Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
The struggle bus should have a loyalty rewards program.
—Holly to Denver
DENVER
“I think we should keep him.”
I ignored all of my daughters, and the damn mutt that somehow found its way over to my house more often than it was at Holly’s, and finished pouring my to-go cup of coffee.
They carried the damn Pomeranian puppy around like it was a stuffed animal.
Honestly, I would be surprised if the puppy could even walk at this point.
My day had started early.
The only bright spot in it so far was getting to spend a silent hour with Holly cleaning out the horse stalls while she got everyone fed.
Not that my girls weren’t great or anything, but they’d been fighting since the moment they’d come in the door twenty minutes before.
One being pregnant and the other two having their periods synced meant that there was constant fighting, and none of them cared how fucking awful it was to listen to twenty-four-seven.
“You can’t even take your laundry to the laundry room, and want to add another animal to take care of to the mix?” Joe called Catalina out.
“I take my laundry to the laundry room!” Catalina denied.
“You do.” DeeDee laughed. “When you’re out of clothes and need some clean jeans. That’s why Dad gets so mad at you. He says that if you brought it in earlier in the week when he’s caught up on laundry, he wouldn’t have to do so much on the weekend.”
That was the fucking truth.
It was a constant battle with Catalina.
They all helped do laundry, but I still did the bulk of it.
Always had.
At least now I didn’t have to get yelled at about Juliana’s clothes being washed with cow shit.
The girls knew what they got when they left their laundry for me to do.
“Hey, where’s Holly at, Daddy?” DeeDee suddenly interrupted my thoughts.
“Workin’, darlin’,” I replied. “Why?”
“She was supposed to come home and feed Froto, but she hasn’t come by yet. That’s actually why I still have him. She forgot her lunch today and was going to kill two birds with one stone as she swung by.” She looked at her phone. “She was supposed to be here over an hour ago.”
I shrugged. “She’s a vet, baby. They’re busy people.”
Boone was always working.
And since Holly had lived at Windsor Ranch, I’d noticed that Holly worked just as much.
She was great at her job. Boone had done a good job in hiring her.
“Should I just feed him?” DeeDee asked.
“Go for it.” I shrugged.
I didn’t have much patience today.
In fact, I was pretty damn low on it, and I was trying not to take it out on anyone that crossed my path, including my kids.
I was angry as a hornet.
When I’d walked out of this house this morning, the same man from the other day had been waiting there with another manila envelope.
Only, this time that man wasn’t holding papers for Holly—which I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about—but for me.
Two sets, actually.
“You’re Sinclair Windsor?” he’d asked.
I’d nodded.
“You’ve been served.” He’d paused. “Twice.”
Speaking of the papers…
I took the papers from the counter and slipped the first set out of the manila envelope.
I sighed the moment that I understood what I was seeing.
Juliana was suing me for full custody, as well as spousal support.
I tucked that set underneath my arm and then went to the second set.
One of the council members was suing me.
How surprising.
Why couldn’t the ex-council member and I just settle this with fists like normal people?
Juliana, on the other hand…
I called my lawyer and relayed the exciting news.
She promised to deal with both, and I hung up.
Catalina was watching me with curious eyes. “What’s wrong with you?”
I thought about not telling her, then decided she deserved to know.
I told her about both, and she shook her head in disbelief.
“We’re all old enough now to tell her where we want to live,” Catalina pointed out.
“She’s delusional if she thinks we’ll go with her.
As it is now, we’re only there on the weekends sometimes.
And we never stay the night. She doesn’t even have room for all of us at the same time.
Oh, and when we’re there, we have to sleep on air mattresses in the spare room. She has no furniture in there.”
She’d told me that before, but it would be an interesting tidbit for the lawyer to know.
I sent her a quick text explaining what Catalina just said to me, then shoved my phone into my pocket before ruffling Cat’s hair. “I have to get back to fixing fences. Do you…”
Boone came through the front door, and I frowned at the look on his face.
“What is it?”
“Hey,” Boone said, looking worried. “You done yet?”
The work was never done on the ranch, and he knew it.
“Might could be if you need me for something,” I grumbled. “Why? What’s up?”
I had no clue what kind of impact his next words would have on me.
“I sent Holly out to run a few house calls today.” He shifted from foot to foot. “But it’s now almost five o’clock, and the last two appointments of the day say that she never showed.”
Everything inside of me stilled.
With DeeDee’s earlier concern about the dog, and now Boone’s explanation of her no-showing clients, my gut was telling me this was really bad.
I gritted my teeth and growled out, “Who was the first appointment?”
I got up out of my chair and jerked my head toward the door. “Y’all keep an eye on that dog while I’m gone.”
Catalina nodded her head and rushed over to her sisters that were in the pantry now trying to figure out what to feed the dog.
“Some guy named Baron Kenswood. He called later on and told us that the dog died, and he no longer needed our services. But GPS on the truck she’s driving showed that she arrived at his place.
She also sent a message saying she’d arrived at his gate that went through about twenty minutes after the GPS said she arrived.
When we call her, it goes straight to voicemail.
Though that’s not too surprising because the cell signal in the mountains is almost nonexistent. ”
“Have y’all gone by there?” I asked.
“I did. Then the cops did.” He blew out a breath. “Black said that legally, there’s nothing that they can do.”
“And the GPS on the truck?” I asked.
“Disabled. The truck was found about ten miles outside of town, abandoned. No Holly anywhere in sight. All of her things are still in the front seat, too. Including her phone.”
Fuck.
“Send me the GPS coordinates of where she stopped. I want to know what route the truck took to where it was abandoned, too,” I ordered. “If Black says his hands are tied, we’ll have to get creative.”
Baron Kenswood looked shady as fuck.
I also knew him, seeing as I’d just relieved him of his town council position only yesterday.
As I arrived at his place fifteen minutes later, I took a look around the property, trying to spot any signs of Holly, as I waited for him to come down to the gate to talk to me.
“Can I help you?” Baron asked as he came out of his shop with a shovel.
He looked sweaty, like he’d been doing some hard labor. Paired with the dirt on his arms, hands, and face, I figured he was digging a hole.
Hell, I’d never seen him out of his fancy suits.
“I’m looking for my girlfriend,” I lied. “Her name is Holly. She was the vet that came out here and she’s missing.”
He frowned, looking concerned, when we both knew damn well that he’d rather watch me burn. Fictional girlfriend included.
“White-headed woman driving a Ford?” he asked. “Big tits?”
The way he asked that was purposefully done to piss me off.
I remained calm. Barely.
I tried not to flinch as I said, “Yeah. That’s her.”
“I talked to her when she arrived. Told her that I didn’t need her help anymore. The dog died in the night.”
That didn’t track with the phone call the granddaughter had placed this morning. The granddaughter of this man had said that the dog was alive and suffering. That he needed immediate assistance.
My silence made him shift from foot to foot.
“She left hours ago after I told her my dog passed.”
“About what time exactly she leave?” I asked carefully.
This fuck was lying to me.
I could tell.
Baron looked at his watch. “At about ten in the morning, I guess? I can check the cameras.”
“Sure, would you mind?” I asked.
Baron was being accommodating, I’d give him that. But he still gave me a bad vibe.
He pulled up his phone and hit a button, then turned the phone to me.
I watched through the bars as the white Ford pulled into his driveway, the window rolled down, and a delicate hand came out to press a button on the keypad.
The video ended, and then he clicked on another one.
This one was time stamped about twenty minutes later when she finally backed out of the spot and left.
“I had to give her directions out of here because the signal was so bad. She wrote the direction down in that span of time and left,” he continued.
His story was logical. Plausible even.
But I still got the feeling that there was something more going on here.
“Do you mind if I take a look around your property?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
I leaned my elbows against the gas tank of my bike and studied his face.
In his position, I would’ve said the same thing.
I didn’t want people on my property. Not anyone I didn’t trust.
I, however, didn’t like that he was denying me entry.
I knew that there was something more going on here than met the eye.
He was keeping secrets, and I didn’t like secrets in my town.
“Okay.” I nodded once. “If you see her, or have any more information, I want you to call the Dixie Wardens clubhouse, The Mercantile, the mechanic in town, or call Hopps or drop by the laundromat, and let them know anything you think of.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but I continued, “Or, you could run by…”
I’d purposefully started to name off any and all of the business that the Dixie Wardens controlled, knowing that he would get the picture.
Nothing happened in our town that we didn’t know about. And if it did, we took it as our personal mission to find out what and why.
This man in front of me, this so-called man that’d been playing dirty games for years on the city council, knew that I owned this town. That was why he was out of a job.
But I could see the determination on his face. “I hope you find your girlfriend, Mr. Windsor.”
No.
No he did not.