Page 35 of Wilde Hearts

All I could do was nod. “Well, it was nice to meet you, Buck.”

“You, too!”

He pulled his glove on and headed over to a trailer full of hay that must have been delivered earlier.

I turned, walked into the barn, and made my way to my father’s small office. The door was open, and when I stepped inside, Ensley was sitting at the desk. Her head was bent over a book, and her brother, Gatlin, stood next to her. They both looked up when they saw me.

“Ensley? Gatlin?” I asked, confused as to why they were both here.

Gatlin smiled as he made his way toward me. He held out a hand, and I took it.

“It’s good to see you, Colt. Ensley informed me that I wasn’t allowed to beat the hell out of you, so I’m going for more of a friendly approach.”

My return smile instantly vanished as I looked at Ensley, then back to Gatlin. He’d certainly grown up in the last ten years. The guy was all muscle.

“I’m glad you went with her friendly approach. You’ve grown up, and I have no doubt in my mind you could give me a thrashing that I most certainly deserve.”

Gatlin raised his brows. “I agree, but I promised my sister.”

I looked him over exaggeratedly. “Still…I think I could handle what you’ve got.”

Laughing, Gatlin held out his arms in a “come at me” gesture. “You name the place and time.”

Ensley stood up. “Oh, for the love, put the testosterone away, will you both? I swear your nostrils are flaring.”

Gatlin and I both reached up and touched our noses.

“Colt, there’s a bigger issue here than my brother wanting to pound your face.”

I turned to Gatlin again, and he winked. The bastard actually winked at me. Focusing back on Ensley, I walked toward the desk.

“What are you talking about?”

Pointing down to a ledger on the desk, she said, “Your mother and father are broke.”

My head jerked back. “Broke?”

“Yes. There’s no money. The books say there’s money, but your father left a bank statement on the desk, and, please forgive me, I looked at it. I think…I think if he’d just discovered this? Maybe that’s why he had a heart attack. There’s nothing in the account. It’s actually negative.”

I quickly made my way around the desk and took the statement Ensley held out for me.

“How is this possible?”

She cleared her throat and said, “I think Ryan has something to do with it. When I got here yesterday, he was gone. I don’t know when he left, because the horses had hay, grain, and fresh water. My guess is, I just missed him.”

“Why would you think it was him?” I asked.

“There was something off about him. From the moment your father hired him and he found out that you had been gone for ten years, I felt like he was attempting to move into the role you vacated.”

Frowning, I said, “That doesn’t make him a thief.”

She shrugged as Gatlin said, “I have a feeling it was him, too.”

I studied the statement. My father’s checking account was overdrawn, and his entire savings of almost $80,000 was gone, according to the bank account Ensley had pulled up on the computer.

“How did you get into the online account?” I asked.

Ensley pulled out a book. “I made your dad sign up for online banking a few years ago. I helped him set it up. He never changed the password, so when I logged in, I saw everything was gone. His entire savings.