A laugh crept up on Tessa and took her by surprise. Oh, what she wouldn’t give to see Judith’s face if she ever heard her granddaughter break into a jig on the expensive violin Tessa’s grandfather sent Makayla several years ago.
She was still standing at the sink, grinning like she’d lost her mind, when she heard a truck pull up the drive.
She glanced out the window, and Reno climbed out of the red pick-up. The set of his shoulders said the lawyer was on duty today, not the rodeo clown.
Speaking of which, she stepped out on the porch and called, “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Spokane for a rodeo?”
He grimaced as he climbed out of his truck and she gaped at the knee brace on his left leg. “What happened to you?”
“I zigged when I should have zagged and got tagged by a bull.”
“How hurt are you?” she asked, aghast.
“Just twisted my knee. It’s an old injury. No new damage according to Hank. And he happens to be a topnotch sports orthopedist.”
She ushered him inside, turned a chair, for him to prop up his leg on and poured him a cup of coffee. She sat down across from him.
“Bad news?” she asked.
“Mixed.”
“Lead with the bad.”
“They’ve filed a motion for expedited discovery. They want every document, email, and text message related to this property going back five years. Including yours. Including Fern’s. They also want the medical records of every animal on this farm, on the theory that the property’s value depends partly on its operating condition.”
“That sounds like a fishing expedition.”
“It is.”
“Will the judge grant it?”
“Not all of it. Doesn’t much matter either way.” He tapped the pad. “The point isn’t what they get. The point is what it costs you to comply. And there’s a sweetener attached. They’ve raised their offer to twenty-five million. Cash. Conditional on you signing a letter of agreement to sell this place to them a year and a day after the will was executed.”
Twenty-five-million dollars. She calculated fast. It was approximately five times what she would have to pay for the rest of her life to keep the farm operating. It was also less than the property might fetch on the open market five years from now if this side of the lake really started to develop.
“I’m guessing you don’t recommend I take it,” she said.
“That’s your call. It’s a lot of money. If you’re asking me purely as a negotiator, I’d recommend you not take it because I think they’re nervous. We can get them to come up even more on the price. Given the rumors I’m hearing from my contacts in the oil business about the size of the shale deposit in this valley, whoever drills here stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars. The oil company will pony up even more cash to get their hands on land here and be the first to drill.”
“If this was about the money, I’d take their offer right now. But it’s not that simple.”
He smiled kindly. “It never is.” He paused then said, “The handwriting expert is willing to testify that the letter’s a forgery. He’s the best in the business. Never loses forgery cases.”
“How much does he charge?”
Reno hesitated, then said, “He’ll do it as a favor. He owes me one. Don’t make me explain why.”
“Thank you.”
He waved it off and changed the subject the same way Dillon would have. The Steele brothers were, she observed, really only one man in three slightly different costumes.
“How’re you doing?” he asked.
“My mother just called.”
He looked up sharply. “And? I’m asking as your attorney.”
“Then I’ll need to invoke attorney-client privilege.”
