Worth the Price

by Delilah Hunt

  “I need my glasses to see better.”

  Danika frowned. “I can’t remember the last time I saw you wear them.” She slid the pictures closer to him. “It’s a simple question. Is there any chance at all you gave him your card to buy pliers? And do you have any idea at all who the other guy could be?”

  He shifted his gaze from her and pushed aside the pictures. For the first time, Danika wondered if she had erred in her haste to defend him.

  “All this talk about body types is nonsense.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t see a lot of men walking around Hart’s Fall looking like that. The guy in the footage is the only person I can think of. Nonsense or not, the way you’re acting right now makes me think I’m right. That man did work for you, didn’t he? Don’t lie to me, Daddy. I put my marriage on the line to help you. More than once. I deserve to hear the truth. Did you arrange for those men to steal Brandon’s cattle?”

  “You don’t understand,” he grumbled. “Sharpe forced my hand. I tried to reason with him.”

  A cold sweat washed through her. “Please don’t tell me you were involved. If that’s what you’re saying—”

  “No, I didn’t have anything to do with that mess.”

  “Then what did you mean by Brandon forcing your hand?”

  “Those idiots you mentioned. Yes, they worked for me. Listen to me, Dani, if they went ahead and made off with Sharpe’s cattle that’s strictly on them. I let them go as soon as I realized the company was going under. They weren’t even full-time workers.”

  She folded her arms. “You’re not giving me all the pieces to this story. I couldn’t care less how many hours they worked for you. What does Brandon forcing your hand and those thieves have in common? If they’re scheming against my husband you had better let me know.”

  “I’m not planning anything with them. Not anymore.” He ran his hands over his face, a haggard look in his eyes. “Jesus, girl you’re forcing this out of me.”

  “Forcing what!”

  “The truth, Dani girl,” he said with a long sigh. “I can’t keep lying to you or myself. A while back, I got it into my head that if someone snuck onto the Bar S it would give Sharpe a scare, make him think twice about staying in Hart’s Fall.”

  “Are you serious?” Her heart threatened to beat right out of her chest. “How could you think of doing something like that? And did you really think Brandon is that much of a coward to scare so easily?”

  “I wasn’t thinking straight,” he said, staring at the floor. “You know me, Dani. I could never have gone through with organizing a break-in on someone’s property. I lost my head for a while, but once I came to my senses, I tried to call off the entire plan, but it was too late.”

  “Did you pay them to do it?”

  He nodded but refused to meet her gaze. “A thousand bucks between the two. They were broke, desperate like me, you could say.”

  Danika held a sharp breath. “And Brandon’s cattle?”

  “I have no idea. I told them to do whatever they wanted with it as long as they didn’t say a word about it to me.”

  “To help you sleep better at night?” She couldn’t keep the anger from her voice.

  “I never said I was proud of it. It was a stupid mistake. I’ve regretted it ever since and thought it would all just wash over. I never thought months later those two idiots would skulk back onto Sharpe’s ranch. It’s not my fault. There was no way I could have known.”

  She snorted and rolled her eyes. “No, no, of course it isn’t. How could it be? Nothing is ever your own fault. Not missing that auction, not setting up Brandon to be robbed, not pretending to be completely innocent.”

  He studied her. “I suppose this means you’re going to repeat everything I’ve said to him.” His shoulders stiffened. “Though I don’t see why you’re so upset. It’s not like Sharpe can’t afford the loss of a few cows.”

  “No, he can’t.” That might have been true before she entered the picture. “You don’t realize what he sacrificed so I would marry him. Even if he could sustain such a loss, how on earth is that fair to him?” She shook her head. “No. You need to tell me where these guys are so we can find them and hopefully retrieve Brandon’s steers.”

  His hands fell to his lap. “I don’t know where to find them. They were my employees, not friends. Have you considered what’ll happen to me after you go to Sharpe with all of this information? The only reason I’m not sitting in jail right now is my attorney convinced the judge I’m too incapacitated to run off until they build their case. If they can build one. Now when everything comes out, those two will implicate me.” He broke off and gazed at her with eyes glazed with fear. “I just wanted to teach Sharpe a lesson, Dani. I didn’t mean any harm. For God’s sake look at me. I’m destitute, old, I can’t even claim to have my health anymore. I can’t go to prison. I’ll end up dying there.”

  Danika squeezed her eyes shut. He was right and how could she throw her own father, the shadow of a man standing before her, to the wolves. Oh God, would it be so wrong to keep the information to herself, let Brandon remain in the dark. This was her father after all, surely it was justified. She winced at the thought. But Brandon had been through so much, suffered betrayals. I’ll be next in line to hurt him if I keep quiet.

  Her heart felt heavy. “I’ll try my best to help you, Daddy, but I won’t keep secrets from him. It’s not fair. I know too much, care too much about Brandon to let this slide. If you knew how hard he works every day to keep that ranch going, you wouldn’t ever think of asking me to lie for you. He isn’t lazing around all day, resting under a tree with his hat lowered and staring off into the sunset. The money he gave me was part of what he had saved up to improve his ranch and because of us he has to build it himself.”

  “That was all your doing,” he said. “Good intentions aside, did you ever stop to think how humiliated I felt when I found out Sharpe paid off my debts. How painful it was knowing that my own daughter went to him. Went to a man begging and sold herself in the process?”

  Danika touched her throat. She shook her head hard, wishing she could cover her ears like a child and block out the painful truth. “I didn’t beg. Not once did I beg Brandon.”

  “Call it what you want if it makes you feel better.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you, Dad. We both know that won’t solve anything or make this nightmare go away. Tomorrow I’ll‌—‌No. We’ll go over to the ranch and tell Brandon everything. I love you, but I can’t be a part of your wrongdoings. Maybe when he hears the full story and you apologize, he’ll tell the sheriff that he wants to drop the case.”

  “You want me to go over there and beg more charity from Sharpe?”

  She stiffened. No wonder he and Brandon despised each other. They were too much alike, stubborn and mule-headed to a fault. “That’s the idea. And please, at least try to look humble.”

  Her father went quiet, lightly rubbing his chin before looking up at her. “Hmmph. I suppose it would be too simple to blame this loyalty you have for Sharpe on the fact that you’re carrying his baby.”

  “I never said anything to you about being pregnant.”

  “I’m not stupid, girl. Last night I watched you wolf down an entire plate of shrimp scampi. Last time that stuff touched your lips you were five years old. I’ll never forget it. Your ma made you try it, thinking you were just being finicky about dinner. You puked all over the kitchen floor and vowed never to eat seafood again.”

  “You don’t agree with my pregnancy?”

  He grunted and glanced at her stomach, which was barely visible beneath her sweatshirt. “It’s a hell of a time to get pregnant. But who am I to agree or disagree? I can’t control my own life much less yours. And from the way you’ve been moping around here I keep asking myself why you’re not back on the ranch trying to patch things up with Sharpe.”

  “Well, less than thirty minutes ago, I was under the impression that defending you even ag
ainst the man I love was the right thing to do. There’s no patching things up, Dad and I don’t even know how Brandon and I will ever be right again if he sends you to jail. Also, I know better than to fool myself in thinking he could still care for me, God knows that’s all it ever was.”

  “What are you talking about, Dani? What’s really going on between you and Sharpe,” he asked sounding more like the father she remembered, the one who used to soothe her fears.

  Danika clasped then unclasped her fingers on her lap. She didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t confided in anyone, not even to Zoe, who had already left for New York.

  She decided to blurt out the bitter truth. “Brandon finally came to his senses and realized being married to me isn’t worth the hassle. It hasn’t been easy on him and my being pregnant isn’t making it any easier. He believes he has to take care of me, like an obligation. I’m scared he’s pretending an interest in me because he doesn’t want to be shut out of the child’s life. I won’t betray his trust by going into details, but Brandon has never had it easy or had anything handed to him. Stealing from him was just about the best thing you ever did to keep him as your enemy, although there was no legitimate reason before that. Nothing he ever did was to purposely hurt you or your business. Unfortunately, he now views me as a part of all the ways you’ve wronged him.”

  Her father’s face grew terse with anger. “Are you telling me he kicked you out?”

  “I didn’t want to give him the chance to do so. I left him.”

  His anger seemed to double “I knew the bastard couldn’t be trusted but I thought he cared about you after his little visit to my office back in July.”

  “He’s not a bastard and don’t get yourself worked up being mad at him. All I want is to move on and take care of my baby. I don’t hold anything in my heart against him. It turned out I’m not the right woman for him and I can’t force him to love me.”

  “Then he’s a damn fool.”

  Her brows arched. “I thought you didn’t like him, figured you’d be leaping for joy that your prediction came true.”

  “I’m not happy my daughter is pregnant and estranged from her husband. It’s obvious you’re in love with him. Nothing to celebrate or rejoice about, Dani. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  Danika rested her elbows on her knees. “I don’t know what to do, to be honest. I don’t want Brandon to be trapped in a marriage to me without love on both ends. But I love him too much to try to erase him from my heart and mind.”

  Her father patted her back. “Give Sharpe some time to cool down. A man knows when he has a good woman, Dani. He’ll recognize his mistake soon enough. Mark my words.”

  Words that were easier said than done, considering she still had to find a way to reimburse Brandon the twenty thousand dollars.

  Worth the Price

  In the weeks following his wife’s desertion, Brandon received two shocks. The first was seeing Danika and her old man stroll onto the Bar S. Her steps were hesitant although Prescott maintained the usual stench of arrogance about him. His first thought had been to haul Prescott off his property. The only thing that kept him levelheaded was the sight of Danika and how thrilled he was to catch even the slightest glimpse of her.

  It was that same strength Brandon channeled to keep his cool when the old man‌—‌at Danika’s nudging‌—‌revealed how he had orchestrated the first break in and the names of the men he had hired to carry out the theft.

  She apologized again for the trouble she and her da had caused him, but he was at the breaking point. For weeks he’d craved nothing more than this moment, iron-clad proof to give Prescott his come-uppance and when it finally happened, all he could think about, see, were those sultry brown eyes and her sensual full lips moving. His surroundings, everything else, even Prescott’s apology became muted, fading to a dull haze. A bolt of electricity surged through his veins. More than anything he wanted Danika in his arms. The way it used to be between them. And her mouth…Brandon drew in a breath. God, he wanted her mouth. Those lips kissing him with fervor, whispering beside his ear and her warm mouth moving up and down on his cock, bringing him to utter completion.

  Helplessly, he could do nothing but allow her to leave for a second time without a clue as to when he’d lay eyes on her again. In the week superseding her visit, Brandon received the second shock. Inside a plain white envelope addressed to him, was a check bearing Danika’s signature for fifty-six dollars, made out for ‘Expenses Owed’.

  He curled his lips and threw the note onto the kitchen table. When she told him of her plan to return the money, he’d assumed it was the anger and hurt talking, her possibly thinking she could convince him again to excuse her da’s crime.

  He looked at the note again. Fifty-six dollars. Didn’t she realize how telling that meager amount was? It was never a secret that Danika wasn’t exactly raking in the cash on her social worker’s salary. For her to use whatever remained after taking care of herself and mail it to him infuriated and shamed him to the quick. He wondered if she was eating right and was in need of anything.

  Wonder. His lips curled at the thought. He was damn well going to make sure and see for himself that she was all right, instead of sitting here twisting his hands with worrying.

  In no time at all he was standing outside the entrance of Frank Prescott’s colonial style house. The silver car in the driveway gave him all the encouragement he needed to rap his fist against the door. “No more games, Danika. Open the door.”

  Met with silence, he decided to wait another minute before knocking again. He was on the verge of knocking again and possibly relinquishing more of his pride, his fist stayed in mid-air, stilted as she padded from the side of the house. A fresh burst of autumn wind followed in her wake, whipping the tight dark curls about her face, which appeared fuller and more glowing than the last time he had seen her

  “What are you doing here?”

  He grappled for something to say as his eyes drank her in. She was wearing skin-tight jeans and a white, button-down shirt that clung to her frame and outlined the firm roundness of her belly. Her breasts, once pert little mounds able to fit sweetly inside his palms, filled out the material and looked to be more than a handful. His penis twitched inside his briefs. He swallowed hard and bit back a dose of bitterness. His own damn wife and he couldn’t lay a single hand on her to find out what other delights her ripening body had to offer.

  “Were you banging on the door? I heard it all the way from in the garden.”

  He stared at her for a second longer until he found his voice. Recalling his anger at her dismissal of him and the money she had sent, Brandon snatched the folded check out of his pocket. He shoved it into her hand. “I don’t want a damn thing from you.”

  She pushed a twisted lock of hair away from her lips. “You’ve already made that clear.” She fingered the paper. “This check. It’s a tiny fraction in comparison to what I owe you, but—”

  “Owe me? You think I want my wife making payments to me in the form of cash? If I wanted payment from you, Cailín, you can rest assured money would be the last thing on my mind.”

  Her chin tilted in defiance. “If memory serves me correctly, I gave you that every night, in the daytime too and it made no difference.”

  He inched closer to her, testing the waters of her patience and any affection she might still hold for him. “I miss you. It’s lonely on the ranch without you.”

  “You have Finn and the other cattle dogs.”

  He let out a scornful laugh. “I deserve that. But it doesn’t change how I feel. I miss you beside me, Danika. Sometimes I hear your voice inside our bedroom then I wake up and realize it was a dream‌—‌that you’re not on the ranch with me. I want to hear the sound of your voice every day, you laughing, teasing me, letting me touch you and feeling your response beneath me and on top of me when we’re in bed together.”

  She closed her eyes. “Please don’t say anymore.”

  He pressed h
is lips to her brows. “What do you want from me, baby? Tell me and I’ll do it.”

  “What do I want from you?” she cried, twisting away from him. “I want your promise you’ll drop the charges. More than that, I’ve told you I love you and you threw it back in my face. You didn’t care, then. Why should it be any different now? Nothing’s changed, Brandon. Nothing at all.”

  “Why can’t you accept that I want you?” he asked, steering clear of her request. “You’re the only woman I care about. The only woman I want to be with.”

  She folded her arms across her middle. “I want more than that, Brandon. It has to be more than just wanting me. That’s superficial. Lust doesn’t keep two people together forever.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You’re the one who chose to leave. That’s what’s keeping us apart.”

  “You don’t understand at all. One day you’ll find someone to fall in love with and then you’ll understand how I’m feeling right now.”

  “That won’t happen.”

  “Then I feel sorry for you. Love isn’t something that is wrong or something to be afraid of.” Out of nowhere, she held his hand and laid it on her stomach. “What about our baby, Brandon? It will be as much a part of you as me. Will you deny our child the love of a father? Will you deny our child the opportunity to know his or her grandfather?”

  He lifted his hand from her stomach, annoyed that his father-in-law had once again entered into their conversation “Don’t send me any more checks. I’m letting you know right now they’ll make it as far as my rubbish bin.”

  “I want to pay you back.”

  “And I’m telling to keep your money. I don’t want it.”

  “Is that like how you don’t really want me?” He made it halfway down the driveway then stiffened, stopping dead in his tracks as her voice rose. “You think I don’t miss you? I too, have a heart, Brandon, and for those few precious months we were together, it beat only for you. So don’t you dare think I’m being spiteful. As much as it hurts, I’m only trying to do what’s best. What’s best for everyone. It’s not fair or wise for me to stay at the ranch regardless of your decisions. I won’t be the one to hold you back.”