The Renegade Cowboy Returns: The Renegade Cowboy ReturnsTexas Lullaby

by Tina Leonard

  “And after you sign the papers that direct our purchase of a company in France and one in Dubai—” Kendall began.

  “Dubai?” Gage interrupted.

  “Happened over the weekend,” Kendall said. “Didn’t have a chance to mention it.”

  He shook his head, not entirely surprised by his sister’s ability to do business. She was more like the old man than any of them. “My sister is kindly and graciously leaving out a few facts she isn’t sharing with you,” he told the lawyer. “First, I know nothing about Gil Phillips, Inc. Have no idea how the heavy equipment the family sells is transported to Dubai or France.”

  “Cargo planes,” Kendall said helpfully.

  “The fact is, my father disowned me a couple years before he died. And I’m happy with my circumstances,” Gage said, not examining the painful memory of him and his father parting on bad terms and with harsh words. The old man hadn’t liked him being a trade worker. Gage hadn’t been able to stomach working with his father, didn’t want to be anything like him.

  He was happier not being tied to hearth and home.

  Although that was changing on him pretty darn quick.

  “Baloney.” The female voice that spoke loudly in the room turned everyone’s head as a fragile-looking but beautiful female was wheeled into the library in her wheelchair.

  “Hello, Mother.” Gage rose to give her a kiss and a hug. “It’s good to see you looking so well.”

  “It’s good to see you at all,” Millicent Phillips shot back. “I just met your daughter. Beyond the scary hair and the face jewelry, she’s a darling girl, Gage.”

  “Thanks.” He doubted Cat would appreciate the terse compliment.

  Millicent moved her wheelchair close to the large oval mahogany table they were seated around. “The point is, whatever your father claimed about your relationship to this family, Kendall, Xav and Shaman reversed a long time ago, with my blessings. Don’t be a horse’s ass, Gage. You have a daughter to think of now. Best be glad of it, too, because if Leslie had had her way, you’d never have known about Cat.”

  “My daughter and I don’t need handouts,” Gage said. “I’m happy living by my father’s words.”

  Millicent pierced him with a glance, and for the thousandth time Gage thought it was she who’d been the power behind the throne. His father had believed he was the old, infallible lion, but it was his mother who’d been the steel in his spine. Kendall had very much inherited their mom’s courage and determination. “Bring Cat and the new fiancée in, please,” Millicent said.

  “No,” Gage declared.

  “Yes,” Millicent said. “If they are your family, then they become part of Gil Phillips, Inc., now.”

  “I don’t want Cat ruined,” Gage said, angry and annoyed. “Jonathan,” he said to the butler, who’d gone to the door to do Millicent’s bidding, “if you touch that doorknob, you won’t have a hand left to open so much as a wine bottle with.”

  “Gage!” Kendall protested.

  “I’m done here.” He grabbed his hat. “Kendall, whatever papers you need signed for Dubai and France better appear in front of me in the next five seconds, because I’m taking my family out of here in the next sixty.”

  “Cool down,” Millicent commanded.

  “No,” Gage said, “you’re not going to steal my daughter’s soul like you tried to steal mine. Kendall is you, carbon copy. Xav is pretty much the same. Shaman cut loose and may never come back. I don’t belong here, either.”

  The lawyer quickly pushed a stack of documents his way. Gage signed them speedily, pushing the pen with knifelike strokes across every line the lawyer indicated. For a moment, the only sound was the rapid turning of papers.

  “Gage,” his mother said, her tone less strident, “Leslie called me for money.”

  Gage’s pen stopped as he slowly looked up. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that the only reason you ever found out about Cat is that Leslie’s gotten herself hooked up with a man who plans to blackmail us into paying them a large sum of money. Once he found out who Cat’s father is, Larry called me to extract money to keep it from you and the rest of the world. These deals with Dubai and France were on the table, widely publicized in the Wall Street Journal. He threatened to release a story of a family that hid its dirty laundry when it was convenient.”

  “Cat is not dirty laundry,” Gage said, fury flaming through him.

  “Precisely.” Millicent nodded. “I told Leslie that any child we had anywhere was part of this family, and if she didn’t call you and tell you about Cat, I’d make her life miserable, starting with blackmail and extortion charges.”

  “Thanks,” Gage said, still not happy with anything he was hearing. “You do have a soul, after all.”

  “Maybe,” Millicent said. “At any rate, you’d never have known about Cat if Leslie hadn’t gotten herself hooked up with this unfortunate individual.”

  “I will kill him,” Gage stated.

  “No,” his mother replied. “What you will do is sit at this table and make decisions that reflect her best interests.”

  Gage leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowing on his mother and sister. “What do you want?”

  “I want Cat included in this family. I want all parts of this family’s interests protected from unsavory types. No one is going to threaten Gil Phillips, Inc.”

  “This isn’t so much about Cat as it is about the company and your reputation,” Gage surmised.

  “Gage, be reasonable,” Kendall said. “Mom is trying to tell you that you need to sue Leslie for custody of Cat. You can’t leave her in a home with a man who intends to use who she is for financial gain, and a mother who is too weak-willed to stop him.”

  As Gage considered the two women, Xav walked into the room, having heard the last of the conversation. He walked over to Gage, slapped him on the back. “The renegade returns. Welcome, bro.”

  “Whatever,” Gage said. He looked at the lawyer. “I have the strangest feeling that you have the appropriate papers for this custody fight in your handy little black briefcase, don’t you?”

  The attorney swallowed, clearly not liking the dangerous glint in Gage’s eyes. “It would have been a waste of your family’s resources to make a second trip for paperwork that—”

  “Never mind,” Gage said. “I have to talk to Cat first. And Chelsea. Whatever Cat’s circumstances, I’m not doing anything without discussing it with her.”

  “I suggest you plan on spending the night,” Millicent said. “Give Cat a chance to get to know us.”

  Gage stared at his mother, his sister and her fraternal twin, all pretty much cut from the same cloth.

  He didn’t fit in.

  But if his mother was telling the truth—and he had the feeling she was—he was going to have to do something about fitting in. His life had changed…but if he was lucky, maybe Chelsea would still agree to be his wife.

  Even with this crowd she’d now be calling family.

  * * *

  “CHELSEA,” GAGE SAID, when he got her alone on the stamped concrete patio that overlooked the huge, free-form pool. “I dig you a lot. Mostly I dig how you handle my family like they’re not cold.”

  Chelsea smiled at him. He thought she was beautiful with her even gaze and long russet hair. He wanted to kiss her desperately, kiss her until she couldn’t breathe, till their breath became one.

  “Gage, everything is fine. I’m enjoying it here.”

  He shook his head. “No one does. It’s too much like a museum.”

  She shrugged. “I like it. It’s beautiful. Different, in a contemporary sense.”

  He wished he saw it that way. All he had to do was step onto the property and every cell of his body screamed flight. “There’s a new situation we need to discuss.”

  “You’ve changed your mind, gotten over the craziness that drove you to propose—”

  He kissed her, silencing her words, not wanting to hear anything about them
not getting married.

  “Wow,” Chelsea said, when they finally pulled apart. “Must be big, whatever you want me to do.”

  “You could say that,” Gage said. “How would you feel about living here?”

  Chelsea froze, pulled away slightly. “You hate it here.”

  “Yeah. I do. But my family is trying to make me see the light.”

  “Must be a pretty bright light.”

  “Blinding,” he agreed. “I’m not happy about this, Chelsea. I’ll understand if you decide not to accept my proposal. I’m hoping you do say yes. But the fact is, I need to talk to Cat’s mom about Cat living with me, and this is the closest thing to a home I’ve got at the moment.”

  “I can’t say I’m totally surprised.”

  “I didn’t think you would be.”

  Chelsea shook her head. “I’ve had the feeling that she’s happy with you, and perhaps happier with you than she is normally.”

  Anger boiled inside him all over again as he remembered what he’d learned. “It’s complicated. Turns out Cat’s living situation may not be wholly desirable. I have to talk to her, but I believe it may be time for a change for her. A big one.”

  Chelsea nodded. “I understand.”

  He reached for her hand. “You’d be taking on more than you bargained for. There have to be easier ways to get a green card.”

  “Probably.” She smiled. “I’ll let you know when I find one.”

  He didn’t know how he’d gotten to this place. Everything had changed in his life in the past month: Leslie, Cat, being part of The Family, Inc….

  And yet he didn’t feel the old urge to get the hell away as fast as he could. There was only one reason for the change, and that was the redhead standing beside him. She made him believe everything could work out, for Cat, for him.

  For all of them.

  * * *

  “WE HAVE TO TALK,” Gage told Cat the next day, sprawling next to her in the piano room. Chelsea had suggested that perhaps this first conversation about her future should be between him and his daughter, alone. Just the two of them.

  He thought that was good idea, but he was nervous. Cat and he didn’t know each other all that well. He thought she liked him. Certainly, he was happy with her. In fact, he was more than happy. Cat was the daughter he would have wanted if he’d planned for a child. So as a surprise, she was a pretty cool one.

  He was going to protect her.

  Cat looked at him with her wise, seen-too-much eyes. “We do need to talk, Dad. I know you like to be counterculture, but I want to encourage you to re-think something.”

  “I like to be counterculture?” He stared at his daughter with her half-shaved head and many piercings. “I’m a pretty basic guy.”

  “Dad, you’ve basically been a runaway for years.” She gave him a stern look. “Aunt Kendall is not happy you won’t come home.”

  “Yeah, well.” He couldn’t explain to Cat how hard it had been to deal with the old man. Gil Phillips had not been an easy character. There was no reason to burden her with the family skeletons. “I wasn’t a runaway, Cat. I just wasn’t a participator, I guess.”

  “Anyway, back to you and being different,” Cat said. “You have to get Chelsea a ring. It’s embarrassing, Dad.”

  He laughed and ruffled his daughter’s hair. She stared at him solemnly. “You really didn’t think my proposal was satisfactory, did you?”

  “I wouldn’t have liked it,” Cat said, honest as always. “When a guy asks me to marry him, I hope he brings flowers and a ring.”

  “I’ll bring my baseball bat when that day comes,” Gage said under his breath, and Cat said, “What?”

  “Never mind.” He sighed, not wanting to think about that part of their future. He’d just found her; he didn’t want to think about some boy stealing her away from him. “Listen, Cat. This is the thing. What would you think about living with me?”

  Cat’s dark brows rose. “For good?”

  “Well, yeah.” He weighed his words carefully. “For good. You, me, Chelsea.”

  “What about Mom?”

  “I don’t know,” Gage said, not wanting to upset Cat. “We’d have to talk to her.”

  Cat looked around her at the huge family home, the distinctly manicured trees, the vast property. Beyond the pool was the helipad and several buildings. Offices for Gil Phillips, Inc., built by the most ornery man Hell’s Colony had ever seen.

  “I’d like being with you a lot,” Cat said, her voice sounding kind of quivery. “Mom will never say yes.”

  He frowned. “Don’t mention this conversation to her, please. Let me talk to her.”

  Cat stood. “Larry won’t like it, either. He calls me the golden goose.”

  “What does that mean?” Gage asked, knowing full well exactly what it meant.

  “I don’t know, but when he says it, Mom gets upset.”

  I’m going to kill him. And maybe Leslie, too, for being so spineless and keeping my kid from me.

  “Here’s the deal,” Gage said. “You let me talk to your mom, and don’t worry about it, okay? If you really want to live with Chelsea and me, I’m pretty sure it can work out.”

  “Where will I go to school?” Cat asked. “Ms. Moira says I need to be taking accelerated classes.”

  “Seeing as how I’ve never had a house before, and seeing as I don’t exactly know where all of us are going to live, that’s a discussion for another day,” Gage said. “Let’s go tell the family the good news.”

  “Let’s go buy a ring,” Cat countered. “Dad, if you don’t do this right, Chelsea may change her mind.”

  “All right.” He grinned at his opinionated daughter. “Good thing I have you around to keep me straight.”

  “Yeah. It is,” she agreed, following him to his truck. “You’re pretty lucky, Dad.”

  “I am.” He couldn’t help smiling at her forthright opinions.

  His cell phone rang, and Gage answered it, noting Leslie’s number. “This is Gage.”

  “Gage?” she said. “Um, got a minute?”

  “Just a minute,” he replied. “I’ve got an errand to run.”

  “Okay. Listen,” Leslie said, “I was wondering if you could bring Cat back home.”

  He frowned, watching his daughter get into his truck. “When?”

  “Like…tomorrow,” Leslie said.

  “Why?”

  “Because,” she said, “I think it would be best.”

  “Why?” he asked again, annoyed.

  “I talked to her last night,” Leslie said, “and she said she’s homesick.”

  He looked at his daughter, waving at him to hurry up. “I think she’s fine, Leslie. Don’t worry.”

  “But—”

  “No, Leslie. I’ll let you know if Cat’s having a problem. Right now, she’s not having a problem.”

  “She says she’s not in Tempest anymore. That you’ve taken her to Hell’s Colony.” Leslie’s tone was deliberately disinterested, yet inquiring, as if she really wanted to know something.

  He smelled trouble.

  “You wouldn’t expect her not to meet the family, would you?” he asked, keeping his voice reasonable.

  “No, but as a mother, I think you could have given me the courtesy of telling me your whereabouts.”

  He could hear whispering in the background. She was being instructed. Gage felt his temper starting to edge up. “We thought we were only staying the afternoon. Our plans have now changed. We don’t know when we’re leaving. When our plans are more definitive, we’ll let you know.”

  “Cat says you’re unemployed.” Again, her voice implied.

  “Don’t worry about it, Leslie. I promise you that Cat is well cared for.”

  “I think she should come home.”

  He sighed. “Leslie, you wanted her with me because you said you needed a break. What’s changed?”

  “C’mon, Dad!” Cat hollered through the open window of his truck. “The store’ll probably clo
se in an hour!”

  “Nothing,” Leslie said. “I’m just worried about our daughter.”

  “Tell you what,” Gage said. “Don’t you worry about us. Enjoy your break. Everything’s fine.”

  He clicked off his phone, felt like hurling it toward the pool. Instead, he took a deep breath and got in the truck. “That was your mom, calling to check on you.”

  “Why? I just talked to her last night,” Cat said.

  “She thinks you’re homesick.” Gage switched on the engine.

  “I’m not,” Cat said. “I told her I missed her, but I always say that. It’s a daughter thing.”

  “You don’t want to go back to Laredo?”

  Cat looked at him. “Not if you can keep me, Dad.”

  Her voice was so simple, so hopeful. Wistful. Gage nodded. “We’ll work on it.”

  She didn’t say anything. Cat wasn’t the kind of kid who lived on empty hopes and dreams. He wondered if he was doing the right thing, and decided he had no choice.

  “Glad you’re going to steer me on picking out a ring,” he said. “One guaranteed to make Chelsea keep me.”

  “Us,” Cat said solemnly.

  “Us,” Gage agreed. “You, I know she’d keep. Me, maybe not so much.”

  “We’ll work on it, Dad.”

  He smiled. It felt great having a daughter who had his back.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “So,” Kendall said, nodding at the tray placed beside them by a silent butler, “you’re going to marry my brother. A very interesting turn of events.”

  Chelsea was starving. She took a glass of sparkling water and a couple of tiny sandwiches that looked delicious. “Please tell me you’re going to eat and not just watch me pig out.”

  Kendall took some food from the tray, delicately placing it on her plate. “There’s a lot for us to do if you’re going to be part of the family.”

  “Do?” Chelsea blinked. “Kendall, Gage and I haven’t decided about getting married. But if so, all I’ll be doing is getting married. Gage hasn’t given me a to-do list.”

  Kendall looked at her. “I get the sense my brother is set on marrying you, despite the fact you’ve known each other only, what, a month?”