“Yeah. You guys are really great together.”
Sonya stopped by the sofa and frowned. “I’m sorry you overheard all that.” She didn’t want to shove her happiness in Kelly’s face.
“I’m happy for him. For both of you.” The words sounded sincere.
Sonya grabbed her purse and pulled out her phone. “I need to leave Austin’s phone here. I’ll call you back on my phone.” It only took a minute to hang up and use the number for Kelly on Austin’s phone to call from hers. She didn’t say hello, just headed for the door and voiced her concerns about doing this. “Walter is going to be furious when he finds out you’re helping us.”
“He deserves a lot worse.”
She had a minor twinge of regret for lying to Austin about where she was going and why. But if she could get this done without adding more worries and stress in his life, then one little lie would be worth it.
Sonya jumped into her truck, started the engine, pulled out of the driveway, and headed for the Blue Mining offices. “You deserve a lot better.”
“I’m really sorry about the things I said to you.”
“That’s all in the past. We both care about Austin. So let’s do this together for him.”
Kelly loved Austin. She’d never stopped loving him even though they’d split because Kelly wanted more than Austin had to give her at the time. But Kelly had come to realize what she’d had and given up.
Sonya had learned long ago that some things were worth more than any amount of money. Friends who were like sisters. A mother who loved her so much she’d do anything to keep Sonya safe and give her the life she’d never had. A man who loved her and put her first. A love that grew each and every day and felt so new and wondrous but at the same time safe and like it had always been there waiting for her.
She’d known for a long time now that she didn’t want to take the job and move back to Nevada. She’d held on to the offer in case things didn’t work out and she needed it. Austin had to have wondered why she hadn’t said no. He didn’t push one way or the other. He let her work it out her way and in her time. Saying yes to him meant no to the job and she was more than okay with that.
“I’ve found the electronic bank statements.”
“We’ll need those.” Sonya pulled the truck over to the shoulder and grabbed her phone out of the holder. “Give me a second. I’m going to create a shared folder in my cloud service. You can copy all the files into there. What’s your email address so I can send you the link?”
Kelly rattled off her email address.
“Okay, I sent you the link. Click it, then start dumping files into it. Inventory, bank statements, tax returns, any kind of reports that are surveys or estimates of what’s not been mined.” Sonya drove down the road again.
“Oh, I saw something like that.”
“When I get there, I’ll dig deeper into the system and paperwork to see if Walter is hiding anything else.”
Chapter Thirty
Austin stood in front of the open fridge and surveyed its contents. Before Sonya, he’d survived on things he could cook quick in the toaster oven. Now he had so many choices, he didn’t know what to make for his snack while he waited for her to come home.
His phone rang. He hoped it was Sonya, letting him know she was on her way back. Caller ID had him answering his best friend’s call with, “I guess Sonya told you about the engagement.”
“What?” Surprise filled Noah’s voice. “How did you know Roxy and I got engaged today? We were calling to tell you guys.”
“You got engaged? Sonya and I got engaged today, too. Oh my God, what are the odds?”
“Well, I guess congrats to you two, too,” Roxy said. Noah must have had the phone on speaker. “Get her on the line so we can all celebrate this monumental day. Two wild roses tamed.”
Austin’s heart stuttered. “Isn’t she with you guys?”
“No.” Noah’s voice held not even half the concern filling Austin’s spinning mind.
“Roxy, did you call her about half an hour ago? Something about the Wild Rose computers going down?”
“No. Are you sure she said it was me and not Big Mama?”
“Hard to get those two names mixed up.” He tried to think through the fear. Why the hell would she lie to him? They’d promised to be partners in everything today.
“Austin, what are you thinking?” Roxy asked.
“If she lied, it had to be for a good reason.”
“To protect you,” Roxy guessed. “Why? What’s been going on with you two?”
“We saw my father tonight. I told him I’m taking control of the land and mine.”
“I’m sure he didn’t take that well.” Noah made the understatement of the year.
“Do you think your father called her and is using her to get you to back off?”
“I’m sure as hell going to find out. I’ll call you later.” He hung up on his friends. Because of the nagging sensation of danger humming inside him, he grabbed his truck keys and wallet off the counter, and headed out to his truck. He drove down the driveway and hit the speed dial on his phone and prayed Sonya picked up and all his worries were nothing more than an echo of how he felt the last time his father hurt her.
Chapter Thirty-One
Sonya pulled into the lot in front of the metal-siding warehouse-style building. Spotlights on either end of the building lit up the small parking lot. She took the spot beside Kelly’s and stared at the dark interior windows. The car door creaked when she opened it, the sound excessively loud in the quiet night.
An eerie ripple shivered up her spine as she approached the front door.
Kelly appeared out of nowhere behind the glass.
Sonya jumped back and put her hand to her chest. “Oh my God. Don’t do that.”
Kelly held the door open for her, then closed and relocked it. “Walter’s office is over there. I’ve gone through most of the files and pulled things I think you’ll need. I’m over here”—Kelly waved her hand to another office—“going through the accounting department’s files. That’s where I need your help.”
Sonya followed Kelly into the office and stared at the number of folders stacked on the table.
“We need to hurry. As soon as Walter discovers I’m gone, he’s going to suspect something. Take the computer. I’m logged in.”
“He’s going to know you helped us.”
Kelly placed her hand over her still-flat belly. “It’s the right thing to do. He’s not the man I thought he was when all this started. I can’t seem to reconcile the man who was sweet and funny and took me to dinner and sent me flowers and made promises to give me everything I wanted and deserved with who I’ve seen him be these last weeks.” Kelly’s eyes went flat with disillusionment. “He lied. He manipulated. He outright played me,” she whispered.
Drawn to Kelly’s sadness, Sonya stood and went to her. She held her shoulders at arm’s length. “I’m sorry he hurt you. But he gave you a gift. You’re going to be a great mother.” Sonya hugged her.
Kelly held on for a moment. “I’m scared he’ll try to take the child from me or ruin him with his self-serving manipulations and cruelty. He reels you in, makes you care, then shows how little you mean to him because he only cares about himself.”
Sonya held Kelly away from her again and looked her in the eye. “He didn’t ruin Austin. You won’t let him ruin your baby.” Sonya gave her a smile. “And big brother Austin will make sure of that.”
Kelly’s eyes shined with optimism. “I really screwed that one up.”
“Live and learn. When the right man shows up, you’ll know it. You won’t second-guess it, the way you’ve probably been doing with Walter.”
“There’s always been this niggling feeling and whisper in the back of my mind.”
“Intuition. Listen to it next time.” It was what made Sonya say yes to marrying Austin even though they’d only known each other a short time.
Kelly squeezed Sonya’s arm and nod
ded. “He never looked at me the way he looks at you.”
“He” was Austin.
“I’m glad he has you. He’s happy. I want that for him. For both of you.”
“Thank you. We want you to be happy, too.” Sonya went back to the desk. “Let’s get moving on this. We don’t want to get caught.”
Famous last words. Ten minutes later, Sonya had enough evidence to bury Walter. Her phone vibrated on the desk. She swiped her finger across the screen to accept the call, but never got a chance to say hello.
Walter walked in the office door and pointed a gun right in her face.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Move and I’ll shoot you.”
The words Austin intended to tell Sonya—about how mad he was that she’d lied and left without telling him what was really going on—lodged in his throat the millisecond his dad’s words penetrated his brain.
He wanted to yell at his father, Leave her alone. Touch her and I’ll kill you.
But he didn’t want to give away the fact he could hear everything. He wanted to hang up and call the police, but he didn’t know where to send them.
“How did you know we’d be here at the office?”
Thank you, Sonya!
He’d been headed there but the confirmation he was going in the right direction eased a tiny bit of his all-encompassing worry. He planted his foot over the gas pedal and all the way to the floor. He prayed he got there in time to stop his father from doing something even crazier than he’d already done.
If he hurt Sonya . . . if Austin lost her . . . his father would really wish Austin had never been born.
“Kelly told me when she flattened my man’s tire to slow him down.”
“Because I knew you were sending him here to gather all the evidence.”
“This is my business. My money. My gems. You think I’m going to let you or that asshole son of mine take it away?”
“Austin offered you a fair deal.” Sonya’s calm voice only infuriated his father more.
“Thirty percent of everything I built. That’s not an offer, that’s a slap in the face of everything I did for him.”
“You did it for you.”
Austin wanted to tell Sonya not to antagonize him. But all he could do was steer the truck down the road and closer to her. He needed to get there before this volatile situation exploded.
“Maybe in the beginning you thought using his money to buy the land and keep the mining operation up and running was your way of providing for your family. But mining became your obsession.”
Gold fever. Austin read about it in the fourth grade when he did his gold rush project. He’d never attributed the affliction to his father, but it did explain why what started as a means to build the ranch turned into something that eventually alienated everyone he cared about.
Austin understood what drove his father now, but it didn’t excuse his behavior. Especially when he had no remorse. And held a gun on Sonya and the woman carrying his brother or sister.
“You have no idea what it takes to run this business, to see all those little pebbles add up to nothing but enough to keep your employees paid and the lights on. But then you find one, two, a dozen gems that are worth more than the buckets you’ve found before and you have to keep digging because there’s more out there.”
Austin had never heard his dad talk with that kind of intensity. Obsession and greed tainted the drive Austin admired in his father. Yes, he worked hard, but the motive behind it made it all so irrational.
“I will never let Austin shut me down. That land is filled with gems. And I intend to find them.”
Austin pulled into the lot, threw the truck in Park, shut it off, and leaped out on the run for the door.
“Talk to Austin, Walter,” Sonya pleaded. “He’ll listen. He’ll come to an agreement you can both live with and be happy. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.”
“Right now, I have everything. The business. The land. The gems. The money. His ex.”
Austin paused with his hand on the door and stared at his cell. His father’s obsession to possess had spread and twisted into a need to take everything from Austin.
Sonya had been right. His father wanted to keep everything that belonged to Austin.
Austin opened the door, careful not to make a sound, and made his way toward the office, the security lights at the front of the building casting a glow over the room and highlighting his father’s back.
“You used me. You don’t care about me.” Kelly’s voice trembled with anger. “You were ready to get rid of me because I hadn’t gotten pregnant and was no use to you.”
“But you are pregnant. That child is mine. You might be thinking about leaving, but I’ll never let you get away with my child.”
“Maybe there won’t be a child,” Kelly threatened, though Austin didn’t believe she’d harm the baby she wanted more than anything. “I hate you. I hate even more that you’re this child’s father. You ruined everything! I loved Austin. We were supposed to get married. He was going to be such an amazing father. He’s a better man than you’ll ever be!”
Austin saw his father swing the gun and turn toward Kelly’s voice. He grabbed a palm-sized, round, cut-glass, sapphire paperweight with the Blue Mining name and logo on it off a desk. His father fired a split second before Austin slammed the fake gem into the back of his father’s head, sending him to the ground.
He was too late.
Austin looked up and stared in horror when he saw Kelly on the floor, blood splattered on her face and shirt, and Sonya lying in front of her, blood pouring out a gunshot wound on his fiancée’s side.
“Sonya!” He rushed to her, placed his hand on the wound, and pushed hard to stop the bleeding. “No, no, no, no, no.” He didn’t want to believe what his eyes saw.
Kelly stared at him wide-eyed and trembling. “She ran for me and pushed me down toward the table.”
Sonya moaned and grabbed his hand, trying to get him to stop pushing on her. “I couldn’t let him shoot you. You’re carrying Austin’s sibling.”
Austin leaned down and pressed his forehead to Sonya’s. “Damnit, sweetheart, why didn’t you tell me you were coming here? You scared the life out of me.”
Kelly touched his shoulder. “I was trying to get everything you’d need against Walter before he hid or deleted it. I wanted to show you how sorry I am for all I did. But I needed Sonya’s help to go through the files. I wanted to make it right.”
“You got my fiancée shot!” Fear and anger overrode sense and reality.
Sonya reached up and grabbed a handful of his shirt. “She wanted to help you, Austin. We both did. It’s not her fault.”
Austin let out a frustrated breath and handed his phone to Kelly. “Call an ambulance.”
“They broke in to steal documents and the gems out of the safe. It’s dark. I thought they had a weapon and defended myself.” His father lay on his side, propped on his elbow, his hand on the back of his head.
Austin turned, spotted the gun on the floor a few feet from his father, and scrambled to get it just as his father dove for it. Austin beat him to it and shoved his father back with a boot to the chest. He barely contained the urge to kick him while he was down.
Austin stared down at the man who had turned into a stranger. He didn’t recognize the man who’d spoiled him at Christmas growing up and taught him how to drive, run the business, and work hard for what he wanted.
“Austin,” Sonya called, her voice weak. “My phone. The app I use for reminders.”
Austin stared down his nose at his father, not caring one bit about the blood running down his head and neck. “You’re fucked. She recorded everything.”
Sonya’s obsessive list making would take down his father once and for all. Walter deserved every bad thing coming his way.
Behind him, Kelly spoke frantically to the 911 dispatcher. “She’s bleeding a lot.”
Austin worked quickly so he could take care of Sonya. H
e tucked the gun at his back and grabbed the lamp off the desk. He yanked the cord from the wall and right out of the base. His father tried to stand, but his legs wobbled and he pressed the heel of his hand to his head.
“Dizzy. I’m betting concussion.”
“You hit me.” Surprise and sadness filled Walter’s voice.
Austin didn’t have an ounce of sympathy. “You tried to kill Kelly and shot my fiancée. Be grateful you’re still breathing.” Austin yanked his father’s hands behind his back and tightly wrapped the cord around his wrists.
His father tried to fight him off and get free. “Let me go. You can’t do this.”
“I just did.” Austin shoved his father into a chair. “Stay there or I’ll knock you out again and this time you’ll wake up with a busted nose.”
His father leaned back and closed his eyes. The head wound must be pretty bad, but it was nothing compared to what he deserved.
Austin kneeled beside Sonya and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Can you hold on a little longer? The ambulance will be here soon.”
Kelly ran back into the office with handfuls of paper towels from the bathroom. He hadn’t even realized she’d left. She dropped to her knees on the other side of Sonya. “The bullet went right through her. I’m pushing the towels to both sides of her now,” she said to the dispatcher.
Sonya tried to hold back the worst of her scream, but the piercing sound broke Austin’s heart and echoed through his head. He wondered if he’d ever stop hearing it. He wished he could take away her pain. He wished he hadn’t brought this into her life.
“This is not your fault.” She took his hand, but her weak grip didn’t ease his mind or heart.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. We’ll get you to the hospital. You’re going to be okay.”
“O . . .” Sonya went limp.
He brushed his fingers over her hair. “Sweetheart, come on, wake up. Stay with me.”
Kelly kept pressing on Sonya’s wounds but the bleeding didn’t stop. “It’s just the pain and blood loss. She passed out. She’ll be okay.” Kelly sucked in a ragged breath. “She has to be okay. If she hadn’t pushed me out of the way, he’d have shot me in the stomach.” A torrent of tears cascaded down Kelly’s cheeks but she never stopped helping Sonya.
Restless Rancher Page 24