Steadfast (Iron Horse Book 3)

by Danielle Norman

  “She?”

  “Yes, she. She’ll be here around four, and I’d like it if you were at the meeting so you can hear what she has to say, too.”

  Holland shook her head. “Okay, but if I come over, it’s just for business, got it?”

  I stared at her dumbfounded. I had no clue why she was looking at me as if I were to blame for everything.

  “It’s just that . . . what happened between us . . . it can’t happen again. We don’t like each other.”

  “Yeah. Got it. You don’t like me and have no interest in sleeping with me.” How she managed to sell that lie to herself was beyond me, but sometimes you had to pick and choose your battles. This was not a battle I wanted to fight right then and there. “Just come over so you can meet her and hear everything for yourself.”

  Pissed, I turned and headed to work off some of my anger in the stables when Khan’s hooves thundered in the opposite directions, I didn’t look back.

  I wasn’t sure how long I had sat in the corner with sheep cloth and a bottle of Neatsfoot oil and conditioned the tack since it hadn’t been done in a few months. As I scrubbed, I worked through Holland’s words. She was scared of what? Me? No, that couldn’t be it. Was it that she was afraid to be vulnerable? I wasn’t sure whether I was giving my muscles more of a workout or my brain. Finally I gave up the ghost and put everything away then headed up to the house.

  When I got inside, I grabbed my phone and read the text waiting for me.

  Brandy Lakote: I’m at the Seminole County courthouse, pulling records on your property and the other two you sent me. Did you know that there hasn’t been an actual land survey completed in years on any property except yours and that was only done because you ordered it before you purchased?

  Me: No, is this important?

  Brandy Lakote: There would have to be one so they knew the land was stable for road construction and to determine fair-market value. Eminent domain is still technically a sale so they have to be done prior to making offers.

  Me: Does this mean Holbrook is making the whole thing up?

  Brandy Lakote: All three of the properties you gave me info on have had a Survey of Sustainable Management completed within the last three months. I’m going to try to contact the geophysicist who signed these surveys and then I will be out to your house.

  Me: Thanks.

  I traded my phone for my laptop and spent the next hour reading about what a geophysicist did as well as sustainable management surveys.

  Chapter Twelve

  Holland

  Damn it. I hated the way he made me feel. Why did he have to be so damn good looking? Couldn’t he be at least . . . I don’t know . . . ugly? God, those eyes—they were the color of the deepest part of the ocean and so blue that, at times, they appeared black. I knew that I was what made him as unsteady as a storm thundering one minute and lightning and hailing the next. But damn it all to hell, he did the same thing to me. My insides were a knotted mess, and I was so fucking confused.

  I held out my hands in front of me and examined my nails. I’ve never had a manicure. Hell, what woman my age has never had a manicure? And truth be told, I didn’t care if I ever had one. Could you imagine someone like me at the Kentucky Derby? First person to see my hands would be asking me to bring them a Brown Betty. Wait, was that a drink or a dessert? Shit, never mind.

  My feet were propped up on the coffee table and I was staring at the giant stone fireplace where my sisters and I spent way too many nights roasting marshmallows and pretending we were having a campfire.

  “You’re awful quiet today,” London said, taking the seat to my right.

  “Just a lot on my mind.”

  “Like what?”

  “Do I act like a kid?”

  London looked over her shoulder toward Paris as she came into the living room and plopped down on the sofa on the other side of me.

  “I have to say that you’ve grown more in the last few months than you had in the last few years. But part of it is our fault.” London waved to herself and Paris.

  “How is it your fault?”

  “You were almost four when mom left, Paris was seven, I was ten. I think that we tried to raise you. Instead of having one mom, you got two plus Daddy. I think that we probably protected you more than we should have and never pushed you to grow up because of our own guilt. Dad saw how much you loved horses and wanted to nurture that to get you away from us.”

  Paris giggled. “I think he was getting tired of us doing things for you. We would constantly tell him stuff that you wanted like chocolate chip cookies so I had to make them.”

  “But I hate chocolate chip cookies.”

  Paris giggled again. “I know, but London and I loved them and knew that he couldn’t say no to you.”

  “Awww, okay.”

  “I think Dad finally figured it out and started to worry that we weren’t allowing you to be your own person, so when he saw your love for horses and knew that neither of us were horse crazy, he encouraged you. Even after that, though, you only had to handle your horse.”

  “But I’m twenty-six, that doesn’t explain why I’m still like this, does it?”

  Paris reached over and dragged her fingers through my hair, which always used to soothe me.

  “No, it doesn’t, but old habits are hard to break. What prompted all of this anyway?”

  I debated whether I should say something, and then realized that there was zero point in trying to hide it. So, I dropped my face into my open palms and mumbled, “I slept with Reid.”

  London and Paris each reached over and pulled one hand away from my face. When I glanced at them, they were both laughing. “Care to repeat that without your hands? It was sort of garbled.” London asked.

  “Yeah, cause it sort of sounded like you slept with someone named Weed.” Paris paused. “Holy shit, Reid. You slept with Reid.”

  I pulled my hands from their grasps and buried my face again, but there wasn’t anything I could do to shut out the noise of them jumping around and dancing. “Will you both stop? My god, you are married women.”

  They weren’t listening to me.

  “I can’t wait to call Braden and tell him that he owes me twenty bucks,” London said between fits of giggles.

  “Oh my god, does Ellie know?” Paris asked me.

  I shrugged, having no clue whether Reid would tell his sister something like that. “Will you both sit? I’m serious.”

  “Hi, serious, I’m London, and you just made me twenty dollars richer.”

  “Ha ha.” I stood and flipped them both off.

  “Holland, stop. We’re just kidding. We’re so happy for you. We’ve both thought that you and him would be perfect together,” London said as she wrapped one arm around my shoulders and tried to tug me back down to the couch. “We always just assumed you were mean to him as a way of flirting.”

  What the hell?

  Paris nodded. “You know how boys are mean to little girls they like, pulling their braids and stuff like that? We thought that was what you were doing.”

  “No. The man seriously gets on my nerves. That one night was a mistake. That was all, it won’t happen again. Sure, he’s good looking, but I couldn’t care less if he went and slept with another woman. I’m not interested.” I had a strange ache around my heart. It was heartburn, that was all—or so I told myself.

  “Why are you so opposed to giving him a chance?” Paris’s soft voice seemed to break through my thoughts.

  “I’m not opposed to anything, the truth is that I’m a realist.”

  “Real? No, the word is realize, as in, when are you going to realize that we are all different? London sees a glass as half-empty, I see things more as half-full, but you? You immediately think someone is out to break your glass. You need to stop, not everything is a battle, so stop looking for opponents.”

  “I think Paris said everything I wanted to say.” London reached forward and took hold of one of my hands. “It’s okay to b
e scared.” I reluctantly agreed with them—if only to myself—I wasn’t scared, not truthfully. I was just looking at the big picture, our two different worlds. God, who was I kidding, there was so much to figure out. Holbrook first and then Reid.

  “Now that we’ve covered this, can we talk about you feeling grown-up?” I nodded at London’s question. “You have your own home, you pay your bills, and have the stables, which earn enough income to keep it running. I don’t know about you, but that kind of seems like you tick all the right boxes for being an adult.”

  “Okay, so why can’t I seem to act like one?”

  Paris leaned over toward me and let out a long sigh. “Holland, Holland, Holland. Let’s see, calling someone Dick instead of their first name, locking the door just as they are getting ready to walk in, flipping them off whenever you see them? Is it mature? Maybe not, but it’s you. And I don’t ever want you to change. I love it.”

  “Me, too. I always know that you will make me laugh. Of the three of us you’ve always had the more fun side,” London agreed.

  “How about throwing shit on their house?”

  “What?” Paris and London bellowed in unison.

  “Ummm, remember the other day when you told me to stay calm? Well, I didn’t. It wasn’t like I planned on doing it. It kind of happened.”

  “I have no clue how someone just happens to get manure on another person’s home, but yeah that one was pretty childish. Let me ask you this, though. What did you do after?”

  I held my hands up in surrender. “I went back and cleaned it all off.”

  “Before or after he saw it?” Paris asked.

  “After.”

  “Was this before or after you slept with him?” Paris asked.

  “Good point,” London added.

  “Umm, before, why?”

  “Well, at least we know he isn’t holding any grudges. If he was, then you probably worked them out of him.” London and Paris laughed . . . at my expense.

  “Ha ha, fuck you both.”

  “Seriously, Holland, you need to stop acting like this and evaluate your feelings for him. Not what you think he might feel or what you think may happen—what you truly feel for him. If not, one day you’re going to wake up and realize that he’s moved on.” Paris nodded her agreement.

  I leaned my head against back of the couch and looked at the ceiling. God, why was this so hard?

  “Did we help at all?” Paris wrapped one arm around me.

  I pinched my index and thumb together and then separated them just a tiny bit. “A little . . .” Then I threw my arms around them and pulled them in for a giant group hug. “Okay, gotta get stuff done.” I jumped up and headed for the door.

  “Holland.” Paris stopped me before I opened it. “So, how good was the sex?”

  London busted out laughing.

  I flipped them both off before hightailing it back for the stables.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Reid

  I answered my door and smiled. I wasn’t sure how I would feel seeing Brandy after so many years, but as she smiled back, my nerves settled. Her hair was just as coal black, and if it weren’t for the tiny lines at the corners of her eyes, I would have thought she was still eighteen. She was still just as breathtaking, and I felt absolutely nothing.

  Her demeanor was much colder than Holland’s, with her shoulders pulled back, and head held high. Plus, her outfit was way too . . . I didn’t know . . . big city? Sure, she looked nice, but I loved the blue jeans and boots look of Holland much more.

  “Reid, you haven’t changed one bit.” Brandy held out one hand for me to shake. It was so formal it was awkward.

  “I was thinking the exact same thing about you.” I cast a glance over Brandy’s shoulders to try to see if Holland was approaching, but she was nowhere in sight.

  Brandy followed my glance. “Are we waiting for someone?”

  “Yeah, my neighbor was supposed to join us, but maybe she got held up.”

  “Oh, is that the Kelly Ranch?”

  “Yes, there are three girls that run it.” I took one step back to move out of the open doorway. “Well, come on in, she can join in when she gets here.”

  Brandy followed me inside. “Your house is lovely. I noticed that you named your ranch the same as your family ranch back home. What exactly is it that you do here? Is it different from back home?”

  “Very different. I’m a winter boarding facility and a rehabilitation center. I’m not involved in the race circuit, but a number of the horses are racehorses. If someone tells me that they are going to start their horse in claim races, then I’ll work on improving speed while the horse is with me, but that is as far as my involvement goes.”

  “You seem happy, you must like what you’re doing.”

  “I do. I still get to work with Thoroughbreds, which I love, but this is separate from my family’s business, so I have the freedom to run it my own way. What about you, how did you get into private investigator services?” I asked as we moved to the kitchen.

  “In college, I thought that I wanted to be a lawyer, but then I wanted to be a police woman, so I switched to criminal justice. In one of the classes, an investigator who spoke with us used to be an expert computer hacker and had competed in the Cyberlympics.”

  “The what?”

  “It is an international challenge, where computer hackers gather and try to hack into systems. There are challenges where they are given time limits and criteria where they have to circumvent certain systems. Companies and government agencies actually pay big bucks to have their systems up to be tried. Can you imagine knowing you have the top hacker on your team? Great boon for the CIA.”

  “Wow, I never even fathomed this.”

  “I know, right. Needless to say, I was entranced, I had always loved computers, but she showed me how to use these skills to help the regular person like you and me. She and I instantly bonded. She took me under her wing and well as they say . . .”

  “The rest is history,” we both said in unison.

  “Did you stay in Texas after college?”

  “Actually no, I only stayed down there for two years, it was way too hot for me, I transferred to Northwestern and that is where I still live. I love Chicago. I find that a more central location makes it easier to get wherever I need to be.” Brandy set a briefcase on the table and pulled out several sets of scientific data sheets. “Well, let’s get started.” She pointed to the top page. “These are the sustainable surveys I had mentioned. Actually, they are magnetometry surveys, they test the ground for phosphates.”

  “Is that what he’s after? He thinks our land has phosphates? Most of the phosphate mines have been found almost two hours away.”

  “That’s my best guess based on the three properties you sent me. I won’t know until I can look into the other properties, though.”

  I got up and grabbed a folder off the counter. “Here you go.”

  “Perfect. Now, what can you tell me about the Kelly Ranch? Holbrook has had several different surveys done on that property. It seems like he is almost fixated on it.”

  I nodded. “I’m not sure I can tell you much. It’s just over four hundred acres, and I’m pretty sure their father owned it before they were born. You would have to ask them for specifics.” I stared at the documents, trying to make sense of the numbers. “How are these tests done? I mean, wouldn’t they have to be on the property to do them?”

  “Yes, they would need access. Depending on whether it was purely surface magnetic or they had to actually drill down matrix samples.”

  “How would they do that?”

  Brandy grabbed a notebook and flipped until she found the page she was looking for. “They would use a wide-bit type auger to drill a hole, similar to how a well would be dug but just not as deep. Water is added to form a thick slurry. This is how they grade the phosphate and remove the pebbles.”

  “Are there any of those types of reports or surveys in the files?”
/>   “No, but I spoke to the geophysicist that did these studies, and he said he completed a slurry test to test the minerals around the same time. He couldn’t confirm which property they came from, though.”

  “So, you’re telling me that Holbrook is illegally trespassing on our property and testing our land without our permission?”

  “I’m telling you that someone is.”

  “Did this geophysicist tell you who hired him?”

  “Yes. Maverick Trust, I have a call into them. The number is a cell phone and not showing up in any databases.”

  “Anything else? Did you find out anything about Councilman Stuart?”

  She flipped through a dozen papers before looking up at me. “Do you know his wife?” I shook my head. “Valerie Holbrook.”

  “Holbrook, as in—”

  “Johnson Holbrook’s daughter, yep. Shane is his son-in-law.”

  “Why isn’t this disclosed anywhere?”

  “They were married before he ran for office, and Valerie prefers to stay out of the media.”

  I dragged one hand down my face, not believing what I was hearing. “So, he’s just supporting whatever Holbrook is after?”

  “That’s how it looks, but I’m still digging.”

  “Okay. Did you find anything on the road expansion?”

  “Nope. I went through the minutes from the state and county legislative meetings and couldn’t find anything. Speaking of which, tell Arthur I appreciate all his help. He walked me through all of the eminent domain procedures since they differ from state to state, and then he filled me in on all of the exceptions such as historical, public use, and hardship reasons. I was actually feeling the time crunch trying to go through all the statutes and then compare it to the surveys.”

  “I’m happy the two of you were able to get somewhere.”