He could now count four sets of house keys, car keys to vehicles no longer on the property, and keys to his grandfather’s old four-wheeler, which sat under a tarp behind the barn. Maybe he’d give it a once-over and get it working again.
The collection of various little keys could go to anything from a lockbox to a file cabinet. None of them stood out as the key to some hidden treasure.
If they had the key his father wanted, he didn’t know it. With as much garbage as they threw out, it could be in the landfill by now. They’d been careful as they went through everything in the house. But let’s face it, they couldn’t possibly look in every nook and cranny.
“Hey, find anything else?”
He hooked his arm around Sonya’s shoulders and hugged her close. “Nothing but the keys we already found.”
She leaned into him. “Do we have the one? Or is it lost forever?”
He glanced down at her upturned face. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“If only Kelly knew what the key went to.” Sonya turned to stand in front of him. “Why is she helping us?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.” He’d been shocked to get the call from her at all last night. He almost didn’t pick up after what she’d said to Sonya. But he remembered the devastated look in her eyes when she ran out of the grocery store and his guilt got the better of him. He didn’t like being mean. “My father is all about loyalty, though he expects it instead of earning it. She stayed with him even after he sent her to me to . . . I don’t even want to think about what he expected her to do.”
“So something happened that turned her against him.”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Or maybe she just wanted to do something to make up for what she said to you.”
“Kelly realized she made a mistake and left the right man for the wrong one.”
Austin had put the call on speaker last night because he didn’t want any secrets between him and Sonya. He didn’t want even the appearance of his ex calling to make Sonya question why she called at all, and if he still had feelings for Kelly.
He didn’t.
In fact, his feelings for Sonya grew each and every day.
In other relationships, his feelings were always something he’d put off to think about later. But with Sonya, the question of how he felt and how much he felt stayed front and center. It kept popping up in his mind, making him take notice and think about it. What it meant. How it impacted his future. What he wanted for the future. And ever present was the need to make her happy so she’d stay.
With him.
Because all those thoughts about his future included her. Every decision he made now, he thought about her or asked her to weigh in on the decision.
“Austin?”
“Yeah?”
“I lost you. What are you thinking about?”
“You. Always, you. I wasn’t the right man for Kelly. She wasn’t the right woman for me. You and me, we’re the right fit. At least, that’s how I feel.”
She placed her hand on his chest. “I feel that way, too.”
He pulled her into his arms and held her close. He raked his fingers through her soft hair and pulled the dark strands away from her face and looked down at the bright purple bruise on her head. “I can’t believe he hurt you.” He kissed her forehead and tamped down the renewed tide of anger washing through his system.
“I’m fine. The scare was worse than the knock to the head.” She stepped out of his arms and took his hand. “Come on, there’s nothing else to look through out here.”
He walked out of the garage and pulled the door closed and locked it with the key they found among the many that matched the one on his grandfather’s set of keys.
“You looked through all the toolboxes and cabinets in there, right?”
“Yes, dear. Just like you told me.” Austin tried to hold back the grin, but ended up grunting when Sonya popped him in the gut with her fist. “Hey, you’ll pay for that.” He grabbed her wrist, pulled her toward him, dipped his shoulder, planted it into her waist, and hauled her up and over his shoulder.
She smacked his ass with both hands. “Put me down,” she protested through her giggles.
“Not a chance.” He walked toward the porch with her draped over him.
“You’re going to hurt yourself.”
His back hadn’t stopped throbbing since they started all the work on the house. Carrying her didn’t help, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. “You are kind of heavy.”
That earned him a huffed-out gasp and her tickling both his sides. He had no choice but to swing her back over his shoulder and set her on the ground before they both fell in the dirt. Before she got away, he reached for her sides and tickled her right back. She laughed, squirmed away, and made a break for it and the house. He followed, leaping up the steps just as she made it through the front door and tried to slam it in his face.
He caught her in the living room and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his chest. He nibbled at her neck, making her squeal and laugh even more.
The silver spread across the coffee table caught his attention. Blackened utensils, picture frames, and a couple mirrors, bowls, and a large platter. “What’s all this?”
“I need to polish them.”
He let her go and tilted his head, a thought coming back to him.
“What is it?”
He spun on his heel and headed out to his truck, hoping he was right.
Sonya followed him out. “What’s gotten into you?”
He unlocked the passenger door, leaned into the truck, and pulled the box out from under the seat. He held it up to Sonya.
“Oh. Your grandmother’s jewelry box. I wondered where that went. I’ll polish it with the other items. It’ll look pretty on the mantel beside the picture of your grandparents.”
“That’s not why I came out here to get it. Remember what you said about Granddad protecting and storing important things in a way that they didn’t get lost or damaged?”
“Like your grandmother’s silverware alone in the drawer beneath the broken oven.”
“Exactly. I didn’t think anything of it, but when I opened the jewelry box”—he opened the lid so she could see in—“I wondered why she put a matchbox in here with her prized possessions.” He nodded for Sonya to take the box out.
The same anticipation he felt brightened her eyes as she slid the matchbox out of the sleeve. They both sucked in a surprised gasp. “A safety-deposit box key.”
“Which now makes sense that my father wanted to know if we went to the bank.”
Sonya picked up the key to inspect it and the number on the other side. “What do you think is in the box?”
“Let’s go find out.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Austin held Sonya’s hand as they walked into the bank. For the first time, he had hope that they’d finally have an answer for his father’s behavior about the property.
Mr. Foster, the bank manager, spotted him and met them in the wide lobby. “Mr. Hubbard. So nice to see you. My condolences on the loss of your grandfather.”
“Thank you, Mr. Foster.” Austin held his hand out. “This is my girlfriend, Sonya.”
Mr. Foster shook her hand. “So nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Sonya’s smile made the other man stand taller.
“I’m here about my grandfather’s accounts.”
“I wondered when you’d come in.”
Austin tilted his head. “Why is that?”
“Well, of course as Mr. Jones’s sole heir his checking and savings accounts were transferred to you, but there’s also a safety-deposit box that you should check for important papers or items.”
“I found the key today actually. Can I get into it?”
“Absolutely. Everything goes to you. Strangely, your father paid the fee on the account for the next five years.”
Austin exchanged a look with Sonya. “That was very generous of him.”
> Or a devious plan. Pay the bill to keep Austin from receiving one and discovering the box, find the key, and make sure Austin never saw what was inside the box.
Mr. Foster frowned. “Well, he wanted to access the box.”
“Did you let him?”
Mr. Foster furiously shook his head. “Absolutely not. Only you sign on it now.”
So his father couldn’t get in it, but keeping Austin out of it served his purpose. Which meant his father knew what was in the box.
Sonya pressed her lips together and eyed the banker. “Was Mr. Hubbard upset you wouldn’t let him in the box?”
Mr. Foster’s lips pressed flat. “He was . . . displeased.”
“I’ll bet.” Austin had been on the receiving end of his father’s displeasure all too often this past year. “I’d like to get into the box.”
“This way.” Mr. Foster waved his hand toward a high gate that led to the huge vault.
“Did Austin’s father ask about anything besides the box?”
Mr. Foster unlocked the security door. Sonya entered the vault ahead of him.
Mr. Foster closed the gate behind them. “He asked if Austin had looked into his accounts.”
Austin slipped his key into the lock on box 42. The banker inserted the master key.
Sonya leaned against the small table in the center of the vault. “After we finish with the box, can you pull up all accounts, opened or closed, in Austin’s and his grandfather’s names?”
Austin pulled the small box out of the wall and set it on the table next to Sonya. “We have the statements,” he pointed out.
“I’d just like to see what the bank has on record, so we know we haven’t missed anything.” As a forensic accountant, Sonya’s job meant digging deep into financial records. He liked that she was thorough, though he didn’t think they’d find anything more than they already knew.
“I’d be happy to pull the records while you inspect the box.” Mr. Foster went to the gate. “Take your time. When you’ve finished, I’ll return to let you out and we’ll discuss the accounts.” Mr. Foster exited, giving them their privacy.
Austin unlatched the lid but hesitated and glanced at Sonya. “Whatever is in this box, my father wants it.”
Sonya laid her hand on his arm, giving him the much-needed comfort and warmth he always craved from her. “Your grandfather hid so many things in the house to protect them. Whatever this is, he needed the added protection of a signature card and vault.”
Austin eyed her. “Great. Thanks. That put my mind at ease.”
Sonya squeezed his arm. “He wanted to protect you. He left you everything, knowing he could trust you to take care of it. For all we know, he put the matches from his favorite matchbox in there.”
A laugh bubbled up his gut. “Let’s hope he hadn’t gone that crazy.”
“You’ll never know unless you open the box.”
Austin sucked in a breath and held it. He opened the lid, stared at the innocuous papers, and exhaled.
Sonya didn’t hesitate to pull them out and spread them open on the table.
Austin stared down at the deed to the ranch with Great-granddad’s name. The brittle paper had faded over time, but it was quite a piece of history going back to when the west was settled.
“That matches the copy I got at the courthouse.” Sonya tapped the next paper. “That one matches the property transfer to your grandfather when his parents passed away.” She pulled the other paper closer. “This is the transfer of land to your father and mother.”
“Their wedding gift from Grandpa.”
“I pulled this record, too, but there’s an attachment to the original I didn’t get at the courthouse.”
Austin read the contract and swore. “This is what my father stole.”
“I don’t get it. The land was given to your mother and father. Why did they need a contract?”
“Because my grandfather retained the mineral rights on the land. For me.” He pointed to the contract. “. . . Alan Jones owner, or in the event of owner’s death, divided equally by all children born to Annie Jones Hubbard.”
“He never left the mineral rights to your mother. He always meant for them to go to you.”
Austin rubbed at the back of his neck. “Because he didn’t trust my father. And that proved right when my father started mining and kept the money.”
“So you actually own all the sapphires Blue Mining found and sold.”
Austin pointed to another contract. “This is a five-year lease. I own everything he dug up after this lease expired.”
“Your grandfather wanted to give your father and mother a good start. Just like his father got when he found that first sapphire. He thought your father would find enough gems to give them a good life.”
“But my father wasn’t satisfied with enough money to make sure they’d never want for anything. He kept digging. He kept taking.”
“Your grandfather wanted the mineral rights to go to your mother’s children so they could do the same thing, pull from the land what they needed.”
“A legacy that would spread across generations. I see now what my grandfather was trying to tell me. He used to say, ‘Wanting more than you need can lead a man to ruin.’”
“Your grandfather filled the house and surrounded himself with more stuff than he needed.” Sonya made the point that his grandfather knew what he was talking about.
Austin nodded. “My father chose wealth over his family. Without family, there’s no love. Without love, you’ve got nothing.”
Austin had learned that lesson well this past year. He’d had nothing. Then Sonya came into his life and made it worth living with an exuberance he’d never experienced because he was truly happy now.
He raked his fingers through his hair. “So my father didn’t want me to find this because I could take his company and nearly all his wealth from him.”
“Why didn’t your grandfather put a stop to this years ago?”
“Probably because of my mother. As long as she was married to my father, Granddad didn’t rock the boat. Maybe he even used this to keep my father in line.” Austin rubbed two fingers over his brow. “Their marriage was tumultuous. If my mother ever decided to leave my father, I have no doubt Granddad would have given her this and let her take everything from my father in the divorce. When my mother died, my father and Granddad had several heated arguments over many days. I never knew about what. I was too caught up in my grief to really care. My guess is that Granddad wanted to tell me about this. My father persuaded—threatened is probably more accurate—Granddad to let it go. I worked for the company already. I’m my mother’s only child. I’ll inherit everything anyway.”
Sonya laid her hand on his arm. “Except if your father has another child. If you didn’t find these documents, he could have left everything to that child if you didn’t claim what was rightfully yours.”
“Which explains why he didn’t want me to see these papers and he’s trying to have another child. And it would have been all the better if that child was mine and rightfully heir to this.” Austin tipped his head back, stared at the ceiling, and swore.
“It makes sense. He could simply bypass you and leave everything to his grandchild the way your grandfather left everything to you instead of your mother.”
“As long as I didn’t discover his deception.” Austin slammed his fist down on the papers.
“Why not just let you share in the business and the wealth? Why go through all this? Disowning you. Kicking you out of the company. Insisting you sell the land to him. The land isn’t as important as you discovering nearly everything your father has made belongs to you.”
“He hoped to take over the property and gain the mineral rights and keep digging. Great-granddad found a huge sapphire. It’s reasonable to assume there are more. If my dad got the land, he’d get the chance to be even richer. He’d keep me from finding the key that opened this Pandora’s box.”
“What are you going to
do?”
“He’s put me in the same position my grandfather was in. I don’t have the money to hire an attorney to fight him.”
“With this information, an attorney will do the work, knowing they’ll get paid when you win. You could even use the property as collateral for a loan.” She held his gaze. “Austin, technically, you’re rich.”
Austin planted his hands on the counter and hung his head. “I’m so tired of fighting with him.” He turned his head and stared at her, the heaviness in his heart too much to carry. “None of this was necessary. If he or Granddad had simply told me I owned the mineral rights, I’d have come to a reasonable agreement with my father. He did the work. He built the company. But it was still my legacy.” Austin pushed off the counter and fisted his hands, letting the anger rise again. “Greedy bastard. He had to have it all. The business. The money. The woman he thought I loved.”
“He’s jealous.”
“Right.” Austin rolled his eyes and huffed out a frustrated breath. “For the past year, I’ve had exactly nothing.”
“That’s not true, Austin. You’ve always had everything.”
The words hit him hard, but the reality of it overwhelmed him. What did he do with the fact that he was wealthy beyond imagination on paper, but his life hadn’t reflected that, especially this past year?
“You had your mother’s love. Your granddad’s devotion. Kelly’s adoration. And everything your father’s worked for really belongs to you. He kept it because of your grandfather’s generosity and your mother’s belief that her husband had your best interest in mind and you’d receive the benefit of all his hard work. Maybe it was your mother’s letter, or the troubled marriage your mother couldn’t hide from your grandfather, or that your grandfather knew he didn’t have much time left to make things right, but something prompted him to go to your father on your behalf.”
“Nothing changed after they argued. My grandfather didn’t make my father give it all back to me.”
“No. He left you this.” Sonya held her hands up and over the papers. “For whatever reason, he couldn’t fight your father, but he knew you would.”
Restless Rancher Page 20