Page 102 of Branded

“Must be nice. Being rich enough to do whatever you want.”

“It has advantages.” I move to the next post. “But money doesn’t solve every problem.”

“Solves enough of them, though, right?” Cage’s tone is pointed. “Like debt. Like situations that force people into corners. Like buying your way out of consequences.”

He knows. Maybe not everything, but enough to understand I used money to get something—rather, someone—I wanted.

“Money solves transactional problems,” I say carefully. “It doesn’t solve human problems. It doesn’t make people trust you, respect you or want to stay with you. Those things you have to earn.”

“And have you? Earned those things with Len?”

“I’m trying to.”

“Try harder.” Cage moves down the fence line. “Because she’s my sister. And if you’re just using her, if this is just some rich guy power trip, I’ll make your life hell. Ranch connections run deep. A word from Warren Briggs about Sebastian Drake being a bastard who mistreats women travels fast.”

The threat is real. Rural communities protect their own, and one bad reputation could destroy business relationships that took generations to build.

“Understood,” I say. “And for what it’s worth, I’m not trying to use her. I’m trying to build something with her. Even if it started as something else.”

Cage studies me for a long moment. “We’ll see.”

We work until lunch, fixing the fence and gates, and a section of the corral that has rotted over winter. My hands are blistered despite gloves, my back screaming from bending and lifting, and I’m pretty sure I’ve pulled something in my shoulder.

But I keep up. Don’t complain. I show Cage I can work.

Lunch is sandwiches at the main house. Lennox is there, helping Grace in the kitchen, and when our eyes meet, I see wariness. Like she isn’t sure who I’ll be today: the man from last night or someone else entirely.

I give her a small smile, and she walks up to my side. Instinctively, I put my arm around her and pull her close. Lennox moves her hand to my chest, and all the exhaustion that was settling in leaves my body. She’s why I’m doing this.

“Is everything okay?” she asks as she looks up at me.

“It’s good,” I whisper, which does very little to change the worry in her eyes, so I lean down and kiss her. Our lips touch, and all the sound in the kitchen fades away, and for a brief moment it’s just us.

Someone clears their throat, and I pull away from her and smile. The worry in her features eases, and a pink flush appears on her cheeks, one that I’m going to need to see more often.

After lunch, Warren takes over.

“Afternoon’s the hard part,” he says, leading me back outside. “Morning’s just maintenance. Now we do the work that actually tests you.”

What follows is three hours of the most physically demanding labor I’ve done in years. Moving equipment that is too heavy for one person, but Warren refuses to get help. Digging out a water line that froze last winter and needs repairs now. Hauling hay bales from the storage barn to various locations around the ranch.

Work designed to break me. To prove I’m soft, useless, unworthy of his daughter.

But I’ve been trained by Walker Drake. A man who believes in pushing until you break or you prove you’re unbreakable. This is nothing compared to the tests my own father has put me through.

So I work. Lifting when Warren tells me to. Hauling what he tells me to haul. Digging where he tells me to dig, and doing everything he instructs me to do from the window of his truck.

By three o’clock, I’m breathing hard and sweating. Warren looks at me with something that might be respect.

“You’re stronger than I expected,” he admits.

“Thank you.”

“But strength isn’t everything. You can work a ranch and still be a bastard to the people in your life.” He shifts in his seat. “Your father, Walker. I’ve heard he’s a hard man.”

“That’s putting it mildly. He built an empire by being ruthless. Taught me the same lessons. Control equals power. Ownership equals security. Never show weakness.” I pause.

“And Lennox is teaching you something different?”