And the ranch itself could bring in money. And would!
By mid-afternoon she was dirty and dusty, but the barn was empty, and she thought there were as many antiques in it as there had been in the larger one. She’d unearthed an old butter churn, several unbroken brown & tan crocks, three old-fashioned flat irons that were actually made of iron with wooden grips fastened onto their handles, and dozens of other treasures. She’d piled them all out in front of the barn with the things from the larger barn to await Vidalia’s friend the antique dealer.
After a quick shower she put on fresh clothes—narrow, ankle-length jeans and a sleeveless, cotton button-down shirt in a pretty blue that matched her eyes. Yes, she was trying to look pretty. And yes, it was because Rob was going with her.
And he noticed. She felt him near, and then heard a little low wolf whistle, that had her grinning like an idiot as she pivoted to face him. He stood just inside the kitchen door, his T-shirt damp, a fine sheen on his forehead, hayseed sticking to his arms, and his cowboy hat still in place.
“You look too good to be in the same room with me, Kiley.”
She had to lower her head to hide her burning cheeks. “I think the same about you every time I look at you,” she said. She moved closer, but he held up both hands. “Don’t get too close. I’m a mess. The guys just left. We’ve got the meadow out behind the barn completely fenced in and ready for the mares. I need a quick shower and then we can head out on our…secret mission.”
“Yeah, about that…”
“What?” he asked. “You change your mind?” He sounded kind of hopeful.
“Not about breaking in. Only about dragging you with me to do it. A life of crime is not your thing, Rob. You’re honest. This is gonna be bad for you.”
“It’s not really breaking in. I own the place. And your sister…well, frankly, she’s a criminal and she’s on the lam. The only thing I’m feeling morally ambiguous about is not just telling Jimmy about her and—”
“But he’d arrest her!” She stared at him wide-eyed. “He’d have to, he’s the police chief.”
“I know he would. But Kiley, have you thought maybe that would be the best thing for her? That she might learn something from it?”
“It would kill her, not reform her.”
“It would keep her from victimizing anyone else.”
She lowered her head. “She’d blame me.”
“Well, who cares? What can she do to you from behind bars?”
“Offer testimony in exchange for a lighter sentence, maybe.”
“Testimony against who?” Then he frowned hard. “You?”
She took a deep breath. “I’ve found my way without doing time. She can too, I know she can. I just need to find out what she’s up to and put a stop to it, and get her the hell out of town before she gets caught and drags me down with her.”
Rob sighed heavily. “Are you ever gonna tell me what you did?”
“Yes. I am.”
“You are?” He looked up, surprised.
“Soon. This isn’t the time. I need to get into her room while she’s out at Vidalia and your dad’s. But yes, I’m gonna tell you. Everything. I decided last night, while tossing and turning and mulling on my life and my mistakes and my decision to be better.”
“I’m really glad to hear that,” he said. “Give me five minutes to take a shower and we’ll head over.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
“Okay, go shower. That’ll give me time to dig my kit out of the trunk. It’s buried in there somewhere.”
“Your kit?” he asked, turning to head for the stairs.
“My lock picking kit.” He turned around at those words, and she closed her eyes and said, “I should probably throw it away after this.”
He smiled at her like you smile at particularly adorable puppy, but there was worry behind his eyes. Then he headed upstairs for his shower.
* * *
Rob drove them out past The Long Branch, then turned onto a dirt road, and parked where his truck would be out of sight. Then they both got out, but when he started walking down the road, Kiley grabbed his hand and said, “Let’s cut through the woods. Take a look at the place from across the street, make sure it’s empty.”
He nodded, and followed her into the scrubby woodlot, hating to think that she knew what she was doing. But she did. Could he handle it? Oh, he’d already pegged her for a smalltime con. But what she’d admitted to him this morning had shaken him. She’d done things worthy of prison time. That was way more than he’d bargained for.
Now that she was on the brink of telling him everything, Rob wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
No. He definitely wanted to know. He just wasn’t sure if he could handle knowing.
She walked through the woods, kicking up the scents of the loblolly pines and undergrowth. They followed a sunlight dappled animal trail to the spot right across the street from the saloon and took a seat on a fallen log that smelled of earth and rotting bark.
He sat down beside her and watched her staring intently across the road at his family’s saloon. She was in some kind of state of ultra focus. And she was as beautiful as always, but the sweetness wasn’t there. She was on alert.
“Her car’s still there,” she said.
He dragged his eyes off her face and looked across the street. “Maybe she rode over to Dad’s with Joey.”
“How can we be sure?”
Loud rustling in the woods brought his head around. Kiley jumped to her feet, and lifted a limb the size of a club over her head, and Rob jumped to his feet beside her.
Dax Russell emerged from the foliage, stopped in his tracks and held up both hands. “Easy, easy, I’m not here to fight.” His gaze was zipping from Rob’s face to Kiley’s makeshift weapon. “You wouldn’t really hit me with that, would you?”
“Shhhhheeze,” she breathed, and dropped the limb onto the ground. “You scared the life outta me. What are you doing out here, Dax?”
“Same thing you are, I imagine.” He nodded at Rob. “I…I owe you an apology.”
“I owe you one back.” Rob extended a hand.
Dax took it and shook. Then he looked at Kiley again. “You lied to me. You don’t know how bad I suffered, thinking she was really dead.”
“You only thought it for a couple of days, Dax. I thought it for almost two months. I thought she died in that fire. She played me, same as she played you.”
“But you knew it was a lie when I showed you that picture.”
She lowered her eyes. “Yeah, I was pretty sure this was some kind of scam when you told me the timing. But I wasn’t convinced until I went home and found her waiting for me in my house.”
“Kiley was going to find you and tell you the truth, Dax. I can vouch for that,” Rob said.
Dax nodded, accepting that.
“How did you find us?” Kiley asked.
He lowered his eyes guiltily. “I’ve been watching your house. I figured she’d show up sooner or later, if she was alive. When she did, I followed her back to that saloon where she’s been staying.” Kiley sent a nervous glance Rob’s way. He shook his head while staring at the ground. “I just knew she couldn’t be dead. God, I was so glad to see her—but pissed off, too.”
“I know the feeling,” Kiley said. “So you followed her back here and then what?”
“I had to think. And drink. Did more drinking than thinking. Then I sobered up and came back here.”
“To do what?” she asked.
“Talk to her. Give her a chance to give the money back before I call the cops and tell them what she did.”
Rob saw her knee-jerk reaction to the notion of him calling the cops. She glanced down at the ground where she’d dropped her limb-club, then back at Dax again.
She sighed, sent Rob a look that seemed to say being the good guy is hard, then lifted her chin, looked Dax in the eye. “She’ll tell you she has the money stashed somewhere, and that she has
to go get it. Then she’ll skip town and you’ll never see her or the money again.”
“Besides,” Rob added, “If you tell them what she did, you’ll have to tell them what you did, won’t you? You really want that to come out?”
He shot Rob an angry look, then Kiley an accusing one.
She shrugged. “I tell him pretty much everything.” It wasn’t entirely true, but she was getting there.
“Lucky guy,” Dax said. Then he sighed. “So what were you planning to do?” he asked.
“I was just waiting for her to leave. Then I was gonna break into her room to look for the money she took from you.”
He lifted his brows high. “Really?”
“Yeah. Really. I’m a respectable woman. That’s how we roll.” She glanced at Rob, and he gave her an encouraging nod. It wasn’t her only reason for breaking in, but Dax didn’t need to know that.
“And then what?” Dax asked.
“What do you mean, and then what?”
“If you found the money,” he said. “Then what?”
“Then I’d give it back to you and tell you she was alive after all.”
But only, Rob thought, after she’d given Kendra time to get out of town. She was determined to protect her sister. He’d probably do the same for either of his brothers.
Dax sat down on the log. “Maybe I fell for the wrong sister.”
Rob stepped right up to Kiley, put his arm around her and said, “You picked the only sister that’s available.”
As he said it, Kiley looked at him wide eyed, but then Dax sucked in a breath, and they both followed his gaze. Kendra had appeared, walking out from behind the saloon, talking on her cell and heading for her car.
“Just so you both know, there hasn’t always been much of a difference,” Kiley said. Her sister’s car pulled onto the street and headed toward town.
Kiley looked at Rob, who gave a nod and said, “Let’s go.”
“This requires finesse, Rob. I need to go in alone. But I could use a couple of lookouts.”
“I can do that,” Dax said.
Rob shook his head. “I can’t. I don’t want you going in there without me, Kiley.”
“It’s your family’s saloon, and there’s no one there.”
“There are other boarders in the other rooms.”
“Who are probably out for the day since there’s not a vehicle left in the driveway. And even if they aren’t, if they see me, they’ll think I’m her. Twins, remember?”
“Yeah. I remember.” He sighed heavily. “It’s Room One, my old room.”
“I won’t be long. Text me if anyone comes near the place, okay?”
“Will do.” He held her eyes.
She leaned up and kissed him on the mouth. “Thanks for backing me up, Rob.” She glanced at Dax. “You two play nice. You can talk horses or something.”
Then she headed down onto the road, ran across it to The Long Branch, and hurried around to the back.
Rob sighed and returned to his seat on the log. “So what do you know about horses?” he asked.
“Everything,” Dax replied.
* * *
The back door of The Long Branch Saloon, where she’d met Rob for the very first time, and taken, unknowingly, her first wobbling steps on the road to redemption, was unlocked. Kiley hurried inside, through the spotless kitchen and the barroom. Her footsteps echoed a little, and she tried to walk more quietly, but the place was empty. She didn’t feel a hint of anyone else around.
Heading up the stairs and through the hall, Kiley stopped at the door to Room 1, which used to be Rob’s, and pulled her little pouch of tools out of her bag. It took about eight seconds, near as she could figure, to pick the lock. Simple. She made a mental note to suggest new locks on the guest rooms. Then she turned the knob and opened the door.
And there he was, sitting in a comfy-looking chair, just as handsome as he’d always been, smiling at her in a way that could charm the diamonds off a queen. It felt like all the air just rushed out of her lungs, and she couldn’t seem to get it back.
“Eight point two seconds,” her father said with a look at his watch. “That’s good. You’ve been practicing.” He got to his feet and opened his arms. “Hello, baby.”
And for the life of her, Kiley couldn’t stop herself from running into them. She hugged him hard and choked on her tears, and moved her mouth to say something, but no sound came out.
“I missed you, little girl,” he said. “You stopped coming to visit. Broke your old man’s heart.”
“I know.” She sniffled, swallowed, cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Dad. I tried to explain—”
“That’s okay. It’s all okay. I got your letter. Didn’t believe it, but your sister says it’s true. You’re trying to go straight. Lead a normal life.”
She sniffed again, stepped back a little. “Not just trying. I’m doing it.”
He nodded, but she didn’t think he believed her. His pale blue eyes were searching, and his dimples not as deep as when his joy was genuine. “And you bought back the old place.”
She nodded. “Half of it.”
“Right, right. Kendra said you conned—sorry—partnered with one of the McIntyre boys for the other half.”
“Yes.”
“And where’d you get your half of the cash, little girl?” There was something in his tone. Something she knew and hated. Calculation. Intent.
She took three steps backward, shocked. He wasn’t looking at her like a daughter he loved. He was looking at her like a threat he intended to eradicate. “I borrowed it. And I’ll pay it back.”
“You borrowed it.” He shrugged one shoulder. “From a whole lot of donors in a scam I’d have been proud to call my own.” He pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket, waved it under her nose. It was a printout of the web page she’d set up to collect donations for her imaginary dog’s imaginary surgery. It even had a video of a poor little chihuahua with no back legs, dragging himself around. “I’m not criticizing,” her father went on. “Hell, I’m impressed. But um, it doesn’t really seem right now, does it? You get to run your game, get what you need, then get all high and mighty and decide to throw a wrench into your sister’s plans. That is why you’re here, isn’t it? To find the money that lovesick hulk gave her, and give it back to him?”
As he spoke, he picked up a set of binoculars from the windowsill and looked through them out the window that faced the street. “Dax Russell chose to steal from his father’s company for the sake of a pretty girl. He has no one to blame but himself.”
“He was in love with her.”
“And that makes what he did more legal?” He shook his head. “I’m real sorry to step into your happy little life of respectability, Kiley, but let me just explain to you how this is gonna happen.”
“How what is gonna happen?” she asked. And her heart fluttered like a trapped bird. Her father and her sister were better at this game than she was. They always had been.
He lowered the binoculars and smiled at her. That fake smile he used to woo money out of rich ladies’ purses. “How you, little girl, are gonna help keep the dogs off your sister me, so we can wrap up our work here, be on our way and out of your life. And how if you don’t…well, I’m gonna have to tell that boyfriend of yours everything you did to get what you got. You cross me, I might just tell some eager DA somewhere as well. You understand?”
But she was going to tell him anyway.
Wasn’t she?
“Well?”
She lowered her head, shaking it slowly. “What’s the game? What are you up to here? Not Joey McIntyre. I can’t let you—”
“He’s a distraction, maybe some petty cash. No, we’ve got bigger irons in the fire, but you don’t need to know what they are.”
“Yes I do. What else have you two been up to in Big Falls?”
He just smiled. “We haven’t been in Big Falls. We’ve been holing up in Tucker Lake. We only showed up here to make sure you weren�
��t about to ruin all our plans. Once you met with Dax Russell, we knew the jig was up.”
“Yeah. Cause I found out my sister was alive and letting me think she was dead. When did you even get out of prison?”
“Two months ago. They forwarded your letter.”
“You…” She blinked, doing mental math. “You were out before Kendra faked her death?” He said nothing. “You knew. You knew the whole time. Hell, you probably helped her. And you, both of you, just let me believe she was dead.”
“Only for a few weeks, honey.”
“Almost two months!”
“It was for the greater good. We both knew you’d come running back to Big Falls once you got the news. We knew we’d catch up with you here. What we didn’t anticipate was you deluding yourself into thinking you could change into someone you’re not.”
“I’m not deluding myself.”
“Yes, you are, Kiley. You’re a crook. You were born a crook, you were raised by crooks, and you’ll die a crook. The quicker you accept that, the happier you’ll be. So you just go on home now and mull that over. And tomorrow night, you’re gonna invite your sister and me, and that handsome young billionaire boy Joey, to dinner at your place so your sister can make some more headway charming him into keeping quiet about her being here. Play up the whole family angle. The McIntyres seem to like that sort of thing. Now, go run along like a good girl. Plan your menu or whatever you normal people do.”
Kiley blinked at her father, not believing the coldness in his eyes, in his tone. “Did you ever love me at all?” she asked.
“What, you do melodrama now, too?”
She just turned away and walked out of the room, down the stairs and out the front door. Then she headed across the street to where Rob was still waiting.
He smiled at her approach and got up onto his feet, but his smile died the closer she got. “What happened?”
Dax said, “You didn’t find the money, did you?”
“No, Dax. I didn’t.”
He nodded. “Hell. I’m gonna have to report all of this and face the music, then.” A deep nasal inhale, then, “I guess I have it coming.”
Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) Page 14
