Restless Rancher

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Restless Rancher Page 19

by Jennifer Ryan


  “Okay, so my great-grandfather owned the land.”

  “Yes.” She pointed to the map and the yellow highlighted area she’d colored. “He owned all of this.”

  “But—”

  “Hold that thought. There’s more.” She held up another yellowed envelope. “A month after your great-grandfather wrote his wife the first time, he sent her another letter. In it he tells her he’s struck it rich.”

  “How?” Roxy asked.

  Sonya smiled. “He found a big-ass sapphire when one of the trees he was cutting down got away from him and fell, roots and all. There in the dirt, he found a treasure.”

  Roxy turned to him. “Didn’t you say something to me about treasure when I made the offer to help you build the ranch?”

  “Those were just bedtime stories my grandfather told me.” He stared at the envelope Sonya held. “Unless they weren’t. But everyone knows Montana is rich with sapphires. That’s why my father started mining them.”

  “Wait. I’ve got more.” Sonya held up another printout. “The local newspaper put their archive online a couple years ago. They’re ahead of the courthouse in that respect.” Sonya waved her hand. “Anyway, I found an old article. The sapphire your great-grandfather found was one of the largest ever discovered in the area. He took it to San Francisco and sold it for four hundred thousand dollars. A fortune back then. He could have lived a big life, but instead, he came back here and ranched and raised his son and was happy.”

  She spread the pictures out on the desk, showing a simple life here on the ranch.

  “I don’t have his financial records, but I’m guessing he had some lean years and used that nest egg to see the family through those rough times. He also bought another piece of land.” She pointed to the blue highlighted area on the map.

  He pointed to one of the photos of his grandfather atop a horse with the house in the background. “My great-grandparents added onto that small timber cabin and lived there until they passed. When Grandpa Alan married, he built this house for his bride. My mother grew up here. My great-grandparents’ cabin and barn burned down in a wildfire when I was a teenager. No one had lived there in a long time.”

  “And when your mother married your father, your grandfather gifted them a piece of land.” She pointed to the orange shaded area of the map.

  “Yes, but the property is much larger than that.”

  Sonya eyed him. “What? Not according to the records.”

  He picked up the green highlighter and shaded in the area around the orange plot of land. “Blue Mining stretches out and around the property where the house, ranch, and original mining took place.”

  “Hmm. Okay, so your father mined the original property, found sapphires, and used the money from selling them to buy more land?”

  Austin shrugged. “I guess so.”

  “Why didn’t your grandfather and great-grandfather mine for sapphires when they knew there had to be more on the property?” Sonya stared at the map. “If there are sapphires here”—she pointed to the area his father now owned—“there had to be some here.” She pointed to the yellow section of the original property his great-grandfather bought.

  “Mining is an expensive undertaking with only the hope of a big payoff. These were simple ranching men. You said it yourself, the amount of money he got from that one score was a fortune. My grandfather always used to say, ‘Count your blessings and be happy with what you have.’”

  Roxy put her hand on the map. “So what you’re saying is that Mr. Hubbard knows there are more sapphires on this land. That’s why he wants it.”

  “It’s the obvious answer,” Sonya confirmed. “When Austin partnered with you, someone who’s got a lot of money, Mr. Hubbard must have thought you’d go into the mining business and take what he feels should belong to him because he was married to Austin’s mother. Had she survived her father, she, and Mr. Hubbard, in turn, would have inherited the land.”

  Roxy planted her hands on her hips. “Instead Austin owns it and Mr. Hubbard can’t touch the land.”

  “What the hell does it matter? Mr. Hubbard has more money than he’ll ever spend,” Noah pointed out. “Is he that selfish and vindictive he wants it just because he thinks it should be his? Austin is his flesh and blood.”

  “I didn’t say it made perfect sense. It’s just the most logical answer based on the facts.” Sonya held up a bank statement. “The thing I don’t get is what happened to the money?”

  “The four hundred grand?” Austin shook his head. “When my grandfather passed, he had a pittance in the bank. I used it and what I had to pay off his debt and the property taxes.”

  “Your grandfather kept everything, including years of bank statements. I’ll go through them and see what they tell me.”

  “Let it go, Sonya. We know why he wants the land. Maybe in a few years I’ll have the money to dig up some of the property. Maybe we’ll get lucky and hit it big. Maybe all we’ll end up with is a bunch of piles of dirt.”

  A buzzer went off in the kitchen.

  Sonya sighed. “The baked potatoes should be done. Go take a shower. I’ll put the steaks on the barbecue. Dinner will be ready when you join us.”

  Austin stared down at the stacks of papers and the map. “This is good work, but it’s not worth you getting hurt. I’m really sorry.”

  Roxy and Noah left them to deal with the incessant buzzer and give Austin a moment alone with Sonya.

  She walked around the desk and right into his arms. “I’m okay.”

  He held her tighter. “If something happened to you . . .” He leaned back, brushed his fingers through her hair, and kissed the spot just above the worst of the bruised lump. “If he touches you again, I’ll kill him.”

  “Let’s hope the cops persuaded him to stay away from now on.”

  “I don’t like you feeling like you have to lock the doors to be safe here.”

  “I just got rattled. You’re home now and I’m fine.”

  Austin kissed her forehead again. “I won’t let anything else happen to you.”

  She knew he meant that all the way to his soul, but if Austin’s father didn’t give up his quest to get Austin to sell the land, she had a feeling he was coming back for more.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “I told you to follow Sonya, not attack her.”

  Kelly’s heart stopped at those angry words. She stood outside Walter’s study, listening through the closed door.

  Her behavior at the grocery store still embarrassed and shamed her. The more out of reach the things she wanted seemed, the more she acted like someone she didn’t know. After growing up with modest means, all she wanted was security and a family of her own.

  “She came out of the courthouse with the papers. I thought you’d want to know what she’s up to and see them.”

  “If you’d simply reported that she went to the Records office I could have simply bribed that dimwit who works there to tell me what Sonya requested, confirming she didn’t pull the documents she needs to prove—”

  “What?” Walter’s lackey asked.

  “None of your damn business.”

  Kelly didn’t understand what they were talking about, but no doubt her soon-to-be husband was trying to hide something. He liked to hide everything from her. Sometimes he treated her like a child, telling her not to worry, he’d take care of her. It didn’t always bother her. But his obsession with getting back at Austin, for what, she didn’t know, had made him short-tempered, and she didn’t like it one bit.

  What happened to the sweet generous man who’d swept her off her feet? She missed him. She wanted him back.

  But it was starting to feel like one of those relationships where the abused wife states to the officer why she shot him instead of letting him abuse her again, He wasn’t like this before we got married. Two weeks into the marriage, everything changed. I married a monster.

  Maybe her imagination had gotten away from her. But Walter’s behavior didn’t matc
h the man she’d fallen for even though she’d had her reservations about dating Austin’s father.

  If he’d just give this up so they could live their lives and let Austin live his.

  “I’ll keep my distance,” Walter’s man promised.

  “You have two objectives. Follow her to determine if she goes to the bank. And given the chance, you’re supposed to get into the house and search for that damn key.”

  “I’ll try, but one of them is always around. If Austin hires help, it’s going to be near impossible to get in there unseen.”

  “Keep trying.”

  “What about Kelly?” the man asked. “She got into it with Sonya and Austin right in the middle of the grocery store.”

  Kelly couldn’t see what was happening in the room, but she bet that bit of news put a frown on Walter’s face and narrowed his eyes with disapproval. “She won’t be here much longer. Since she couldn’t get Austin to impregnate her with my grandchild and she hasn’t gotten pregnant with my child, I’ll cut her loose. I’m thinking a surrogate is the better way to go. I get the child and save myself the trouble of a meddling mother.” Those callous words cut deep.

  “That’s expensive, isn’t it?”

  “So is a wife,” Walter snapped.

  Kelly stepped back as if stricken. She couldn’t believe the coldhearted way he talked about her and getting a child, like it was a to-do item on his list and not a precious gift.

  Kelly held up the positive pregnancy test in her shaking hand she’d taken ten minutes ago upstairs. Her earlier exuberance and sheer joy faded to anger and worry. After what she’d heard, what happened now? Walter wasn’t the man she believed him to be. She truly was a means to an end. He didn’t care about her, only what he wanted from her.

  Austin had tried to warn her, but she hadn’t listened.

  Rage and embarrassment heated her face and ears. She’d played right into Walter’s hands. She’d left a good man, hurt him, for a dream and a promise that wasn’t real.

  Hurt, her heart aching, she fought back tears and quietly walked upstairs to the bedroom, pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, and called Austin.

  “What do you want now? A kidney?”

  His harsh words made her heart break even more, the sharp pieces knifing pain through her chest. “I deserve that after the deplorable way I acted. I’m truly sorry to you and Sonya. I’m calling with an olive branch. Keep your house locked. Make sure someone is always around your place. Your father is looking for a key he believes is in your house.”

  “A key to what?”

  “That’s all I know.” She sighed, holding back tears, knowing she carried the baby she’d always wanted, but for the wrong man. “Austin.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I shouldn’t have left you.”

  “I don’t know what to say to that, Kelly. We had our problems before I went broke.”

  That was a truth she didn’t want to face either. “Does she make you happy?”

  “Extremely.”

  Kelly smiled sadly. He hadn’t said that to hurt her. She’d seen it in his eyes when he looked at Sonya. He’d stood up for Sonya and defended her fiercely. He loved Sonya in a way he’d never loved her. “I’m happy for you.” She meant it.

  “I wish I could say the same to you, but I can hear it in your voice. Something’s wrong.”

  “Every choice we make has consequences. I have to live with mine. Find the key. He won’t stop until he gets it. Also, he said he didn’t care about Sonya going to the courthouse, but he wanted to know if she went to the bank. She’s smart. I’m sure she’ll figure out why.”

  Sonya was smart enough to hold on to a good man.

  Kelly hung up and wiped her eyes a split second before the bedroom door opened.

  Walter stared at her, an accusation in his eyes. “Who were you talking to?”

  “No one.”

  “I heard voices.”

  She held up her cell phone. “I was watching a show.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you watch downstairs?”

  “Why were the police here?” she shot back.

  Annoyance replaced the suspicion in his eyes. She’d learned not to question him, but she refused to just go along anymore.

  “Deputy sheriff,” he corrected her. He loved to point out her mistakes, big, small, and inconsequential. “Someone scared that woman living with Austin. Of course, she blamed it on me.”

  “Did she get hurt?”

  “Why would you care? She’s turned Austin against you.”

  “I did that all on my own.” She tightened her grip on the pregnancy test she kept hidden in her hand.

  “You got out before he dragged you down with him.” He undid his watch and set it on the bedside table. “Anyway, she’s fine. And she’ll stay that way so long as she keeps her nose out of my business.” He issued that threat the same way he ordered lunch. Like it was nothing. Like it couldn’t come back and hurt him.

  “So you are responsible.”

  His head came around slowly and his gaze locked with hers. “Careful, Kelly. That sounds suspiciously like your loyalty lies with them and not me.”

  After what she’d overheard, she could no longer ignore that voice inside her that said she’d been taken in by a master manipulator and someone willing to hurt others to get what he wanted.

  And one of the things he wanted was another child. What would he do to keep their child when she didn’t stay with him? Because now that she’d seen this side of him, she wanted out. Now. For her sake, and her child’s.

  “Why are you doing this to Austin?” She’d asked that question a dozen times and numerous ways and never got a straight answer. “Why not talk to him and find a compromise? Work together, instead of pushing him away.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You’re right. I don’t get it. Austin doesn’t get it.”

  “I don’t owe you an explanation.”

  “Maybe if you explain it to Austin he’ll be more agreeable about giving you what you want. Or at least working with you again.”

  Walter shook his head, his eyes dark with contempt. “I didn’t work this hard for all these years, take the risks I’ve taken, all to lose control of the business.”

  That took a turn she hadn’t expected. “Why would you lose control of the business?”

  “Are you trying to start an argument by testing me? Is Austin more important to you than I am? Because it seems like you’re taking his side when that ring on your finger means a promise that you’re on my side no matter what.”

  She never thought the engagement ring symbolized her vow of blind faith and devotion. She’d done that to a degree. Up until now. “I’m trying to better understand your side.”

  “I own the company. What I say goes. That land should have come to me. Austin could have avoided all of this if he’d accepted my offer to buy it. He’d have had money and you. Instead, he chose the land over both. Maybe you’ve forgotten that.”

  True. And false. It went deeper than one or the other. Austin chose to stand up for himself against his father’s authoritarian rule in his life.

  Do as I say without question.

  Not anymore.

  Not for Austin or for her.

  Walter closed the distance between them. She quelled the need to step back out of his reach. He brushed his hand through her hair and settled it on her shoulder in a practiced move meant to soothe her, but that now seemed calculated. “Stop worrying. This will all be over soon. Stress will only make it that much harder on your body to get pregnant. Focus on us, not someone who means nothing to you anymore.”

  She and Austin may not be together, but that didn’t mean she didn’t care about him. She regretted turning her back on what might have been. Maybe one day they could at least be friends again.

  She wanted to believe telling Walter about the baby she now carried would change things between them. She thought he’d focus on them.
But he’d made it clear he had no intention of letting the matter with Austin drop.

  And thinking he’d change was another lie she’d told herself.

  “I’m sorry I don’t have good news for you yet.” She could lie just as easily as he lied to her.

  “It will happen. I always get what I want.”

  Yeah, even if he had to dump her and use a surrogate. Well, he’d get the child. She couldn’t keep the baby a secret for long. But she wasn’t sticking around for him to ruin her life. They’d share the child, but not a life.

  She stepped around him and headed for the door.

  He took her arm to stop her. “Where are you going?”

  She pulled free. “Home. The apartment manager promised to fix my dishwasher first thing in the morning. I want everything in working order when I leave the apartment and move in here after we get married.” She wanted away from him and time to think about her options. Maybe she’d move to Tucson and live closer to her parents. They’d love to spoil their grandchild.

  New place. New people. New life.

  Sounded good to her.

  “He can get into your place and do it without you there.”

  “I don’t want him alone in my apartment.”

  He brushed his hand up her arm. “I hoped you’d stay and we’d work on the baby.”

  She gave him a sad smile. “There’s always tomorrow to try again.”

  Tomorrow was another day and another chance to make a better choice. For her and her child.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Austin folded up the last tarp and dropped it on top of the other four piled on the garage floor. After Kelly’s call last night, he and Sonya made sure everything they’d taken out of the house was locked up tight. They still had a lot to donate, but not before they looked through everything and figured out if they had the right key.

  Thanks to Sonya’s obsessive need for organization, they had an old mayonnaise jar full of keys she found in the kitchen alone. They added eight more miscellaneous keys they’d unearthed in the other items from the house.

 

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