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“What do you want, bitch? I told you not to come back. This ranch is mine now, and as such, you have no business here.” Allegra steps to my side and Silas is beside her. Maybe just once she’ll do as I say.

“I have a new will for my father to sign. It leaves everything to me. He will sign it before we leave.” Marisela watches Allegra closely the whole time.

“I will sign no such thing, Marisela. My will has been made and is with a lawyer. How stupid do you think I am? If I sign that will, I have to be dead for it to be of any use to you.” Silas looks at his daughter, and I can see the pain this is causing him.

“Then you will die without signing it, and I’ll get it another way. Someone wants this ranch very badly and will pay me to get it for them. You don’t need to be alive for that to happen. They already know of the sale and the will. They said that they can deal with that easily enough.” Marisela steps closer to Silas and I see Allegra tense. She stands between me and Silas, so it will be up to her again to protect him. I keep my eyes on the husband. He’s not very good at this sort of thing because he is obviously waiting for instructions from Marisela.

“Sign it or she dies first,” Marisela says to Silas, nodding at Allegra.

The husband starts to raise the rifle, and everything happens all at once. My knife hits him in the throat first, two rifle shots hit him in the chest and before he topples over, Hellion gets his shot in too.

Marisela screeches and then goes silent, clutching her throat. She’s going blue and can’t get any air. Allegra stands in front of her and speaks softly. “See how it feels when someone cuts off the life-giving air? This is how you would have killed a good man, so now you can die this way. You will spend eternity with my face burned into your eyes as the last thing you saw on this earth. Join your husband in hell, bitch.”

Marisela drops to her knees, gasping, and then slowly the light in her eyes goes out, and she is gone from this world. Allegra releases her, then turns to Silas.

“I am truly sorry that you had to see that. She had every intention of killing you, and that I could not allow. You are too good a man to die by her hand.” Allegra hugs him, and when she releases him, he asks what we’re going to do about the bodies, very businesslike.

“Don’t worry about that, we have ways of making these things go away. I’ll make a call and someone will be here shortly. We’ll get rid of the junker too.” I take out my cell and place a call to Pres. He says he’ll have a van out shortly and someone to take the junker.

Thirty minutes later, and there is no evidence in the yard of what happened there. We all sit around the kitchen table and discuss what Marisela had said about someone wanting the ranch. It could only be Cottonwood Glades.

Sitting in Pres’s office after telling him all the details of what happened at the ranch, he drops a folder on his desk in front of us. Us being myself, Cannon, Allegra, all the officers of the club, and an older woman who I don’t recognize. From the folder, he takes documents and spreads them out on his desk.

“All the evidence I’m going to show you has been brought to us by this young lady, Mary. Mary is Martha’s grandma.” Pres nods to her, and she looks around the room. Her eyes are alert, and she doesn’t miss a thing. Her gaze settles on Allegra.

“You must be the young lady from the restaurant. I am sorry that Martha tried to get you fired. If you’d like your old job back, just say the word and I’ll have you reinstated in an instant, with a promotion if all I hear about you is true.” She must be in her eighties, but she could easily pass for someone in her late fifties, early sixties.

“That won’t be necessary, but thank you. I have my finger in another pudding now.” Allegra smiles at Mary, and I see a twitch at the corner of Mary’s mouth.

“Oh, very good, dear. You can never have enough puddings on the go at any one time, or too many fingers in them. If I can ever help, just look me up.”

Pres shakes his head, then picks up one of the piles of papers and passes a sheet to each of us. “This is a list of the businesses that Cottonwood controls in town. Next to each name you will see a percentage growth in their business since being bought out, taken over, or whatever you want to call it.” He gives us a moment to look down the list, then we all look at him more than a little surprised. “Yes. It makes interesting reading doesn’t it? Every business has had a substantial increase in its sales. Where all these extra cash customers have come from is anyone’s guess. Judging by just these details alone, there is a substantial amount of money going through this town. I don’t think that is a definitive list either. Home and Hearth is not on that list. The ranch that they are keen to get their hands on could show a substantial increase. There are others too.”

“How do we go about tearing their house down, Pres? It needs to be done, but how?” Hellion asks Pres, but side-eyes Mary as though he expects her to have the answer.

“We could always just burn their house down physically, but that won’t stop anything. If we want to stop it and keep the town in one piece, we have to do it legally. On paper. That will take time and patience.” Pres looks around the room, and of everyone in here, he is the least patient of us all.

“I have several connections that can help with that. I only have one condition. I know Martha’s history with your club. I’ve tried to make her see the truth for years, but my husband and her mother had their claws in her from an early age. We keep her out of it as best we can. Agree to that, and I’ll help you get that evidence in front of the right people. You don’t know how high this thing can go or who’s involved.” Mary addresses this to Pres, and I can see him mulling it over.

“Very well. Martha isn’t a bad person, but she has been a pain in our ass at times. I think we should get the police chief on board with this and try to keep our noses as clean as possible. If we go to him first, we show that we’re doing the right thing for the right reason. He might not want to see what’s going on under his nose, but at least we would have tried.”

“I’ll call Twang and let him know where we’re at.” I take Allegra with me, and we slip out of the office. I call Twang and ask him to come over as soon as he can. When he gets here, I’ll tell him what we have and ask what he thinks the best way to present it to his chief will be.

While we wait, I’ll take Allegra to our room and show her who wears the trousers in our relationship. The next time I tell her to stay somewhere, she’d better do it.

Chapter 22

*~* Vortex *~*

Twang arrived early this morning with Police Chief Mitch Kincaid in tow. They both looked relaxed, which I would expect from Twang, but not so much the chief. From what I understand, Bill was the one more likely to run to the chief with things rather than Twang. I wonder what those things are that may relate to the MC. If his view of us has been tainted in any way, that could make the next few hours very difficult and uncomfortable all around.

Allegra is back at the ranch after I let her show me who’s the boss in the bedroom last night. We talked openly last night about our relationship, and as much as I am a Neanderthal at times, I couldn’t find fault with any of her decisions to step in when necessary. We work well together and I’m going to have to get used to the idea that she is not going to be taking a back seat when shit hits the fan. I wouldn’t have been happy with a wallflower or some girly-girl type, so I guess I got what I asked for in a woman.

Not sure I’m required at this meeting, but I sit here in Pres’s office like a good boy. Chief Kincaid, or Mitch, I don’t know how to address him yet, is listening to everything that Pres is telling him without interrupting. I suppose he’ll have plenty of questions at the end, but he is taking it all in and occasionally checking something in the pile of paperwork on the desk.

There’s a knock on the door and Pres looks a little put out by it. “I asked for us not to be disturbed. This had better be something good. Enter!” Pres watches as the door swings open and Julia walks in with a tray of drinks in her hands, Neil following behind with another with what looks like pastries of some kind.

“I’ve brought coffee and some freshly made pastries. I figured you’d be here for a while and might miss breakfast. Cannon told me that you weren’t to be disturbed unless it was important, so I gave him a pastry to try, and he said they were important enough not to go to waste.” Julia places the drinks tray on Pres’s desk, and the tray with pastries she hands to me. “You’ll have to be mother, Vortex. There isn’t room for this.” She turns and walks out with Neil close on her heels.