They reported that Joe had asphyxiated from the heavy smoke. In all probability, he had been in that back room and had passed out with a lit cigarette in his hand. He had been drunk when he confronted Alice earlier that afternoon. Perhaps he had continued to drown his sorrows after they parted. Unfortunately, no one could ever know for sure what happened, but both the Fire Marshall and the Sheriff were satisfied that the cause was accidental.
Alice contacted Joe’s family so they could make arrangements. His parents were shattered, but promised to let her know when the memorial service would be. Alice was heartbroken that she and Joe would never have the opportunity to make amends. Fate had seen to that.
It was no surprise to her when none of the construction crew returned. A small part of her had hoped that they would start rolling in on Monday night, but of course no one showed. She had no way to reach any of them, not even to tell them about the fire. Billy had always taken responsibility for communicating with them.
When Alice checked the lodge for a crew list, employment records, anything with phone numbers, she didn’t find a thing. Billy left nothing behind. In fact, there was no sign that he had ever been there, and aside from the mess, nothing from the crew had been left behind either.
It was then that she realized the enormity of the situation. She had been swindled. She spent hours trying to piece together what happened, consider all the angles, make sense of what she could. Obviously the sixty grand was gone, the money she borrowed. Maybe even the last installment had been pocketed too. It had been the largest of the three.
What didn’t make sense to her was that Billy had gone forward with any of the work. It must have required a lot of effort to pull together a budget, a plan, a work crew, then supervise them day in and day out for weeks and weeks. Why not just take off after the first installment? Why go to the trouble? What was his angle?
She spent a lot of time thinking about their intimacy too. She had fallen in love with him and he made her think that he cared about her too. Although, when she really gave it some serious consideration, dissecting everything moment by moment, she realized that he had avoided every conversation that involved his sharing how he felt about her. She just took him at face value, his affection seeming so genuine. But he had given her very strange vibes along the way too, and she chose to ignore them, despite her instincts screaming at her. Wasn’t hind sight twenty-twenty.
Alice heard a soft knock on her door.
“Yes?” she answered quietly.
Lisa carefully opened the door and inched her way toward Alice’s bed, the light from the hallway illuminating her path.
“Amy is asleep. Her first day at school tuckered her out. I told her you would slip in to kiss her goodnight later,” Lisa whispered carefully, as though Alice were a wounded animal.
“Thank you for putting her to bed,” Alice answered impassively, exhaustion from the past few days catching up to her.
Even speaking was an effort.
“Are you ok?” Lisa asked, concerned for her cousin.
“I’m sad. I’m in shock. I still can’t believe any of this happened. Joe is gone, Billy is gone, and the arena is gone. All just snatched away. I’ll never get any of it back,” Alice whispered, pulling her pillow closer.
Lisa stroked Alice’s hair softly, soothing her. Alice had confided her fear to Lisa, that Billy may have played her, swindled her out of her money. She felt so foolish. In retrospect, she should have done so much more to protect them all. She had trusted him.
“I know. It is so hard to believe,” Lisa agreed, “but you have to be positive, Alice. Yes, Joe is gone, and Billy, well, good riddance! But the arena? Your dream? Why can’t we just rebuild it? That is what insurance is for. It doesn’t have to end here. We don’t need Billy.”
Alice suddenly sat up, sick to her stomach. She looked at her cousin with an alarming expression on her face, releasing a desperate groan.
“What? What is it, Alice?” Lisa asked, her voice tight with worry.
“The insurance,” Alice choked.
“What about it?” Lisa asked apprehensively.
Alice continued to stare at her cousin, her eyes wide with panic.
“Alice, what about the insurance?” Lisa pressed, her own alarm bells triggered.
“I forgot to contact the insurance company. I meant to do it right after the loan came through but I was so distracted. Billy was leaving in a few days and I kept promising myself I would take care of it when he left, but it slipped my mind. Then all hell broke loose,” Alice explained anxiously. “Oh my God, Lisa.”
Lisa shook her head slowly, as though trying to grasp what Alice was telling her.
“The arena wasn’t insured,” Alice said, enunciating each word.
“Fuck,” Lisa whispered, a most appropriate response.
“Fuck is right. I dropped the ball and now we’re all euchred. How can we recover from this? Everything I had was tied up in that Equine Centre. I borrowed against this place. How will I be able to pay that back if the arena is gone? The ranch isn’t earning enough to support that on its own,” Alice explained, her words strained.
Lisa reached out and took her hand, but Alice was too ashamed to accept comfort. She looked away, tears welling in her eyes. She fucked up, plain and simple. She had stepped out of her comfort zone and tried to follow her dreams, give her daughter a better, more secure life, and she failed.
The women sat in strained silence for several minutes until Alice finally found her voice.
“Lisa, I need some time alone, please,” she said, averting her eyes.
She didn’t want her cousin to see her falling apart. Throughout her entire life she had consistently managed to stay strong, even when her parents had died. She had always pulled herself together in the face of adversity, pushing herself forward with brilliant optimism. But today, in this moment, she was struggling to find the light.
* * *
Alice woke up the next morning feeling a little better. She helped Amy get ready for school, reflecting on her life. The past few years had not been easy ones, that was for certain, but growing up on the ranch with the love and support of her parents, she had truly been blessed. Through it all, every ill-advised choice she had made was driven by the need to provide Amy with the same love and security she had felt growing up. She had nothing but the best of intentions for the both of them, and while it would be easy to drown in regret and anger, punishing herself for her mistakes would serve no one. Especially her child.
Alice had tried desperately to recreate the life that her parents had modeled for her, instead of building a life for Amy that reflected her own truth. She may not be everything her parents were, but to Amy she was the whole world.
As long as Alice was happy, Amy would be too, and the fates could go fuck themselves.
“There’s the school bus, Mommy,” Amy said happily, looking up at her mother.
Alice nodded and crouched down to give her daughter a kiss goodbye.
“Enjoy your day, sweetie. Be kind and learn lots,” Alice said warmly, tousling Amy’s hair. “Aunt Lisa will pick you up from the bus today. Mommy has some errands to run. I may not be home until after dinner.”
“Ok, Mommy, love you.”
Amy gave her a tight squeeze and stepped up onto the school bus.
Alice quickly walked back to the house to grab her purse and car keys. She left Lisa to manage the animals for the day, and Sam promised to come by and help too. Alice knew it was just a matter of time before their generosity fizzled out. Life as it was, was no longer sustainable. She couldn’t do this on her own.
When Alice woke up that morning, she knew what she had to do. She had to let it all go and trust that her destiny was somewhere different, waiting for her. Maybe she had been using the ranch as a crutch all along. She had accused Joe of that, but here she was doing the same thing. Holding on to the ranch was her way of keeping her parents close, but it was also holding her back from the life she deserved.
She was finally ready to move forward. The ranch would always be in her heart, but home was wherever she and Amy made it.
Maybe Billy had come into her life to teach her something far more valuable than what he had stolen from her.
Alice pulled onto Highway Twenty, and drove east toward Sacramento.
Chapter 24
Billy
“So that old warehouse east of the river is set for demolition next Monday,” James explained stoically.
He looked up from his computer, clearing his throat loudly to get William’s attention. They were sitting together in the boardroom, just the two of them. The staff meeting over the lunch hour had just ended, the team already dispersed.
“Will? Did you hear what I said?”
William sighed deeply. He had heard him, the problem was, he just didn’t give a rat’s ass anymore. About any of it. He tried to settle back into his life, but not one part of him wanted to participate in it anymore, not the way it was.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Alice, and Amy, and the ranch. After being away for only a week, he finally understood why it meant so much to her. There was something special about that place, a goodness that he couldn’t quite describe. It was like the place possessed a soul.
All he knew for certain was that he had walked onto that land a broken man, lost and forgotten, and somehow over a few months, he grew whole again. He had woken up every day with purpose, excited by his life, energized by Alice and her infectious enthusiasm.
Of course, he didn’t recognize that until it was too late. The past week had been tortuous. The worst kind of hell. He had nothing in common with the people around him, and he was irritated by the vapid, colorless, one dimensional world he found himself pigeonholed in.
It was suddenly all so suffocating, and he had no doubt it would smother him to death if he stayed. He couldn’t eat, sleep, or focus on work. He even turned down a booty text from Lindsay the night before. The thought of meaningless sex with a woman who didn’t care about him just seemed pointless, and truthfully, turned him off.
“William,” James chirped, snapping his fingers.
“Yes, I heard you,” William answered, shaking his head.
“What the hell, William. You have been walking around here like a zombie ever since you came back. I’m starting to think letting you go away was a mistake. You’ve been completely useless this week,” James offered, half joking.
William found his tone less than humorous.
“First of all, you didn’t let me do anything. I don’t take orders from you, in case you’ve forgotten. This whole fucking thing has been a mistake. A misguided, deluded, irresponsible, unethical mistake. What the fuck were we thinking?” William blurted, emotion surging in his chest like a tsunami.
“We were thinking about business, Will. Nothing more. Supply and demand. Let’s not complicate it with righteous indignation,” James scolded.
William shook his head, unable to hide his resentment. Was it business or goddamn greed? Take what you want! Every man for himself! Winning is all that matters! This corporate culture he had cultivated all these years was nothing short of meaningless sex. It was fucking soulless and ultimately lonely. Very, very lonely.
“You’re right. Let’s not complicate it,” William agreed flatly.
James nodded, grateful he had come to his senses.
“You are going to buy me out,” William said in a matter-of-fact tone.
James looked at him like he was insane, brows raised. William didn’t flinch.
“What?” James asked suspiciously.
He sat forward, folding his hands in front of him.
“You are going to buy me out. I’m done. I can’t work in this bullshit industry anymore,” William explained calmly, his sudden clarity driving his confidence.
“Don’t be ludicrous. I’ll do no such thing.” James said, shaking his head as though he thought William were ridiculous.
“Remember what the company was assessed at last year? I’ll settle for one third of that, the rest is yours. It is either that or we sell the whole damn thing and split the profit down the middle, but I’m sure you don’t want that hassle, or that kind of upheaval for the staff. Either way, James, I’m finished.”
William pushed his chair back and stood up, adding credence to his words.
“William, sit down, let’s talk about this, please,” James said, gesturing for him to sit.
“There is nothing else to talk about,” William stated, walking toward the door.
“So what’s this then? Are you going back to the girl? You’re crazy if you think she’s going to welcome you back with open arms, William. Just give it a few more days, I promise you she will sell to us and we can put all this behind us,” James pleaded, following his partner to the door.
“You don’t get it, do you?” William said softly. “I don’t want her to sell the ranch. I am going back to finish the job for her, help get her one step closer to her dream. I’m going to make sure she gets everything she needs, even if she doesn’t want me. For once in my life I’m going to do something good, even if there is nothing in it for me.”
“After all this, you are going to sabotage our condo development?” James asked incredulously, his eyes gleaming with anger. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
William just smiled at him and shrugged his shoulders.
“You will not be able to finish the job, there have been developments you are not aware of,” James said smugly.
William stopped smiling, regarding James suspiciously.
“What developments?” he asked, his brows raised.
James grinned at him wickedly.
“Well, it was dumb luck really. Couldn’t have happened at a better time,” he jeered.
William felt his stomach flip.
“What happened?” he pressed cautiously.
“The Equine Center, it burned to the ground last Friday night. There’s nothing left,” James stated, grinning lightly as though he were describing the weather.
William grabbed James by the collar and pulled him closer, wishing he could wipe the satisfied look off his face.
“What the fuck are you talking about? What did you do?” William growled through clenched teeth and tightening his grip.
James pulled himself back, prying William’s hands away.
“Relax, I didn’t do anything. The fire was an accident, apparently started by one of her ranch hands. Tragic for him, a stroke of good fortune for us,” James explained grimly.
Tragic? William felt sick to his stomach. Poor Alice, she must be devastated.
“How do you know this?” he asked, his suspicion not ebbing.
“Did you think I wouldn’t keep tabs on Alice? I’ve had eyes on the place since you left. We have way too much invested in her to get complacent now,” James admitted.
He looked at William, gauging his anger, perhaps afraid he would be manhandled again.
“You knew about the fire and didn’t tell me? What the fuck, James. You didn’t think this would be something I would want to know?” William spat, his patience running dangerously thin.
“Of course I thought you would want to know, which is exactly why I didn’t tell you! I thought you might go running back to rescue your little cowgirl and I couldn’t let that happen.”
James laughed, shaking his head slowly.
William had heard enough. If he had any doubts about his decision to walk away from this snake and this shady business, he had none now.
“I have to go,” he said, skirting around James, knocking his shoulder as he passed.
“Go where, William?” James demanded in a condescending tone.
“Get the papers drawn up dissolving our partnership. My lawyer will be in touch,” William said firmly, not bothering to turn back.
“William!” James pleaded.
“It’s Billy,” he insisted, under his breath.
Chapter 25
Alice
Alice couldn�
�t believe she was back in that elevator again. She had sworn she would never return, and yet there she was, trying to find the fastest way possible to dig herself out of the hole she was buried in. If Hunter-Johnson still wanted her ranch, they could have it. There was nothing left for her there but painful memories, reminders of how reckless she had been. Her dream of building a world class equine center and resort were buried in the ashes of the gutted arena.
The elevator slowed to a stop and the mirrored doors opened, inviting her back into purgatory. This was the last place she wanted to be, but she had to swallow her pride and do her best to stay calm. She needed to keep it together to negotiate with that slimy shark, James Johnson. If he got a sniff of blood in the water, he would eat her alive.
Alice stepped off the elevator and pushed through the familiar glass doors, cautiously looking around. Just as before, she had not called ahead, and after her last visit it was possible J.J. wouldn’t even see her.
The receptionist, Katie if she recalled, wasn’t at her desk. Alice waited for a moment or two, then slowly walked around the corner, hoping Katie was on the other side. She was nearly knocked to the ground by a man who seemed to be in quite a hurry. She reached out to the wall to steady herself, looking up to see who bumped into her.
“Alice?” Billy blurted, his eyes wide with surprise.
Alice had to look twice, in disbelief over what she saw, or rather who. What was Billy doing here, and why was he dressed in a business suit? She stared at him with her mouth agape, maybe a moment too long, before Katie came out of a nearby office, her hands juggling files.
“Sorry, Mr. Hunter, I just had to use the copier. Can I help you?” she asked, turning to face Alice.
Mr. Hunter? As in William Hunter?
Alice looked from one to the other, her brain desperately trying to make the connection that needed to be made. Suddenly the fog lifted and everything became crystal clear. The missing puzzle piece.
“Oh,” was all Alice managed to squeak out.
Billy looked at her blankly, shaking his head, shocked that she was there, standing in front of him. Then, as if realizing how bad things were about to get, his expression shifted from surprise to despair.
Reverse Cowgirl Page 22