Chapter Twenty-Five
The Bennet Ranch
Aly didn’t know what to do with herself if she couldn’t be putting together food.
Landon had changed and gone out to the bunkhouse to check on ranch things.
Cal had gone into his rooms to change. Jill and Glenda had needed to stop by the pharmacy in town on their way up, Nate and Sam the pizza place, so no one was here yet.
Aly had changed too, washed the makeup off her face. She knew she looked rough, but she didn’t have the energy or skill to try to hide that.
Now she stood in the kitchen alone and at a loss. No meal to make. Nothing to busy her hands with.
If she didn’t find something, she was going to cry. And then Landon would either see her crying or see the aftereffects of her crying and try to comfort her, when this was … not hers. Not like it was his.
So she gathered plates and cups and started to set the table.
A tangible, physical thing to do. She didn’t look up right away when she heard someone come in from the back.
It would be Cal or Landon, so she focused on what she was doing.
On trying to work on a cheerful expression that wouldn’t cause either one of them to worry.
But when strong arms came around her from behind, stopping her forward progress, she just closed her eyes and breathed. Let the hug settle her, and hope it settled Landon too. Because there was no doubt they were all in this together, but sometimes the physical reminder just … helped.
Ben could smile at them. His lawyer could introduce whatever. Everything would be okay.
It had to be.
“Why don’t we eat in the living room?” Landon suggested, his arms still wrapped around her, his chin resting gently on her shoulder. “Relax. Treat it more casually.”
“That’s a good idea. Less tense, maybe.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He helped her gather the plates and cups she’d set out and move them into the living room. They stacked everything on one of the end tables.
The door opened without a knock, and that warmed something in Aly. That Nate had finally gotten over knocking, at least if they knew he was coming. Because they were family.
Jill and Glenda were close behind, so Sam left the door open while Nate plopped the stack of pizzas onto the coffee table and Sam arranged a two-liter of pop and a twelve pack of beers. Cal arrived from his room about the time Jill was settling Glenda into a chair.
“I called Bo,” Sam said. “He, predictably, didn’t answer, but I left him a message explaining what we were doing. Hopefully if he listens to the message, he’ll call me back.”
She smiled, but Aly knew it was fake. And hid guilt around the edges. Though Aly didn’t know why Sam had taken it on herself to be responsible for Bo. Just because he’d hired her?
Was there something more to it? Another surprise? Another…
Aly stopped the suspicious line of thought. An old knee-jerk reaction to Sam being involved with anything Bennet related. Sam was helping Bo because that was what she did.
Everyone got their pizza slices and drinks and settled into couches and chairs. Landon had been right to suggest this. It did feel better than sitting around the dining room table. Less like some formal meeting and more like … family. Family coming together to solve a problem.
God, she wanted this to be solved. Once and for all. They’d have to deal with the emotional toll for the rest of their lives, but if this trial could be over and Ben could be in jail … At least some real healing could start.
Jill sat cross-legged on the floor next to Glenda’s chair.
Nate and Sam were cozied up on the love seat, which also warmed Aly.
Because Nate had reappeared like some solitary, separate figure.
For so long, Sam had been exactly that, moving about town a bit like a pariah.
And now it looked like they each had a partner in each other, a someone.
Landon sat next to Aly on the couch, her someone, her partner. She didn’t know if she would have handled the past six months without that. Without everything stepping over that friendship line had given them.
So naturally her gaze fell to Cal, who had pulled in a chair from the kitchen rather than sit on the third cushion of the couch.
It left him alone, which made Aly sad, she could admit.
Not that having a significant other fixed everything, but she wished he didn’t feel the need to be so alone.
She wished there was someone—romantic or otherwise—he’d let in.
To take care of him more than the superficial ways he let her take care.
But they were all together right now. Eating. Working through the problem, hopefully. Instead of heading off to separate corners, licking wounds and distrusting each other. That was what mattered.
“Did you get anywhere on a connection to the cousin who helped Bo?” Cal asked Sam.
Sam shook her head. “No. Nothing to Ben. Nothing to the lawyer. Hell, nothing to Montana. Detective Hayes IDed the guy who tried to break into Honor’s Edge as a private investigator out of Wisconsin.
Obviously, a connection to Wisconsin can’t be overlooked, but I haven’t been able to tie it to this cousin yet.
” Sam sounded beyond frustrated. “Maybe it just needs more time.”
No one said anything to that, and Aly wasn’t sure anyone believed it. Sam was nothing if not a good investigator. If there was a connection, maybe it was too deeply hidden to find.
“We already knew that the guy who tried to break into Honor’s Edge was connected to Dad’s lawyer regardless of identity,” Nate said. “And we knew he was aware of Bo’s existence, and a potential connection to Glenda. It shouldn’t be a surprise that they know, that they’re trying to use it.”
But it was a surprise. At least to Aly. How could this be used to support Ben’s innocence?
“But it just paints Ben in a bad light,” Jill said, echoing Aly’s thoughts. “His wife wanting to hide one of his sons? It supports the prosecution’s case that he was abusive, doesn’t it?” She looked at Cal, so Aly did too.
Cal didn’t meet anyone’s gaze, but he spoke after a heavy silence. “They’ll try to paint Mom as unstable. Bring up character witnesses to corroborate. My bet is they’ve got a witness or two that connects to the pregnancy, or they wouldn’t have brought it up.”
“No one would corroborate that Mom was unstable,” Landon said. “Because she wasn’t.”
Cal lifted his head then, met Landon’s gaze. “She got rid of one of her kids. Kept the other three.”
It brought a silence to the room. Heavy. Tears threatened. Every time Aly thought of Marie deciding to send one of her children away, it broke her heart. For the baby. For the boys who now felt like they’d been sentenced by their own mother.
But mostly, for Marie. Because no matter how Aly couldn’t make sense of the choice, she knew how much Marie had loved her children. Marie had loved her, and she hadn’t had any reason to. Aly was just an orphan, more or less. Marie hadn’t had to step into any kind of mothering role. She’d chosen to.
She must have been so desperate when she was pregnant with Bo. So lost. And all alone, except for when she could get to Glenda for help.
Aly slid a look at Glenda. It was then Aly realized Glenda was signing to Jill.
Jill cleared her throat, so everyone looked her way.
“Um, Grandma is basically saying…” Jill frowned a little, watching her grandmother sign.
“Marie thought she was protecting the three of you pretty well. That she could handle three. But she was worried, with a newborn, that you’d all be … in danger.”
All the boys looked at Glenda. It was strange to see, these similar-looking faces deal with that information, externally, in completely different ways.
She knew Landon well enough to know that as stoic as he was trying to look, there was nothing but desolation in his eyes.
Maybe guilt. Cal looked like he was in actual, physical pain.
Nate … blank. Like nothing ever permeated that cold outer shell.
But Aly also saw that Nate’s hand was gripping Sam’s in between where they sat together. So no, not cold. Not unaffected.
“Even if they paint Mom as unstable, she was murdered,” Landon said. His voice being a little lower register than usual the only clue he was hurting. “It’s not enough to get Dad off.”
“No, though it could be used to mitigate the severity of sentencing.” Cal studied his pizza. Aly was relieved to see he’d actually taken a few bites. “But I … I think there’s more. There’s going to be more.”
He seemed so sure, it left Aly unable to finish her piece of pizza. She set it aside.
“Like what?” Landon demanded.
“Hell if I know.” Cal rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I can’t work it out, but I know a lead-up when I see one. They introduced the pregnancy to prove some point. We have to figure out what it is, fill Vanderbilt in, before the prosecution rests.”
“And if we don’t?”
Cal inhaled deeply, let that breath out slowly. He looked around the room, at every single person looking to him for information. For hope.
And then he dashed it all.
“Then there’s a chance he gets off.”
*
The soft knock echoed through the room like a gunshot because the silence after Cal had delivered that bomb was so total.
Landon looked around the room. He couldn’t fathom who’d be knocking when they were all … here. A ranch hand would have texted. He hoped to God it wasn’t that detective, or a lawyer, or any other fucking Bennet disaster.
Landon moved to the door before Aly or anyone else could. When he opened the door to a man with a very similar face, he could hardly be surprised.
“Bo.”
“Um. Hi. Sam … called and…”
“Yeah, come in.” Landon moved out of the way, but Bo still stood on the porch, hesitating.
He looked into the living room, where all eyes were on him. Landon didn’t think he missed the flash of regret cross Bo’s expression. He didn’t want to be here.
Landon didn’t really want him to be here either, fair feeling or not.