dad, in so many important ways. He always will be.”

  “So what does that make you?”

  Besides a fool who gave up the best thing that ever happened to him? “We’re bound by blood, Ben, but I’m thinking I have to earn the right for you to call me dad. An accident of birth doesn’t give me any real claim,” he admitted, however hard that was. “Not when I wasn’t there for either of you when I should have been.”

  “So, what…you’ll just hang out and see what happens? The man who built a whole empire is going to just…chill?”

  “No, but…” He exhaled heavily. “Damned if I know, son.”

  Ben snickered, and it was the best sound in the world. “I didn’t think so. Best I can tell, chillin’ isn’t your style—so what’s your plan, dude?”

  Someday that dude would become dad, Jackson vowed. Whatever he had to do to earn it. “I’m still handling damage control here.”

  “For how long?”

  “I don’t know. Not long, I hope. I’m promoting some people and restructuring things.” He paused. “But I don’t think your mom is ready to see me.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I think you’re the only one who can help.”

  “I still…long-term, my work is here. You all are there.”

  “I could be bribed to move. How about Seahawks tickets?”


  A laugh burst from Jackson. “I do have a skybox.”

  “Dude, you are so the man.”

  For a second, his enthusiasm gave Jackson hope.

  But this was not the way to proceed. “I’m not going to bribe you with goodies, Ben. That’s not the relationship we’re going to have.”

  “You got me a sat phone.”

  “I got your family a sat phone. This isn’t a divorced parents’ one-upmanship. I’m not buying your love.”

  “Crap. A guy can dream.”

  Ben was teasing, but Jackson couldn’t. “Tell me how she is, really.”

  “Come see for yourself.”

  Cagey little sonofagun… Jackson couldn’t help but admire the boy’s moxie.

  Just as quickly, though, Ben’s bluster vanished. “I’m seriously worried about her. She’s lost weight, and when she smiles, it’s not real. The twins are feeling it, too…man, everything’s screwed up now.”

  Please. She needs you. I need you, The Lady had said.

  But what if he made it worse?

  Ben went on. “It’s not that she doesn’t have help. Uncle Tank has been over every day, and Brenda helps when she can. Ian and Scarlett have come over and Rissa even—hey, Rissa’s my aunt, right?”

  “She is.”

  “Wow…so Mackey’s like, my uncle. And he could teach me those awesome stunts…”

  “Ben…” Jackson reeled him back in.

  “I’m just…worried, you know? I’m almost off my crutches, but even once I’m able to help her again…the work isn’t the problem. It’s you…Dad. She needs you.”

  Jackson pinched the bridge of his nose as pride and relief swelled. “Thank you for calling me that.”

  “It wasn’t that hard to say, I guess. Okay, it’s weird, but…we’ll get used to it, right?”

  Oh, man, I could definitely get used to it. “Yeah. We will.” His assistant appeared in the doorway with yet another stack of paperwork for him, and he had a meeting with department heads starting soon. “Ben, look, I have to go back to work right now, but…I’ll figure out something.”

  “Please come.”

  “I will. I just have to work some things out first.” He hesitated, then went for it. “I love you, Son.”

  A long pause.

  “I think I might love you, too,” Ben said quietly, but the teenager quickly emerged. “Even if you won’t buy me off.”

  Jackson couldn’t stem his chuckle. “Go do your homework.”

  “Oh, man…two parents ragging on me? That’s harsh.”

  “Goodbye, Ben.”

  “Bye…Dad. See you soon.”

  With a smile that wouldn’t quit, despite his worries over how to proceed, Jackson disconnected.

  Jackson drove into Sweetgrass Springs five days later, a different man than the one who had come here a few weeks ago. He kept on going past the town and out into the country.

  He wanted to see Veronica, wanted to find out how she’d react to the steps he’d taken—

  But there was something he had to put to rest first.

  Though what he had in mind might be even more impossible than resolving things with Veronica.

  He turned into the gate of the Star Bar G and stopped his vehicle, scanning the horizon, his gaze lingering over this place that had once been home. He didn’t want to be a rancher, but he had roots here he had tried to deny for too long.

  This land had formed him. He was tied to every rock and tree and grain of soil.

  It had trapped him.

  Succored him.

  Who he was had begun here.

  Mouth tight, he touched the accelerator and continued on up the road. At the homestead, he parked. Spotted Rissa over in the round pen working with one of her horses, Mackey standing outside, watching.

  On the horse, astonishingly, was Penny. His sister who didn’t even like to ride.

  He observed but didn’t call out to them. Penny was concentrating so hard she didn’t notice him, nor did his little sister.

  Mackey’s SEAL training alerted him before Jackson ever got close. “Stay quiet, okay? This is tricky.”

  Jackson moved up beside the man who’d been like a brother to him.

  “Good to see you, Wiz. About time.”

  “I wasn’t sure I’d ever come back.”

  Mackey snorted. “We wouldn’t have waited much longer. Ris was ready to drag you back in chains if need be.”

  His fierce little sister, who’d grown into an Amazon, her red-haired beauty still staggering. “She could try.”

  “Oh, she wouldn’t be trying alone. You never stood a chance, man.”

  He started to protest but realized Mackey was probably right. Sweetgrass had been calling to him for a long time.

  He just hadn’t wanted to listen.

  “You got things settled back there?” Mackey kept his voice low.

  “Maybe. Trying.”

  “You have a game plan for Veronica and your boy?”

  Jackson’s head whipped around. “How did you know?”

  Mackey looked over. “He told us. Came over the day he ditched those crutches.” Mackey shook his head. “No idea why none of us figured it out long before. He’s a hell of a kid, Wiz. You gonna do right by him?”

  “Yeah. If I could just figure out what that is.”

  “What does Veronica say?”

  “I haven’t talked to her yet. I…need to talk to Dad first.”

  Mackey’s eyebrows flew skyward. “Got your work cut out for you, my man.” He grinned. “Though he’s more than a little taken by your boy.”

  Jackson shook his head. “He’s not getting Ben. Rissa is doing fine by the ranch, and it’ll be your children who take it into the future.”

  “You’re the oldest. The son.”

  Jackson nodded toward Rissa, who still hadn’t noticed him, so intent was she on her work. “She’s earned it. I haven’t.”

  “That’s good, man. That’s fair. She’s bled for this place. Invested her heart and soul in it.”

  “Where is he, you know?”

  “Inside. He’s slowing down, Jackson. I know he’s been rough on you, but…he’s aged.”

  “You’re telling me to be nice to the old bastard?”

  “James isn’t all bad.”

  “I keep telling myself that.” He clapped Mackey on the shoulder. “I’ll see Rissa and Penny before I go. Wish me luck.”

  Mackey chuckled. “You’ll need it.”

  Jackson made his way inside the house that held so many of his memories, both sweet and haunting. I know you loved him, Mom. If you’re watching, I could use some help.

  But it was up to him, he knew that. Somehow, for Ben’s sake, he had to build a bridge back to his father.

  His dad didn’t see him at first, giving Jackson the chance to really observe him. Mackey was right. His dad had aged. A lot. His once-powerful shoulders were rounded with time and worry.

  In an odd way, Jackson understood, better than his dad would ever realize, what it was to carry a whole enterprise on his shoulders.

  To wonder if it would survive another day.

  A couple of bricks fell from that wall that had been between them ever since Jackson announced his intention to go to MIT and never return.

  “Dad?”

  His father looked up from the big wooden desk he’d had all of Jackson’s life. “What are you doing here?” There was nothing of softness or affection in his tone.

  That couldn’t matter now. Maybe there would never be affection between them again.

  But he was not leaving until they’d formed a truce. “I’ve come back.”

  “For how long?”

  “My son is here. I’m home for good.” Saying those words sent a shiver through him.

  “Why? You didn’t see fit to grace us with your presence up to now. And don’t you have a company to run?”

  “I do. I’m still figuring out details, but…I’m going to marry Veronica, if she’ll have me, and I’m
going to take those girls for my own, too, not just Ben.”

  “What if she won’t?”

  “I’m not giving up until she does.”

  “Think highly of yourself, don’t you, boy?”

  The old antagonism. It could all go sideways again.

  No. That stopped here and now. “I do. I’ve proven myself, Dad. I’ve built something. It’s not the ranch, but…in a way that surprises me, too, I think I understand better why you pushed me so hard.”

  His father’s head rose, but he said nothing, his gaze sharp on Jackson.

  “I find myself wishing for Ben to want to take over my company.” He grimaced. “Ironic, huh? I mean, he could do it—he’s smart as a whip, that boy—but he might not want to. I thought you’d like that. Find it funny.”

  “I don’t. Having your son reject what you want to give him hurts like hell.”

  Jackson nodded. “I can imagine.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t back then—all I could see was that you wanted to trap me here, and this was never meant for me.”

  “You’re my son. My heir.”

  “Rissa’s better with it. She loves this land in a way I never could.” He caught his father’s gaze. “I don’t hate this place, Dad, though you thought I did. I felt it when I drove in, the ties, the bonds that can’t be broken. Who I am was formed here.”

  “You could still have it.”

  “You couldn’t do that to Rissa. I won’t let you. She’s worked too damn hard to keep this place alive.”

  His father stared at the blotter centered on the wood. “I know.” He looked up. “But your boy—”

  “Mackey and Rissa will adopt Eric and possibly have other children, God willing. They’ll inherit this place.”

  His dad’s mouth twisted. “If they don’t choose California instead. Go haring off—” He flung out a hand. “Out there.”

  “There’s a big world out there, Dad. I’ve seen a lot of it. It’s not all bad.”

  “It’s not Sweetgrass,” his dad muttered.

  “No. There’s only one Sweetgrass.”

  Silence ensued.

  “You’re really back?” his dad finally asked.

  “I am. Aunt Ruby wants the place to thrive, and I can bring some business here.”

  “To Sweetgrass? Some damn video game?”