Cowboy Casanova: Rough Riders, Book 12

by Lorelei James

  “Five days? Why’s this the first I’ve heard of it?” He looked at Kane.

  “Hey, it was the first I’ve heard of it too. How come no one told us he was gone?”

  “Don’t pretend you give a shit about Casper. None of you even bothered to come by and see him after Mom left,” Tell said.

  Ben disputed that statement. “Quinn came by about six months ago and Casper threatened to shoot him. So I’ll hazard a guess you don’t know everyone that stopped by to check on him.”

  But Brandt, Dalton and Tell were focused on Colt. Fists clenched. Eyes hard.

  “Go ahead and take a swing at me,” Colt said. “Won’t change nothin’.”

  “Nobody is takin’ a swing at no one,” Kane said. “And quit fuckin’ taunting them, Colt. It ain’t helpin’.”

  “Will somebody please tell me what the fuck is goin’ on?” Ben demanded.

  Colt said, “I stopped by to get something Casper asked for. These guys won’t let me in the house to get it.”

  “Because he won’t tell us where Dad is.”

  Kane drawled, “Ain’t this fun? Been at this point since I called you.”

  Ben addressed Colt. “So is Casper staying with you or something?”

  “Or something would cover it.”

  He sensed Colt wanted to talk, but their cousins had pushed him in the corner and he wouldn’t be the first to back out. “Come on, Colt, give ’em more than that. Obviously they’re worried.”

  “Coulda fooled me,” he muttered.

  “You are such a smug asshole,” Tell hissed.

  Ben glared at his cousin. “Not helping. And I wouldn’t talk to you either if you said shit like that to me, so shut it, Tell.”

  No one said anything for a solid minute.

  Colt dropped the defensive posture. “Fine. Casper is in alcohol treatment.”

  Stunned silence.

  “Are you fuckin’ serious?” Brandt said.

  “Yes.”

  “When? How?”

  “He called me.” Colt rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually he called Indy because she’s one of the only family members Casper hasn’t crossed. But I ended up answering her phone and talking to him.”

  “When was this?” Tell demanded.

  “A couple weeks ago. He was drunk as hell. I told him no one could help him until he walked away from the booze. I didn’t figure he would. If you knew how many phone calls I’ve gotten, from folks wantin’ my help…” He sighed. “So to be honest, I didn’t put much store in it. Until he showed up at my house.”

  “When?” Dalton barked.

  “Five days ago.”

  “Where’d you take him?”

  “To get dried out.”

  Tell wouldn’t let it go. “Where?”

  Colt remained mute.

  When it appeared all three of Casper’s sons intended to beat the answers out of Colt, Ben stepped in. “This macho bullshit posturing is pointless.” He addressed Brandt, Tell and Dalton. “Jesus, guys, stop and think. Colt can’t tell you because of AA confidentiality rules.”

  “Without bein’ a dick, if Casper would’ve wanted you guys to know where he was, he would’ve told you,” Kane added.

  “Wouldn’t be the first fuckin’ time Dad’s kept us in the dark,” Dalton retorted.

  “You just…helped him? No questions asked?” Brandt asked Colt. “After all the bad shit he’s done to the family?”

  Colt simply said, “Yes.”

  “Don’t matter where he is, ’cause you can bet he won’t make it through treatment. He’ll be back home, same mean SOB as before, same drunken asshole as before,” Tell said.

  Colt shoved Ben aside and pushed Tell with enough force he almost fell on his ass. “That’s how you react after your father acknowledges he has a problem? By expecting he’ll fail? Fuck you. This is why he didn’t—wouldn’t—come to his sons. It’s why he came to me, because I travel this path every fuckin’ day. I know exactly where he is, in more ways than one. It’s also why I’m goin’ in the goddammed house, getting his bible and getting the hell outta here. But you can bet your ass I won’t burden him with tales of your overwhelming concern.” Colt shouldered his way through Brandt and Dalton and stormed up the porch.

  Kane followed him.

  Ben really didn’t know what to say. This family shit tore him up. He and his brothers never had the volatile relationship with each other and their father that Uncle Casper had with his boys, and to some extent that Uncle Carson had with his. Because Ben hated conflict and tried to cut through it as quickly as possible, he’d gotten the reputation in the family as the peacemaker. He felt far from that today.

  Colt wasn’t inside long. He bounded down the porch, holding a burgundy book.

  “So who knows about Dad bein’ in rehab?” Brandt asked Colt.

  “My dad, Uncle Cal and Uncle Charlie. Casper asked me to tell them.”

  “But not us,” Dalton said.

  “It ain’t like our dads said anything to us either,” Kane pointed out.

  “And now that I think about it, you sneaky bastards have no right to get up in my face about keeping secrets,” Colt said. “Did you really think we wouldn’t find out that the three of you planned to buy Rielle’s place? Without discussing it with the rest of us?”

  Brandt frowned. “What the hell are you babbling about, Colt?”

  It took Colt all of four seconds to see the guilt on Tell and Dalton’s faces. “You didn’t include Brandt in on this scheme?”

  “Scheme is a little harsh,” Ben said.

  Colt whirled on him. “What about Quinn? Does he know?”

  “There’s nothin’ to know. Just something that Tell, Dalton and I discussed.”

  “Since you’ve been squawking about wanting an equal say in the operation, this is the type of thing that oughta be discussed by all of us,” Colt said.

  Pissed off, Ben shot back, “Like the acquisition of the Foster place was discussed by all of us? Or how about the acquisition of the Hackerly place? Or the acquisition of the Borden place? Or how about the separate section up north that Kade ran for a year? Were we part of that discussion, or did Carson and Cal decide to do that on their own? Oh, right, they didn’t even fuckin’ ask us.” His gesture included Tell, Dalton, and Brandt. “Any of us.”

  “Not the same and you know it, Ben.”

  “Bullshit. Alls I know is that it’s perfectly fine for your families to add to your sections whenever the fuck you feel like it and run it as a separate operation. But when we wanna do that? It’s like we’re tryin’ to short shrift the entire ranch.” Ben forced a slow breath, trying to drop his blood pressure from the boiling point.

  Kane said, “I know it probably don’t mean shit, but for the record, Ben, I agree with you. And if you can get the Wetzler place, or part of it, and be fair to Rielle, then do it. Me’n Kade won’t begrudge you.”

  “Well, it’s a moot point because Rielle has already sold it,” Colt said.

  “What?” Ben, Dalton and Tell said at the same time.

  “When did you hear this?”

  “Just this mornin’ from Cord and Colby. We heard last week from someone at the bank Rielle was behind on payments and about to be foreclosed on. So we stopped by to talk to her. Pissed her off. I’ve never seen Rielle like that. Woman had a damn shotgun pointed at us. Said she was tired of the McKay vultures pickin’ at her bones before she was even dead. So we took that to mean you all knew about her situation, and made an offer, which apparently wasn’t enough.”

  “Yes it was!” Dalton protested. “We were just waitin’ for her to give us the go-ahead.”

  Colt shook his head. “She said she’d hadn’t seen money, and the time was closing in on her. So she sold it to someone else.”

  “Fuck.” Dalton turned his anger on Ben. “What the hell did you do? You assured us you had it handled with Rielle.”

  Ben threw up his hands. “I did.”

  “Did you let her know we w
ere serious? Or did you just mention it in passing?” Tell demanded.

  “I told her we’d make the payments to catch her up and then we’d discuss division of property. She said she needed time to think it over. So I gave it to her.”

  Dalton stepped forward and poked Ben in the chest. “It’s been three goddamn weeks, Ben. This should’ve been wrapped up two weeks ago. What the hell have you been doin’ with your time? Goin’ to that bar in Gillette?”

  He knocked Dalton’s hand away. “Back off. I didn’t have as much cash as I needed so I had to get a loan for my portion and that took time.” Jesus, he hated to admit that.

  “You should’ve been able to get a signature loan. We’ve been dealin’ with Settler’s First for years.” Tell’s eyes turned accusatory. “Or are you in hock for something we don’t know about and they wouldn’t give you the money?”

  His cheeks burned, not from embarrassment, but from pure anger. “I didn’t go to Settler’s First because it’s pretty fuckin’ obvious that our cousins have someone inside the bank feeding them confidential information. And you can be guaran-damn-teed if I’d waltzed in there, asking for a loan for some land that would be comin’ up for sale soon?” He jerked his thumb toward Colt. “They would’ve known about it and acted on it. So I had to go to the new bank. And like I said, that took time.”

  “Which is the one fuckin’ thing we didn’t have. You should’ve come clean with us about your money issues and we would’ve given Rielle a down payment, or good faith payment, or something! Instead of givin’ her time to think us right outta that chunk of land. Jesus. I don’t fuckin’ believe this.”

  “Me neither,” Tell said. “This is your fault.”

  No one disputed Tell’s statement.

  Colt and Kane wandered to their trucks.

  “So you really ain’t gonna tell us where he is?” Brandt shouted.

  Colt faced Brandt, Tell and Dalton. “Casper will contact you when he’s ready. Let him be until then.”

  No one said anything until Colt’s pickup was a black speck in the plume of dust.

  “As fucking awesome as this was, I’m getting the hell outta here,” Ben said.

  “Maybe you oughta call Quinn on your way home and fill him in,” Brandt suggested with a snarl. “I agree with my brothers, Ben. You should’ve handled this better and now we’re all payin’ for it.”

  Rage and regret formed a toxic cocktail and Ben knew if he stayed here another minute, he’d lose his mind. This wasn’t solely his fault. And fuck them all if they expected him to shoulder all the blame.

  But he knew he’d never hear the end of it.

  “These two are gonna tell me every fuckin’ thing they kept from me while we clean up the shit piles in Dad’s house since he ain’t here for awhile.”

  When Dalton opened his mouth to protest, Brandt sent him a death glare.

  Fun times.

  Ben did call Quinn. He was pissy, in that silent, simmering silent way of his, which bothered Ben far worse than if Quinn had yelled and screamed.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The Wetzlers’ place was in view and against his better judgment, Ben pulled into the drive.

  The trio of dogs yapped, but he shooed them aside, as he started up the porch steps.

  Rielle stepped outside, and leaned against the porch support, her expression a mix of annoyance and wariness.

  “I thought we had a deal, Rielle.”

  “We had no deal.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I thought what we talked about was confidential.”

  “It was.”

  “Then how come your McKay cousins showed up, all charming cowboy smiles, with the aw-shucks, we’re all just neighbors attitude as they were mentally leveling my goddamn creek front and trying to decide how many cows they could run?”

  “I’m not my cousins, Ree. You know that. I thought we were friends.”

  “I thought so too.” She tossed her head, trying to keep the wind from her face. “But you have enough friends these days. New friends.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t play that game. I know you’re sleeping with Ainsley Hamilton. I’ve seen her car at your place several times in the last few weeks. And isn’t it a coincidence the bank she runs wouldn’t lend me the money I needed to keep my land? But I’ll bet she was more than happy to loan money to you so you could buy it.”

  “So you’re what? Punishing me?”

  “This isn’t about you, McKay.”

  “I didn’t get you into the financial mess you’re in,” he retorted hotly, “and you don’t honestly believe I had dishonorable intentions when I offered to help bail you out of that situation.”

  Rielle shivered. “I didn’t know what to believe. That was the problem.”

  “Who’d you sell to?”

  It appeared she wouldn’t answer and then she said, “I sold it to Gavin.”

  Ben’s mouth nearly hit the porch slats. “Gavin? As in my brother Gavin?”

  “Yes. He made me an offer…the same day you did, actually. I told him the same thing I told you. I’d think about it. Your cousins coming by last week made my decision. I called Gavin, we came to a verbal agreement and he paid off my note, that day, in its entirely, in cash. He’s having his real estate lawyer draw up the terms of sale.”

  “Jesus. And you just trust him? You don’t know him, Ree. Not like you know us.”

  She glared at him. “I’m not stupid, Ben. I’ve hired my own attorney to look over the agreement, and you can bet your ass that lawyer is not Ginger McKay.” Rielle shook her head. “Sorry. That was uncalled for. You have no idea how hard this has been on me.”

  “Didn’t hafta be.”

  Her eyes connected with a point over his shoulder. “Did I ever tell you the last thing my daddy said to me? Don’t sell the land to the McKays.”

  “But you did anyway.”

  “No, I sold it to Gavin. That man is about as far from a McKay as you can get.”

  Stung by her cutting words, he shot back, “Sorry we’ve been such horrible neighbors for the last thirty years. Bet you won’t miss that.”

  “Don’t say that,” she implored. “This is just business.”

  Hadn’t Dalton and Tell said the same thing?

  “Besides, I’m not going anywhere.”

  “What?” Ben stared at her suspiciously. “You’re not moving out and Gavin is moving in?”

  “No. Gavin agreed to divide the land. The creek front is mine so eventually I’ll be able to build on it. Since he’s not sure of his plans, long-term or short-term, I’ll continue living in the house just like I’ve been.”

  “So nothin’ has changed for you,” he said dully.

  “Everything has changed for me.”

  Ben was at a loss. Feeling betrayed on many levels, by his cousin’s accusations, by his longtime friend, and by his brother. And since he didn’t know what to say, he turned and walked away.

  Rielle’s shouted offer to finally pay him for the beds fell on deaf ears.

  So he’d called his father to share the love. “Ben. What’s up?”

  “My curiosity mostly.”

  “Well, your tone don’t match your words. You sound mad as hell, son.”

  “I am.” He counted to fifty. “I just left Uncle Casper’s house where I had to keep Brandt, Tell and Dalton from beating the tar outta Colt.”

  No response.

  “And you don’t seem particularly surprised about that.”

  “Not much surprises me these days.”

  “It sure shocked the shit outta us,” he snapped.

  “Before you chew my ass, lemme say Casper’s private business is not mine to share with you or with them.” A pause and Ben heard the squeak of his dad’s office chair. “So I take it Casper’s boys just found out?”

  Ben’s knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. “Yeah. Kane called me to run interference and keep fists from flying.”

  “That responsibility always seems to
fall to you, don’t it? Bein’ the one to smooth things over and calm them hotheads down.”

  He was surprised his father had noticed.

  “Look, none of us have been on the best terms with Casper, especially in the last year. But he is my brother. You know you’d keep your brother’s secrets too.”

  “Some of my brothers are better at keeping secrets than others, aren’t they,” he snarled. “Did you know?”

  “Do I know what?”

  “Don’t play stupid, it just pisses me off.”

  “Like you calling me, throwing accusations left and right is pissin’ me off? Why don’t you just spit it the hell out.”

  “Did you know Gavin bought the Wetzler place?”

  “What? Gavin? Wait. Since when has it been for sale?”

  “It wasn’t.” Ben explained what’d gone down. His dad stayed silent for so long Ben wondered if they’d gotten cut off. “You there?”

  He cleared his throat. “Yeah. I’m just stunned. Gavin hasn’t said a word about it to me or to Vi.” Ben’s relief was short lived, however, when his dad said, “But I’m takin’ this as a good sign.”

  “You consider it a good sign that Gavin would purposely fuck us over?”

  “I’m gonna ignore that smartass remark bein’s you’re not acting at all like yourself. What I meant was I’m takin’ this as a sign that Gavin wants to be closer to us. He’s interested in becoming part of the family.”

  “Family doesn’t do shit like this to each other, and if he’s that type of guy, then I sure as fuck don’t want him as part of my family.”

  A deep paternal sigh. “You don’t mean that. Have you talked to Gavin about any of this?”

  “No. I don’t care if I ever talk to Gavin again.”

  “Son—”

  “Don’t tell me I don’t mean it, because I do. This day has been a clusterfuck of epic proportions and I need a goddamn drink. Later.” He hung up.

  When Ben reached his house, his temper had pegged overload. Needing to blow off steam, he roughhoused with his dogs. He chopped and stacked firewood. After a long, hot shower, he’d calmed down and poured himself a hefty shot of Pendleton whiskey.

  Ace and Deuce dozed by the woodstove. Ben had always kept his shit moods to himself, dealt with them himself. It worked for him.