“What about Cole?”Maddy teased.
Riley flicked her ponytail and smiled like a cat.“Cole is perfect.”
“Hear that, Cash?”Maddy called out.“Cole sets a high bar.”
She was trying to ease the tension, but it was cranked up to high when they cleared the cute little historic train depot and saw Telford standing on the sidewalk over a sprawled Tarek.She stared at Telford like she’d never seen him before.He looked glorious.Like a god lit by fury and vengeance.
“Taking out the trash,” Cash noted.“Thanks.”
“Listen to me,” Tarek began, starting to get up, but he sat back on his ass when Cash joined Telford and stepped forward, his boot high near his father’s crotch.
“No,” Cash said.The smiling, humorous man she’d come to know was gone, replaced by a fiercely determined cowboy.“I owe you nothing, but you listen.I’m getting married tomorrow, and if you think you’re going to show up and ruin it with some stunt, you won’t.We’re strong, and we’ll expose you for the grifting deadbeat that you are.Let that play out in the public arena.”
“I have a right to come home.You can’t stop me from coming home to Marietta.”Tarek scooted away from Cash’s boot.
“I got this, Cash.This is my business.”Taryn worked his way around his three sons, son-in-law, and two nephews who’d walled in the man they perceived as a threat.
“You cut me out of my inheritance.”Tarek’s eyes blazed blue fury.
Rather than let his brother get up, Taryn squatted, blocking his brother from moving.He was a rancher and a man about to hit his sixties, but who still looked to be in his prime.
“You left the ranch, Tarek.You never wanted it.You never valued family.Never wanted to be a brother.The ranch is still there.Strong.It belongs to all of us.”
“I want my share.Half.You’re so self-righteous and greedy, clinging to all of it, barely eking out a living, doling out a cabin here or a bunkhouse or few acres here or there.I want my half to sell to a developer.Do you know how much money we could rake in?”
“Doesn’t work that way and you know it.”Taryn sounded sad, and Ayana felt that she was seeing the true backbone of the Telford family.
Tarek had heedlessly scattered his seed across the west, but he’d never cared for any of his children.But Taryn had cared for his, and he welcomed his brother’s children into the family, onto the ranch.
Feeling helpless with longing for something she feared she could never have, she stared at Telford, whose attention was riveted on his bio dad—probably he wanted to keep Taryn safe.Her heart warmed.He was a protector, but she had to protect him from himself.
“The land is in a trust.It belongs to all the generations that come after us.It can never belong to one person.”
“Gramps sold off land.”
“It was illegal and due to his gambling debts and poor management, and he broke the law because many people who protect the law were the ones he owned money to.I’ve been buying it back when I can.Protecting it.Diversifying.It can be your home, Tarek, but you have to work the land.Or contribute.You know that.We learned that as kids.”
Taryn slowly stood, holding his hand out to his brother.“You can come home, Tarek.But you can’t hurt anyone.You can’t cause problems or scheme or threaten or undermine the work by trafficking with cattle rustlers or trying to switch out horses.”
Ayana was shocked.Tarek had committed crimes against his brother, but Taryn was still trying to reach him, still trying to get him to come home, still willing to forgive.
Tarek after a long hesitation took his brother’s hand and he pulled him upright.
“He has my child.”Tarek glared at Cash.
Alarm skittered down Ayana’s spine.Riley grabbed her hand and squeezed hard, and she did the same thing to Maddy, who’d paled and whispered a soft, heartfeltno.
“Bronte is his daughter, Tarek.You walked away,” Taryn said, keeping his voice reasonable.
“I’m back.”
Maddy’s gasp was loud in the night, and Tarek looked at her, calculation in his eyes.Cash put his arm around Madelyn and pulled her close, but before he could say anything, Telford interrupted.
“Threatening my sister and my brother’s family sounds like trouble.You want that?”Telford asked quietly.“You’ll have that.I can tie you up in family court for years, until Bronte’s in high school and you’re a grizzled old man limping along with Medicare in a hospice with a shot liver and diabetes from all the whiskey and junk food.And I can hire a team of top investigators to see what else you’ve been up to,Dad.”He made the word sound like a curse.“You cattle rustling—that sounds like wire fraud, and probably crossed a few state lines, and I might take after you in one way,” Telford said sounding almost philosophical.“I’m not particularly forgiving.I can do all that because I’m rich.And I can hound you in court, and I’ll enjoy myself and still be rich, so if you want trouble, bring it on, but you’ll be bringing it to me.Not Cash.Not Madelyn.Not Witt.Not Miranda.You’ll never see Bronte or Petal.Not ever.”
“You’re a suit.You’re no good in a fight,” Tarek said, but his eyes definitely assessed his firstborn.
That we know of.
