“Every boy who comes has to work through their emotions when they first arrive,” Tiffani said. “I’d say that each one struggles at first, whether it’s to overcome homesickness after the loss of a parent or to work through the abuse or addiction that brought them here. Eventually, they do acclimate, and they grow to love it.”
“Would it be appropriate for me to interview the boys?” Lani asked. She didn’t know if they’d let her speak with any of their underage residents, but she thought it couldn’t hurt to try.
Tiffany glanced at Frank again. Honestly, what was up with that? “I’m sure you could,” she said after a moment. “They get home from school in a few hours, and you can speak to them then.”
“So they attend school in town?”
“That’s right.”
“I wondered if they were taught out here on the ranch.”
“We did talk about that a while back, but we decided that given their circumstances, it was best for them to have as many normalizing experiences as possible,” Frank interjected. “They should feel a part of society, not tucked away from it.”
That made sense. Lani pursed her lips as she made a note. Now a choice lay before her. Should she ask the hard questions, or should she keep this light and friendly? Part of her wanted to take the easy road and ask for a refill on her lemonade and buy into this Mayberry atmosphere, but her journalistic instincts wanted more. She gave in to that side and leaned forward.
“I’m sure you realize that this particular setup is unusual. This ranch has been operational for generations, the family members don’t seem to leave, and you all live in cabins within a stone’s throw from each other. Some might ask if this is a cult.”
Tiffani chuckled. “Oh, yes, we’ve been asked that quite a lot. No, we’re not a cult. We’re a strong Christian family who works together for a cause we believe in, but that’s as far as that goes. If a boy was really miserable here and we couldn’t help him, we’d see about finding him a better fit. As for the family sticking around, well, once you’ve had a chance to see the place and meet everyone, you’ll understand. We all have a place here and we all pull together to see the fantastic end results.”
“And those end results are?”
“Healthy, happy, well-adjusted adults who have healed from their pasts and are ready to face the future with confidence.”
“I see.” Lani made another note. “Have you ever had any failures? A boy who refused to get with the program?”
“I don’t believe so,” Tiffani said, turning to Frank. “Have we?”
He shook his head. “We’ve had to work harder with some than others, but in the end, love and cookies always win out.”
“That’s your secret? Love and cookies?” Lani asked, feeling incredulous. How would that change the life of a boy who had been arrested for drug use or gang involvement?
“It sounds unbelievable, but once you’ve tasted my mother’s cookies, you’ll understand,” Frank told her with another of those smiles. He had either practiced that look for hours on end, or it was his natural expression. If that’s how charming he was naturally, it’s a good thing she didn’t live nearby. He could be trouble. And she should keep her distance.
To that end, she decided to keep diving into this mystery. “I’ve noticed, Tiffani, that you keep glancing over at Frank while you’re answering my questions. Can you tell me why that is? If this isn’t a cult with some kind of male dominance in place, why do you feel like you need his permission to speak?”
Tiffani blinked a few times. “I don’t need his permission to speak,” she said after collecting herself. “I’ve only been on the ranch for a short time and I don’t know the history like he does. If there’s anything you need to know about the family itself, it’s best to ask a family member, isn’t it? Otherwise, what you get might be considered hearsay, and I’m not sure using that’s good journalistic practice.”
Lani nodded her approval. This girl was tougher than she looked. “Touché,” she replied. “I appreciate your candor, and I apologize if I caused offense.”
“I’m not offended at all,” Tiffani replied. “I can imagine that it must have seemed odd. I assure you, though, that every woman here on the ranch is fully capable of standing up for herself and speaking her own mind. The men are also strong and have their own opinions. We’re neither feminist nor male dominated—we work together as a team.”
Lani blinked. “That’s not something I hear every day in my line of work.”
“It’s the only way things can truly be successful around here,” Tiffani replied. “If we’re not a team, we’re not strong enough to handle the challenges we take on.”
“I can see that.” Lani glanced back and forth between them. “I’m ready for that tour, if you think it’s time.” She for one was ready for a breather. That was the risk she took when asking the hard questions—they were just as hard for her as they were for the person she was interviewing.
They rose, and Frank touched Tiffani’s shoulder. Once again, Lani noticed that Tiffani seemed calmer afterwards. What was going on? Was he injecting her with something out of a teeny, tiny needle no one could see from across the room? Spraying her with some kind of tranquilizer? She had to figure this out. It was going to drive her nuts until she did.
Chapter Four
Wow. When Frank had agreed to hang out with Tiffani and the reporter, he hadn’t expected it to be so much like the Spanish Inquisition. He was surprised that this Lani Markland person didn’t come equipped with her own bright spotlight to shine in people’s faces. She’d seemed really nice until they sat down for the interview, and then all the claws came out. He supposed she was just doing her job, but still—wasn’t this supposed to be a lighthearted article to bring people in to the fundraiser? Why all the digging for some kind of dark secret?
As they walked around, Tiffani did a great job of pointing out the different aspects of the ranch, and Frank was more than happy to stay in the background. Especially after all that garbage about the ranch being a male-dominated compound. Yes, women were really outnumbered here, which was sort of to be expected on a boys’ ranch, but the women who did live here could hold their own. He was proud of his sisters-in-law, his mother, and Brittany, all of whom showed strength and integrity in everything they did. They didn’t take any guff from anyone, and that included their husbands.
He kicked at a rock, sending it skittering into the side of the barn. He didn’t realize how that looked until Tiffani glanced over at him. “Are you okay?”
He raised his head and saw both Tiffani and Lani watching him, concerned looks on their faces. “Oh, I’m fine,” he said, putting on a smile. “I was just trying to work through a problem in my head.” That was true enough. “A repair we need to make.” Also true. If this article cast the ranch in a bad light, there would be a lot of repairs to do.
Adam crunched across the gravel toward them, a big smile on his face. “Hello,” he said, holding out his hand for Lani to shake. “You must be the reporter. Thanks for coming out today.”
She accepted his hand. “Lani Markland.”
“I’m Tiffani’s husband, Adam. May I invite you to have lunch with us up at the house? My mother’s a fantastic cook.”
“That would be nice,” Lani replied. “Thank you.”
“Where was Lillian earlier?” Tiffani asked. “We were just up at the house and didn’t see her.”
“She’s been making new tablecloths for all the cabins, and she went to the fabric store,” Adam said with a smile. “You’d think she’d be busy enough with all she does, but every so often, she just has to add on another project.”
“What all does your mother do here?” Lani asked.
“She’s like, a mother on steroids,” Adam replied. “She keeps the cookie jars filled all the time, she makes a huge family barbecue every Friday night, and she’s essentially the grandma these boys need. She loves every second of it.”
“Does she have any outside interests
besides the ranch?”
“She reads and watches movies and does crafts,” Tiffani answered. “She also helps out in the community quite a bit.”
“But she doesn’t do anything as a career?” Lani pressed.
Adam glanced over at Frank, who didn’t have to be an empath himself to know what his brother was asking. Gently, so gently, he sent out a ray of calm, pulling her sharpness back and replacing it with understanding.
“Yes, lunch sounds very nice,” she said after a moment, and Adam smiled. There was still a crease between his eyes, though, and he glanced at Frank again before nodding and heading back across the compound.
“Tiffani, can I catch up with you in a moment?” Lani asked. “I’d like to talk with Frank for a second.”
Frank blinked. Okay …
“Sure,” Tiffani said. “I’ll see you both at lunch.” She walked off after her husband, and Lani whirled on Frank.
“What in the heck is going on?” she spat.
***
When Adam McClain walked up to their small group and shook Lani’s hand, there was something about him, an awareness, a connectivity that she wasn’t used to encountering. It was like he could see into her soul. Then he glanced at Frank—why was everyone glancing at Frank?—and she sensed warmth descending over her, sort of like it had earlier, but she actually felt her emotions change when it happened. Something weird was going on, and she absolutely had to get to the bottom of it.
She thought about asking Adam, but he kind of scared her. Not because she thought he’d hurt her in any way, but because he seemed to know way too much. She’d talk to him later if she had to, but she’d start with Frank and see if she couldn’t get the answers she needed from him first.
“What in the heck is going on?” she asked as soon as they were alone.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” he said, leaning up against the side of the building—she thought it was called the bunkhouse—where they’d stopped to chat.
“Okay, listen.” She hated having this conversation with people—they always thought she was weird or insane or possessed, so she tried to keep it under her hat as much as possible. She had to tell him, though, or she’d never get to the bottom of this mystery. “I know this sounds nuts, but I’m what they call empathic.”
Frank raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.
“It means that I pick up on the emotions of those around me. I’m not a full-blown empath—that’s someone who can really feel what’s going on around them—but I sense quite a bit.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
She held out her arms. “What the heck is up with this ranch? Your brother—he’s like . . . I’m not sure, but he’s sort of creepy. Weirding me out. And you? You make me want to take a nap. For real. And you’re all exchanging glances and sending secret messages through your eyes. What is this? I mean, I feel like I’m stumbled into the Twilight Zone or something here, and I need answers.”
Frank looked down at the ground and scuffed his boot. Finally, he looked back up. “This is going to be a long conversation,” he said. “Do you mind if we go inside and sit down?”
She glanced at the building behind them. “In the bunkhouse?”
He smiled. “There’s a kitchen and dining room, and I bet Claire has something we can eat. I’ll text up to the house and tell them not to expect us yet.”
“Okay,” Lani said, anxious to get this over with. While Frank was texting the house, she sent a quick text of her own to her editor, telling him her last location in case she didn’t come back. A little melodramatic, maybe, but she wasn’t taking any chances. If she was about to get murdered, she wanted her killers brought to justice.
Frank slipped his phone back into his pocket and held the door open for her. She entered, expecting some sort of medieval torture chamber, but instead, she saw a dining room, and on one end was a pass-through window into a kitchen. A redhead was working over some dough on the counter, and she looked up and smiled as they came in.
“Hi,” she called out. “What can I do for you?”
Frank led Lani up to the kitchen doorway. “Hey, Claire. This is Lani Markland, the reporter. Do you have any lunch I could give her?”
“Sure do. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll bring it out in a sec.”
“Thanks.”
Frank motioned for Lani to choose any spot she liked, and she chose a table in the center of the room. Once they were seated across from each other, Frank nodded toward the kitchen. “That’s Claire, my brother Daniel’s wife. She cooks for the ranch hands here, and she spoils the rest of us rotten too.”
Lani nodded. Introductions and all that were great, but she didn’t really care at the moment. She needed answers. Frank seemed to know that, as he pulled in a deep breath and began speaking.
“You said you sensed something odd about my brother Adam, and also about me.”
She nodded again.
“Before we have this conversation, I need your promise that not one word of this will go in your article. Honestly, Lani. You really have no idea how much I’m trusting you right now.” His phone chimed. He checked it, nodded, and returned it to his pocket. Then he focused on her again. “There are thirty boys on this ranch who depend on us for their healing and for their shot at a future. I can’t risk that. They’re too important to me.”
Wow. His sincerity, and also his stress, rolled off him in waves. Lani didn’t think she’d ever felt someone’s emotions so strongly before. He’d gone from being chill and laid back to intense and sort of desperate.
“I promise,” she said. “I’m putting the reporter to the side for now and I’m asking you this as a person.”
“Thank you.” He exhaled and visibly relaxed. “So, you and Tiffani were talking about the history of the ranch, how it was started by an ancestor long ago.”
“Yes. I also read that online.”
He nodded. “The ranch isn’t the only thing that’s been passed down over the years. You see, if you go way, way back in my family tree, you’ll see that in every generation, there is born a seventh son. And that seventh son has seven sons, and so on. The pattern has never been broken, as far as we can tell.”
“Wow,” Lani said. She’d never heard of anything like that. “That’s incredible. Have you been studied? Talked to geneticists or something?”
“No, nothing like that. Because there’s more.” He pulled in a breath. “The seventh son always possesses some kind of gift or power. You mentioned being empathetic—it’s sort of like that, only stronger. Someone in our line could control water—like, cause tides and stuff. There was another guy who could control the weather. There are too many gifts to count, and they appear differently in each person. But as far as we can tell, they are given for us to bless the lives of others.”
Lani blinked. Because of her own experiences, she knew that there were certain unexplainable things at work in the world, but she’d never heard of this kind of stuff. “So . . . there are seven of you brothers. That means your dad is a seventh son, and that he has powers.”
“That’s right.”
“And so your youngest brother would have powers too.”
“Um, yes, that’s right again.”
Frank seemed a little uncomfortable answering that question, and she felt like he was hiding something from her. Before she could ask him about it, though, he went on.
“Actually, every seven generations, all the sons have some kind of power, and we’re the seventh generation.”
They were interrupted just then by Claire, who set a tray on the table, glanced back and forth between them apologetically, and scurried back to the kitchen.
“She probably knows that I’m giving you ‘the talk,’” Frank said with a chuckle.
“‘The talk?’” Lani repeated.
“Yeah. This whole ‘secret of the ranch’ thing.” He set a plate in front of Lani, but she couldn’t look down at it. Her eyes were glued to his face.
“What do you me
an, every one of you has a gift? You have a gift?”
“Yeah. Why don’t you take a bite while I explain it? You look hungry.”
She picked up her fork, but made no move to eat. “Just what are these gifts?”
“You already know Adam’s.”
“He’s an empath, isn’t he? A full-fledged empath, not a pretend one like me.”
“You’re not a pretend one. You’re just not as advanced.” Frank gave her an encouraging nod. “Benjamin can make plants grow, Caleb can sense danger, Daniel can heal people, Ephraim can talk to animals, and I . . . well, you probably know mine, too.”
She shook her head. “I just know that you make me sleepy.”
He chuckled. “I have the gift of calming down people and situations. Tiffani was really nervous about meeting you today, so she asked me to stay nearby and keep her calm. She’s excellent with one-on-one things, but being in a magazine is out of her wheelhouse.”
“And you calmed me down about hitting the planter.”
“Yes, I did. You seemed upset, and really, it’s just a planter, and I didn’t think you should have to worry about it. That made you sleepy?”
She nodded.
“Hmm. You must feel it differently because of your empathy.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” she said, holding up one hand. “I did feel calm. I just wanted a nap. So, what about your youngest brother?”
“Gideon has a bit of all the other gifts. He’ll need them all because he’s set to inherit the ranch, and he’ll have the next set of seven sons. It’s not an easy responsibility.”
“I bet not.” Lani finally looked down at her plate, more to give herself some breathing room than anything. She saw a nice piece of chicken, some creamy pasta, and a slice of garlic bread waiting for her. Oh, great—something else to totally ruin her breath, but it looked so delicious, she wouldn’t pass it up. “So, help me out here. What was all that outside just now? You and Adam throwing glances back and forth and whatever?”
“You were getting a little intense asking questions about our mother, and Adam felt it would be good if you felt calmer right before meeting her,” Frank said. “We’re very protective of our mother—she really is the best woman there is—and I know that I for one wouldn’t want her to have all those questions thrown at her. Now, you’ve gotta understand, I don’t say that because she can’t hold her own. Thing is, she can more than hold her own. That was sort of for your protection as well as hers.”
Frank (Seven Sons Book 6) Page 3
