Chapter 15
HAYES
What the actual fuck?
I wanted to kill my brother for talking to Cassidy like that.
But then I saw that Cassidy wasn’t shaking her head or telling Colt he was wrong. Or anything at all. She looked panicked.
“Cassidy?” I asked. Everyone was quiet. Waiting.
She looked up at me, eyes filling with tears.
“He’s right,” she said. “My name is Cassidy Trout.”
Then all hell broke loose. Everyone started talking at once. Babies started to cry because of all the noise. All I saw was Cassidy.
Reaching down, I took her hand and tugged her to her feet, then hauled her out of the picnic table and dragged her into the house. “Hayes!” she cried, but I ignored her.
I slammed the kitchen door behind her.
I let her go, then began to pace. The kitchen was a mess from making dinner, but I barely noticed. I set my hands on my hips and tried to calm down.
Cassidy, my Cassidy, was a Trout.
“Talk,” I said, once the kitchen island was between us. That was all I could grit out through my clenched teeth.
Tears spilled down her cheeks. Her hands were clasped together in front of her. “I’ve never lied to you. Not once.”
“You’re a Trout! You didn’t tell me that!”
Her eyes widened. Usually, I didn’t raise my voice, but I didn’t remember being so furious. She was it for me. My girl. I took her to my bed, which I hadn’t done with any woman before.
“I don’t tell anyone that,” she replied.
“Talk,” I said again.
“Like I said, my mother and father divorced when I was four. I lived here on Two Rivers Ranch until then. I don’t really remember any of it. When they split, I went with my mother. My brothers stayed here with my father.”
“Rocky and Chase.”
Colt came in the back door, followed by Buck and Pops.
Cassidy’s eyes widened like Colt would handcuff her and haul her off. I’d wanted to talk to her privately, but maybe it was better they were here. I was mad. Furious, even, and I needed backup so I didn’t lose my shit. I wouldn’t hurt her physically, but… fuck.
“Cassidy’s telling me about her family,” I told them, then shifted my gaze back to her. “Go on.”
“I lived in Denver with her, my mother, until she died.” She wiped at a tear that slid down her cheek.
“Car accident. I was at soccer practice when it happened.” She cleared her throat, swallowed hard.
“I, um, was told that I would live with my dad since he was the only adult relative I had, but instead, I got sent to boarding school in Vermont. In the middle of the school year. I’ve pretty much been there ever since. ”
Colt crossed his arms over his chest. Buck leaned against the counter. Pops stood back and observed.
“You came back though, for breaks?” I asked.
I nodded. “The first few summers, yes. Winter break. But it wasn’t all that great.”
I imagined her at ten and eleven here for the summer. I’d been here too, home from college. We may have crossed paths at the grocery store or rodeo and I’d never have known. She’d been a little kid.
“What do you mean, not all that great?” Colt asked.
She looked at him as she answered. “As I’m sure you know, my father is self-involved. He did his own thing.”
“Meaning you were left on the ranch by yourself,” Colt added.
“My brothers were around but I avoided them. They’re… not nice.”
Chase had fucked with Cammie at school last year and was in jail for dealing drugs to kids. Rocky, I knew, but barely. He was a jackass. Always had been. But he was closer in age to Shep and I was sure he had a lot of stories.
I remembered how she’d freaked when I told her I was taking her home. She’d gone pale and started to cry. She hated the place that much.
“I hung out with the help. I’m close with the foreman, Kyle and his family. They had me for dinner every night when I was home those summers. Then, I stopped coming home.”
I couldn’t imagine choosing to stay at boarding school because you hated your family so much.
“You lied when you said there wasn’t money for college,” I said. “Your family’s loaded.”
She untangled her fingers, flicked a glance at me, then to the counter.
She fiddled with a twist tie from a bag of rolls.
“You’re right. They’re loaded. But I don’t want anything to do with them.
I came back after graduation because I had nowhere to go, but it wasn’t great.
My father and Rocky are worse than ever. The things they said. Planned.”
I spared Colt a glance and he didn’t look happy. My anger was slowly fizzling and I was starting to get furious at someone else. The fucking Trouts.
She snapped the twist tie in half. Fuck, what had it been like stuck with them?
“Like what?” I asked, knowing I wasn’t going to like the answer.
“My father… he, um, said he wanted to marry me off to one of his friends.”
I sighed. Colt and Buck glanced at each other, clearly unhappy.
“What?” she asked.
“Your father paid off Ellie’s father’s debts in exchange for her hand in marriage.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh my God. Um, then is he exchanging money for me?” she squeaked.
No fucking way was that ever happening. I now understood what Trig felt last year and maybe why she hadn’t told any of us who she really was.
“What else?”
“Um, my brother said something about a virgin auction. And me.”
My eyes widened. Buck ran his hand through his hair. Colt set his hands on his hips.
“Well, that’s not happening now, is it, princess?”
She blushed knowing what I meant.
“Anything else?” I prodded.
She shook her head. “That was why, when I heard about the job here at Wilder Ranch at the grocery store, I borrowed Kyle’s truck and came right over.”
I saw Buck nod, validating what she said.
“You working for your father?” Colt asked bluntly.
My spine stiffened. I’d considered the same thing, but now knew it couldn’t be true.
“What do you mean?” She frowned. “I work here. Or worked.”
“Spying?”
She laughed, actually laughed, then stopped when she realized Colt was serious. “No. Oh my God. No.”
“She’s fucked Katie’s case,” I realized. I was Katie’s lawyer and sleeping with the opposing side’s daughter. Trout could go before the judge and say whatever he liked and it’d be tossed out.
“I didn’t mean, I didn’t even know. I’m so sorry!”
She’d been a virgin. No way she’d show up and lure me to fuck her just to get her father’s lawsuit dismissed. She was sexy as hell, kinky as fuck, but definitely not that skilled.
She sniffled, tipped her chin up. “Look, I know you hate me. I don’t blame you.
I needed a job. A place to live. A safe place and the Wilder Ranch is the last place they’d come.
The last place they’d think I’d be. I’m sorry.
I’m really, really sorry. I never lied, not once, to any of you, but I knew, I knew you’d hate me for my last name and from what I’ve heard, I don’t blame you.
I’ll, um… go. Thank you for dinner, Mr. Wilder. ”
She turned toward the front door, headed down the hall.
What was she going to do? Walk out of here? Where the hell was she going to go?
“Hang on there,” Pops called.
She stopped, but didn’t turn around.
“You know why your father hates my family so much?” he asked.
I didn’t know why. I thought it was because Conrad Trout was a dick and didn’t like anyone.
“Back in the day, he was interested in Mrs. Wilder.”
My eyes widened. So did Colt’s and Buck’s. This was news to them, too.
“That’s right,” Pops continued. “He asked her out a few times. She turned him down. Then we met at a friend’s wedding and fell in love. Right then and there. I stole Ma from him. That’s what he thinks.”
Buck laughed. “That’s ridiculous. You two were meant for each other.”
“That’s right. She’s my girl,” Pops said, a soft smile on his face, his gaze on Cassidy. “But he’s sure held a grudge. You’re not your father, sweetheart. Nor your brothers. We like you for your character. Your spirit. Not your last name.”
Slowly, Cassidy turned around. He went to her, set his hands on her shoulders.
“Your mother would be proud of you. How you turned out.”
Then he pulled her into his arms and hugged her. She started to cry. Sob, really.
I rubbed the back of my neck as the sound pierced my heart.
“What she said is all true,” Colt murmured when he stepped closer to me. “I got info on her last year when I looked into the cousin when he fucked with Katie at The Roadside.”
“I remember that,” I said. Cassidy had been a, what, junior in high school in Vermont at the time? She hadn’t been working with her father to get Katie’s land. She hadn’t been around before that when he’d tried to force Ellie to marry him.
“I paid her in cash,” Buck added. “Told me she didn’t have a bank account yet. If she’s a spy, the only thing she’ll be telling her father is how we muck stalls.”
“You know, fucking his daughter’s a great way to get back at the man,” Colt murmured.
I shoved his shoulder for that shit talk. “Watch it,” I snapped.
“She tricked you. Tricked us all. Fucked up Katie’s case. Send her back to Two Rivers, fucked and discarded.”
Colt’s words made me see red. I couldn’t believe he’d talk about Cassidy that way. My Cassidy. So I punched him.
“Shut the fuck up,” I hissed, pointed in his face. “You don’t talk about her like that!”
Colt had a hand to his nose. Blood tricked from it. “Oh yeah, why’s that?”
“Because I love her, you asshole.”
He grinned. So did Buck.
I glared, then realized what he’d done. He’d talked shit about Cassidy so I’d react. “Jesus, you really are an asshole.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t fall for the enemy’s daughter.”
Buck started laughing. “Told you, H. Fuck, I fucking told you so.”
Colt frowned, wiping his hand under his nose, smearing a trickle of blood. “What?”
Buck smiled. “He told me that when I fell for Sage, who had the fucking mafia after her, that he was gonna find a nice, simple girl and settle down.”
Colt laughed, then winced. I’d popped him good, but his nose wasn’t broken. “I think Trout’s worse than the mafia. Go get your girl from Pops. Make this shit right.”
Yeah, it was time to make it right. Time to make Cassidy know that everything was going to be okay. Shit, she’d been worried for over a month about this, all alone.
“Pops!” I called.
He wrapped an arm around Cassidy’s shoulder and turned, leading her back into the kitchen.
“There’s only one way to make this right,” I said, thinking of Trig. “Make it so that Cassidy no longer has the Trout last name.”
Pops’ eyes sparkled. He knew what I was going to say.
Cassidy slowly lifted her head, her face blotchy and tear stained.
“Oh? How’s that?” Pops asked.
“By making her a Wilder. Princess, what do you say to marrying me?”