Page 18

Fifteen

I have good problem-solving skills, but my problem creating skills are where I really shine.

— Searcy to Posy

POSY

“What’s up?” I asked carefully.

Usually when Yates called me, it was because there was something wrong.

A fence that needed mending. A bull that’d gotten out.

Something that I didn’t have the time to deal with right then.

“There’s a woman here asking for you,” he informed me. “And she’s wearing some skimpy short shorts that are making all the ranch hands drool.”

An image of Searcy popped into my head.

Goddamn, did those short shorts do some great things for her ass.

Speaking of ass, I couldn’t stop thinking about hers and last night.

But she wouldn’t be at the ranch.

I wasn’t sure she even knew where my ranch was.

Or my last name for that matter.

“Says her name is Searcy,” Yates said, breaking me out of my contemplation of the most perfect ass in the continental US.

“I’ll be right there,” I replied, dropping my pliers and the roll of barbed wire onto the ground.

I’d have to come back and finish fixing the fence later.

For now, I had a pair of legs I wanted to see.

The ride back to the ranch on Bumbo—the horse named by Scottie years ago when they’d first gotten him—took a short amount of time.

When I rode into the main parking area of the ranch, I saw Searcy and two of her siblings standing next to that old beater of a car that looked like it should’ve been retired two decades ago.

She was staring at me wide-eyed, fidgeting, and looking strung out.

She kept turning her head to her brother, as if she needed reassurance.

“Hey, everything okay?” I asked, my gaze going between them all.

She swallowed hard and then said, “Do you think we could talk somewhere in private?”

I looked around at the ranch hands that were around, but not paying us any attention, and said, “Uh, sure.”

Was this about last night?

And shouldn’t her siblings be in school right now?

I took her to the house, tugging Bumbo’s reins to get him to follow me.

He grudgingly left his grass behind, and I tied him to the porch railing before leading her inside.

The cool air-conditioned air hit me like a slap as my sweat-covered shirt immediately started to become uncomfortable.

“What’s up?”

The boy gave his big sister a shoulder check, and Searcy jolted.

“This is weird, I know.” She scrunched up her nose. “But I literally don’t trust anyone. I don’t even know that I trust you, really. But seriously, I think I’m in deep trouble right now.”

That had my stomach clenching.

Was it the boy from last night?

Was it her sister?

What was wrong?

That had my back straightening. “What’s going on?”

And who did I have to kill to get that look of complete and utter fear off her face?

Because I’d probably kill anyone for her.

Which was a sobering thought because I’d literally only known her for a very short amount of time.

She bit her lip for a few seconds before the boy blurted, “If you tell anyone what I’m about to say that’ll fuck us over, I’ll go to jail for the rest of my life just to make sure that you don’t ever walk straight again.”

I held up my hands, liking the boy’s gumption.

I easily had a hundred pounds and about eight or nine inches of height on the runt.

“Searcy got a lottery ticket as a tip, and she won the Powerball.”

That was the young girl.

And did I just hear her correctly?

“The Powerball?” I asked, my gaze snapping to Searcy. “You won the lottery?”

She swallowed and nodded. “A few months ago, Taryn Durant reluctantly gave me his Powerball ticket as a tip. The ticket was a winner. The only winner. I shoved it in a drawer in my kitchen and forgot about it until Anders was searching for a highlighter this morning and found it in the drawer. The news happened to be on and she found out that the numbers matched. What do I do now?”

I had…no clue.

“Uhhh,” I said. “I honestly have no idea. But I do know a really good lawyer that might be able to figure it out.”

Or, more accurately, Apollo did.

He’d been in the process of suing someone when his son, Tavi, had died.

His lawyer had been a bulldog, and they’d put the whole thing on pause while Apollo found a way to live again without his kid.

My brother was a lawyer, but I wouldn’t trust him with a sandwich, let alone lottery winnings.

Pulling out my phone, I texted Apollo, and instantly got a text back.

Apollo:

Malone. 817-555-5535 That’s her personal number. Tell her I gave it to you and she probably won’t hang up on you.

Picking up my phone, I dialed the lawyer’s number and hoped she would answer.

She did, sounding annoyed. “It better be good. It’s barely eight in the morning, and this is my day off.”

“Malone,” I said. “This is Finnian’s friend, Posy. He gave me your number because I have a very delicate situation that I need advised on.”

There was a long moment of silence and then, “Is Apollo doing okay?”

I thought about that for a long second before saying, “About as to be expected.”

Which wasn’t all that great.

When you lost a son, pretty much twice, that tended to fuck with a man’s head.

“Damn.” She sounded off. “What’s your problem?”

I looked at Searcy for permission, and she nodded her head.

“I have a friend that won the Powerball from the beginning of summer and she doesn’t know what to do,” I said.

“Huh,” she said. “I always expected it to go to someone in California. They seem to be the regular winners of the mega millions. What’s this person’s name?”

I gave her everything with Searcy’s permission.

“First thing she wants to do is take photos of the ticket. Make photo copies of the ticket. Then tell her to go open a safe deposit box and put copies in there. Front and back. Tell her not to sign it, because we can claim anonymously in Texas,” she intoned.

“Where is she? I can come there and we can get started. I have an attorney friend that specializes in lottery winnings, too. I’ll bring him with me. ”

“She’s at my place,” I answered. “She’s understandably in shock.”

“As expected,” she said. “Text me your address. I’ll be there shortly.”

I did, then said, “Come on. We can go get photocopies of it in the office. You can send yourself an email of the copy with your phone. Then we can head to the bank and open a safety deposit box.”

“I don’t have any money to open one,” she admitted.

I thought about that for a few seconds before saying, “Instead of opening one, you can use my safe. It’s not like anyone knows we have any sort of relationship.”

“We do,” the young girl pointed out.

“Yeah, but I doubt you’ll rat out your sister.” I grinned at her. “What’s your name again?”

“Anders,” she answered. “That’s Kent.”

Kent offered me his hand and said, “Sorry for being rude earlier.”

I gave him a nod. “Protective of your sister is something that I can fully get behind. I have one of my own. Her name is Scottie.”

His head tilted. “Scottie Hicks?”

“You know her?” I asked.

“We’re in Ag together…” He paused. “Were.”

“She’s in the barn if you want to go find her,” I offered. “If I had to guess, I think she’s overfeeding Trixie.”

Scottie was home on break for the upcoming holiday.

Trixie was Scottie’s show cow that she loved with all her heart.

I wasn’t sure if she was sadder about leaving me or her prized cow behind since starting college this fall.

“Ahh,” Kent said as he stared at Searcy. “That okay with you?”

Searcy drew in a full breath and let it out. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Kent caught Anders’s hand and led them out of the house, leaving me alone with their sister.

“You gonna make it?” I asked.

“I feel like I’m about to throw up,” she admitted. “And, to make matters worse, there’s no way this is going to be something that’s easy. I just know Taryn’s gonna come back and want this ticket. He’s somehow going to know what numbers he bought and come find me.”

“You think he’ll be dangerous?” I asked.

“I think if anyone finds out, even if it’s him, that I’m going to have a target the size of Texas on my back,” she admitted. “Even worse, I think that I’m going to have to watch my siblings like hawks.”

“Anonymous is anonymous,” I pointed out. “No one has to know unless you tell them.”

“No,” she said. “But it’s going to look fishy when I move out of my house and get a car that actually works. And my family’s sure going to question how I can all of a sudden afford socks that don’t have holes in them.”

Her eyes came to me, and they were burning with frustration.

Normally, I would’ve told anyone else to ‘figure it the fuck out’ but in this instance, I had this burning desire to not scare her off.

Except, I was never one to sugarcoat things.

Nor was I the type of person to say one thing when I meant the other thing.

“Listen, Searcy,” I said bluntly. “You’re about to be faced with a lot of bullshit soon.

You’re going to have to put your big girl panties on and deal with it.

You’re going to have to be tough. You’re going to have to make a decision.

And you’re going to have to figure out how to make this work, because there are greedy motherfuckers out there that are going to try to wiggle their dirty little fingers into your pie. ”

She narrowed her eyes. “I never said I wouldn’t deal with it.”

“Well, sitting here playing this broken, scared young woman game definitely won’t get you anywhere. Where’s the bitch that told everyone in the diner that it was going to be grilled cheese or nothing? Channel her, because you’re going to need her soon,” I pointed out.

She would’ve said more but a knock sounded on my door and Yates poked his head inside.

“One, that fuckin’ bull is out again, and facing off with a fancy-ass Mercedes about mid-way down the driveway,” Yates said. “Two, those two kids that were out in the barn with Scottie are now in the pen where the bull used to be, and the gate is wide ass open.”