by Stacy Finz
“Hey, how’s my cowgirl?”
“You’ll never guess what!” Harper said, and didn’t wait for him to try. “Raylene is keeping her horse, Gunner, at Sierra Heights. Technically, she’s not allowed to because she doesn’t live there, but Griffin Parks said she could, as his guest. And guess what else?”
“I give up.”
“She wants to hire me to take care of him.”
“Oh yeah?” It seemed like a big job for a thirteen-year-old, but Drew didn’t know much about horses. “What does your mom think about that?”
There was a long stretch of silence, which told Drew everything he needed to know. “Harp?”
“She and Clay don’t want me to. But Justin said he’d give me rides back and forth and, Dad, she’s going to pay me fifty bucks a week just for feeding and watering him. Once a week I have to muck out his stall. Can you believe it?”
Drew chuckled. It was nice to hear his daughter so enthusiastic for a change. Her moods were as mercurial as Northern California’s weather. The counselors said some of it was puberty, but a lot of it they attributed to her adjusting to a new life.
“Sounds like a good gig.” He felt a little disloyal to Emily saying that, but what would be the harm? “How come your mom and Clay don’t want you to do it?”
“You know how they are.” He could practically see her rolling her eyes. “They think it’ll interfere with my schoolwork and my chores on the ranch. Silly, right?”
“I don’t know, Harp. Your mom’s pretty smart about these things.” He didn’t want to go against Emily’s rules, but at the same time, he thought the responsibility would be good for their daughter.
“Will you talk to her? Please.”
He didn’t want Harper to get into the habit of running to him every time Emily said no. Yet Kristy’s words rang in his head.
Don’t suffocate her; let her be a thirteen-year-old, and let her pick her own idols.
“I’ll talk to her and Clay,” he finally said. “But, Harper, don’t get your hopes up. When you’re with Mom and Clay, it’s their rules.”
“That’s not fair. What about when I’m with you? Can I do it on the weekends?”
He needed to know more about this Raylene woman before he signed on to anything. Emily didn’t like her, and he trusted his ex’s instincts. “We’ll see. How was school today?”
“Good. It was pizza day. Cody ate four slices and threw up on Katie Rodriguez’s backpack. It was seriously gross.”
“Sounds like it. Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. Mom gave him ginger ale when he got home and Clay still made him do his chores. Are you coming up Friday?”
He wanted to. It was hard going five days without seeing his daughter. But a lot would depend on Kristy and what she wanted to do, since it meant telecommuting for work. It was hard to know when they weren’t communicating with each other.
“I’m planning to,” he said. “Just have to check with the boss.”
“Will you talk to Mom and Clay in the meantime? I’ve got to give Raylene an answer soon or she’ll have to find someone else.”
“You bet. But, Harper, remember what I said. You’re not going to play us against each other, got it?”
“Yeah.” She dragged the word out like it was tremendously taxing to agree, which made him chuckle to himself.
“You do your homework?”
“Yes. Justin helped me with my math, and we’re dissecting a frog in science. I’m lab partners with Sam Shepard. He’s totally annoying.”
“Totally annoying, huh? I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s okay. He’s a good lab partner, at least.”
“That’s important. I’m looking forward to seeing you this weekend. What do you think of checking out Glory Junction? It’s a cute town, and Kristy’s never been.”
“Whatever,” she said. “Call me when you get here. I want to visit Gunner at the stable.”
“Will do. Night, sweetheart, sleep tight.”
After signing off, he texted Emily to call him when she got a chance and went to check on Kristy. It was high time they had it out.
* * * *
Gabe leaned against the stall door and watched Raylene fawn over her horse like the two were long-lost lovers. If he wasn’t so conflicted about her, he’d be jealous. After the scene with Lucky on Monday, she’d made herself scarce. He didn’t like her staying alone in the farmhouse at night, so he’d been sleeping on Logan’s couch. There’d been no invitation otherwise, and it was best to keep it that way, though he’d be lying if he said she didn’t tempt him beyond belief. The last three evenings, they’d eaten wedding leftovers together, watched a little TV, and then she’d go up to bed, leaving him to toss and turn on the sofa.
She was still looking for that goddamned gold, and it really did seem that she wasn’t leaving without it. He hadn’t asked her whether her property was in escrow yet, but the scuttlebutt around town was Moto Entertainment was moving in. According to Owen, citizens were planning to pack the next city council meeting to fight the motocross track.
“It’ll be a damned public nuisance,” Owen had said. “That land should be zoned for agricultural use only. But that Ray Rosser was a slick one. He always knew how to get around the rules.”
Gabe was trying to remain neutral. Raylene had given Lucky and the rest of them an opportunity to buy the land at fair market value, and it did seem unrealistic of them to expect her to hold out for a buyer they deemed acceptable. At the same time…a freaking racetrack?
He gazed around the barn, a new addition to Sierra Heights to appeal to potential buyers who wanted the security and convenience of a gated community and the cache of horse property. In the last year, the real estate market had boomed, and folks priced out of Glory Junction and the other Sierra ski resort towns had found Nugget. Though they were thirty minutes from the slopes, the area had rivers and lakes and enough nature to make weekend warriors happy. Griffin was finally selling houses in the white elephant subdivision he’d bought from bankrupt developers as an investment.
The barn, a traditional gambrel style with a symmetrical two-sided roof and an open center loft, had more than a dozen stalls that opened to a large corral. Everything was freshly painted gray, and there was even a bathroom for humans. Gabe didn’t know much about stables, but he thought this was a pretty nice one. Raylene seemed pleased with it. Then again, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Unfortunately, Weezer hadn’t been able to stay for a visit. He’d dropped off the horse the day before, returned the trailer in Reno, and caught a flight out. Gabe would’ve liked time to have caught up with his old SEAL buddy.
“This gonna work?” Gabe asked.
“Are you kidding?” Raylene glanced around the barn. “It’s fantastic. I’m hoping Harper comes through.”
Raylene had seen the kid in town with her stepbrothers and had offered her the job on the spot.
“I guess once you get old Gunner here settled in you’ll be taking off.” Gabe scratched the horse’s nose.
“That’s the plan. Just have to find my gold.” She flashed him a tight smile as if to say: You might not think it exists, but I know it does.
“Happy hunting.” He wasn’t going to get into it with her. If she wanted to waste her days digging in the dirt, far be it from him to stop her.
Outside, he heard a truck pull up and a door slam, then boots crunching gravel. A few seconds later, Clay came through the barn doors.
“I want to talk to you.” He jabbed his finger in the air.
“I’m here.” Raylene opened Gunner’s stall, walked to the center of the barn, and put her hands on her hips. “Talk.”
“If your old man knew what you were doing he’d roll over in his grave. Even he wouldn’t have sold that land for a motorcycle park, and Ray always put business first. Everyone know
s you’re a spoiled brat, leaving a trail of destruction wherever you go. But this, even for you, is beyond the pale.” Clay reached under his cowboy hat and scrubbed his hand through his hair. “The one thing I thought we had in common was love for this land…for our ancestors and for the legacy they left us. Guess I was wrong.”
He started to walk away when Raylene said, “Make me an offer. Like I told Lucky, I’ll sell it to you for the same price. It’s good, fertile land. Good grazing for cattle.”
Clay turned and glared at her. “If I could afford it I would, for no other reason than to get you out of here.”
“You won’t have to wait long for that,” she spat. “But I think you have a hell of a nerve. You don’t know my situation, you don’t know anything about me, yet you think you have the right to decide who can purchase my property and who can’t. Just like you can’t afford to buy it, I can’t afford not to sell it. Yet according to you, I’m the one in the wrong. Three words, Clay: Get. A. Loan.”
Gabe continued to lean against the stall, watching the match. So far, he’d say Raylene was winning, though Clay had lobbed some doozies. But Gabe pushed off the wall when Clay started coming toward Raylene.
“Let’s keep this civil, folks,” he said, and moved to Raylene’s side. Gabe didn’t think Clay would pick his hands up to a woman, but he could see steam coming out of Clay’s ears.
Clay shot him a look, then did an about-face and walked out.
“Making friends and influencing people, aren’t you, Ray?” He watched all her earlier confidence dissipate like a puff of smoke.
“I wouldn’t do it…I wouldn’t sell unless I had to.”
“How broke are you, really?” He was starting to think she hadn’t been exaggerating her money situation.
“Exactly what I told you before.”
“How can that be, Raylene? I know what Logan got when your dad died.”
She nodded. “First thing Butch did when I got my money was buy hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment for his ranch. Guess who isn’t listed as one of the owners of said ranch?”
“Where was your lawyer in all this?”
“He fought for me. He fought hard, and when everything was hashed out in court I owed him more money than Butch had stolen from me.” She let out a breath. “And the sad truth is I’ve always been bad with finances, because when I ran out of cash there was always more…from Daddy…even begrudgingly from Butch. I used to call it hush money, to overlook his infidelities…his abuse. After moving out of our Denver house and racking up an enormous bill at the Four Seasons, I rented a beach home in Santa Monica for twenty-thousand dollars a month.” When Gabe did a double take because he wasn’t sure he heard her right, she rationalized, “It was built for a silent film star.”
“Oh, well in that case…”
“I thought nothing of spending three hundred dollars on a pair of jeans or eating at Urasawa,” she continued. “In one month, I bought a new truck and a Mercedes Roadster. The next, I booked a week at a spa in San Diego. Then one morning I woke up and there was no more money and no one to tap for a loan.”
“Did you tell Logan?”
“No, and if you do I will kill you in your sleep.”
He sat on a bench near the tack room, trying to comprehend how someone could be that irresponsible…that extravagant. “You’re telling me you pissed through your entire inheritance?”
“Yes, though there wasn’t much left of it after Butch got through with me. The only thing he wasn’t able to get his grubby dukes on was the land. In exchange, he got a lot of other stuff.”
Gabe was guessing that the other stuff was even more valuable than the land and that, unlike Raylene, Butch knew the legend of the gold was bullshit.
“What about the Mercedes? Can you sell it?”
“Repossessed.”
“But you’re out of the beach house, right?”
“It’s a lease.” She sat next to him and huffed out a breath. “I’ve got two more months on it.”
It just kept getting better. “Will selling your land cover you until you can make some money?”
She didn’t answer, letting the silence stretch until he couldn’t take it anymore. “Raylene?”
“Sort of, except I kind of promised some of the proceeds to Lucy’s House.”
“How much?” She really was batshit crazy.
“Half. But it won’t matter, because when I find the gold—”
“There’s no fucking gold, Raylene. Did you cut a deal with these Moto Entertainment people?” He didn’t think so, because if she had she wouldn’t have offered the land to Clay.
“Not yet.”
“What are you waiting for?”
More silence. Then finally, “I don’t want them to have it.”
He didn’t see that she had a choice, unless she moved in with Logan and Annie and lived off them until she got a job and patched her finances together. Raylene was the definition of a hot mess. And yet he couldn’t stop himself from trying to help her.
Chapter 17
By Friday morning, Raylene had a new game plan. Instead of searching the land around the copse of trees on the lower end of the property, she decided to take a stab at the top end. The entire two-hundred-acre parcel was dotted with small, wooded groves. Anyone of them could’ve been Levi’s hiding place, and the ones she’d already searched had all been duds. At thirty bucks a day for the metal detector, she needed to find something soon or give up.
She drove the length of the property, bumping along the rutted fire trail, taking Gabe’s advice to look for the older trees. The day was gloomy and cold and, in her rush to get out of the house, she’d forgotten her hat. Gabe had left a stack of folded bedding on the couch and had been in the kitchen, eating, when she’d ducked out. At least twenty times during the night she’d considered going downstairs and crawling under the covers with him, but he’d made it abundantly clear that their Sunday hookup had been enough for him.
When she crested the top of the hill, her mouth fell open. Someone had trenched a five-foot-deep hole around a cluster of oak trees. What the hell?
She punched Gabe’s number into her phone. “Did you come looking for my gold on your own?”
“What are you talking about, Raylene?”
“Someone was here…on the property, digging.”
He was quiet for a few seconds. “It wasn’t me.” He had an iron-clad alibi. Her. “What do you mean, digging?”
“Hang on, I’ll send you a picture.” She parked, got out of her truck, snapped a few images of the trench, and hit the send button.
“I don’t think gophers did that,” she said.
“Nope. Do me a favor, wait in your truck until I get there. And, Raylene, lock the door.”
For once, she didn’t think he was overreacting. From the looks of it, someone, or several people, had been here all night to have dug a channel that deep and that long. It had to be at least forty feet wide. But who? Everyone in town knew the lore of Levi’s Gold and had had ample opportunity to sneak through the fence and search the property. But like Gabe, most everyone thought the gold didn’t exist. Occasionally, a treasure hunter would trespass, but without the map there wasn’t much point in it. As it turned out, even with the map, the gold had remained as elusive as Bigfoot.
She hopped up on the hood of her truck and waited, not wanting to disturb any potential evidence. The thought did cross her mind that maybe Clay or Lucky were trying to mess with her, but she quickly dismissed the idea. What would they gain from digging a huge hole on her property? Furthermore, vandalism wasn’t their style.
Gabe came over the hill in his SUV, pulled in alongside her, and got out. A pair of wraparound sunglasses covered his eyes, but his body language told her all she needed to know. He was pissed.
“I told you to wait in your truck.”
<
br /> “No one’s here, Gabe, relax.”
He searched the horizon, then crouched down to have a better look at the hole. “Has anyone seen you out here?”
“Only Lucky. No one comes up here. McCreedy Ranch has its own road, and guests of Lucky’s cowboy camp enter off Highway Seventy. But it’s no secret I’ve been up here looking for the gold. By now, you have to know that nothing in Nugget is a secret.”
He acknowledged that with a half grin, then whipped out his phone and sent a text. “I’d say this was the work of a pickax. Our pickax.”
“You think it’s the same person who broke into my truck?”
His head came up. “Where do you keep the map when you’re not using it?”
She patted the breast pocket of her jacket and he let his eyes linger on her chest, then snapped them away.
“You think that’s what he was looking for?”
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” he said and took the map from her for safekeeping.
“How would anyone know I have the map?” Only people in Ray’s inner circle knew of its existence, one of them being Flynn Barlow, who knew everything, because he’d been Ray’s estate lawyer.
Gabe shrugged, but she saw the wheels in his head turning and suspected he had a theory. She turned at the sound of a car and subconsciously moved closer to Gabe. He hooked his arm around her in a protective manner and the contact sent shivers down her spine. It was the first time he’d touched her since their night together, and her body instantly responded.
He absently stroked her arm until a Nugget PD SUV sent a cloud of smoke into the air.
“Did you call the police?”
“Rhys,” he said.
Rhys was Clay’s best friend, so she wasn’t counting on him caring much about someone trying to stake a claim on her gold. And yay! Jake was riding shotgun. The two of them stepped out at the same time. Unlike Rhys, Jake was in uniform, and Raylene didn’t miss him shooting her a dirty look.
Rhys followed the trench to where it ended at a gnarled old oak tree and stared down into the hole. “Raylene, what time did you get here?”
