by SJ McCoy
Chance nodded. “Yup, but it seems April’s come a long way since she left here. She didn’t just meekly do as he said out of fear. She talked to Eddie about it, and Eddie’s from money himself. Apparently, he’s a trust fund kid though you’d never guess it, even April didn’t know until all this came up. Well, it turns out that Eddie’s dad owns a bank and he has some connections with the banks up here. He went and bought out the mortgage on the Preston place. Sounds like they were ready to foreclose on it anyway.” He held Mason’s gaze. “So now, Eddie’s dad owns the loan and Eddie just told Guy that, as long as he keeps making payments and doesn’t cause any more trouble, he can keep the ranch.”
“Wow!” Gina was wide eyed. “That’s great for April, but Guy’s got to be madder than hell.”
Chance nodded. “Yup, he’s been beat on all fronts; he’s got nothing left to lose, and to my mind, that makes him dangerous.”
Mason rubbed his fingers across the pulse that was pounding in his temple. “So, let me get this straight. He’s lost the ranch?”
“No, but he was about to, and now he’s making his payments to Eddie’s dad. They’re letting him make lower payments so he can hang in there, but he has the threat hanging over him that they could foreclose the loan and take the ranch away from him any time they like.”
“Why didn’t they just do that?” asked Gina. “I would have.”
Chance shrugged. “I don’t know, but my guess is that April wouldn’t want to take it away from him; she’s too soft, and Eddie’s got a good head on his shoulders. As long as Guy’s making the payments, then there’s some money coming in off the place, and they have some leverage over him.”
Mason nodded. “But I guess you’re right. I can see it being enough to send Guy over the edge. He’ll want to lash out. He’ll want revenge on April and this Eddie, but he won’t risk doing anything against them. My guess is that he’ll lash out at anything and anyone that he doesn’t like, so we all need to be careful.”
“We do.”
“But what do you think he’ll do?” asked Gina. “It’s not as though any of us have pissed him off lately.”
Mason looked at Chance. He understood what his friend was worried about now. “He hates us all, he’s blamed me for pretty much everything that’s gone badly for him since grade school. Chance and I were responsible for getting April and Marcus away from him and putting her beyond his reach. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he sees us as the cause of all his problems.”
Gina looked at Chance. “But didn’t you say he was broke even before April left? How can he blame you for that? That doesn’t make sense. If he’s losing the ranch, it’s his own fault.”
Mason exchanged a look with Chance. “It doesn’t need to make sense. Guy isn’t the kind to take responsibility for his mistakes, especially if he can blame someone else—and take it out on them.”
Chance’s light blue eyes looked hard and steely. “He’s not going to take anything out on anyone, not if I’ve got anything to do with it.”
Mason felt the same way, but the way Chance said it worried him.
Chapter Two
Mason was still feeling uneasy about what Guy might do as he made his way into the barn the next morning. Storm stuck his head out over the stall door and nickered as he approached.
“Hey, big fella.” He rubbed Storm’s velvety nose and rested his forehead against his neck. Storm had been his rock since they were both youngsters. He trusted this horse more than he trusted most people. Today it felt good just to rest his mind and breathe in the sweet, reassuring scent of animal and hay.
“Mr. Mason!” He lifted his head and smiled at the little pink and blonde bundle of fun that came racing toward him. She was so damned cute. His heart clenched in his chest at the thought that one day soon there’d be a little person like her running around the barn who was his own child, his son—or daughter. He wouldn’t be that bad with a daughter no matter what Gina said.
“Ruby,” he smiled at her and held at hand up. “Do we run inside the barn?”
She skidded to a halt and gave him an apologetic look for all of a split second before she turned her big grin on him again. “My Beau says I’m nearly ready to ride out with him. He says I need to take care of Gypsy all by myself for the next three weeks, and if I can do that, then I can ride out with him.”
“Is that so?”
The kid nodded solemnly. “’Tis, too. My Beau says his leg will be better enough for him to ride and be just fine in three more weeks and then we can ride out together.”
Beau’s leg had been broken in the accident—the accident that both Gina and Chance thought Guy Preston was responsible for. “Well, then you’d better get to work on taking care of Gypsy, hadn’t you?” He had to wonder what she was doing out here by herself. Her mom, Corinne, didn’t usually let her out of her sight unless she was with Beau.
“Hey, Mase.” Beau stepped out of Gypsy’s stall and grinned at him. “We came down to check on Gypsy.”
“I told him, already,” interrupted Ruby, “and I told him that I’m going to ride out with you in three weeks.”
Beau raised a stern eyebrow at her, making Mason bite back a chuckle. It wasn’t so long ago that Beau would have done anything to avoid the kid. He’d been scared of her. Now he seemed to have her eating out of his hand.
“If I take care of Gypsy and be good,” she added.
“Are you going to be up to it?” Mason asked Beau.
He nodded. “The leg’s almost back to normal, I could probably ride out now….”
“Can we?”
“No, pumpkin. I told you, we have to wait until I get the all clear from the doctor and you prove that you can take care of your horse.” He looked back at Mason. “It sucks that the accident put me out of action for so long.”
“Mommy says you’re not supposed to say that.”
Mason chuckled at the look on Beau’s face. “You’re not supposed to say that.”
Ruby giggled. “And so you can’t say it either because I might hear and you will be a bad fluence on me.”
Mason laughed out loud. “She’s right, bro. You wouldn’t want to be a bad fluence.”
Beau rolled his eyes. “Okay, okay. You get the idea. It hasn’t been much fun. The accident put a spanner in the works for me.”
Ruby turned her big blue eyes on him. “Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“The spanner?”
Mason had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing; sometimes he’d swear Ruby was playing it for all it was worth.
Beau smiled at her. “I don’t know, maybe it’s in Gypsy’s stall; do you want to go check for me?”
Ruby looked uncertain for a moment then she grinned. “Okay, wait here for me.”
Mason watched her trot back down the row to Gypsy’s stall. “Have you heard anything from Luke about the investigation?”
Beau shook his head. “How come everyone’s taking an interest again lately?”
“Who’s everyone?”
“Chance was asking me about it the other day, too.”
Mason didn’t want to go raising any alarms unnecessarily, but if Guy was out to start making trouble for the Remingtons, he wanted them all to be on alert for it.
“What’s going on, Mase?”
“Probably nothing, but Chance thinks Guy might be on the warpath. Apparently, April has him over a barrel financially, he might be about to lose his ranch, and Chance thinks he’s going to take it out on us.” He looked pointedly at Beau’s leg. “And he’s already proven that he’s prepared to go further than messing up our relationships these days.”
“You think he sent that truck to ram me?”
Mason nodded. “I can’t rule it out. From everything Chance told me and G last night, Guy is like a wounded animal right now. He’s cornered and that makes him dangerous. We all need to be watching our backs.”
Beau sucked in a deep breath. “Okay, do the others know?”
>
“I haven’t talked to Shane or Carter yet.”
“How about I invite everyone over to the cabin for dinner, and we can have a family meeting?”
Mason smiled. “That’d be great, but I don’t think we should all land on Corinne without any notice. We can do potluck.”
Beau laughed. “She won’t mind. I’ll take care of it before she even gets finished with work.”
“You will?”
“Yeah, unlike my big brother, I’m quite capable of knocking together a dinner for ten, complete with dessert and the perfect wines.” He looked over his shoulder toward Gypsy’s stall. “I should go keep an eye on Ruby; you go heft some rocks or something. I’ll take care of dinner and letting everyone know.”
Mason tipped his hat with a grin. “Yes, sir. I’ll just go work the land and let the smart brother take care of everything. Let me know what time you want us.” He smiled to himself as he walked away. The change in Beau—and in their relationship—these last few months made him happy. Even six months ago he wouldn’t have dared joke around with him like that.
~ ~ ~
Beau decided to take a walk up to the lodge when he and Ruby got finished in the barn. He might have bragged to Mason about the fact that Corinne didn’t need to worry about making dinner, but he wouldn’t just invite everyone over without checking it was okay with her first. It wasn’t because technically he was living in her house. It was more because he saw them as a real couple, he cared about her and how she felt, he wouldn’t just want to land something on her that she might not want to do.
Ruby tugged on his hand as they walked up the front steps of the lodge. “Is Summer Breese coming for dinner?”
“We’re going to check with your mom first to make sure it’s okay if anyone comes.”
“She’ll say yes. She likes it when everyone’s together and we all talk about weddings. When are you going to get married?”
Beau smiled. “I don’t know yet, pumpkin. Whenever the time is right. You know your mom wants Auntie Carly and Uncle James to be here.”
Ruby sighed. “I want you to get married soon, I want everyone to get married together. Then everyone will be mine.”
“Everyone is yours already—Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Carter and Shane and Uncle Chance.” He stopped, realizing that she still called Mason, Mr. Mason and while she called Carter and Chance Uncle, she’d only ever called Shane, Shane. He stopped at the top of the steps and squatted down beside her. They all love you, you know, we already are a family.”
Ruby nodded, but her bottom lip slid out just a touch and he recognized the way her chin wobbled slightly. She was trying not to cry.
“You’re my pumpkin, pumpkin, and I’m your Beau.”
She nodded again and muttered. “But not my daddy.”
Wow! He’d thought all this time that she liked what he’d told her: A Beau is better than a daddy. Now he needed to recheck that assumption.
“You don’t like me being your Beau?”
“Yes, but I wish you were my daddy.”
Beau nodded slowly. Now he knew. He held his arms out to her and she stepped toward him and buried her face in his neck. “I love you,” she muttered.
“And I love you, sweetheart.”
“Aww!” Beau looked up to see Shane towering above them. “You two are the most adorable couple I’ve ever seen,” he said with a grin.
Beau smiled and got to his feet. He swung Ruby up and she wrapped her arms around his neck and sat straddled on his hip resting her head on his shoulder.
“Hello, Shane. We came to see my mommy.”
“And I thought you came to see me.”
Ruby giggled. “We came to see if you and Cassidy want to come for dinner, if mommy says it’s okay.”
Shane grinned at Beau. “I guess you’d better check with the missus first, huh? But it sounds good to me and I’ll call Cassidy, but I’m sure she’d love it.”
“My mommy isn’t his missus yet.”
Beau sighed. She wasn’t going to let it rest today.
He shrugged at Shane’s inquiring look. “Ruby’s in a hurry to get us married so that everyone is hers.”
Shane smiled at her. “Me, too. I want us all to get married on the same day as Mason and Gina.”
Ruby grinned at him. “That’s what I want!”
Corinne appeared in the doorway behind them. “What do you want, Ruby?” She was smiling, but she looked a little concerned. Beau knew she felt a little uncomfortable when he and Ruby came to visit her at work. Although Shane was almost her brother-in-law, he was also her boss and she held pretty high professional standards.
“For you all to get married soon,” Ruby answered.
“I’m staying out of this one,” said Shane. “I’ll be out at the barn if you need me, Corinne.”
“See you later,” Ruby called after him as he left.
Beau stepped closer to Corinne and leaned Ruby out to the side so he could kiss her mom. “Hey, we won’t keep you long.”
She smiled and brought a hand up to touch his cheek. “It’s okay. I’m glad you came. Are you two having fun?”
“We are…”
“And we came to ask if we can have everyone over for dinner,” Ruby chimed in.
Corinne raised an eyebrow at him.
“Yeah, it seems there’s some family business we all need to talk about. I’ll take care of the food and everything, and we don’t have to if you don’t want to. Just forget it if you’re tired, you’ve been at work all day and…”
“Relax, I love the idea. It’ll be great to see everyone.”
“And we can talk about weddings,” said Ruby.
“Maybe.” Beau didn’t want to put Corinne under any pressure. He was still a little wary about rushing her. When he’d first moved in with her, she’d told him she needed more time to be sure—about him and about their future. He’d proposed to her, and she’d said yes, but if she wanted to take more time before they got married, he was fine with that. He’d love to get married on the same day as all his brothers, but a wedding should be all about what the bride wanted.
She surprised him again with the look she gave him. “I’d like to.”
“Well, okay then.” His heart was racing in his chest, for all he wanted to go at her pace, he couldn’t wait to marry her and call her his wife. “We’ll go get dinner ready and see you when you’re done here.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I love you.”
He had to smile at the way she looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was looking before she leaned against him and planted a kiss on his lips. “And I love you. See you later.”
Ruby planted a sloppy kiss on her cheek. “Bye, Mommy. See you later.”
“See you later, sweetie. You be good for your Beau.”
Beau didn’t miss the way Ruby’s smile faded. Apparently a Beau wasn’t as good as a daddy after all.
~ ~ ~
Carter reached over and took hold of Summer’s hand as they drove down East River Road toward the ranch. “I don’t want you to feel under any pressure if they start talking about weddings, okay?”
She was so beautiful as she turned to smile at him. “Don’t worry so much. You know I’d love to get married on the same day as everyone else.”
“I do, but you’ve got so much more to think about than the others.”
“I really don’t, we all have family we want to be there.”
“Yeah, but it’s different for you. Autumn and Clay both have tour schedules to think about. It’s not as though they can just cancel on a whole stadium full of people to fit in with my family.”
She squeezed his hand. “Let’s just see, shall we?”
Carter nodded. He’d love to have one big day when he and his brothers all got married. He’d always said that nothing was more important to him than family. But that had changed. The little lady sitting beside him was more important than anything else in the world. Making her happy came first.
“Do you know what they want to talk about?” she asked. “I think if it were wedding stuff it’d be more likely the girls getting everyone together. I talked to Cassidy and she just said Beau had called a family meeting.”
Carter had an uneasy feeling in his gut, he thought he knew, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to say.
He could feel Summer still staring at him, waiting for him to answer. “I’m not sure, but I think it might be about Guy Preston.”
A little crease appeared in her brow. “Why? What’s he done now? He creeps me out.”
“I don’t know that he’s done anything, but I’ve heard some rumors.”
“What?”
He sighed. He was going to have to tell the others later anyway, and he didn’t want to hide his concern from her. “I heard there was a fire out at the O’Connell place up Deep Creek. It burned down the barn and they were lucky to get it put out before it spread to the house.”
Summer’s eyes were wide. “And what’s that got to do with Guy?”
He shrugged. “Maybe nothing, but people are saying that Guy hasn’t paid them on two truckloads of hay. Apparently it was just after they told him that they were going to take him to the small claims court that the barn burned down.”
“But surely that’s just a coincidence?”
“It could be, I hope it is, but he’s been causing a lot of trouble lately. I heard he got into a fight in the Mint last week. He smashed up a whole display in the hardware store in town. I don’t know, it just sounds like he’s spinning out of control.”
Summer nodded. “Then you all need to be careful.” She held his hand tighter. “Very careful. Do you really think he paid someone to ram into Beau’s car?”
“I think he more likely blackmailed them than paid them, but yes, I think he was behind it.” He regretted getting into this now; she looked pale and worried. “It’s going to be okay. We just need to watch our backs, and one of the many good things about being a Remington is that you’ve always got four brothers watching your back for you, too.”
He turned off the road and drove past the main house toward Shane’s guest ranch. His words rang true when he saw four trucks parked in the driveway outside the little cabin where Beau and Corinne were living. He loved knowing that this was his family and his brothers were all here. His lady was by his side. All their women were becoming close friends and family too. Everything was finally right in his world and he’d be damned if he’d let Guy Preston do anything to ruin it. If Guy wanted to get to any of them, he’d have to go through Carter to do so.
