Wrangled and Tangled

by Lorelei James

  “Did I mention this is not a negotiation?”

  “I don’t give two shits about your assumption that there’s even room to negotiate when it comes to how I feel about Tierney.”

  “Is this supposed to prove you love her?” Pratt mocked.

  “I do love her. I don’t have to prove a goddamned thing to you. And that’s what gets you, doesn’t it? Not only that Tierney loves me enough to walk away from Daddy’s purse strings, but she’s been done jumping through your hoops since the moment she stepped on this property.”

  “She’s a brilliant girl and she’d be throwing away her life here with you.”

  Renner pointed at Pratt. “There’s your problem. Tierney is not a girl. She’s a woman, hell, she’s all woman, and she’s making an adult decision that you have no part of. She’s out of your reach. Done being under your thumb. She’s taken control of her own life for a change and I applaud her for that.

  “You only see her as another asset. Another thing you own. I know she’s smart. Yeah, she’s probably too smart for the likes of me. But her brain ain’t the best part of her. Her heart is the best part of her. And I can’t believe I’m the lucky guy she’s decided to give it to.”

  “Pretty words,” Pratt sneered. “Think she’ll stick with you when all you’ve got to offer her is your twice-divorced heart?”

  “At least it’s honest. And I ain’t putting conditions on it.”

  “You’ll lose. You’ll both lose.” It appeared Daddy-o was losing his cool. He bit off, “Take the offer, Jackson.”

  “Take your offer and shove it, Pratt. We’re done.”

  “We’re not done. Not by a long shot. You’ll be hearing from me.” He turned and walked out.

  Renner was half tempted to shout something juvenile like, bring it on, motherfucker. He’d let that bastard foreclose on the Split Rock before he’d ever turn on Tierney. But the bastard was her father. Although Gene Pratt didn’t have an issue making Tierney choose between Renner and him, Renner would not do the same thing to her.

  This was all kinds of fucked up. But what sucked the most? He couldn’t stick around and hash it out. He needed to be on the road in an hour. He walked to his truck so he could talk to Tierney before he left.

  Ten minutes later Renner burst into the office, demanding, “Did you know?”

  Tierney’s hands froze on the keyboard. “Know what?”

  He threw the sheaf of papers at her. “That PFG has a clause in the contract that can force me to pay back one hundred percent of the loan before the year is up? Or I default on everything?”

  By the guilty look on Tierney’s face, she’d known. Maybe she’d even put the damn clause in.

  Fuck.

  Had he been played for the fool again?

  “How did you find out?” she asked quietly.

  “After your father”—he started to say, used you as the currency to buy me off, but amended—“had a chat with me, he oh-so-thoughtfully left a copy of the contract on the seat of my truck with the clause in question circled.” Renner clenched his hands into fists. Gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached.

  “What did my father say to you?”

  Renner laughed bitterly. “As if you don’t know.”

  “I don’t. I swear.” Tierney came around to rest her backside on the front edge of her desk.

  “I’ve let you deal with all the financials regarding the Split Rock. I didn’t question you. Not like you questioned me on every goddamned thing about this place.” Anger burned up his throat and heated his face. “Did you get a big fuckin’ chuckle out of that? The dumb cowboy so desperate that he’d believe everything you told him?”

  “It wasn’t like that, Renner, not at all.”

  “So when I came to you needing more cash, where did that money come from?”

  Tierney averted her eyes.

  Not good. “Answer me, dammit.”

  “From my personal account.”

  Renner’s mouth dropped open. “What? Why? Just to maintain the fucking lie? Or to have something to hold over my head? So you could own me too?”

  “No. I did it because I believe in this place. I expected it’d be successful given the chance. But I also knew unforeseen expenses in the first year of operation for a new business can wipe out any financial reserves. So I covered it and kept track of the cash outlay.”

  “Yeah? You’ve gotta have a lot of cash outlay available to ‘cover’ those expenses. Since I know little about your personal financial situation, I wanna know where you got the money.”

  “I earned it.”

  “How?”

  Tierney dropped her gaze again and he recognized she was still keeping something from him.

  “Tell me.”

  “When you saw me working after I first arrived? Ninety-nine point nine percent of what I was doing had nothing to do with the Split Rock. Ninety-nine point nine percent of it was . . . killing time.”

  “That’s why you could piss with me endlessly about every aspect of it? You had nothin’ better to do?”

  She nodded.

  “Jesus. When did that change?”

  “When you needed money from the escrow account and that account was already empty. I lent my available cash reserve to the Split Rock general fund. Then I was broke. I have stocks and other investments, but no ready cash. So I did freelance work for PFG. But I earned it. Every penny of it.”

  “Not willing to ask PFG for a loan because the price of selling your soul is a little high?” Cheap shot, but he took it anyway.

  Tierney’s back snapped straight. “I absolutely do not ask my father for money. Ever.”

  “It ain’t like he doesn’t have enough to go around,” Renner pointed out.

  “True. But if you think he treats me any differently because I’m his daughter? Then you’ve underestimated him. You overestimated his faith in me too.” She closed her eyes. “That stung whenever you called me a spoiled daddy’s girl. You even assumed he paid for my cabin. He didn’t. I did. He didn’t give me a dime for my education. What I didn’t earn in academic scholarships, I paid for out of my own pocket. The only thing my father has ever provided is a rent-free place to live in Chicago. That’s only because the condo is in the office building he owns and he expects me to work damn near twenty-four hours a day for the privilege of living there.”

  Renner stared at her with absolute incredulity. His head spinning, his stomach in knots. His heart aching.

  “What?”

  “I feel like I don’t even know you.”

  “You know me better than anyone ever has, Renner.”

  “Wrong. The Tierney I thought I knew didn’t play games. She was straightforward. This”—he gestured to nothing in particular—“is far from honest.”

  “Would you have taken the money from me if you’d known you didn’t have an open line of credit from PFG?”

  “Fuck no,” he spat.

  “You needed that money. Without it—”

  “I’d be exactly in the same position I’m in now. Seriously screwed and no way out.”

  Tierney shook her head. “Listen, it might seem bad right now, but I know we can come up with a plan.”

  “There is no we anymore, understand? I trusted you. And I . . . There’s no way I can come up with that kind of money to pay you back or your father back. If I’da been able to snap my fingers and conjure that much cash last year, I sure as shit wouldn’t have borrowed from PFG.” Frustrated, behind schedule and absolutely heartsick, he stomped to the door.

  “Renner. Wait. Where are you going?”

  “I still have another business to run, and thank God for that.”

  “When will you be back?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Please. Don’t leave like this. I love you.”

  Damn her show of vulnerability. The woman was always rock solid. The fact she was crying tied him up in knots. “I have to leave. I don’t have a choice.”

 
Chapter Thirty-six

  Gathering her meager things from Abe’s place hadn’t been a monumental undertaking last night.

  Always ready to leave at a moment’s notice, aren’t you?

  Nothing wrong with that. But her motto, no fuss, no muss—move out and move on, seemed a little hollow.

  Janie hadn’t expected Abe to coddle her after she’d shared her craptas-tic day, but his anger had been totally unexpected.

  Not unwarranted though.

  Her cheeks heated when she considered the words she’d carelessly tossed off. She realized she must’ve come across as a cold unfeeling bitch in both matters of the head and matters of the heart.

  The night had been filled with many revelations. Not all of which she’d shared with Abe, especially after he’d demanded to know why she hadn’t noticed Tierney and Renner were in love.

  Duh, cowboy. You want to talk about piss-poor powers of observation? How come you haven’t noticed I’m head over heels in love with you?

  She was so lost in thought she literally ran into an infuriated Renner after she left Gene Pratt’s room.

  He put his hands on his hips and said, “He got to you too, Janie?”

  A million excuses and explanations bounced around in her head, but none exited her mouth.

  Renner stared at her. Hard. Then Renner, the most even-keeled person she’d ever known, latched on to her bicep and hauled her down the hallway into the laundry room. His eyes, usually a calm, serene blue, were snapping fire. “What did that bastard promise you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t play coy with me, Janie. Gene Pratt. He offered you a job with PFG, didn’t he?” When she didn’t immediately respond, he laughed bitterly. “That’s just awesome.”

  “Ren, I—”

  “Don’t give me your ‘this was a temporary gig’ reminder. I honestly don’t think I can take another piece of bad news today.”

  “What other bad news?” Her stomach clenched at Renner’s expression of defeat.

  “Nothin’ that concerns you anymore. And I wouldn’t want to say anything against your new boss.” He walked past her.

  But Janie hooked her finger in his belt loop and dug her heels in to stop him. “Oh, no, you don’t. Get back here and talk to me.”

  “I’m talked out, to be honest.” He sighed with weight-of-the-world weariness. “Look. Things run their course. I get that. But I’d hoped since you’d been with me on this project from the start, that maybe you’d stick around longer than a few months.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  Whiny much? And didn’t you use the same excuse last night with Abe?

  Renner’s hands gripped the doorframe. He wouldn’t turn around and look at her. “I know it ain’t, but I can’t help the way I feel. I’m sure our paths will cross again someday.”

  “Why does it sound like you’re leaving?”

  “Because I am.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Back to what I know. Back where I belong.” Renner said, “Good luck with your new job, Janie.”

  She was so stunned she let go of his belt loop. Those long legs and determined stride carried him out the door. Her response, “But I turned it down,” was lost in the whir of the washing machine.

  Hours later, when the resort was completely quiet, Janie tracked Tierney to Renner’s trailer.

  She sat on Renner’s unsightly mint green and turquoise sofa, with a box of tissues on one side and a bottle of peppermint schnapps on the other.

  Janie took the chair opposite the couch. “We need to talk.”

  Although Tierney’s eyes were red and puffy beneath her glasses, she wore a look of defiance. “I’m not in the mood to hear anything you’ve got to say.” She swigged directly from the bottle. “Save your breath if you plan to wax poetic about the wonderful job opportunity Daddy dearest offered you. The man’s a slimy liar, a cheat, and . . . I’m out of other names but I’m sure more will come to me.”

  Janie rested her forearms on her thighs. “Why does everyone think I jumped at the chance to work for PFG?”

  “Didn’t you?”

  “No. I’ll admit I interviewed with him today. I wanted to see what breaking my loyalty to Renner was worth to him.”

  “And?” Tierney asked dully.

  “First off, he changed his mind and made it a formal interview rather than preliminary. His offer was to triple my current salary, immediate relocation for a three-year hospitality training position with the Grand Gateway Hotel in Muskrat Cove, Wisconsin.”

  “That’s the crappiest property PFG owns. The manager is a troll and the employee turnover is close to ninety percent.” Tierney tipped the bottle again. “What was his response when you declined the offer?”

  “He seemed smug. Especially after I told him I loved working for Renner. And you. He told me to enjoy it while it lasted.” Janie watched Tierney squirm. “Wanna tell me what that means?”

  “Renner’s contract contains a fucked-up payment clause even I didn’t catch. My father will forgive Renner’s debt entirely, turn ownership of the Split Rock over to him completely, if I return to my previous position with the company in Chicago.”

  Janie frowned. “Weren’t you always planning to return?”

  Tierney shook her head. “No. I resigned. Everything I’ve done here has been on my own. Including lending the resort money out of my personal account, which, naturally I hadn’t told Renner and when he found out . . . he wasn’t pleased.”

  “And I thought I was fucked,” Janie muttered. “So what are you going to do?”

  “What are my choices? Take everything from Renner because he was stupid enough to fall in love with me? And if I love him as much as I say I do, then shouldn’t I make the ultimate sacrifice and walk away so he can have what he worked so hard for?”

  “Did Renner tell you that’s what he wants?”

  “No.” Tears slid down Tierney’s cheeks. “It would’ve been easier—smarter certainly—for us to fall in love with someone else. But we didn’t. It’s so screwed up. Renner is . . . everything. Now I can’t imagine my life without him. I’m still pinching myself that a man like him would want me. Love me. But he does, I know in my heart he does. And we’re both in a helluva mess because of it.” She sniffed. “So if you’ve got any advice, Janie, I’d love to hear it.”

  Janie stood and grabbed a glass from the kitchen. She held it out so Tierney could share the schnapps. After a slow sip, she plopped down, propping her feet on the coffee table. “Tit for tat, girlfriend. Here’s my fucked-up situation. I’m so in love with my ex-husband it ain’t funny.”

  “Does Abe know?”

  “Who knows? When I was complaining to Abe about not knowing you and Renner were in love, he got a little pissy and said it was obvious. I’m thinking to myself, if he could see that with you guys, how could he not pick up on the fact I’m goofy in love with him? So that made me pissy. And then I reverted to the bratty behavior I pulled when we were married.” She scowled at her drink and drained it. “Which went over well, especially when I hinted I was ready to pack up and leave Muddy Gap, I had nothing tying me here, yada yada yada.”

  “Did you mean it?”

  “No.” She bit the inside of her lip to keep from breaking down. “Now I think I’ve screwed up any chance of convincing him I love him, and everything I tried so hard to get away from years ago is exactly what I want now, because it’s better now. We’re both better. Frankly, even with all that weird shit that went down, I’ve never been happier in my life than the last few months.”

  “Tell him that.” Tierney reached across the table and refilled Janie’s cup. “If it’s not about your pride, if you want a life with him, then you’re going to have to make the first move and prove it.”

  “I don’t know if he trusts me.”

  Tierney lifted her glass. “Well, there you go. Get him to trust you. Then your problem is solved.”

  “Sounds simplistic.”

>   “The best things often are. So . . . now that I’ve helped solve your crisis, how about returning the favor?”

  “Me? You’re the financial whiz.” Janie shoved a hand through her hair. “There’s got to be a way to keep this place out of your father’s hands. Except for writing him a check so you take ownership of the Split