King's Country (Oil Kings Book 4)

by Marie Johnston

  Inside, Dawson and I washed our hands in the mudroom while Gentry and Kendall set the table.

  This morning had gone from pleasant excitement to coiled dread. I was going to have a meal with the villain of Pop’s life story. Anxiety wound around my gut, squeezing off the appetite I’d come here with.

  “Hey,” Dawson said quietly. “It’ll be all right.”

  “I know,” I replied automatically. This was Dawson’s house. His family. I would be civil. I doubt Gentry would give me a reason not to be.

  But Gentry was going to help work my cattle? Did he have some morbid fascination with how bad it really had been for Pop? How broke I really was? Gentry and his kids had the best view of my shit show of a life. Pop and I had seemed reclusive and secretive, and I’d never shared the specifics, but I hadn’t needed to. Our life had been on display. Anyone could have extrapolated and figured out how we lived.

  There was a knock on the mudroom door. Gentry leaned against the frame. He gave Dawson a little smile. “Mind if I have a word with Bristol?”

  I tried to avoid confrontations, but when I found myself in one, I stood my ground. Yet right now, I wanted to run. Why did Gentry want to talk to me alone? To warn me off his son? To tell me I wasn’t worthy of any of his family? I couldn’t think of any other reason.

  Dawson glanced at me first before he answered.

  “It’s not a problem.” My voice came out raspy. Way to stand strong. It was easier to look like an uncaring bitch in the grocery store, where there were five aisles to disappear down and an exit.

  Dawson gave my hand a squeeze and left.

  I leaned against the sink and tried not to groan as water seeped into my backside. Because of course it did. “What’s up?”

  “If being here is going to be a problem, I can go.” His voice was gentle, his small smile still in place. “Kendall and I can get a room in town.”

  My mouth opened but nothing came out. I clenched it shut. Was he really offering to leave if I wanted him to? “I’m not staying here. You don’t have to go on account of me.”

  Gentry’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “It seems as if Dawson would rather have you around than his dad stepping all over his business.”

  Confusion swirled in my brain. The Kings had been the bane of our existence for so long. I was sleeping with Dawson. We’d practically double-dated with Aiden and Kate. And now Gentry was being nice. “What’s this all about? Why are you even offering? Why do you care?” The questions poured out and I couldn’t stop them. “And why do you want to help me work cattle? Nothing’s going to be a surprise. I’m dirt poor. The ranch is on the brink of collapsing. Pop drank every spare cent we had. What do you want to prove?”

  I pressed shaky fingers to my forehead. God, had I just snapped at Gentry King? I hadn’t said more than a sentence to him in almost twenty years.

  “Bristol, I don’t want to prove anything.” There was that gentle tone again. Like I was a green horse ready to buck. “I’m offering because it’s the neighborly thing to do, and I thought maybe you’d take me up on it when your dad never did.”

  Pop never what? “You offered to help Pop? Was that before or after you called the police on him when he left The Tap after a bender?”

  “To clarify, I called a friend of mine that was a deputy and asked him to make sure no one got hurt. My kids were out on those roads.” He shoved a hand into his jeans like he’d been busted stealing candy. “And also to be clear, Sarah made me offer—to help with the cattle, the fences, equipment repair. And I extended the offer most years because of her.” He blew out a breath. “And . . . because the more I got to know Sarah’s parents, the more I could see that your dad and I were dealing with the decisions of our parents. Your grandparents got the land your house is on based on a gamble. Your dad didn’t deserve any hard feelings about that. As for the rest of your land . . .” His dark brows knit together. “I think that a lot of the animosity might have been deserved on the part of the Boyds.”

  “You mean how Emilia and DB sold that land to get the money to start their company and made sure to keep the mineral rights so they could then drill on it?”

  His mouth tightened. I wasn’t going to apologize for the way I was, and I had no wish to rehash the history between us, but I refused to pretend that my family had been anything less than swindled and that it’d cost us. After the oil booms of the last couple of generations, keeping mineral rights on land sold was becoming standard practice. But selling that land in order to get the money to start a business that would later use those mineral rights to drill on it? Then using that revenue to grow a lucrative empire while inhibiting how much cattle could graze on that land, thereby decimating its value? That was dirty.

  He let out a long exhale. “I never heard that part of the story, but after what I’ve seen of Emilia and DB’s business ethos, I can’t not believe it.”

  My anger ebbed. He believed me?

  Then he went one step further and said, “I also think land shouldn’t have been used in a poker game.” He spread his hands. “But here we are. I enjoy working cattle. I love how it’s become a tradition that brings all my kids together. I came to King’s Creek a day early because it’s too beautiful out to sit in an office. And when I learned Dawson was helping you today, I thought it’d be rude as hell to sit it out. But the truth is, I don’t want to sit it out. I’d like to see the cowgirl you’ve become. Sarah thought the world of you.”

  I would not cry. But my chin did an unfortunate tremble. “I thought the world of her.”

  “She’d be proud of you.”

  My watery gaze shot to his.

  He nodded. “You held that place together. I know it was hard on Danny after Sarah died. I know he loved her and thought she was just more proof that the world was out to get him. And I admit, I wasn’t sure what kind of person you’d grow up to be. But Aiden told me how you broke your leg. That wasn’t just about the money you’d have lost if the cow had died. You care about those creatures, just like you’ve been caring for them since you could ride.”

  My body was rigid, but I held the tears at bay. My eyes burned.

  He tilted his head. “I’m not wrong, am I?”

  I sniffed. “You don’t strike me as a guy who’s wrong very often.”

  “In business? No. But people are harder to figure out.” He took a step back, giving me space. I’d need a moment before I went into the dining room and pretended I hadn’t just had the most poignant conversation of my life. “People make decisions that can hurt another person when they’re only trying to protect themselves.”

  That statement sounded like I’d missed something. I pushed off the sink to give the back of my pants a few minutes to dry. Was he talking about my family, or his?

  Dawson

  I manned the grill. Beck had stocked the beer fridge I mainly used when my family was around. Beck and Xander stood behind me, chatting about Xander and Savvy’s recent trip to Kosovo to visit friends. Aiden and Kate hadn’t arrived yet, but they’d eat when they got here.

  During a break in conversation, Beck peered over my shoulder. “You burning my ribeye?”

  I snorted. “Do I ever?” He loved giving me shit while I cooked, but he was always the first in line to eat my food. The guy had eaten in some of the best restaurants around the world, but he loved my cooking. I’d never tell him how proud that made me.

  He peered down the driveway. “Bristol’s coming, right?”

  “Yes.” I kept the hesitation out of my voice. She’d been quiet while we’d worked side by side today. She’d followed my directions, stayed out of my brothers’ way, and kept her hat low and her head down. “She probably saw how whipped you all are and realized you’re not as badass as the town thinks you are.”

  Xander chuckled but Beck frowned. “Do I need to rip through town in my old pickup and show them I’ve still got it?”

  Beck’s old pickup was loud, obnoxious, and every teenaged country boy’s wet dream. He drov
e it whenever he came to town. When he wasn’t around, Xander drove it. I doubt I’d ever see Aiden behind the wheel, but the envy was apparent in his gaze when the pickup’s pipes rumbled the beams of the house. He was here more often than the others; I didn’t know why he never took it for a spin.

  He might putter around as slow as a brand-new driver if he did, unwilling to give up control.

  “You can try to rip through town,” I said, “but we both know that Eva’s going to take the wheel after five minutes.”

  “True.” Beck took a drink off his longneck. “So . . .”

  I rolled my eyes. Here it came. Beck and Eva had arrived earlier with only enough time to drop their luggage and run out to the barn. Xander and Savvy had arrived a little later. Xander had jumped in and Savvy had used her husband’s camera to snap pictures of all of us all day, muttering something about how our denim-clad asses would get a lot of traffic.

  Savvy had taken Bristol by surprise when she’d asked to get her in the pictures. A redhead, with your body? We’ll get so much dude traffic on the site.

  I’d expected a scowl and a curt refusal to have her pictures plastered all over Savvy Energy’s blog and Instagram, but she’d lifted a shoulder and said, “Happy to help.” She might not be intimidated, since I was sure she didn’t have a social media account of any kind.

  But I’d have to get those pictures. Her tight ass in those Wranglers did me in. Could I get away with sneaking over to her place tonight? Or should I get some restless sleep dreaming of her strong body in my own bed?

  “This thing between you and Bristol,” Beck continued. “How serious?”

  I delayed my response with a long drink of my ice-cold beer. “As serious as she’ll let it be.”

  Xander had closed in on us until the three of us stared at the sizzling meat.

  “You know my next question,” Beck said.

  “Yep.” A subject I’d been actively avoiding.

  “Are you going to wait to tell her until you know she’s not going to strangle you in your sleep with her legs?”

  I loved her legs wrapped around my head, and I wouldn’t be suffering. “How do you tell someone that? I mean, really? It’s not just me that’d sound like a grade A asshole. You all deliberately kept her from getting the money.”

  “We’re all happily married,” Xander said. “And outside of the year window. We married for real.”

  “Yeah, but the three of you made sure to do it before you turned twenty-nine. Days or hours before,” I stressed. I looked around to make sure I hadn’t missed Bristol pulling up. She wasn’t around, but I lowered my voice anyway. “Do you know how awful she’s been living? How fucking poor she is? We actively kept her that way.”

  Beck didn’t flinch. “To be fair, that money was our family’s.”

  “To be fair,” I echoed, “Grams screwed her family out of it. Did you know Grams and DB sold the land in order to start the oil company? They planned to drill on it after it was sold.”

  Xander whistled low. “Selling the land intentionally like that—are you sure?” He shook his head. “Never mind. I should’ve figured it out. Do you think that’s why Mama did what she did with the money?”

  I was too young to remember a lot about Mama and her relationship with Grams. But I remembered Mama and her big heart and, as a kid, wondering how she could be so warm and happy when Grams was so cool and aloof. DB had died a few years after Mama, but I recalled him being brash and boastful.

  Beck shook his head. “What if we’d all married earlier and hadn’t realized the trust existed until Aiden turned thirty and got the first windfall? We wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “I would’ve been divorced by now.” If I’d married McKenzie after college, would she have gotten half and then gotten sick of the ranch life and left me five years later?

  Beck nodded. “We all would’ve been. Like it or not, that trust forced us to find the person we wanted to spend our life with.”

  I wish I could be as happy about it. “But Bristol’s not going to spew joy-filled rainbows when she hears the good news. After what our grandparents did, it’s going to feel like four more slaps in the face.” It would hurt even more that Mama had planned it all.

  Xander toed the concrete of the parking pad. “You’re kinda screwed either way, then. You either have to tell her that you need to get married in the next two months so she doesn’t get the money. Or you wait, and it’s like telling her that not even a hundred mill is enough to make you marry her. How would that go over with her? Or with the rest of the town when the news gets out and spreads like a forest fire?” He gave me a wince like I had one lifeline and it had just snapped. “Sucks, man.”

  I blew out a breath. “You could say that. I mean, it shouldn’t be hard to ask for time to date her without worrying about the damn trust. I wish I could just forget it, but as soon as July fifth hits, she’s going to get a windfall and have a few questions.”

  “Then hate all of us,” Beck added.

  I shot him a disgruntled glare. Sometimes, brothers were just good for pointing out obvious shitty details. “I really like her.” I flipped the steaks, half muttering, half gushing. “Her eyes don’t glaze over when I talk about why I think the Black Angus breed is the best for Montana winters. I even told her about the genetics deal we were offered and that I passed because Tucker and I are working out a plan to do our own Black Angus seed bulls. I didn’t have to explain a thing; she knew what I meant. I can talk shop without one single eye roll. Not only doesn’t she feign interest, but she actually contributes to the conversation.”

  “Do you two talk about more than work though?” Xander asked. “Just because she lives the life doesn’t mean you’re, like, fated or something. You two need more in common.”

  “You mean other than being rich and wanting to travel?” That might’ve been a shallow dig, but they didn’t understand Bristol. She wasn’t one-dimensional. She had a million facets that shone even in the dismal light of her life. “She loves my cooking, and I like cooking for her. Even more than for you fuckers. And we both have a weakness for formulaic romance movies.”

  “Dawson,” Beck said carefully and my hackles rose. He was speaking slowly, cautiously. Like I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “You two need more than liking a few of the same things and ranching together. She’s lived a different life than you.”

  “And you and Eva came from the same backgrounds?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t think you know what you mean. I had less in common with McKenzie. We were both from Montana and went to the same college, and you all thought she was great.” I flipped the hood of the grill down before I hurt my eyes glaring at the flames. “Bristol sees the world like none of us ever will. She saw her dad as a person. Same with all the help he hired.”

  “No.” Beck’s jaw clenched. “No. It’s because of that help—”

  “What’s going on out here?” Dad walked out of the garage, Aiden on his heels. His eyes were narrowed, no doubt because I had rounded on Beck, and Xander was shaking his head.

  A muscle jumped in Beck’s jaw. “Dawson here was saying that Bristol has compassion for people like the guy that beat Mama to death.”

  Dad winced at Beck’s blunt words. Hell, we all did.

  “Shh.” I looked around. “Is she here?”

  Dad looked between us. “Yes, but don’t worry. I think Kendall waylaid her, assuming she wouldn’t want to walk out here with all of us. So. What’s going on?”

  “She said Danny was sick.” I gave Beck a pointed look. “And the meth head too. And that she thinks Danny kept hiring those guys because a part of him wanted to give someone a second chance. Since for whatever reason, they wouldn’t seek help on their own.”

  My brothers stayed quiet, but some of the heat drained from Beck’s gaze.

  “Danny was really sick. You guys don’t know—”

  “Then why don’t you tell us?” Aid
en’s hard tone surprised all of us. “Tell us how he was so sick that he got Mama killed.”

  “He lived in squalor. It was so bad, Bristol lives in the RV during the winter and the hunting cabin during the summer.”

  “That’s not possible,” Beck said.

  “She managed to clean the bathroom. It was about all he’d let her do. I cleaned it so she wouldn’t have to . . .” I sucked in a breath. “So she wouldn’t have to once again deal with how he’d lived when she’s still mourning his death.”

  My brothers were quiet. Dad’s gaze was aimed across the pastures like he could see it.

  “He was sick,” I stressed. “The guy that killed Mama was sick. I think he needed to be punished, and he was, but come on. No one wakes up one day and decides to be addicted to drugs.”

  “There were obviously a lot of bad decisions made, by both Danny and . . .” Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. We were all trying not to get lost in that night. Coming home. Finding Mama. The terror.

  The way panic had paralyzed me. How my kid brain was stuck on how I hadn’t told her that I’d gotten all my spelling words correct for the first time that year, and she couldn’t be gone because I had to tell her. She would’ve been thrilled. She’d helped me study the night before.

  Tears burned the backs of my eyes. Fuck. Nineteen years could seem like two days at the oddest moments.

  Dad cleared his throat. “But none of it was Bristol’s fault.”

  “Why didn’t she come to the funeral?” Beck asked, but less hostility coated his words than earlier.

  “Think about it,” I hissed, my gaze darting around. “She was eight. Danny fucked up and he knew it. What was she going to do? Walk out on her dad and go anyway?”

  “And after?” Xander sounded more curious than resentful.

  “He had nothing left but her and his pride.”

  Beck stuffed his hands into his jeans. “And I’m guessing how we treated her didn’t help.”

  Aiden folded his arms, but he was staring at the concrete.

  Xander bobbed his head, his expression resigned. “It hurts to say it, but Mama would’ve been ashamed of us.”