by Ivy McAdams
Sadie's eyebrows bumped up, then gathered, dancing between surprise and concern. It was no secret around camp that she'd renounced the horrid woman, who was never her aunt by blood anyway, but Clara still saw a shimmer of loss in the woman's eyes. Even if Hilda Tanner had never been related to her, she was the last of Sadie’s family. Or at least what she’d considered as such growing up.
Ace scooped up Sadie’s hand and gave it a pat. “My condolences.”
The words seemed to jar her back to reality, and she slipped her hand away with a shrug. “The world won’t miss her vile attitude.”
Ace nodded slowly. “You’re right. Though I think a little recourse would help mend our hearts. Thankfully I have just the thing.”
Clay's eyes narrowed slightly as one of his brows perked. A couple of his fingers crept over the top of Sadie's shoulder and he squeezed her.
“Rumor has it that not only has Miss Hilda Tanner passed on but she left the entirety of her estate to her brother, your father.”
Sadie’s large, round eyes grew even further, and Clay’s gaze snapped from her to Ace.
“Everything to Jed? Are you sure?” he asked.
Ace’s eyes danced as he nodded. “That’s the word on the town. The bulk of the money arrived at the Emerald Falls bank just last week.”
“But Hilda hated her brother,” Clay said, tightening his grip on Sadie.
Ace shrugged, no falter to his perked expression. “Whatever the case may be, the money is here. A lot of it. And since Mr. Tanner has passed on…”
His knowing eyes shined on Sadie, and she blinked again, sitting a little taller.
“What will happen to the money?” she squeaked.
“I’ll be damned,” Jack coughed from a couple seats down. “Sounds like you got yourself a hell of an inheritance on your hands.”
Ace’s teeth shined as bright as his eyes.
“All that money is just sitting in the bank?” Sadie stammered. “I don’t know how much she was worth, but I know it was a lot.”
“A couple hundred grand so say the birdies,” Ace said.
The woman coughed, hiding her shock behind her hand.
“They also say people are waiting on the money to be redistributed. The bank will only hold it for so long, then they have to get rid of it. Boy, you know those townspeople are doing cartwheels up and down the road, waiting for their cut.”
Clara drew in a long breath and shook her head.
It was a good rumor. Fun to jump into with both feet and celebrate.
Too bad it was all a load of manure.
“Those people aren’t getting any of that money,” she said. “Unfortunately, no one else is either.”
All eyes turned to her.
Ace stood back to his full height. His eyes were curious but sharp, perhaps slightly perturbed that she’d challenged his word. The edge of his eyebrow moved in the smallest twitch.
“Do tell, Miss McGowen.”
She cleared her throat as she got to her feet. “I agree with Clay that Hilda would never leave her money to Jed. They had a horrible falling out years ago, and she refused to speak to him. We saw the evidence of that when she refused to help her own niece out of what could have been a life and death situation a couple of months ago.” She gave her friend a small smile. She hated bringing up the unfortunate circumstances of their original meeting, her being held for ransom and all, but Sadie never seemed concerned. Clay had made her far happier than their strained beginnings.
“But the state would rule her estate go to Jed if she had no other beneficiary listed in her will,” Clara continued. “Assuming she had a will at all, which I would say not if he’s received the money by default. Statute two seven point one under the State of Wyoming declares the money be issued to a trust in the beneficiary’s name and must be held a total of ninety days, giving the beneficiary enough time to claim it. If no one steps forward, the money will be absorbed by the state.”
A silence fell over the group. Ace stood rigid, head tilted slightly and a wide flare in his nose, telling her he was listening most intently.
She pushed forward. “Furthermore, even if Sadie were to approach the legal representation searching for Jed, she’d be nothing more than a stranger to them, as Jed wasn’t actually her father.”
The lot of eyes shifted to Sadie, who squirmed a little in her seat. Clay’s jaw clenched, and he pulled her closer.
She hadn’t declared the truth she’d found out about Jed. Clara figured only she and Clay knew that Jed had married Sadie’s mother when she was an infant. It’d never been information that needed sharing, until that afternoon.
“Jed isn’t your father?” Ace asked in a hushed voice, rubbing at his temple.
Clara could see the gears working in his brain, recalculating his plans. She pressed forward anyway.
“Sadie would have no more claim to that money than I would. So not only does the state not know that Jed is dead, but they also don't have any records of him ever having children. Not legally anyway.”
Ace’s brow furrowed deeper, and he rubbed at the hair on his chin roughly as he cast his gaze back over at Clara. “What of the money when the state finds out Jed is dead?”
“Statute two seven point two works in mostly the same way as point one. If there is no proper claim to the money, it’ll be taken by the state and distributed as needed. There’d be no timeline on that one. If they find out he’s dead, they’ll shut down the trust immediately.”
Ace remained silent, eyes boring into her. A tunnel of concentration connected them, and she felt the rest of the gang slipping away from her vision. Dark brown eyes the only thing she could see. Small wrinkles in the corner of his eyes, lines from how often he frowned, as well as how often he smiled. Both looked good on him.
Then his eyes cut over toward the line of tents nearby and back to her.
“Meet me at my tent, Miss McGowen. Let’s discuss this.”
Ace stepped over a section of log near Sadie and strode off into the tents.
Clara blinked as the world around her returned. Many pairs of curious gazes fell on her. She wrinkled her nose, unsure what to say to any of them, and slipped through the closest opening in the circle to follow him.
“Guess that meeting’s over,” Mason said behind her, to which a few others chuckled and grumbled. “I’ll get on that meat for you, Clara.”
She turned to give him a wave over her shoulder and continued toward Ace's tent.
As she came around the edge of the lopsided lean-to in the middle of the group―she still needed to help Jeremiah fix that broken pole―she found Ace standing in the entrance of his tent.
The large, box-shaped sleeping quarters was the largest among the bunch, nicely decorated with moose antlers and a cougar skin draped over the entryway. The flap was almost always open, and he stood next to it with his elbow rested high against the middle support pole.
The black rim of his hat covered his face until she was only a few steps away. Then his body shifted, and he looked up. His eyes captured hers, as fierce and fast as a hawk with a mouse. The surprise hit her body like a wallop to the backside.
He regarded her silently for a moment, so she continued forward into the tent. As she crossed in front of him, his voice startled her.
“How the hell do you know all that?” he growled.
It was difficult concentrating on his question when he was looking at her like that. Standing so close to him.
The top button of his shirt, normally properly fastened, was open, and the hard muscles along his collarbone shone through. His hands, typically casually tucked into his pockets or resting on his hips, were rigid with thumbs looped through the front of his belt. The sharp eyes he stabbed her with weren’t angry as his voice might suggest, but vitally curious. Intrigued even.
“I’ve studied Wyoming law,” she said. “I know how inheritance works.”
The tops of his eyebrows lifted, even as his eyes narrowed further. Then his gaze j
erked about as he took her arm and herded her the rest of the way into the tent.
“Let’s get inside.”
Little sunlight filtered into the wood-framed tent, but the shade inside was peaceful. She sat in the arm-chair in the shadows.
He sat on the cot across from her and removed his hat. The rough-cut dark hair was combed straight underneath, only jutting out a little on the sides from the pull of his hat, but his fingers raked through the locks immediately, setting them straight again.
Clara crossed her ankles, perched on the edge of her seat, and stared at Ace. As much as she was flattered by his extra attention and the impressed look he'd given her out by the fire, she was a busy woman.
“Did you want to talk, Ace? I have a lot of chores to take care of before dinner.”
He leaned forward over his knees, fingers steepled in front of his lips. “Actually, I’m still waiting for you to explain to me what that was out there. You spouted off statutes and information like you were the sheriff.”
She tilted her head with pursed lips. “I’m no idiot to assume you don’t know who the sheriff is around here.”
His jaw flexed, and he leaned back, draping an arm on a crate by his bed. “I’d assumed a good bit, but I thought it best not to bring it up. I’ve never heard you talk family before.”
She gave a single, slow nod. Her family was no one else’s business. Especially when they were so close to Emerald Falls. That was not a box of secrets she wanted to share with him.
“So, Sheriff McGowen. He’s your...father, I presume?”
Even the word made the muscles in her arms and shoulders tense.
“That’s right. Sean McGowen. Dear ol’ dad.”
“And he taught you the statutes?”
“Actually, no. I picked some up here and there, of course, but not that much. He didn’t talk business with us much.”
“Us?”
“My mother. My brothers and sisters.”
“Big family?”
“We’re Irish.”
He rubbed his thumb and forefinger along his jaw without a word.
She fought the eye-roll that pulled so hard at her. “I have a big family. Three sisters. Two brothers.”
His brow lifted. “A lot of McGowens running around.”
The edge of her lip tugged up, despite her fighting it. “It’s true.”
“So if you didn’t learn from him, where did you learn law?”
She spread her hands in a casual shrug. “A lawyer.”
Ace readjusted his seat, clearing his throat, then pinned her with his dark eyes again. “I feel as if you’re toying with me, Miss McGowen.”
The deep rumble in his voice tickled her insides far more than she expected. She leaned back in her chair, putting more space in between them.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said.
He regarded her silently. His body was frozen except for the subtle movement in his eyebrow. “People don’t just know these things. Laws and statute numbers. They don’t learn them recreationally to bring up at dinner parties.”
“I studied law under Mr. Williams when I was young.”
The features of his face softened as she spoke, a new intrigue blooming in his eyes.
“He took me on as an apprentice for a few years,” she continued. “I managed to finish up right before I was married.”
Pride warmed her chest, though it never lasted long when she thought back on her studies. She'd finished, all right, just in time for Lloyd to laugh at her and forbid her from pursuing any further endeavors in law.
Ace’s eyebrows were peeled so far up from his eyes she thought they might get lost in his hair. His fingers robbed at his chin again. “I never would have pegged you for a lawyer, Miss McGowen. That’s quite―that’s amazing.”
A blush collected in her cheeks even as she waved off his words. “It’s not much of a thing. It’s not as if I ever gave legal advice.”
“And yet, that’s what causes me to wonder.” His brow furrowed again. This time a half-smile winked at her. “If you never gave any advice or actively practiced law, how is it that you so easily spouted those laws at me back there?”
The fingers in her lap clenched. She’d done what she could to be discreet about her memory around camp, especially with Ace, but it wasn’t as if she could turn it off together. It was just who she was.
“I just remember them. It’s not a big deal.”
“You just remember them. Like you remember a favorite poem or the words to a song.”
His casual tone lifted her spirit, and she smiled. “Exactly.”
“That makes sense. A few statutes out of what, forty or fifty?”
“Three hundred and sixteen.”
The fingers on his chin stopped, and his eyes sharpened. She swallowed a lump of nerves, realizing her mouth had run away from her.
“I wish you’d told me about this gift sooner,” he said, his voice low and tantalizing once again. “We can do so much with that. Let’s get to work.”
Chapter 3
“Is your brilliant next idea going to be to finish the laundry and start dinner?” Clara asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Ace stopped mid-thought, thumbpad pressed into his chin as he frowned at her.
“Dinner? No, Clara. This is huge.”
“What is?”
“With a memory like that, why, we don’t need to worry about the State and its laws, all that legal mess.”
She blinked, a feeling of dread nibbling at her.
“We could use your brain to get ourselves into that bank and collect the money ourselves. This is a fantastic opportunity.”
She gaped at him. “An opportunity to get us in trouble in an area we can’t win. The law is clear in these matters, Ace, and if you think they aren’t going to be guarding that money with everything―”
“Will you quiet down and listen to me for a moment?”
He was on his feet, words cutting through hers like a knife.
She stopped talking, but he didn’t give her a moment to retort.
“People in Emerald Falls know Sadie. They knew Jed, but they don’t know he’s dead. There’s a possibility they’ll rally around her, help her out, and not ask questions. Do the people know she’s not his?”
Clara leapt to her feet, toe to toe with him. “I won’t have her parading about town, acting a fool. Not in her condition. She’s not a pawn for you to collect all this money. What in all blazes would you need with all that money anyway?”
Ace’s chest rose and fell with hard breaths, much too close to her. “The same as I’ve always needed the money for. Freedom.” The word rolled out of his mouth like a seductive asp, tantalizing her. “For all of us. We can disappear. Go back to living normal lives. The only way to do that is money, and this is enough to get us all back on our feet.”
She scowled. The very idea of dragging Sadie into his mess made her skin crawl. Pregnant women had no place anywhere near outlaw business. But he was right about the money. Finding decent work as an outlaw was near impossible. You either had to starve or rely on other people living outside of the law. She knew that even if she'd only tasted a small slice of the lifestyle.
She'd murdered a man, and there was no way she'd ever go on to practice law as she'd hoped. She was glad just to have a place to sleep, food, and a family to keep her company. Even if that meant she'd never get to do something worthwhile with her brain or see her real family again.
Ace was right about the money though. It would take a lump sum as big as Hilda Tanner’s to send everyone off with a share to survive on, and she knew Ace would do nothing less.
For as ridiculous as he was at times, he was a damn fine leader.
She let out a short breath. “I’ll talk to Sadie and see what I can find out. But first I’m going to see to dinner.”
Ace’s brow lowered, and he opened his mouth to retort, but she soldiered on.
“Nothing is going to happen t
oday, so it can wait. We need food, and it ain’t going to fix itself.”
Ace's jaw set, and he stood as still as a bronze statue, towering over her and still much too close. She could smell that invigorating mix of earth and crispy mint and feel the heat of his body. She'd never been on the receiving end of one of his rants, and she found it far less intimidating than she thought. It was far less frightening than intriguing. The way his dark eyes lit up when he spoke. The raw passion in his beliefs and the loyalty of his family. He was a force, and having his eyes locked onto her as he boomed his thoughts on the matter touched her deep inside.
She almost wanted to think of something else to set him off. To see the flare in his nostrils and the muscles flex in his hard square jaw. The hard line of his lips that just begged to be touched.
As her thoughts strayed, she snapped to attention and marched for the doorway.
“Talk to her,” Ace called. “We need to move on this in the morning.”
She hurried out of the tent and into the fresh afternoon air. The skin at the collar of her shirt was far too warm, and she plucked the fabric away from her neck, allowing it to breathe. She’d never found an encounter with Ace to be so infuriating and interesting at the same time. She was swept up in a curiosity that overtook her soul, and a part of her wanted to go back inside the tent.
But there was too much work to do to get lost inside her head.
She marched back toward the fire pit.
* * *
Clara set her last stack of folded clothes on the chest tucked into the corner of Jack’s lean-to. The laundry was finally complete, but she was behind schedule. All her chores had been pushed back, so as much as she hated to ask for help, she’d roped in some assistance. She had Mason skinning the rabbits he’d brought in. She could whip up a quick spice rub to throw on them and get them over the fire, then check on the broken tent she’d delegated to Clay.
Sadie carried the empty laundry basket next to her as they headed back to the central fire. “You still in there?”
Clara’s gaze popped up to her. “Oh, yes.”
The other woman chuckled. "It's okay. I know your brain is buzzing when your eyes cloud over like that."
