by Skylar Hill
“Nat!” she said as she got out. “Hey, I’ve got those—”
“Can’t talk,” Nat said, rushing into the elevator. “Gotta go make sure my dad doesn’t kill Rhett.”
The last thing she saw before the elevator doors was Renee’s shocked face, her eyes and mouth open in surprise.
Nat was on the highway, speeding as responsibly as she could, when she thought, Mom.
Oh, hell, her mother. Her dad was going to be angry, but she was the apple of his eye and then some. He’d forgive her.
But Vivian Banks was a hell of a woman and stubborn as a mule. She’d also been looking forward to Nat’s wedding day for what seemed like forever.
Shit.
“Call Mom,” she directed her car’s Bluetooth.
The phone rang for a long time. So long that she was starting to think her mother wouldn’t answer, and then finally, she picked up.
“Hello, Natalie.”
Crap. Her full name off the bat. She was in so much trouble. Why was it that even at thirty, her mother’s disapproval could reduce her to feeling like a five-year-old again?
“Hi Momma,” she said. “So. Umm… I guess you heard.”
“That you’ve married a man your father and I don’t even know, seemingly on a whim?”
“It was not a whim,” she said. “And you know of him. I’ve mentioned him to you before.”
“You’ve mentioned a friend named Rhett,” Vivian said. “And now apparently he’s my son-in-law.”
“It’s not like that, Momma,” she said. “Did… did Dad explain the situation? That this is me doing a favor for Rhett because of a legal issue?”
She could practically hear her mother roll her eyes. “You and your desire to fix everything is going to hurt you one of these days, sweetheart.”
Too late. She was already hurt. When it came to Rhett, she was already doomed. Everything was going to change, and it was her fault, because she’d suggested it, she had his ring on her finger, and she didn’t want to take it off, ever.
She didn’t want to leave him, ever.
But she would, and soon she would have to. Her life was in the city she was leaving in her dust right now.
“I gotta go,” she said, her voice clogged with tears she couldn’t shed. Not when she’d be facing her father soon. “I love you. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disappoint you. I just…”
I love him.
“I had to help him,” she said, because the other truth was too much. “Bye, Momma,” she said, quickly, before pressing End call.
Then she pressed down hard on the gas and prayed she’d get back to River Run before Big Stan did something dire.
Twenty-Five
Rhett
Rhett made his way up to the lodge, wondering if maybe he should draw Big Stan out of the place just in case he caused a scene.
But when he made his way to the back lounge, which was reserved for private parties and had its own giant river-rock fireplace that was crackling merrily, he found his father and an absolutely gigantic man, a true Paul Bunyan/Abe Lincoln type, laughing together in chairs by the fire.
Nat had described Big Stan perfectly: he had a silvery gray handlebar mustache, and his white cowboy hat was sitting on the rough-edged redwood mantle. His plaid shirt was tucked into neatly ironed Levi’s, a leather belt with a giant rodeo buckle—no doubt won by the man himself—on it.
“Hello, sir,” Rhett said, coming forward, resisting the urge to slick his hand through his hair one more time. “You must be Natalie’s father, Stan. I’m Rhett Oakes.” He held his hand out.
Big Stan rose from his chair and took it. Even though Rhett was six and a half feet tall, the man topped him by at least an inch or two.
“So you’re the man who married my little girl,” he said, his voice a dark, deep John Wayne–type rumble.
“Apparently it’s just for legal reasons,” Hank put in, and Rhett barely resisted the urge to glare at his father, who was clearly enjoying this way too much.
“Dad, can you give us a few minutes?” Rhett asked.
“I’ll go see if I can scare up some grub from that fancy chef of yours,” Hank said, disappearing out of the private lounge.
“Please, sit,” Rhett said. “I can explain better than my father did, hopefully.”
“I understand the situation,” Big Stan said, remaining standing, positively looming over him. “You got into a legal bind. And Nat, being Nat, did you a favor. What I don’t understand is what kind of man lets a woman do that for him.”
Rhett’s spine prickled, irritation sparking inside him. “The kind of man who employs over a hundred people in the area who will lose their jobs if I don’t have access to my water sources. The kind of man who has eighty different species, some endangered, recovering or being rehabilitated at our refuge, not to mention the thousands of acres of wildlife, flora, and fauna that is my responsibility to care for. The kind of man who looks at your daughter and sees a woman who is strong and smart and who knows her own mind and makes her own choices, and who is a good enough friend who cares enough about this place to do this massive favor for me, and for it.”
There was dead silence after this little monologue, and as it stretched out, Rhett’s heart began to thud in his ears, because any second, Nat’s father was going to punch him. Rhett had taken more than a few punches in his life, but he had a feeling that if Big Stan punched you, you went down. Fast.
But then, the older man’s face broke into a wide smile. “Well, hell, son,” he drawled. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in love with her? That’s a whole other matter.”
Rhett gaped at him. Was he that obvious?
Before he could respond, the door to the lounge slammed open, and Nat bolted inside, her hair flying loose around her head, her cheeks bright red, and her eyes wild as they looked around, finally settling on the two of them standing so close.
“Daddy! Don’t you dare shoot him!” she ordered.
“Aw, Natty-Batty, why do you always think I’m gonna shoot ’em?”
Natty-Batty? Rhett mouthed at Nat, who glared at him like, Shut up if you value your life! God, she was so cute. He wanted her to glare at him like that forever. Trace the little crunching of her eyebrows when she did it. Kiss the crinkles of her eyes…
“Because you always try to!” Nat snapped back.
Seriously? Rhett thought.
“That’s not true,” Big Stan protested. “It’s really not,” he said to Rhett. “The one boyfriend who got shot in the ass took off his reflective vest while we were hunting like an idiot.”
“You should have been looking for him!” Nat snapped back. “Not just continuing the hunt! He was lost!”
“Then he shouldn’t have taken off the damn vest so he’d be found,” Big Stan said.
“He has a point,” Rhett said.
“You stay out of this!” Nat said, shaking her finger at him. “You hung up on me.”
Big Stan whistled. “Don’t do that,” he told Rhett. “She doesn’t like that. Neither does her mother. Quickest way to piss her off.”
“Good to know,” Rhett replied with a grin.
Nat stared at the two of them, looking horrified. “Don’t give him tips about me, Dad! Are you… are you two bonding?”
“I mean, he is my son-in-law, darlin’,” Big Stan said, his eyes twinkling.
“Oh my God, I can’t even with you,” Nat said, holding her hands up. “Either of you!”
“Oh, come on, Natty,” Big Stan said, and Rhett watched as this giant practically melted at his daughter’s feet. “Aren’t you glad I’m laughing and not shooting?”
“Did you come all this way to laugh?” she asked.
“I came out here because your mother asked me to,” he said. “I came out here because I knew if your mother came, you two would be at it like a pair of bobcats over this. So I figured the more level-headed one in the family should take care of it.”
“There is nothing to take care of,” N
at said.
“But aren’t you glad it’s me here, not your mother?”
She nibbled on her lower lip. “Yes,” she muttered.
“Good,” Big Stan clapped his giant hands together. Rhett noticed he wore a giant horseshoe ring on his right ring finger. “Now since I’m here, I figured I’d stay in this beautiful lodge I’ve heard all about, treat you and your new but totally not real husband to dinner, and then I can go back home, let your mother know you’re just being your normal fix-it self and you’re not throwing away the rest of your life on some man who’s gonna take your inheritance and destroy your life. You know, normal mother worries when her daughter’s a hell-raiser like you.”
“Dad…” Nat protested, and Rhett couldn’t choke back the chuckle rising in his throat. Big Stan was quite a character.
“Your father already arranged a room for me, so I’m gonna go get cleaned up before dinner,” Big Stan said, brushing a kiss on Nat’s cheek. “It’s good to see you, sweetheart. I’ll see you at seven. Your new father-in-law is so looking forward to meeting you. I told him all about your rodeo days on the flight over.”
Nat groaned as he left the lounge. “I cannot believe this,” she said, turning to Rhett. “I am going to kill your brother.”
“I should’ve warned you, Jace is totally the gossipy aunt of the family. Don’t worry, I’m gonna torture him this Christmas to get back at him for spilling.”
“Good,” Nat said, and he probably shouldn’t like that hard, maybe slightly vicious streak in her, but he did. He liked her sweet and he liked her wild and he just…
You don’t just like her, you…
“I’m sorry I interrupted your whole day,” he said. “I know you had that meeting.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “The meeting was over before it even began, really. The photographer was all wrong for the project. I’m glad he’s gone, but it means I have to start from scratch, and I have some really strict deadlines, so more stress.” She sighed, shrugging her shoulders back, like she was trying to relieve the tension. More than anything, he wanted to help her, to massage her shoulders, draw her a bath, use his fingers and lips and cock to get rid of all that stress. His mind tripped over the visual for a second before he forced himself to snap back to the present.
“You’ll find someone great,” he said.
“I hope so,” she said.
“I know so. You don’t fail, Nat.”
For some reason, it made her frown at him, her delicate dark brows knitting together. “You shouldn’t have so much faith in me,” she said shakily.
He reached out, taking her hand, drawing her towards him. “But I do.”
Her eyes swept down, unable to meet his eyes, her fingers soft against his, entwining with his like she couldn’t stop herself. With his other hand, he gently grasped her chin, tilting her head toward his.
“We said we wouldn’t,” she said.
They had agreed the other night would be the last time.
They both knew they had been lying to each other. To themselves.
His lips were just a breath’s away from hers, she could feel the warmth of them against her skin, when a knock on the lounge door startled them apart. Nat stepped away, clearing her throat, as Molly peeked her head in.
“Sorry,” she said. “But Rhett, I need you. Fred the bear’s spiked a fever. I think we need to go back in on the wound on his left back paw.”
“Fuck,” Rhett swore.
“Go,” Nat urged him. “If you aren’t done by dinner, I’ll handle the Dads.”
“Thanks, Nat,” he said, feeling that horrible, overwhelming sense of rightness and support again. Unconditional. That’s what love should be like, right?
He hurried out of the lodge with Molly, worry spiking in his chest as they raced to the clinic.
Twenty-Six
Nat
Knowing that Rhett could be in surgery for hours, and with hours to go before their dinner, Nat walked out to the stables and saddled up Goliath. She was in full avoidance mode when it came to her father—at least for now. Big Stan seemed to find it way too amusing that she had gotten married. There was a gleam in her father’s eyes when he looked at her and Rhett together that made her suspicious—and worried. Her father knew her incredibly well, they had always been so close, and if he figured out her true feelings for Rhett, he would meddle. Out of love, but still. She didn’t need her father meddling.
Is how I really feel showing on my face? she worried as she rode Goliath along one of the horse trails up along the north end of the property. She loved the sheltering cool of the woods, the many ferns that blanketed the ground, the fallen trees that Goliath cleared like they were twigs. He was truly a magnificent horse, and she felt lucky to be able to ride him.
The sun was starting to sink when she finally turned around to head back. As she passed a clearing in the trees, she looked out into the valley, and her stomach dropping at what she saw.
“Whoa, boy,” she said, pulling on the reins. “What in the world?” She squinted, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. But no…
Right there, in the middle of the dense woods on Timothy Durbin’s property, a giant patch of trees had been cleared completely—this far away she could even see that the stumps had been blasted out of the ground.
That’s what he was doing with the dynamite he picked up? Blasting up tree stumps, not looking for gold?
Nat urged Goliath forward, off the trail and through the forest, heading toward the line that divided Durbin’s property from Rhett’s. She stayed behind the trees so she couldn’t be seen, but after about fifteen minutes of picking through the forest, she finally reached the edge of the clearing that spread out before the sheltering woods… and that acted as a type of Trojan horse for whatever Durbin was up to.
What was he up to? Nat craned her neck, peering through the trees. There were a few trucks parked in the clearing, but no one in sight. Was he starting a logging operation? Was that what this was all about? Did he need water access because he wanted to build a mill or something?
She was about to slip off Goliath’s back to get a better look when a loud boom shattered the silence of the forest. Her foot, already slightly slack in the stirrup, twisted as Goliath reared up, startled by the sudden noise. She tried to hang onto the horse, but it was too late, she was falling, and then, everything was black.
Oh God, my head, was her first thought as she blinked in the sudden, bright light.
“She’s awake,” said a voice.
Who was that?
“Go get him,” said another voice, and then she heard footsteps in the muddle as she struggled to sit up. Spots cleared from her vision and as she took in her surroundings, a slow jolt of fear filled her.
She was in a shed, one of those prefab metal ones. There was fertilizer stacked against one side of it, and to her right, were shelves and shelves of seed trays, lights shining above them, a fan whirring in the back for ventilation.
The seed trays were filled with poppies. Not pot… freaking poppies.
Durbin was a drug dealer. Her head—there was a big lump on the back—spun at the realization. He made opium or heroin or whatever you made with poppies. She wasn’t really hip to the process.
Oh, crap! Her thoughts were skipping all around as the severity of this situation finally hit her. She licked her lips, wincing at how dry and cracked they were as the shed door swung open and Durbin stepped inside.
“And you said you weren’t spying on me,” he said.
She tilted her chin up, trying not to shake too much. Was he going to kill her? She needed a weapon. She needed to at least go down fighting. “Well, considering how fucking suspicious you kept acting, you really can’t blame me,” she snapped back, with so much bravado she surprised herself. You can do this, Nat. You can get out of this. Just concentrate. Be the fucking ball-buster that every man who hates you has called you.
Durbin shook his head. “You should’ve kept your nose o
ut all of this. If you hadn’t married him, everything would’ve been fine.”
“Are you kidding me?” she spat, desperate to keep him on edge as she glanced around the room, trying to find something, anything to use as a weapon. The fear was hot and thick inside her body, but she couldn’t let it control her. She had to just embrace the ride—the dangerous, incredibly bad ride—and hold on. “Your plan totally sucked from the start. You didn’t want him on your land for the water tank inspection, right?” she asked. “That’s what this is really all about. The tanks. You didn’t actually care about the rights. You were just going to illegally siphon the water from the tanks to your little poppy field out there in the forest, and you couldn’t do that if Rhett kept sticking to the easement and maintaining them. He’d get suspicious, and as soon as he tallied up the water use, he’d know. So your solution was to cut him off completely and destroy his business?”
Durbin’s lip curled. “I’ll have my way,” he said. “There’s nothing in those by-laws about widowers.”
Nat fingers curled into her palms, her nails biting into her flesh.
“You’re such a fucking moron,” she sneered. “He’ll catch you. He’s won. No matter what you do, you’ll never get that water. You won’t pollute this county with your drugs. Let me guess: that house they busted, the one with the bear cubs, that was part of your operation, wasn’t it?’
Durbin flushed.
She smiled. “That must’ve been quite the blow to your business,” she said. “Have your cronies turned snitch yet?”
“They won’t,” Durbin snapped, his composure finally rippling. She was getting to him. Good.
She leaned forward, her face intense. “You sure about that?” she asked.
Twenty-Seven
Rhett
Luckily, once they’d flushed it out, Fred’s paw wasn’t as bad as they originally thought, so there was no need for further care. Just another shot of amoxicillin, and then he was back with his brother in their enclosure, snug together, sleeping off the effects of the anesthesia.