“What the fuck are you talking about?” Tate’s cheeks are red, his eyes twitching with anger.
Gordon steps forward, arms crossed over his chest. “We had a deal. I help you bury the ranch in debt, and you make sure this land is worth it to us someday.”
“That’s what we’re doing.”
“You’re taking the easy way out. This land is worth more for what’s under it than what’s on the surface. We had an agreement on how this would be handled.”
Tate’s jaw clicks. “Things change. This is the cleaner path.”
“For you.” Gordon’s eyes narrow.
“It’s too late to go back. We already have investors lined up to buy the land once the judge allows the sale to go through.”
“I know. Which is why I’m done trying to negotiate with you. I’ll take it up with the real owner instead. Or should I say, the rightful one.” Gordon reaches into his back pocket, pulling out a folded stack of papers. “It’s not the original. That’s already been handed off to Dean’s lawyer. But you get the picture.”
“What is that?” I ask while Tate snatches the papers from Gordon’s hand.
“What are you doing with this?” Tate seethes, flipping through the document and tossing it in the dirt.
“My daughters are more like me than you realize. Prettier, but just as dangerous.”
“Watch your fucking mouth,” I warn him.
“You should be thanking me, Dean.” Gordon grins. “I just handed your lawyer all you need to take ownership of this ranch. Your grandfather’s missing will. Although, it never really was missing, was it, Tate? Just misplaced?”
Kincaid scrambles, picking up the papers off the ground and unfolding them. We both read the words in his hands, and Gordon is right. It’s a will signed by my grandfather. A will I thought didn’t exist.
“I know I was supposed to make that disappear—like the poison we used to kill the cattle. But I had this feelingyou might decide to back out of our bargain, so I made sure to hold onto it just in case.”
“Why would you help him?” Tate’s eyes narrow on me. “Dean isn’t going to agree to sell mineral rights either.”
“I don’t need him to agree. Like you said, there’s no going back to the original plan. All that matters now is fucking you over. I’ll get my piece either way. Dean will have to buy me out if he wants me gone.” Gordon shrugs.
“You—”
“You fucked me over.” Gordon cuts Tate off, stepping forward. “Did you really think I wouldn’t do something about it?”
My mind is spinning as I grab the stack of papers from Kincaid’s hands and read through the will. Grandfather named me the beneficiary of his estate. He left me the ranch. Everything. For the last year, I’ve been fighting a battle I’d already won. The ranch was mine all along.
The shock on Kincaid’s face tells me I’m not the only one who was in the dark about this.
Folding the papers, I shove them into my back pocket.
“You’re welcome,” Gordon says smugly.
“This doesn’t make us good.”
Gordon shrugs. “I can live with that. All I want is my cut and to watch him fall.”
Tate’s eyes widen as Gordon looks at him again. Everything shifts, and I sense the tension snapping the moment before it happens. One second, we’re standing in a circle, the next Tate is reaching behind him for a gun that was tucked under his shirt.
Gordon sees it too, hurrying for the truck and ducking behind it. But Tate is quicker, and Gordon takes a bullet to the leg before finding cover.
“You aren’t getting away with this,” Tate says, spinning so the gun is aiming for me. “And you aren’t getting shit.”
I duck down, narrowly avoiding the three shots Tate aims my way. Kincaid takes a stray bullet when Tate misses, but it barely grazes his arm.
We duck behind the tractor beside the house, holding our guns to our chests as Gordon and Tate continue their shoot-out.
