Chapter 22
CASSIDY
My father held a hand over his nose. Blood poured down his chin and onto his stupid golf shirt. His face when he realized I knew about the inheritance only validated everything we’d suspected. He was a cheat. A thief and so many other things.
And he’d done it to his own daughter.
Me.
“What do you mean, wife?” Father hissed.
“I married Hayes Wilder.”
“You married him to get back at me?”
I shook my head, sighed. “That sentence shows just how much of a dick you really are. I married him for love. But seeing you lose your shit is definitely a perk.”
Father glared, then turned to Colt. “Did you see what he did, Sheriff? Arrest him for assault!”
“I didn’t see anyone hit you,” Colt said, tucking his thumbs in his front pockets. “You should be careful on that brick walk. You might trip and hit your face.”
“Rocky saw it,” Father snapped.
“Let me recap for you, bro, what’s going on,” I said before Rocky could put two brain cells together to say something.
“The ranch is mine. The money is mine. Even the Land Rover you bought a few months ago. It’s mine.
I can track the car payment back to my account.
I met the bank manager and she’s a lovely woman who’s shared all the account statements. ”
She hadn’t done any such thing and I hadn’t tracked the payment anywhere, but it was probably possible and Rocky wouldn’t know that.
“What?” Rocky looked a little green. “You’re shitting me.”
“Actually, Father’s been shitting both of us for the past eight years. If you want to keep the car, you better get in it and get off my property.”
“But what am I going to live on?” he whined.
I shrugged. “Maybe the money you earn at a job?”
When he didn’t move, I turned my head toward Colt. “Sheriff, I think there were some questions you had about an auction?”
I remembered the virgin auction he wanted to put me in and make bank. That couldn’t be legal and he wouldn’t want Colt to know about it.
Rocky paled, then pulled his keys from his pocket and ran to his fancy SUV, parked in front of one of the garage bays.
Just as Rocky peeled out down the drive, two ranch trucks came up from the stable and parked. Kyle, the foreman, and several of the ranch hands hopped out.
“Heard the honking. Something wrong?” Kyle asked, glancing around. He tipped his hat at Colt. “Sheriff.”
“Good seeing you again,” he replied.
“Hey Kyle,” I said, smiling at the man who was more father than my real one.
“Hey, chica.”
“I was just telling my father that he needs to leave my ranch immediately.”
Kyle’s eyebrows winged up. “Your ranch?”
I grinned. “Yeah, I inherited it from my mother.”
He looked between me and my father. Then glanced at Colt. “This true?”
Colt nodded. “It is.”
Kyle grinned. “What do you need from us, boss?”
I grinned right back.
“Please go inside, pack up my father’s clothes and leave them out by the gate. I won’t be needing them and when he gets out of jail, he’ll be able to pick them up.”
“Why you little bitch,” Father seethed.
This time, I was the one who punched him. The crack when I broke his nose was loud. So was his swearing as I shook out my fist.
“Tell me, father. How’d you get Mom to leave the ranch when you divorced? The property was hers and she’s the one who moved out. Left the state, even.”
He grinned, although it looked evil with his bloody teeth. “It was you or the ranch. She couldn’t have both.”
I blinked. Processed.
“You threatened to keep your daughter from your ex-wife to stay on the ranch that didn’t belong to you?”
“It wasn’t yours. Never could be. It wasn’t marital property,” Hayes added.
“She wanted Cassidy. I wanted the ranch. She wasn’t getting both,” Father snapped.
Oh my God. Father had used me as a pawn to keep the ranch.
“Why not take the boys, too?” I wondered.
“Because they’re not hers. Only you are.”
“Holy shit,” Colt muttered.
“You cheated on Mom.”
Father laughed and laughed.
He really was crazy. And ruthless. And an asshole. I’d never know how they ended up married after Father got rejected by Mrs. Wilder all those years ago. Maybe I didn’t want to know.
“None of us expected Mom to die, so you kept my inheritance a secret.”
Father didn’t say anything, just eyed me with… hate.
Colt must’ve seen it, too. “Conrad Trout, you’re under arrest for fraud, misappropriation of funds, probably embezzlement and theft.” Colt pulled out his handcuffs and finished with the usual Miranda rights as Trout shouted over him.
“I took care of this place for you! You weren’t old enough for the money. The responsibility.”
“I should have known I was wanted by someone,” I snapped. “That I wasn’t a pawn. That I was loved.”
A second later, Hayes pulled me into his arms. “Easy, slugger,” he whispered.
“You’re wanted by me. I’m thinking we paint the house green.
” He spoke loud enough so Father could hear.
“Maybe put in a dirt bike track by the indoor ring you want to make. We’ve got, two to three million to play with, don’t we, princess? ”
“I’m sure the accountant will find more than that,” I replied. “Won’t they, Father?”
“These charges won’t stick,” he hissed as he fought against Colt’s hold.
I shrugged. “Maybe not, but you won’t have a dime. And the Wilders will have Two Rivers Ranch.”
He shouted and swore as Colt shoved him in the back of his patrol SUV, unintentionally–or maybe very intentionally–whacking his head as he did so.
When the door slammed shut, it fell quiet. Colt tipped his Stetson at us as he went around to the driver’s side. Smiled.
He drove off and I turned to Kyle.
“You’re the one who’s run this place for years. I need some time with my husband to figure out what I want to do.”
Kyle looked at me, then Hayes. “You married him?”
I nodded.
“Good, that’s real good.” He shook Hayes’ hand.
“Yeah, it is,” I said.
“You ready to go home, princess?”
This time, when Hayes asked me that, I didn’t freak. I grinned. Because I was standing, technically, at the entrance to my home. This vast property was all mine.
But the little house that I shared with my husband on the Wilder Ranch was my home.
There was nowhere else I wanted to go.