by Evie Nichole
Aria could feel Darren watching her. She knew that she had to explain to him what was going on. But for right now, she couldn’t do it. She didn’t even know how to begin. And then halfway through the lesson, when she had the kids doing a very simple steering exercise at a trot, she spotted Jesse Collins driving up the road. It was no stretch of the imagination to wonder why Jesse was here. If Weatherby was targeting people who were associated with the Hernandez Land & Cattle Company, then it was a pretty sure bet that Jesse had gotten a visit from the bastard too.
“Let’s do some cantering on the rail!” Aria shouted to the kids. “I want three laps from everyone, and then you can walk out and head back in to unsaddle your horses.”
It felt as though the final part of the lesson took an eternity. Aria corrected her students automatically more than anything else, and there was probably a lot of stuff that they got away with and shouldn’t have. Aria’s brain was just done. She couldn’t process any more. And when it was finally over and she walked over to the gate to let herself out of the riding ring, she could hear Jesse fuming to Darren in the parking lot.
“How can he do that? How is it even legal?” Jesse demanded of Darren.
Darren was shaking his head. Then he looked over at Aria. “Is that why Weatherby came out here?”
Jesse’s eyes opened wide. “Whoa. That jerk came out here himself? That’s got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! Wait. Is that even legal? Isn’t he a party in these stupid lawsuits?”
“I think it changes things when it’s his business doing the suing and injunction requests and not him personally,” Darren muttered. “But you could certainly make the case that he’s being inappropriate. In fact, I think Aria should file a personal complaint against him.”
“What do you mean?” Aria really didn’t want to get any more involved than she already was. Look what it had gotten her so far. “If I do that, I might as well paint a bull’s-eye on myself.”
“I don’t think he’s going to try anything like that,” Darren mused. “He’s just trying to scare everyone.”
Jesse and Aria were both looking at Darren as though he was the most naive idiot on the planet. But Aria was the one to say it out loud. “Are you stupid? That man has threatened me both implicitly and explicitly. He is actively trying to ruin my business and prevent me from paying my bills. I’m not going to let him put me under. I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing, but that’s it. I’m not going to file a personal complaint for harassment or something. That’ll just make him want to put me permanently out of the way!”
Jesse sucked in a quick breath and swung around to stare wide-eyed at Aria. “Do you really believe it would come to that?”
“Yes.” Aria didn’t even have to think about it. “I really do.”
Jesse pointed at Darren. “You have to get your family together and do something about this. The man is trying to ruin my ranch. He’s trying to prevent Aria and me from doing business with not only you, but pretty much everyone else too. You have to find a way to stop it. The Hernandez Land & Cattle Company has a huge legal team at their disposal. I suggest they stop worrying about making sure old Joe doesn’t screw things up for everyone and start concentrating on the things that really count! Do you get my drift?”
Darren looked grim. “Completely.”
“What about Laredo?” Aria asked suddenly. “Does he know what’s going on? Is anyone actually going to tell him? Isn’t he technically the one who needs to know what’s going on? Isn’t he the one who runs that corporate office?”
Darren glanced over at Bella and Jaeger. The two kids were playing underneath a tree near the riding ring. Bella was pretending to be a wild pony, and Jaeger was pretending to swing a rope to catch her.
“Yes,” Darren said heavily. “Maybe it’s time we bring Laredo into everything and see if he can pull some strings in the right places.”
Despite everything, Aria knew a profound sense of relief. No more lies. She was done with that sort of thing. It never worked out the way you thought that it would, and the repercussions were impossible to predict.
Chapter Twenty-One
Laredo stared at his computer screen and tried to get the picture of Aria’s stricken face out of his mind. What was so awful about asking for her help with his drinking? Was it because of her father? Was that just too much for her? Maybe he was asking too much. What would he know about that kind of thing? It wasn’t like he’d ever had a relationship with someone that was even remotely healthy in an emotional sense. What did that even look like?
Pushing his fingers through his hair, he glanced over at the clock. It was nearly five o’clock. Bella was still staying with Darren and Maggie. He hated that, and yet it made his life a lot easier in some respects. He could just bury himself here at work and not worry about the effect it had on his daughter. Maybe he was as shitty a father as his own father had been. What a thought.
“Look at you.” Joe Hernandez leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb and shook his head at his son. “You’re sitting there all stressed out about nothing.”
“Are you joking?” Laredo wanted to gape at Joe, but he was getting a bit immune to his father’s bullshit. “You made a complete fool out of yourself last night. Jesse had to drag you out of the ballroom at that dinner. She called and told me all the stuff you said. Do you remember, Dad? Or were you too drunk to recall?”
“You need to back off about my drinking!” Joe snarled. He wagged his finger in Laredo’s face. “Those who live in glass houses shall not throw stones.”
“No? What about when all of them are living in the same glass house? If I want to, can I throw a rock and bring the whole thing crashing down?” Laredo snapped right back. He stood up and shoved his chair back.
“What in the hell are you wearing?” Joe seemed to momentarily forget that they’d been arguing about alcohol. He was too busy looking at Laredo’s jeans, boots, and plain black T-shirt.
“Clothing.” Laredo wasn’t letting Joe off this easily. “You were the one complaining that all of us were prisified or some other such nonsense. Weren’t you? So, here I am.”
“You don’t dress like that!” Joe protested. “That’s Cal and Darren. You’re the prim and proper one.”
Prim and proper? Was that really how his father saw him? Laredo was disgusted at the possibility. Talk about your double standards. There was literally no way for Laredo to win. He pointed at his father. “Don’t you ever wonder if I get sick of all that crap?” Damn, it felt good to say that! Laredo was on a roll. “I’m tired of living in a house where Helena spent a quarter of a million dollars to furnish it so that she could feel slightly less embarrassed to bring her fancy friends over to visit us.”
“Why would that bitch be ashamed?” Joe’s brow furrowed as though he did not remember any of this. “That woman came from a family that was barely respectable around town. Don’t you remember the reception? She refused to invite her family! She was afraid they’d make a spectacle of themselves. Why would she be embarrassed after her marriage to you? You’re the one who put her in touch with polite society!”
“She was embarrassed because of me!” Laredo burst out. “She was embarrassed that I was a tall man on a short horse. That I was a cowboy. That we came from ranch-bred stock. She was embarrassed that the money she married into was not earned in industry.”
“This is Colorado, boy,” Joe grunted. “Most of the old money in this state was made through ranching or some other trade like lumber or masonry or something.” Suddenly, Joe screwed up his face in deep thought. Laredo could only imagine what sort of negativity that was going to produce. “And that bitch left you for a ranch hand?” Joe shouted. “Why the hell would she do that?”
“If you ever figure it out, please”—Laredo said witheringly—“let me know. But I would suspect it has to do with her desire to prove to me beyond doubt that she did not want me and never did. And of course, she sold Bella to me for a pretty penny.”
<
br /> Joe staggered back a step. “I had no idea it was all like that.”
“You never asked.” Wait. That did not ring true at all. “You know what? Do not bullshit me! You absolutely knew it was like that! You were there when the judge told her that her and her attorney were asking for the Collins ranch in the settlement because it was already a separate spread, and that he could not award her property that didn’t actually belong to the Hernandez family.”
“That I remember,” Joe muttered. He swiped his hand over his eyes. “Stupid bitch.”
“So, you remember something that affected you but not the rest of it that affected me? I had to give that woman nearly two hundred thousand dollars. I had to purchase her a small ranch. And I had to promise to never ask for a cent of child support. My wife claimed that I was abusive toward her. She told the court that I was a coldhearted bastard who was nothing but abusive in private and embarrassing in public.”
“Laredo,” Joe started to say something but then stopped. Apparently, he didn’t know what to say. Laredo could well understand that.
Laredo pointed to the door. “So, now you can get the hell out of my office and shut your mouth. And then you can go to your office and start the process of retiring.”
“What?” Joe Hernandez almost went down. He’d been staggering and looking shocked and acting like he was just flabbergasted for a good ten minutes now. But finally Laredo had done him in. “I’m not retiring!”
“Yes. You are.” Laredo gave a hard nod. “You’re old. You’re tired. And honest to God, Dad, you act like you’re either pickling your brain with alcohol or dealing with dementia or something. I think you just need a break!”
Joe stomped into Laredo’s office, and he actually braced himself for a physical attack. But then Darren abruptly appeared in the doorway. “Um, not to interrupt whatever this is—because it looks pretty damn amusing—but we have a serious problem on our hands that needs dealing with.”
“Which problem is that?” Laredo frowned. Darren didn’t come into the corporate offices anymore. In fact, Darren was supposed to be picking up Bella from dance class in just a few minutes. What. The. Hell?
Darren pursed his lips. “The Flying W is filing complaints and injunctions against anyone who has any business association with the Hernandez Land & Cattle Company.”
Laredo felt like the bottom had just fallen out of his stomach. “Injunctions?”
“Yes.” Darren looked grim. “Weatherby himself delivered both a subpoena and an injunction out to Clouds End Farm. Aria is pretty shook up. She’s not supposed to teach any lessons. You can imagine what that means for the farm.”
“And Jesse?” Joe Hernandez asked, his voice hoarse. “What did that bastard do to my little girl?”
“She’s prohibited from the sale or trade of any livestock until some legal complaints of ownership are resolved.” Darren’s face was pale and drawn. It was obvious that the severity of this situation was not lost on him. He might be Gym Teacher Man, but he was still a Hernandez.
“Ownership!” Joe shouted. “What is that bastard about?”
It was as if the pieces of the puzzle had just clicked into place inside Laredo’s head. He picked up his phone and dialed Cal. He did not offer any explanation to his father or to Darren. This was too important.
Cal picked up on the fifth ring, which was good. The guy rarely answered his phone anyway. “Hey. I was just going to call you. Something weird just happened.”
“You found some of the missing cattle just wandering around on the range,” Laredo supplied.
Cal’s brief silence was cautious. “Yeah. How did you know?”
“We’ve got to get our cattle away from anywhere they could be mixed up with a bunch of Flying W stock. I’m pretty sure that Weatherby stole our cows, swapped brands, and is planning to put them back and then claim we’re stealing his cattle and changing brands and that’s how we’re intending to fulfill those stock contracts—you know, with animals that aren’t even ours.”
“Shit.” It was obvious that Cal absolutely understood what was on the line here. “I’ll call Jesse. She’s the only one with enough grazing land far enough away from Weatherby to make a difference.”
“Be careful,” Laredo warned. “Weatherby has created a legal mess trying to prevent that.”
“Got it.”
Cal hung up, and Laredo glanced up at his father and his other brother. They were both nodding grimly as though they realized that a shitstorm was about to descend on the Hernandez Land & Cattle Company.
“There’s something else though,” Laredo mused. He scratched his bristly chin and wished he had bothered to shave that morning. “Why teaching? What does Aria’s teaching have to do with this?”
Darren cleared his throat. “I think part of it is because you have horses stalled at her place that are in training.”
“But she isn’t riding them,” Laredo said quickly. “It shouldn’t be a big deal.”
“My son is taking lessons there,” Darren continued. “And so is Bella.”
It felt as though everything just stopped in that moment. There went a few more pieces of the proverbial puzzle. Laredo now understood why his daughter seemed so comfortable with Aria. He understood why Mrs. Naranjo would call Aria when Laredo and Bella needed help. Suddenly, it made perfect sense that Smokey was in Aria’s barn.
“Holy shit,” Laredo whispered. “Cal, Jesse”—he looked up at Darren—“you, Maggie, even my housekeeper! You all knew about it. Cal and Jesse deliberately made sure that horse was at Aria’s place. All of you are deceiving me!”
“Yeah,” Joe said bitterly. “You’ll find that your family does that a lot. The lot of you have been lying to me for decades.”
Darren snorted, and Laredo brushed that one right off. He was not letting his father get away with trying to push that agenda. “You lied to us first. In fact, I think you taught us to lie, old man. You can’t cry about it now.”
“I’m sorry, Laredo,” Darren said quietly. “We always intended to tell you. We were just really hoping you would eventually come to your senses and change your mind all on your own.”
Change his mind all on his own? What was that about? It was as if they were all whispering behind his back that he was wrong and that he was too stupid to realize it. Why didn’t it matter to them what he wanted for his daughter or for his family? His goals and dreams didn’t matter? His desires didn’t matter? They had taken his choices away.
His family had lied to him. That part Laredo hated, but he also knew that’s pretty much how the Hernandez family worked. What he could not wrap his mind around was Aria’s lies. Why would she lie? Why would she deceive him and think that it was all right? He had kissed that woman! They’d played bait and switch with some valets. They’d dealt with that bullshit dinner together. She had told him that she heard Helena’s tirade against him and his boorish cowboy ways. What did all of that even mean if she had been lying to him from the start?
“Don’t be down on Aria,” Darren told him quickly. “You don’t know what it cost her to go along with this. I don’t think she would have agreed if it weren’t for Bella.”
“What do you mean, for Bella?” Laredo said bitterly. “What? She was trying to make my daughter into some dirty little cowgirl flunky with broken nails and no friends?”
“Are you hearing yourself?” Joe Hernandez pointed at Laredo and then looked to Darren. “Do you think he’s hearing himself? Who the hell does he think he is?”
Laredo rolled his eyes at his father. “What does that mean?”
“Dirty little cowgirl with no friends,” Darren repeated. “Is that what you think of Jesse?”
“What? No!” Laredo thought Jesse had done an amazing job of juggling it all when she’d been in school. “But I don’t want my daughter growing up to be a rancher!”
“What about Aria?” Darren continued. “Do you think she’s a dirty little cowgirl with no friends?”
The words burned. La
redo’s mind spun wildly. Had he said that about Aria? No! He didn’t think that about her. She was a wonderful woman who was extremely talented on a horse. “Aria’s different.”
It was his father to lob the next shot. “Why? Why is Aria different? Bella would love to be just like her, but if Bella becomes a rancher, she’ll be a filthy little girl with no friends. You say I have problems, boy, but you’re about as screwed up as they come. Your mother would be ashamed of you if she could hear this now!”
Darren picked up the threads. “Your daughter is damned talented on a horse, Laredo. I’ve never seen anything like it. You should see that girl go! She was running barrel patterns on Smokey earlier this afternoon. She sits deep, aims the mare for the pocket, and isn’t afraid to just let it ride. She’s good and she is nine. Can you imagine what she could do if she had a little bit of support from her only remaining parent? That kid’s bitch of a mother left her high and dry to go have a party. Why can’t you see that she just wants you to accept her?”
Laredo opened and closed his mouth. He had to remember why he was doing what he was doing. He had to remember what Helena was like and where this could go. Did they not understand that he was trying to prevent Bella from turning out like her mother? “That’s why I don’t want her near a barn! I don’t want to lose Bella the way that I lost her mother!”
“You didn’t lose Helena,” Darren retorted. “She left you and you were lucky that she did. That woman was no good. She would have been a toxic presence in Bella’s life. Bella is better off without her.”
“That doesn’t mean that Bella won’t end up just like her!” Laredo burst out.
“Daddy?”
Laredo reeled back as he saw his daughter poke her head into his office.
“Bella, I thought I told you and Jaeger to stay out on the couches and watch TV!” Darren sounded a bit panicky.
“We were thirsty,” Bella said softly. She never stopped staring at her father. “Is that why you don’t love me anymore? Is that why you never want me at your house and you never want to spend time with me?” Bella’s little voice was tight with tears. “Is it because you think I’m just like my mama?”