Chapter 10
Once again, Ashton kept hitting Crystal with truths and possibilities that made her incredibly uncomfortable.
Ashton added, “So, just be aware, if they accuse you of being on the enemy’s side, what that could look like.”
She just shook her head, wordless, as she followed Ashton and Khan down the tracks. She was trying to work her way through everything he said on her own, without it being something that she was being led toward.
Yet it was hard to question Ashton because she was right here, following these tire tracks, knowing that nobody should be here in a car at all. And the brothers had checked out this area.
How did that compute?
For her, it didn’t.
It just made her life even more difficult. What was she supposed to do with that?
Right now, there wasn’t a whole lot Crystal could say. She was trying to let it all just work its way through her brain and hopefully not give her as much of a headache as it currently was.
Ashton pulled up to a stop at the fence, finding a gate. Obviously, per the tire tracks, this gate had been opened, and a vehicle had driven through and back out again. Ashton dismounted and walked over to the gate, leaned over, quickly unlatched it.
Then, with a maneuver she had never quite managed, Ashton used Mirage to back up, pulling the gate with him.
It was an act that she could see they had both done many a time and quite successfully.
Khan belly-scooted under the fence instead of waiting for the gate to fully open.
She finally murmured, “You made that look way too easy.”
He shook his head and shrugged. “Been doing it for a lifetime.”
That was another reminder that this had always been his home, despite his military years, even his years away at college.
This was the space where he had been raised his whole life, even longer than she and her stepbrothers had been here. She nodded. “It’s easy for all of us to forget that, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know what it is you’re trying to forget,” he pointed out, “but I was raised here from birth. My mother was not anybody’s favorite though,” he noted, with a mocking laugh. “Yet she and my father have been gone for a long time.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. He just nodded and didn’t say anything. “All these wounded people are here,” she added. “It’s hard.”
“It can be, yes,” he agreed. “I mean, not everybody has a chance to deal with their wounds in the same way or even with the same degree of success.”
“Was Grandma happy when you were born?”
“I have no idea.” His tone was casual, calm, and calculated.
“I would have been an infant, and I’m not sure that she was ever happy with me.
In fact, I’m not sure Grandma was happy anywhere, honestly—which I wouldn’t admit to Grandpa.
Regardless, Grandma did not like my mother and made no bones about it. ”
Crystal frowned at that, and he added, “My mother was young, unwed, pregnant, but my father did the right thing and married her. Yet they were so in love, no matter what their marital status. My grandmother didn’t have a lot of respect for her.
My parents died when I was just a teenager, when I wasn’t sure how relationships worked.
Yet, knowing Grandma better now, I bet she was so jealous of my mother.
After all, my father had a wife, a child too, so the three of us were a family.
That didn’t include Grandma. She had been relegated to his birth family, not to his chosen family. ”
Crystal listened intently. “You’ve never told me this.”
Ashton shrugged. “Seems it is the time for sharing. No more secrets, right? Not that these memories were secrets.” He had to laugh at that thought.
“I do remember Grandma and my mother having plenty of arguments and fights. Grandma might have been trying to break up that marriage. I wouldn’t doubt it now.
My mom was tenacious and fought back. Grandpa went to bat for her because she was my mother.
He didn’t want the family split up. Seems Grandma is all about splitting up the family, now and back then.
” He shook his head, letting out a deep sigh.
“I bonded with Grandpa over many a year, way more so than Grandma,” he admitted. “She was more about appearances. He was more about values. I mean, look at my first profession. I am a financial advisor, just like Grandpa.”
Crystal grimaced. “I’m no longer sure I really know Grandma. She used to be a better person, or so I thought. And lately she’s gotten really … mean.”
He shot her a look and nodded. “That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to check with her doctor or an expert because I don’t know if her behavior is part of some debilitating condition or if it’s really just—”
Crystal waved a hand. “I get it. There’s no easy way to say it, but it could just be old age, where supposedly the filter comes off,” she pointed out.
“Absolutely. I do understand that is a concern, but a bigger worry is how much she is willing to do, or has already done, getting her life exactly the way she wants it. It seems like she has no idea of the consequences, which is part of the problem. I’m sure she’ll make it seem like she’s not responsible for anything, but that is a lie.
“Plus, remember that I do have her written agreement from six years ago to pay back what she stole. I watched her sign it, and she was more than ready to get me kicked off the property for good. But Grandpa backed me up, and she hasn’t really forgiven either of us for that.”
Crystal tried to absorb all this, staring off in the distance as they rode farther through this area. “Wow,” she muttered. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on this part of the property before.”
“Because it’s not ours,” he teased. “We are now on Oliver’s and Max’s property, and we are still following the tire tracks, which someone should have realized would have shown up sooner or later.” He pointed out Khan. “He’s not hesitating at all.”
She nodded. “But we also haven’t had the rain that was expected either.”
“Right, that’s true.”
“We were supposed to get quite a lot of rain, but then it moved to the south, so we never got that deluge.”
“Exactly,” he muttered. “So, if the kidnappers chose that time period because the weather would have covered up everything nicely, then that change in weather could explain why the tracks are still here. Still, if you’re up to no good, surely you don’t leave evidence behind for just anybody to see what you’ve done, would you? ”
“No, of course not,” she agreed, as she looked around. “How stupid would that be, because these tracks are definitely coming to Oliver’s place or started from here.”
“Yeah,” Ashton replied, his tone clipped. “I have to follow them to figure out exactly what’s going on.”
“Will we get a polite reception, you think?”
“Not sure that we will,” he admitted, with a note of amusement. “Yet it won’t stop me.”
She winced. “So, we’re likely heading into a confrontation?”
“Possibly. I mean, if you’ve done something that you’re worried about, wouldn’t you be confrontational if somebody came to brace you about it?”
She sucked in her breath as she stared at him.
He smiled. “Yeah. But, as far as Oliver knows, we may be coming for a social visit—or to make a deal where he gets to buy the land.”
“If he’s still trying to buy it, yeah, but that begs a few questions too. Foremost, how many people actually know about Grandma’s addiction?”
“Hard to say,” Ashton noted. “Yet it won’t be long before everyone knows it. I mean, since I’ve informed the deputies and the sheriff, it’s bound to come out. I’m also trying to get the last of that money paid back fairly quickly. So, it depends on how a few things shake out.
“Plus, Roger confirmed that Grandma was poking around, wanting to know about any other accounts that she may not know about. Roger held firm. Thankfully Grandma had no idea and no access to Grandpa’s rainy-day emergency account, which Anderson kept a watch over—not even letting me know about it until now.
“However, what really worries me is Grandma’s new secret account, where she has seemingly helped herself to a very large chunk of somebody else’s money again. Anderson needs that account number—that’s the one I asked you and Jenny about earlier.”
Crystal frowned, remembering that, now seeing why that info was so very important.
“As soon as I get that account number, that money is going back to the people it belongs to. I just hope she doesn’t empty it before I can get to it. And nobody from the sheriff’s office has picked her up to question her either.”
Crystal winced. “Grandma won’t cooperate. So no wonder they are hanging back.”
He shook his head. “The sheriff will have to deal with it when Grandpa’s clients find out some investment money has been stolen from them by Grandpa’s lovely wife.
You’ve got to remember that lots of people around here have their retirement money invested with Grandpa’s investment firm.
So, I’m just trying to make sure they get their money first and foremost.”
She couldn’t imagine what that would look like. “It’s bad enough to think of anybody doing something like that but to realize it’s your own family? … That’s rough.”
He nodded. “Exactly my problem. But if I could figure out where Grandpa is, that would be a huge help. I mean, it is possible that the old man walked away and either something got him, which is very unlikely …”
“Or,” she added gingerly, “he collapsed out here on his own and has succumbed to the elements and whatever made him drop.”
“I am fully aware that’s possible too,” he noted, “but I won’t consider it as plausible until I have checked out everything else and still find no sign of him.”