Chapter 1
Nick
“What do you mean we’re going to lose the ranch?” I asked, staring at my mother and father across the table, my food forgotten. “I know the herd has gotten thin, but are things really that bad?”
“I’m afraid so,” my father nodded. Mom reached over, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. “Cash flow has been bad for a long time. I haven’t been able to bring in more cattle or hands to help out. We’ve been in the red for nearly two years now.”
“I can get a job in town or something,” my sister offered, always the first to jump in with a solution. “To help make ends meet until we get the place back on its feet.”
My father shook his head. “Even if all four of us managed to get jobs, it wouldn’t be enough,” he said slowly. “And the loan has come due.”
“Loan?” I asked, tensing in my chair. “What loan?”
Dad tried to speak, but no sound came out. Instead, he just hung his head in shame. Mom reached out, rubbing his shoulders.
“A few years ago, we were facing foreclosure,” she said, telling the story in his stead. “You two were still in high school at the time, so we didn’t tell you how bad things were. But wewere going to lose the ranch. It seemed almost certain.” She took a deep breath, her usually warm demeanor turning cold. “Not a single bank would help or give us a loan. So, we had to seek out…alternative methods.”
“Alternative methods?” I asked, my brow furrowed in confusion. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” she replied slowly, wincing at each word. “That we took a private loan from a family out east.” She swallowed hard. “A mafia family.”
The room was as silent as death.
My sister’s fork clattered against her plate, the sound making me flinch. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The word hung in the air like smoke from a brush fire.
Mafia.
“Jesus Christ,” I finally managed, my voice coming out hoarse. “Mom. Dad. What the hell were you thinking?”
“We were thinking we’d lose everything,” Dad said, finally finding his voice again. It sounded hollow, defeated. “The ranch has been in my family for three generations, son. I couldn’t—” His voice cracked. “I couldn’t let it go without a fight.”
I pushed back from the table, the chair legs scraping hard against the old wood floor. My hands were shaking. “So instead, you made a deal with the goddamn mob? How much? How much do we owe?”
Mom and Dad exchanged a look that made my stomach drop even further.
“Four…million,” Dad said quietly. “With interest.”
The number hit me like a kick from a horse. I braced myself against the counter, staring out the kitchen window at the darkening pasture beyond. The land we’d worked our whole lives. The land that might not be ours much longer.
“When?” My sister’s voice was small, frightened in a way I’d never heard from her before. “When do we have to pay?”
“End of the month,” Mom whispered.
Three weeks.
“And if we can’t?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
“They’ve given us two choices,” my mother answered in my father’s stead. “We either sign the ranch over to them or…”
She choked back a sob, unable to continue.
“Or what?” I pressed.
“Or,” my father said, finding his voice at last. “A marriage.”
“A marriage? What the hell does that mean?”
Both my parents were silent, neither one of them able to bring themselves to answer. To say the words out loud.
