He straightened his back and leveled his best glare at her. He was not the same wayward youth. He would not be dressed down by anyone anymore. Least of all a woman.
Not even his woman.
Rafe pushed her finger away from his chest. “Ah, so you have figured it out, have you? I should have guessed that you would put the pieces together before your idiot brother did.”
His words had the desired affect—the color drained from her face and, off balance, she stumbled backward. “What?”
Without thinking about it, he caught her around the waist to keep her from falling. He didn’t tuck her against his chest, however, nor did he attempt to comfort her. He kept distance between their bodies. “Sit, please. I have no wish to see you hurt.”
“Figured what out, Rafe?”
“Sit, Violet.” This time, it was not a request. It was an order. He backed her up until she hit the chair with the backs of her legs and sat with enough force that Rafe winced. “Take care. Please, think of the child.”
Violet looked down at her stomach as if she expected an alien to emerge from her body at any second. “The...child? You still...” Her voice trailed off with the unspoken question.
“Yes, of course I still want the child. The baby will be my flesh and blood just as much as it will be yours.” Rafe took the sofa where he had been sitting when she first walked back into his life. She had been ready to flay him alive then. Some things, it seemed, would never change. “Now. Tell me what you know and what your brother knows.”
She blinked at him and slowly, he could see her regain her control. “You are Samson Oil.”
“That is correct.”
“And you’ve been buying up all the ranches surrounding the Double M for months. That’s why you were in Holloway four months ago.”
Rafe nodded. “You are correct. I have also bought quite a few other parcels of land.”
She looked at him in what he could only call surprise. “Why?”
“So as not to arouse suspicion.”
He saw her swallow. “Oh. Of course. And...the Wild Aces? Were you going to buy that, as well, before I told you about it? About how much I wanted it?”
He felt a dull ache spreading in his chest but he held his pose, leg crossed over his knee, arms spread out along the back of the couch. He took up as much space as he could. “Yes.”
Pain tightened her features to the point where Rafe fought the urge to stand and pull her into his arms. The jig, as they said, was up. “So you weren’t going to buy it for me?”
He let the question hang in the air until he was sure he had his foolish impulses to comfort her under control. “Originally, no.”
“Originally?”
“I will keep it for you. In a few years, after this is all settled, you may have it.”
He would not have thought it possible for her to get any paler, but she did. “A...few years? And this—what is this, Rafe?”
The urge to move was almost overwhelming. No, he did not want to back away or run and hide, but even to stand and pace would be a physical relief. But with his father, any such betrayal of his mental state had always led to not only more beatings, but more severe beatings, as well. So Rafe forced himself to be still. “You are quite bright, Violet. Do not tell me you have failed to guess what ‘this’ is.”
“Mac,” she said. It came out almost as a croak.
He nodded his head in acknowledgment. “I can be very patient. Twelve years was nothing to me, not after what your brother did to us.”
“But—he didn’t,” she sputtered. “He told me he found your sister in his bed and that he never even touched her. He always felt terrible about it, but it wasn’t his fault!”
Rafe looked at her coolly. “And you believed that, did you?”
Her mouth opened and shut. He could read the doubt in her eyes. “Mac wouldn’t lie to me. Not like you do.”
* * *
“Don’t be naive,” Rafe said, his tone condescending.
This was not happening. It couldn’t be. Maybe...maybe Violet really had fainted in Mac’s office. And she was still unconscious. That’d explain this.
The man she was sitting across from looked like the same man she’d met in Holloway months ago. The man she’d taken back to her bed in the past week.
The man she had started to fall for.
But he wasn’t. He was nothing but a cold, heartless bastard. “How could you do this to us?” she asked, although she was already starting to get a pretty good idea of the answer. “How could you do this to me?”
Her throat started to close up and her eyes began to water, but she wasn’t going to cry. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing how upset she was. Besides, she figured a snake of a man like Rafiq bin Saleed wouldn’t be moved by a woman crying anyway. That would imply that he was capable of emotions.
He sat looking at her for what felt like a very long time. “Because,” he said slowly.
“Don’t give me that, Rafe. Because isn’t an answer. Why are you doing this to me? I never did anything to you or your sister. I never even knew you.”
It was only when Rafe exhaled—long and slow, the kind of controlled breath that seemed to say to her he was barely in control—that she realized he might not be quite as calculating as she’d gathered. So she did what she always did—she spoke. Impulsively. “Was this your evil plan all along? Were you waiting for me in Holloway that night for the express purpose of getting me pregnant? Am I nothing but a pawn to you?”
“I understand if you hate me,” he said in a much softer voice than she had been expecting.
“Hate you? Jesus, I don’t know if I should shoot you or not. And don’t think I don’t know how,” she spat at him. “Talk, damn you.”
“You may choose to believe what you wish to, but I have not lied to you.”
A bark of laughter escaped her. It was either laugh or start sobbing, and she was the boss of her emotions right now, thank you very much.
“I have, it is true, omitted many things,” Rafe went on after she’d settled down. “I did not know who you were—that was the truth. I promised to use a condom, and I did. I promised I would not contact you outside of that evening, and I did not. I promised I would look into the Wild Aces, and I did. Honor is everything to my people, and my family and I have made every effort not to dishonor you through lies.”
“You’ll excuse me if I don’t exactly see the difference between you lying and you carefully not mentioning that the whole reason you were in Holloway and Royal in the first place was to destroy my family.”
The infuriating man waved his hand, as if she were splitting hairs, but he didn’t have the energy to argue with her.
“My revenge is complete, with your assistance,” he said. He tried to smile, but even in her upset state she could see how forced it was, as if there were something that were pushing him to say and do these awful things. “Surely you can see how Mac and I will be even. He ruined my sister. I merely returned the favor.”
Where was her gun? Oh, that’s right. Up in her room. She’d never make it up and back before Rafe could get out of range. Dammit.
“For your information, I don’t think your sister was ruined just because she chose to get into bed with my brother, and I don’t think you ruined me just because I chose to sleep with you—which, by the way, will never happen again.”
“As is your choice,” he said and there was no mistaking the sorrow in his voice.
“If you think you’re ever going to get our baby, you’re wrong. I’ll fight you every step of the way.”
“It does not have to be like that,” he said, and it might have been her imagination, but she swore he looked worried.
Well, he could just be worried. She surged to her feet, letting the anger carry her. �
��The hell it doesn’t. I won’t let you get the Wild Aces, I won’t let you get the Double M, I won’t let you get my baby and I sure as hell won’t let you get me. Now get out.”
Rafe stood. “It is too late, you realize. The Wild Aces is as good as mine and soon, your brother will not be able to sustain the Double M.”
“It ain’t over till it’s over,” she retorted. “Now leave before I get my gun.”
He nodded and walked to the front door. Then he paused and turned back to her. “You should have been a pawn,” he said mournfully. “But you were not. It gives me no pleasure to do this to you.”
“Then don’t,” she said, unable to believe what she was saying. “Don’t do it to me. Don’t do it to us.” And she was horrified to realize that she wanted him to do something—what, she didn’t know. Something that would show her that underneath that imperious exterior was the real man she’d almost loved.
“There is no us,” he said, turning away from her. “And I have no choice in the matter. I am bound by honor and obligation. But I will hold the Wild Aces for you and for our child. I promise you that, Violet.”
She needed to say something—get the last word, put him in his place, but all she could do was watch him open up the door to her house and close it behind him when he went.
Then she sank into the chair and cried.
But not for long. The Double M was her ranch, her home. She was the boss around here. She did not have time for self-pity.
She dialed Mac. “I need you to come home right now,” she told him when he answered. “We need to talk.”
* * *
By the time Mac and Andrea rolled in, Violet had gotten herself under control. She’d texted her best friends, Clare and Grace, because if there was one thing she needed right now, it was backup. She’d splashed her face with water and had a ginger ale and was, all things considered, feeling up to the fight.
“What?” Mac demanded when he walked through the door. Violet stood and faced her brother. “What’s so important that you couldn’t tell me on the phone? Did you find out something about Samson Oil or Rafe?”
Andrea put a gentle hand on his shoulder and made eye contact with Violet. “What is it, Violet?” she asked, her gaze dropping to Violet’s belly.
“Okay, I’ve got a couple of things to say and I’m going to say them,” Violet said, trying to remember to breathe.
“All right,” Mac said, looking worried. “What?”
“First off, I’m pregnant.”
That might not have been the best way to go about this, but Violet was done tiptoeing around Mac. “What?”
“Second off,” she said, charging ahead, “Rafe is the father.”
“What?” Mac roared. “That bastard! I asked him to keep an eye on you and this is how he repays me? I’m going to—”
Violet held up her hand and Andrea squeezed Mac’s shoulder and miracle of miracles, the man shut up. “Third off, I’m four months pregnant. Actually, four months and almost two weeks.”
Mac’s mouth opened and then shut again. “Wait, what?”
“Rafe was in town months before he showed up here, claiming he wanted to reconnect. I met him at the Holloway Inn in November. That’s where...” Mac blanched. Okay, they didn’t need to get into the details. “Anyway, I needed a night out. I didn’t know who he was and he claims that he didn’t know who I was, although obviously we can’t exactly take him at his word right now. It was a one-night stand that didn’t go quite according to plan.”
“Oh, honey,” Andrea said.
“I don’t think I want to hear anymore,” Mac said, looking a little green around the gills.
“Fourth off, he’s out to get you and, as near as I can figure, I’m just collateral damage. He made me a lot of promises over the course of the last week and he swears that he’ll hold on to the Wild Aces for me and I can have it in a few years after he’s put the Double M out of business.”
“So this is all—what, exactly?”
“Revenge,” Andrea said. “This is revenge.”
“She’s right. He said he was honor bound to get you back for ruining his sister. Originally, that just meant ruining you. But I guess I provide the ironic twist, don’t I?” Her voice cracked and Andrea pulled her into a big hug.
“It’s okay, honey,” she said softly.
“How the hell is this okay?” Mac shouted. “Some insane sheikh is out to ruin me because his equally insane sister decided the best way to get out of a bad marriage was to be caught in my bed? I had nothing to do with any of this!”
“Mac!” Andrea hissed. “Now is not the best time!”
Mac looked at Violet, who was sniffing violently. “I’m—oh, God, I’m sorry, Violet. I didn’t think...”
“It’s okay. But I have one more thing I want to say.” She straightened up and pushed herself out of Andrea’s arms.
Mac eyed her warily. “What’s that?”
“This—if you had bought the Wild Aces when I asked you to, if you had listened to me at any point in the last twelve years—we wouldn’t be in this position.”
The man had the nerve to look hurt. “But Violet—I was just trying to protect you. You’ve had to deal with more than your share, what with us losing our parents and—”
“It’s been twelve years, Mac. I’m not a little girl anymore and I’m not the shell-shocked teenager I was when you got home from college. I’m a grown woman and a ranch manager and soon I’m going to be a mother. Everyone else knows that I can handle myself—even this surprise pregnancy, I can deal with it. But I’ve spent years tiptoeing around you and asking Andrea to convince you to do things for me because every time I open my mouth, you act like I’m just the cutest little thing playacting at adulthood and I’m sick of it. I don’t need your protection. I’m not just your little sister. I am your business partner, dammit, and it’s high time you started treating me like it.”
Mac gaped at her but, amazingly, didn’t tell her he was going to handle it or that it was all going to be okay. “Well, then, what do you suggest?”
Luckily, she’d had enough time to think through the next step. “The only way to cut Rafe off is to buy the Aces out from under him. Lulu said she’d sell it to me for one-point-five million. The very last thing I will ever ask of you is to help me buy it. We need the water and I need my own place to raise my family.”
For a second, she thought maybe she’d gotten through to the big lunkhead, but old habits died mighty hard, because Mac’s gaze cut to Andrea. Violet rolled her eyes, and she saw Andrea’s lips twist into something of a knowing smile.
“She’s right,” Andrea said. “You know she is.”
“Dang it all, I know.” Mac took off his hat and rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know if we can beat him to the punch. No one knew who was behind Samson Oil at first and the money was too good. He had Nolan Dane doing all his negotiating for him. Kyle Wade is the one who outed him, but I don’t think any of us saw this as revenge. Except for you,” he added before Violet could correct him. “And why didn’t you tell me you were expecting?”
“Because the moment I figured it out is literally the moment Rafe showed back up and I had a lot to deal with, okay?”
Mac put his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. “Okay, okay. Sheesh.”
“I need the Wild Aces, Mac.”
He nodded—slowly at first, but then more emphatically. “Then I’ll go get it for you, partner.”
Ten
“I don’t know what I’m going to do.” It was all well and good for Violet to stand up in front of her brother and tell him she could handle this, but now, far away from Mac, she wasn’t so sure.
Which was how she found herself at the Royal Diner, sitting with her best friends, Clare Connelly and Grace Haines, and pouring her heart ou
t while Mac went to try to get the money by liquidating some capital—or something like that. Violet did not handle the money end of things, so Andrea had gently suggested that she get together with her friends for a little girl time.
Violet really did love Andrea. The woman was a peach.
“Honey,” Clare said, slinging an arm around Violet’s shoulder and giving her a firm hug, “if anyone can handle this, it’s you.”
“But I’m pregnant.” Now that Violet had said the words out loud, she seemingly couldn’t stop saying them. She’d been telling friends, neighbors, Dale—even random people she met in the street. She was pregnant and she was screwed.
“You keep saying that like it’s the end of the world, but you know it’s not,” Grace said. “Heck, I’m suddenly mother to twins. It’s a lot but it’s not the end of the world. You’ve survived worse, you know.”
Violet was too emotionally drained to even wince. “Yeah, but my parents’ plane crash was a one-and-done event. This? The father of my child is basically out to destroy the entire town of Royal because he’s nursing a grudge against my brother about something that happened over twelve years ago. This isn’t a one time trauma. This has the potential to be an ongoing international incident. I mean, he’s a sheikh, for God’s sake!”
Clare and Grace shared a look. “I’m sure something can be worked out,” Clare said. “I mean, look at Grace. First she was Maddie and Maggie’s social worker and now she’s going to adopt them and marry their father...”
“What Clare is saying is, just because it’s complicated doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to make it work,” Grace finished.
“And you know I’ll be here with you,” Clare said, giving Violet another squeeze. “I love babies! I’ll teach you everything you need to know and when your baby gets a little older, we can all have playdates together.”
“We?” Violet and Grace both turned to look at Clare. Grace said, “Is there something you’re not telling us?”
Clare blushed. “Actually, I’m pregnant. But!” she said quickly, hushing her friends before they could start whooping and hollering. “I’m only a little pregnant. Probably not more than five weeks along, so we’re going to keep it quiet for now, okay?”
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