Chapter 19
HAYES
I had the lawyer email all papers for Cassidy’s inheritance to my office. Instead of reviewing them, we headed to the sheriff’s station.
“You okay?” I asked, glancing over at my wife.
Cassidy stared out the passenger window of my truck. “It’s mine.”
“Yeah.”
“The ranch is mine. And money. Lots of money.”
“Yeah.”
“He was supposed to tell me.”
All I could do was keep saying yeah.
Once we parked and got out, I opened the door to the building and said hi to Marge, the office manager. “This is Cassidy,” I said as way of simple introduction.
Marge smiled and shook Cassidy’s hand.
“Your brother’s in his office.” She tipped her head in that direction.
“Thanks,” I said, then set my hand on Cassidy’s back and led her down the hall.
I stopped halfway to Colt’s office. Leaning in, I whispered in her ear.
“There’s nothing more I want to do than introduce you to everyone as my wife, but with this new…
development, I think it’s best we keep it to ourselves a little longer. ”
“Meaning you don’t want it to get to my father.”
I nodded.
“Okay,.” she said agreeing.
“Good girl.”
Hayes stuck his head in Colt’s office. “Hey, got a minute?”
Colt looked up from papers on his desk. A framed photo of Molly and Clarabel was proudly displayed by his phone.
“Sure.” He eyed us both. He was a skeptical fucker, but it went with the job. I didn’t show up at the station often, but I was a lawyer and dealt with some of his cases so it happened.
Just never with Cassidy in tow.
I closed the door, which made him raise an eyebrow.
“We just came from the bank,” I began.
“Okay.”
“Turns out, Cassidy here is the sole legal owner of Two Rivers Ranch.”
His eyes widened, then narrowed. “What?”
She licked her lips, nodded. “My grandparents left it to me.”
“Your grandparents left you Two Rivers Ranch?” Colt asked.
Like me, he didn’t raise his voice often. But we’d definitely surprised him.
“Yes. Plus… money.”
“A lot of money,” I added.
“Congratulations?” he said, not sure if he was supposed to be happy or not. Maybe it was because we weren’t all that happy. More like shocked.
Me? I was also angry as fuck. Because I had a pretty good idea what the fuck was going on.
“She just found out, but she became the sole owner when she was ten, when her mother died.”
Colt stared at me, then Cassidy, then set his forearms on his desk and leaned toward us. “Sit the fuck down.”
We’d definitely surprised him. I grinned, let Cassidy settle into one of the uncomfortable visitors’ chairs. I settled next to her.
“You’ve been the owner of the Two Rivers Ranch for the past eight years and you didn’t know?”
“No.”
Awareness lit Colt’s eyes and he sat back. “Let me guess who the trustee is. Conrad Trout.”
Cassidy nodded.
Colt grinned now. “He’s been living off your money on your property without you knowing while you went to boarding school in Vermont, which you started immediately after you inherited.”
Cassidy nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”
“He went to Aruba last year,” Colt told her. “Did you approve that expenditure?”
Cassidy blinked. “You mean that’s what I was supposed to do?”
I nodded. “You have to approve anything he spends your money on.”
“A trip to the Caribbean sure as hell isn’t part of the trustee stipend,” Colt said.
“He’s been spending my money?” Cassidy asked. “What about my brothers? Was the Land Rover Rocky bought with my money?”
“Does he have a job to pay for it on his own?” Colt asked.
“No.”
“Your father? Does he have income of his own?”
She shook her head again. “I have no idea, but it’s not like he goes to a nine-to-five job. They had no intention of telling me about the inheritance, did they? I mean, my birthday was in February. He could’ve told me anytime in the past six months.”
“They don’t act like they were going to tell you,” Colt muttered. “Ever, if possible.”
“No wonder they didn’t search for me this past month,” she whispered to herself.
“Princess, your father and brother–and Chase before he went to jail–are squatting on your property. You gained full access to do whatever you wish with the funds and the property when you turned eighteen. No trustee. Your father has no control in any way any longer.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, Hayes, Katie’s case. You’re suing my father but–”
“But it’s not his money,” I finished, nodding. “Don’t worry, we’ll work it out.”
“Are you sure? I–”
“Princess, you let me worry about that, okay? You have to decide what you want to do with everything. It’s your ranch now.”
“I… I can kick them out.”
“You can kick them out,” I repeated. There would be nothing more fulfilling–besides marrying Cassidy–than seeing Trout get his fucking comeupance.
Colt clapped his hands together once, almost as gleeful as me. “Oh, shit, this is gonna be good.”