Chapter 5

CASH

 

 

“Hold on, Jamie, Carson’s here too,” I say over the phone as I lean against the leather backrest.

I connect the cell to the limo’s speaker system and raise the privacy panel to isolate us from my driver.

“Go, ahead, we’re listening.”

My lawyer clears his throat and I can hear papers shuffling in the background.

“Well, I looked into Miss Murphy’s personal and financial matters as you asked, Cash. It turns out she is the sole owner of Silver Bridle Ranch, down in Silverbrook City, it borders your lands actually.”

I raise my eyebrows at that little bit of information. I didn’t know we were neighbors.

“It does?”

“Well only since you bought off that Grey fellow at least.”

I nod, realization dawning on me. “So she’s on the East border?”

“Exactly…”

“And what are we talking about here?” asks Carson, uncrossing his legs and leaning forward on the opposite seat.

“About eighty-thousand acres. They grow crops but don’t sell too much of it, using it mainly to support themselves. There are, or at least there were about twenty hands on the payroll. They mostly breed cattle and horses. They did quite well when her maternal grandfather, Dominic Murphy, was alive, there’s rumor that their horses were very fine, but then he had a stroke, died almost on the spot.”

“So she has her grandfather surname. What about her father?” I ask.

Jamison coughs a little. “Hang on… let me check.”

I hear the sound of his fingers rapidly running on a keyboard.

“Not in the picture, never was. She had a sister, different father, again not in the picture.”

I brush my mouth with the back of my hand, frowning. “Go on, what else you got?”

“Well when Mr. Murphy died the ranch took a serious hit, they had to ask for a second mortgage, it was okay for a while, they got refinanced by the bank on their first one and they managed to keep everything together, then their grandmother, Julie… can’t remember her maiden name, died as well about six years ago… heart attack.”

“How old was Aria?” I ask, dreading the answer. She must have been quite young.

Again I hear some noise in the background, this time it sounds like Jamison is printing something. “She was fourteen, her sister, Alma, barely eighteen.”

“What about their mother?” inquires Carson, a pensive look on his face and his pack of Marlboro bouncing on his knee.

“Long gone I’m afraid. Jenna Murphy was a junkie. She died very young, I believe she was twenty-eight and she did a fair bit of travelling and wasn’t in Austin when she passed. Doesn’t seem like she was much of a mother for her little girls. A heroin overdose… Aria was two and her older sister six year olds, so their grandmother’s death left them alone in the world, as far as I can see.”

I huff a breath. “Fuck…”

“Yeah, the older sister must have been something. She dropped out of college in the first year and took care of Aria and of the ranch. They were in the green for some time and then Alma was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and passed away last autumn, about eight months ago.”

I close my eyes, sighing deeply, feeling my heart squeeze over and over for her.

Death and sorrow have been practically her shadow since she was a little girl, just like they have been mine, or maybe worse even, ‘cause she knew the people she has lost, she must feel a great deal of pain and rage along with the loneliness and hollowness that I feel.

“That’s a really terrible situation,” Carson’s comment brings me back to the present.

I don’t need to ask any more questions to know what happened, I can imagine only too well.

“So they spent everything they had to save her life, but couldn’t, fell behind with the mortgage payments and now the bank is going to take the ranch from her,” I surmise.

Carson makes a non-committal kind of grumble.

“That’s exactly what happened, Cash. She is so indebted, I don’t know how can she even start to find her way out, which is a pity really,” Jamison says.

I hear him look through some more papers. “She seems to be quite bright. Finishes high school a year earlier. Got accepted in the best universities, only based on her grades.”

“How the fuck did you manage to gather this much info on the girl this fast?” asks Carson with a surprised grin.

Jamison chuckles a little. “Well there’s nothing you can’t find on the internet nowadays and whatever door I could not open myself, was practically ripped from its hinges whenever I used Cash’s name.”

I shake my head. “Anything else, Jamie?”

“Uh… it appears she wanted to study animal science, horse breeding and reproduction, she has an interest in genetics and embryo transfer in particular, but of course she put everything aside when her sister got sick. She has been managing the ranch ever since and had to take one or two odd jobs as a waiter to make ends meet, not that it’s making any difference. She doesn’t have a very hopeful future ahead, I’m afraid.”

Hell no!

My mind rebels against that notion.

She will have everything she wants and more. I’ll make sure of that.

She has suffered more than fucking enough. This ends today.

I can’t explain why I care so much, but I do.

Can’t pinpoint the reason why, but I’m crazy about her even if I was in her company for less than half an hour.

If I was a normal guy, I’ll simply tell Aria I like her a lot, maybe take her on a date or some shit —by the way, thank God she is twenty: I would have made myself sick waiting for her to be the right age—, but I’m not a normal guy.

I’m a fucking billionaire and people only see that.

No point in telling Aria I’d like to know her better, have something with her.

She seems like a sweet, responsible kind of girl, but she’ll never see anything but my cash anyway, just like everyone else.

This doesn’t mean I won’t be able to have her if I want her and fuck do I want her!

My cock, which has not cared much to jump into the fray whenever in the presence of a hot-looking woman, has stubbornly decided it no longer remembers how to settle-down.

I’ve been hard and ready to fuck since I saw her this morning, all traces of fatigue and indifference to the other sex completely wiped out from my head.

I see Carson looking at me expectantly and I realize I still got my lawyer on the phone.

“Jamison, you’re still there?”

“Yes, Cash. Do you need anything else?”

I sigh, pick up the cell again and disconnect it from the speakers.

“I do. I want you to call FFC bank, cover Miss Murphy’s debts and acquire Silver Stone Ranch from them immediately. I want this to be dealt with within the day. Call me back as soon as you get the ball rolling. I want you to get started on this ASAP.”

Before Jamison can agree or protest, I hang up the phone and turn to look out the window.

Carson’s laughter makes me do a double take.

“What?” I bark.

He smiles slowly. “Nothing, it’s just that you’re been very kind with the little spitfire, I was just thinking about your motives. I can see they’re not selfless: if you wanted to be her knight in shining armor you would have paid her debts, but left her the ranch, instead you’re acquiring it yourself. I find it interesting.”

I level him with a hard look. I’m too fucking tense, I’m in no mood to be teased right now.

“I never said I meant to be the hero here. I do want to help her, but I do have my motives, you’re right.”

“Care to share them with me?”

I shrug. “I simply realized you were right about me needing a wife, an heir for SCI and she is what I want.”

I can see Carson’s eyebrows shoot up his hairline.

“Well, fuck me. That is the last explanation I would have thought about, considering your opinion on this matter only this morning, son.”

I glare at him. “I changed my mind.”

He chuckles. “You sure did, Cash and I’m even glad you came to the same conclusion I did, but you know very little about this young lady. Wouldn’t it be better to at least date her for a while before you commit?”

I shake my head. The thought of waiting irks me. I want her now in every sense of the word.

“I don’t really see the point in waiting when I’ve made up my mind already. Plus, it won’t make much of a difference and you know it. They only see the scads of money and nothing else, isn’t this the reason why you married four times and ended up childless and single after all the drama? It’s not like she is going to fall madly in love with me just because I wine and dine her a couple of times. I think it’s much better to see this as nothing more than a business deal and treat it as such.”

Carson shakes his head. “Maybe it could be only a business deal with another woman. I mean, a woman you wanted to just bang, but I can see that you like this Aria a little too much for this to work, Cash.”

I sigh. “Well that won’t be a problem, because I don’t plan to tell her.”

Carson scoffs. “That’s really a bad idea, Cash.”

I look away and back to the passing scenery. “I don’t have a better one.”

Carson sighs. “I worry for you, you know. I wish things had turned differently in your life. I wish I had done better by you…”

I turn to look at him again. “What the fuck are you talking about? You did just fine.”

He looks down and at his open hands. “Just fine is not enough. I loved your grandfather as if he were my own dad. He took care of me and made me feel like I was part of the family, not just the son of the alcoholic stable manager and Conrad was a brother to me and I promised him I would take care of you and Cooper if something happened to him, but I was nothing more than a guardian to you, I didn’t know how to be a father since I had never had a real one myself. I thought I would make more damage than good if I tried. I just focused on protecting your fortune like a fucking hawk against the sharks trying to get a bite off of it or to gain control of the conglomerate while you were small, but I’m disappointed with my inability to teach you that sometimes you should just trust people, give them a chance to get close.”

I laugh at Carson incredulously. “Are you channeling Molly or something? You taught me to be tough and see through phony people and that’s all I needed to survive in this world. Of course I’d like for things to be different, but we both know it’s not going to happen, Carson.”

He shrugs his shoulders and sighs. “I sincerely hope you know what you’re doing, Cash.”

I start to answer when my cell goes off.

It’s Jamison again. This guy is annoying sometimes, but he is definitely worth his weight in gold. I pay him a ridiculously high salary and yet sometimes I feel like I should give him a raise anyway.

“Jamie, any news?” I ask.

I hear him take a sip of something —probably tea, the guy couldn’t be more of a freak about that beverage if he were a born Brit.

“I did as you asked, boss, and I started the acquisition process on Miss Murphy’s ranch.”

“Very well. Make sure everything is ready by tonight at the most.”

“Anything else, Cash?”

I smile to myself. “Actually there is: I want you to draw up a contract for me.”

“Uh, sure. What kind?”

“A prenup,” I state simply and I hear Jamison spit out his tea and then some sort of commotion in the background.

Carson starts to laugh silently, holding his forehead with one hand, his body shaking.

“Come again?” squeaks my lawyer.

I sigh, rolling my eyes.

“Calm down, Jamie. I didn’t ask you to hire me a hitman for fuck’s sake. It’s just a marriage contract.”

I hear him gulp. “I… I… alright, then. I’ll start working on it tomorrow and—”

“No, I want you to do it now. Have it ready for me to go over before my meeting with Aria.”

My lawyer clears his throat. “Okay. A… a prenup it is then. Between you and?”

I laugh outright. “Aria Murphy. Jamison do pay attention, please.”

Carson by now is howling with laughter.

For a long minute there’s nothing but silence on the other side of the line.

“Jamie?” I ask, shaking my head. I’m starting to get fed up with his shock.

“I just, I mean… we are friends aren’t we, Cash?”

I sigh. “We are, yes… but I’m not having a chat with my friend here, Jamie, I’m assigning a task to my lawyer.”

“I know that, but can I speak plainly?”

“No, but I’m sure you will anyway. Go ahead, get it out of your system. You have a minute and then I want you to start putting the prenup together.”

Carson smirks at me.

Jamison flounders about a bit and then he starts to talk again: “It’s just that, this Miss Murphy… you don’t know her. I think you should re—”

I interrupt him. “Thank you for stating the obvious. I appreciate your concern on this as a friend, Jamie, but as I said I’m speaking with my lawyer now, I’ll talk with my friend tomorrow, alright. Now get to work, you know I hate to repeat myself over and over. I will call you back later for the details,” I order and I cut the call.

I don’t have time to discuss it any further, plus there’s no point: my mind is pretty much made up.

I also have to talk with Jerry and ask him to clear my schedule for the next few days.

I start to deal his number, when Carson speaks up again.

“Are you sure she’ll go for this?”

I sigh, dropping my cell on the seat. “Of course she will.”

My old friend nods, his lips in a hard line. “Because everybody has a price?”

I shake my head. “Because everybody has a heart, Carson. The money is what will make it sound the rational thing to do for Aria. That’s why I’ll put lots of it in the contract, but that’s not why she’ll say yes. She’ll say yes, because when you have no family left and you’re alone, the last thing you have of them becomes your heart, the thing you love the most. No one can live without a heart and I’m offering to keep hers safe and then give it back to her at the end of this. Of course she’ll say yes: that’s what I’ll do for Stone Ranches if it ever came to that.”

Carson puts his fist in front of his mouth. “And this is going to be good enough for you, son?”

I nod and open the door as the limo slows to a stop.

This will be more than good enough for me.

Who says I have to be alone?

Who says I can’t have happiness?

I have money, I will buy a big chunk of it for myself.