Chapter Eighteen #2
Telford couldn’t say what word set him off.
Probably that this man would utter the sacred M word that should never, ever form in his mouth.
Telford went from being in full control to primal rage.
He grabbed the collar of his bio dad’s worn barn coat, half carried and backward-marched him away from the hotel’s stairs and people waiting for their cars from the valet and across the parking lot.
“You’re nothing to any of us. You belong far from the comfort of home and family. We don’t need you. We don’t want you. There is nothing for you here.”
“So you’re a we now? Think you’ll stay that way? You won’t. You don’t fit in. My brother won’t let you in his precious family.”
“I’ll make my own family with or without the Telfords. Definitely without you. We all will.”
Telford was done talking. Tarek took a swing at him, and Telford dodged and gloried in the opened door.
As he hefted his bio dad up to throw him into the street, he put his power into a right upper cut and released.
His father fell at the feet of the Telfords who had to jump back to not get hit by an errant and unwanted relative.
“You’ll regret that.” His bio father struggled to sit up. He spit out some blood, smiled meanly.
“I regret nothing,” Telford said. “It’s my choice to come to Marietta. My choice to meet my half-brother and my half-sisters.” His voice went hard. “And it is most definitely my choice to protect all of them. Always.”
*
Ayana ran blindly across the moonlit garden at the back of the Graff Hotel.
Soft violin music was piped in, and there were fairy lights strung through some of the trees and a water feature burbled.
She found a gate that was woven with ivy like something out of a fairy tale and she pushed it open, bracing for whatever was on the other side.
Freedom. She saw more trees—aspen and oak and lush grass and some benches.
But no, the Family wasn’t all powerful. They weren’t magical. They couldn’t fly to the other side of the hotel. She was no longer a child.
Still, she started to run, cutting across the lawn, over the train tracks and down a side street. As she ran, she listened for footsteps. Nothing. Where was she going? All she had was a small clutch purse. Her wallet. To Main Street.
She heard music coming from a small house where a teen girl sat out on a porch strumming a Jason Isbell song. Heart pounding, Ayana slowed her steps. Sucked in a deep breath trying to calm herself enough so that she could think.
The young girl sang “If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell. And Ayana stopped walking. Vampires. The Family was made up of vampires—the leadership sucking the life and the light from young girls. But this was a love song—knowing that time was limited made their lover more treasured.
Like Telford made her feel. From the beginning he’d consulted her, thought of her, listened to her.
And she was running away.
Letting the Family win again.
Letting them still suck her life and light.
“No,” she said.
She didn’t want to face them. But she would. And she wouldn’t be facing them alone.
“Beautiful song, thank you,” Ayana called out.
The teen paused. “Thanks. I’m still struggling with the chord changes.”
“Play them on repeat fifty times and then again ’til you can do it without thinking.”
“Yeah, that’s what my mom says.”
“Sometimes moms are right,” Ayana said and then retraced her steps back to the hotel, but going by Main Street as she wanted to meet the Family in a more public place.
“And sometimes moms are wrong.”
“Ayana,” Maddy called out to her. “What are you doing back here? I thought you and Telford were heading back to the hotel.”
“Ahhhh.” She stared at Maddy, and then her gaze reluctantly shifted to Cash, Riley and Cole, Rohan and Ginny, Boone and Piper, Witt and Miranda, and Taryn and Sarah. All couples. And family if she could get through this next horrifying bit.
“Running away but not running anymore. Standing still.”
She sounded drunk. Or demented.
“Did you and Telford have a fight?” Riley asked coming closer.
“No. Nothing like that. I’m sorry,” she blurted. “This is complicated and I’m making it worse, but your brother showed up at the hotel,” she said to Taryn, not sure of the response she expected or how much she should tell them.
“He approached Telford in Denver. He didn’t believe him. Didn’t want anything to do with him, but …” She shouldn’t speak for Telford. “It’s his story to tell.” As hers was hers on her own terms. She straightened up, almost like her fear and panic had been a wet cloak she could shrug off.
“He’s dealing with Tarek. He asked me to go.”
“We’ll all go,” Taryn said, striding down away from Grey’s toward the hotel.
Ayana hesitated. She could still go. Hot-wire Telford’s truck.
And then what? Leave him? Humiliate him in front of his family?
No. She had to stand up for herself. Stop running.
And then if Telford had found what he was looking for—and it wasn’t her—she could leave.
Just keep the deposit. Start over. He’d probably help her.
She tried to squelch the sick feeling that swirled in her gut when she thought about leaving Telford. Everything in her rebelled. No. She would make her stand with him. She owed him an explanation at least. And closure if he wanted it.
Or a future.
She clung to that hope and fell into step with Riley and Maddy. Riley wore an electric blue cowboy hat that matched her boots. Her eyes shone with emotion and her ponytail was high and swung back and forth like a clock on amphetamines.
“Maybe I need to grow out my hair,” Ayana mused.
She’d cut it first thing when she’d left the Family. Something she had control over and it made her less recognizable.
“That ponytail gives you a lot of sass. Yours too,” she admired Maddy’s rich dark hair that hung in a low ponytail down her back.
“You got plenty of sass,” Riley said. “But I admit, I did like to flick it when I was irritated with my brothers.”
“What about Cole?” Maddy teased.
Riley flicked her ponytail and smiled like a cat. “Cole is perfect.”
“Hear that, Cash?” Maddy called out. “Cole sets a high bar.”
She was trying to ease the tension, but it was cranked up to high when they cleared the cute little historic train depot and saw Telford standing on the sidewalk over a sprawled Tarek. She stared at Telford like she’d never seen him before. He looked glorious. Like a god lit by fury and vengeance.
“Taking out the trash,” Cash noted. “Thanks.”
“Listen to me,” Tarek began, starting to get up, but he sat back on his ass when Cash joined Telford and stepped forward, his boot high near his father’s crotch.
“No,” Cash said. The smiling, humorous man she’d come to know was gone, replaced by a fiercely determined cowboy.
“I owe you nothing, but you listen. I’m getting married tomorrow, and if you think you’re going to show up and ruin it with some stunt, you won’t.
We’re strong, and we’ll expose you for the grifting deadbeat that you are. Let that play out in the public arena.”
“I have a right to come home. You can’t stop me from coming home to Marietta.” Tarek scooted away from Cash’s boot.
“I got this, Cash. This is my business.” Taryn worked his way around his three sons, son-in-law, and two nephews who’d walled in the man they perceived as a threat.
“You cut me out of my inheritance.” Tarek’s eyes blazed blue fury.
Rather than let his brother get up, Taryn squatted, blocking his brother from moving. He was a rancher and a man about to hit his sixties, but who still looked to be in his prime.
“You left the ranch, Tarek. You never wanted it. You never valued family. Never wanted to be a brother. The ranch is still there. Strong. It belongs to all of us.”
“I want my share. Half. You’re so self-righteous and greedy, clinging to all of it, barely eking out a living, doling out a cabin here or a bunkhouse or few acres here or there. I want my half to sell to a developer. Do you know how much money we could rake in?”
“Doesn’t work that way and you know it.” Taryn sounded sad, and Ayana felt that she was seeing the true backbone of the Telford family.
Tarek had heedlessly scattered his seed across the west, but he’d never cared for any of his children. But Taryn had cared for his, and he welcomed his brother’s children into the family, onto the ranch.
Feeling helpless with longing for something she feared she could never have, she stared at Telford, whose attention was riveted on his bio dad—probably he wanted to keep Taryn safe. Her heart warmed. He was a protector, but she had to protect him from himself.
“The land is in a trust. It belongs to all the generations that come after us. It can never belong to one person.”
“Gramps sold off land.”
“It was illegal and due to his gambling debts and poor management, and he broke the law because many people who protect the law were the ones he owned money to. I’ve been buying it back when I can.
Protecting it. Diversifying. It can be your home, Tarek, but you have to work the land.
Or contribute. You know that. We learned that as kids. ”
Taryn slowly stood, holding his hand out to his brother. “You can come home, Tarek. But you can’t hurt anyone. You can’t cause problems or scheme or threaten or undermine the work by trafficking with cattle rustlers or trying to switch out horses.”
Ayana was shocked. Tarek had committed crimes against his brother, but Taryn was still trying to reach him, still trying to get him to come home, still willing to forgive.
Tarek after a long hesitation took his brother’s hand and he pulled him upright.
“He has my child.” Tarek glared at Cash.
Alarm skittered down Ayana’s spine. Riley grabbed her hand and squeezed hard, and she did the same thing to Maddy, who’d paled and whispered a soft, heartfelt no.
“Bronte is his daughter, Tarek. You walked away,” Taryn said, keeping his voice reasonable.
“I’m back.”