Page 25 of River Legacy (Powder River #5)

C laude turned up the radio, wanting to drown out the dire thoughts circulating in his head.

He knew that he’d crossed a line. He told himself he didn’t care.

All he could think about was getting off the Stafford Ranch, getting out of Montana and especially handing over Wen’s daughter and telling them both what he thought of them.

Victoria would tell her father what he’d done, making it look as if she’d been in on it and ruining her chances with Ryder.

But Claude was tired of playing games with these two.

He was going to walk away from the job. Wen wouldn’t sue him—unless he wanted some of the crooked things the man had done to come out.

Who was he kidding? Wen was vindictive enough that he’d sue no matter what. All Claude could do was wash his hands of this entire mess—once Wen flew him back to Dallas in the private jet. It would probably be the last private plane he’d ever get to fly in. No one would hire him after this.

He shoved that thought away. A man could take only so much, he told himself. All he wanted to do was to drop the princess off at the hotel and head for the airport. After she talked to her father, he figured Wen would be happy to fly him back to Dallas to be rid of him.

Victoria reached over and snapped off the radio. “You realize that he’s going to make your life miserable, don’t you?”

He snapped the radio back on and turned the volume up even louder.

She turned it off again, keeping her hand on the knob, daring him to touch it. To touch her.

“I know enough about you and your father to make both of your lives miserable, princess.”

She laughed. “Try that on my father and he’ll bury you.”

“I don’t think so. He might not care about things coming out on him, but you... He won’t want the mud to get splashed on his precious daughter.”

Victoria looked around as if searching for something to hit him with. Like father like daughter, he thought. He couldn’t get this over with soon enough.

A s they neared the town of Powder Crossing, Victoria was heartsick.

For a while, she’d felt like one of the Stafford family.

She’d liked that feeling, getting to see Tilly’s baby, meeting the rest of his family, even Ryder’s mother.

It even helped to realize Charlotte Stafford was a lot like her father, as ridiculous as that sounded.

What she hated most was that now they would all believe that she’d come here at her father’s bequest in an attempt to steal their ranch.

How could she leave with them believing that?

She couldn’t, she thought as she reached in the back for the wrap she’d tossed back there when she’d gotten in the vehicle.

It was the same one she’d worn over her dress the night she and Ryder had left the hotel for the ranch.

She’d been so angry with Claude that she’d wanted to strangle him with it and had been afraid she would unless it was out of her reach.

But as she picked it up now, she spotted her purse on the back seat. Unsnapping her seat belt, she got on her hands and knees and reached in the back to snatch it up too.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had my bag?” she demanded as she turned back around and refastened her seat belt.

Opening her purse, she checked to make sure her phone was inside, along with her money and credit cards, and looked up to see that they were driving through Powder Crossing, and would be out of town soon.

“Let me out!” she demanded, startling Claude. He kept driving. “Let me out now!” He gave her a smirk.

Pulling out her phone, she called her father. “Maybe you’d like your boss to tell you to stop this damned car.”

“Hang up,” Claude bellowed. “Hang up!”

“Daddy? It’s Victoria.”

Claude made a swipe at the phone as if to knock it out of her hand, but she ducked away, avoiding his hand .

Turning away from him, she cried, “Claude has kidnapped me! He’s going to kill me. Help! No, stop!”

Claude threw on the brakes. She would have gone through the windshield if she hadn’t buckled her seat belt again. “Get out!” His voice sounded raw with emotion. She had the feeling that he was getting close to the end of his rope with her and her father. Who could blame him?

She grabbed her door handle and practically threw herself out.

“Victoria!” She could hear her father still on the phone as Claude peeled out, burning rubber as he sped away.

“You shouldn’t have sent Claude after me,” she said into the phone. “Now I’m going to see that you never get the Stafford Ranch.” She disconnected and dropped her phone back in her handbag.

As she looked around town, her anger slowly evaporated.

Now what? she thought. Seeing the Open sign at the café in the distance, she began to walk.

With each step, she promised herself she would do exactly what she’d told her father she would on the phone.

She knew he had a plan to get the ranch—other than her marrying into the Stafford family—and that was what worried her.

Her secret weapon was that she knew how her father operated, so maybe that would help.

Also, she thought that maybe Wendell Forester loved his daughter enough not to break her heart. On that thought, she had her doubts, but she could hope, couldn’t she?

The hard part would be convincing Ryder to trust her ever again.

C laude wasn’t surprised when he’d barely gotten rid of Victoria before his phone began to ring. He let it go to voice mail. But it immediately rang again. Grabbing it, he planned to turn it off, but realized he needed to end this. Why not now?

“What?” he snapped into the phone as he drove. He’d never been so happy as to see Powder Crossing in his rearview mirror—and Victoria Forester with it.

“Did you hurt my daughter?” Wen said, his voice low and deadly.

“The drama queen? I wish. I just dropped her off on the main drag of Powder Crossing like she’d demanded. I never touched her. She’s your problem now because I quit.”

“Claude,” he said reasonably, “you know you can’t do that.”

“So sue me.”

“Oh, I will. I’ll drag your name through the dirt and leave you penniless.”

Claude began to laugh. “She’s just like you, a coldhearted bitch. I’ve had more than enough of both of you.”

He could hear Wen breathing hard, trying to control his temper. “I’m sensing that you’re angry. ”

“You think?”

“What do you really want?”

“Not your daughter, I can tell you that much. You couldn’t pay me enough money to marry her.”

“Since that isn’t on the table, what is it you want?”

“You have nothing I want.” Except a ride back to Dallas in the company jet. He knew he should get off the phone. Wendell Forester was the devil, and he was after Claude’s soul. Right now, Wen was just fooling with him, trying to establish his price.

“Claude, I can make all your dreams come true. Isn’t that why you came to work for me in the beginning? I don’t want to lose you as my associate.”

Associate? What a laugh, he thought. “You despise me as much I despise you. I’m tired of being your flunky, Forester.”

“We can work with this,” Wen said reasonably. “I’m going to get the Stafford Ranch no matter what Ryder Stafford says. That should make you happy.”

Claude shook his head and pulled over to the side of the road. His hands were shaking, his heart thundering in his ears. He would like nothing better than for that cowboy to lose everything. But it wasn’t enough. What was his price? “I want Victoria to pay too,” he said. “Cut off her money.”

The connection went so quiet he thought his former boss had hung up. Everyone knew how Wen felt about his daughter. Claude feared that he’d asked too much.

Then he heard a sigh. “I’ll do it if you promise not to quit, because I need you. I have a job for you that I think you’ll enjoy. You’ll be working with CJ Stafford. He’s going to help me take the Stafford Ranch. I want you to do whatever he needs to make that happen.”

“And as soon as I’m done with this last job, I want you to fly me back to Dallas in the jet.”

“All right.”

“And Victoria?” he asked, not willing to give an inch.

“Just as you want. She’s now on her own.”

O nce in the café, Victoria ordered pancakes and bacon.

She couldn’t believe how hungry she was.

In one day’s time, she’d gotten used to the ranch meals.

She couldn’t bear the thought that for a moment she’d almost been one of the family and her father and Claude had snatched it away without a thought to what she might want.

She could feel the locals in the café watching her, wondering about her. She wondered about herself as well. Ryder thought she was like her father. She was... to some extent. But not in the way Ryder thought.

The rancher and this life had gotten under her skin.

That was the only way she could explain it.

She couldn’t leave. Not yet anyway. She couldn’t let her father take Ryder’s ranch.

She’d seen how much he and Brand loved the place.

Her father could never understand that kind of love.

He had always been about the money. Only lately, he’d gotten so much worse.

The problem was stopping him. He’d never listened to her—not when she’d told him she wasn’t marrying one of his yes-men or when she’d tried to explain why she worked at a nonprofit. What made her think she could make him see reason now?

Earlier when she’d made Claude let her out on the street, she’d been so sure of what she had to do. Right now, though, she was beginning to realize that she had no plan and no power. Her father was determined that he knew what was best for her.

Which meant that even if he knew how she felt about Ryder, he would still take the ranch.

Because she knew her father and how he operated, which was why he would be hard to stop if he thought he’d found another way to get what he wanted.

Her hope was that if she could convince him otherwise, he might back off just this one time.