Page 34 of River Legacy (Powder River #5)

“W hat’s wrong?” Ryder said as he joined Vicky outside the hospital. She looked pale and shaken, her eyes full of tears. “Vicky?”

She looked up at him and shook her head before wiping at her tears. “I just talked to my father. He said he’s already purchased your ranch.”

“ What? That’s not possible. Why would he say that?”

“He told me he was sorry,” she said, her voice full of emotion. “I believe him, that he’s sorry and that it’s true. He now owns Stafford Ranch.”

Ryder was shaking his head as he stepped back, knowing there was only one way it could be true.

He pulled out his phone and called his mother’s number.

She answered on the second ring. At just the sound of her voice, the truth came crashing down on him.

His legs went weak as his heart threatened to pound from his chest.

“You didn’t,” he said into the phone. “You wouldn’t. How could you?”

“Ryder, you have to understand—”

He disconnected, feeling as if a mountain had been dropped on him. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do. “She sold it. No,” he said, realizing what had happened. “She gave it to CJ, and he sold it to your father.”

She nodded. “I wish there was something I could do.”

Shaking his head, he couldn’t look at her as he said, “I’m sorry, but I have to ask. Tell me you had nothing to do with this.”

“You know I didn’t,” she said, her voice breaking. “I only came back to the ranch because I thought I could stop it. I thought my father wouldn’t do it if he knew that I’d fallen for you. But he...” She swallowed and couldn’t seem to go on.

Ryder raised his gaze, took in the devastated look on her face and knew she was telling the truth.

He had wanted to believe what Claude had said about her because he was getting too involved with her.

He had kept telling himself that it could only end in heartbreak.

He’d been scared, wanting to push her away—just as he did now.

He reached for her, dragging her to him to hold her tightly. She wasn’t her father. She knew what the ranch meant to him. Her heart was breaking for him. He could see all of that as she hugged him back.

“This is my fault,” she said against his chest. “If I hadn’t involved you at the airport—”

“This isn’t your fault,” he said as he released her.

“Your father was already after the ranch. That’s why I was at the airport.

I thought if I told him to back off, he would.

You and I just got caught up in family politics.

This is my mother’s doing. She’s the only one who could sell the ranch.

She did it for CJ. It’s the only thing that makes sense. ”

Vicky drew back. “But I thought you said she loved the ranch?”

“She loves Holden McKenna more, and now she’s marrying him. Yet I still can’t believe she would do this to Brand and me, let alone my sisters.”

“She’s protecting Brand and the rest of you,” Vicky said. “We all think CJ put him in the hospital and almost burned down your sister’s house. Your mother must believe the same thing. Maybe she loves all of you more than the ranch.”

He knew she could be right. Of course CJ was behind the shooting and the fire. Their mother would know that. It was CJ’s plan, probably had been the reason he’d tricked her into letting him out of prison. She had wanted to believe that he could change because she had.

“Charlotte Stafford, at least the one I grew up with, would never have let CJ get away with this. Never. It’s just not like her to cave like this.

CJ conned her or blackmailed her or threatened the family.

It’s the only thing that makes sense. If I could get my hands on my brother, I would—” His cell phone rang.

Sure enough, it was his mother. “I need to take this.”

Ryder stepped away a few feet as he tried to rein in his temper. He wanted to yell at her, to blame her for CJ, to let out his grief at what she’d done in a burst of angry words. “Mother,” he said as he answered the phone.

“I’m sorry. I did what I had to do,” she said, sounding like the woman he knew.

“He blackmailed you. You need to go to the law, and he needs to go prison.”

“That won’t help anything,” she said quickly. “I need you to keep the rest of the family from going after him. You all need to let me handle this. He has an alibi for the shooting as well as the fire. He can get to us from prison and will.”

Ryder didn’t know what to say. “He’s that dangerous? And yet you want to leave him out on the street to do even more damage? If this is your way of handling things... Mother, you can’t believe that he won’t—”

“I know. It isn’t what I wanted, but in this case I had no choice. I made a mistake when it comes to CJ. I owe you all an apology for that. But right now, he is more dangerous than he’s ever been. I need you all to stay clear of him.”

“You know he sold it to Forester?”

“I assumed that was his plan. That means he has the money. I’m hoping he leaves the area, the state, the country like he said he would.”

Ryder began to laugh. “You believed him?”

“No. But please, let me handle it. I’m depending on you to keep everyone calm until this is over.”

“It’s already over, as far as the ranch goes.”

“Don’t worry about the animals,” she said as if she hadn’t heard him. “Holden will see that they all get moved over to his ranch. As for CJ, we both know it won’t be over until he’s gone—and not just out of the country.”

He disconnected and turned to look at Vicky. “I don’t know what is going to happen now, but it probably isn’t going to be good. This isn’t your fight. There is no reason for you stay.”

“There’s one reason,” she said as she took a step toward him. She stopped a few inches from him. He could see the question burning in her gaze. “Are you sure you want me to leave?”

He wanted to say the words that would let her go.

He couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t want to leave.

The one constant he’d had in his life was the ranch, and now it was gone.

The only thing he knew was ranching. His mother had put aside money for each of them since they were born from the ranch proceeds, so he had money.

But not enough to buy his own ranch. How could he ask her to stay when he didn’t even know what he was going to do or where he was going to live?

She touched his cheek, her gaze holding his. “The only way I’m leaving is if you tell me you don’t want me here.”

He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “That’s not going to happen,” he said as he reached over to cup her shoulders and pull her to him. “I just don’t understand why you’d want to stay.”

Vicky looked up at him. “Don’t you?” She leaned in to kiss him.

Dragging her closer, he deepened the kiss, wanting to do more than that.

As he drew back, he realized where they were: in downtown Powder Crossing.

Not that there was much traffic this time of day or most times of the day, but his family was already the talk of the town. He didn’t need to add to it.

“How much time do we have to get off the ranch?” he asked, thinking about the animals more than their personal belongings.

V ictoria pulled out her phone and called her father.

“Victoria.” He sounded surprised that she’d called him back.

“How long do we have before you take possession of the ranch?” she asked.

“ We? Surely you aren’t going to stay around Powder Crossing. I would think you’ve had enough of Montana and cowboys. You can fly back with Claude. He’ll be returning to Dallas probably tomorrow. Once you’re on the plane, I’ll reinstate your allowance and reactivate your credit cards.”

“How long before you take possession of the ranch?”

Silence, then, “I planned to take immediate possession, but I could give you twenty-four hours to say goodbye. But then I want you on that plane.”

She disconnected and turned to Ryder. “We have twenty-four hours. Maybe we should make the most of them.”

F rom the abandoned house on the hillside, Claude saw Ryder and Victoria through his binoculars returning to the ranch.

They seemed thick as thieves, all wrapped up in each other, as they’d gone inside the house.

He doubted this was the kind of information CJ wanted him to call about.

But he was bored out of his mind, so he made the call.

“Nothing much is happening at the ranch. Just saw Ryder—”

“It’s over.”

For a moment he wasn’t sure what was over.

“You’re done. You can go back to wherever you came from,” CJ said.

“I haven’t gotten paid,” Claude said, hating the way this small-time crook talked to him. It was one thing to let Wen berate him, but not this cowboy criminal.

“Talk to your boss,” CJ said and hung up.

He had a bad feeling that CJ was right. Whatever the two of them had been up to, it was over.

Which meant that his boss had gotten what he wanted—the Stafford Ranch.

How had he done it so quickly? Not that it mattered.

What did this mean for the cowboy Victoria only moments ago had been snuggling with?

Maybe the two of them didn’t know that her daddy had bought the ranch.

Didn’t that mean Wen would be kicking them out? Maybe they had come back to pack. But if Wen had kept his word, he would have already cut Victoria off. So where would she go now? Poor princess, he thought, smiling.

She was broke, and now her boyfriend was losing his ranch. Maybe the cowboy didn’t deserve it, but once Wen set his mind to something, there was no stopping him. Claude knew that for a fact. If he’d ever questioned just how coldhearted Wendell Forester could be, he didn’t now.

Wen didn’t answer the phone when he called. Claude left a message, then disconnected and looked around the old house he’d been hiding out in. Wen was avoiding him. Just as he would forget the promise he’d made him to pay him and put him on the jet home.