Chapter Sixteen
“You look like you can use this.” Pricilla poured a cup of coffee and slid it across the bar.
Becky settled on the barstool. “Thanks.” Sophie was leaning over Becky’s arm, swinging her arms at Jiggy and chattering away.
“Looks like you didn’t sleep much. Missing Logan?”
All she’d thought about was what it would be like if she had to get used to being alone again. “Yeah, guess I’m not used to sleeping alone anymore.”
“Sucks, doesn’t it? But at least yours is coming back tomorrow.”
Forgetting her own worries, she eyed her mother-in-law. “How are you doing?”
She shrugged. “I’m living in a state of disbelief. All these years, I stuck it out because I thought he loved me. Oh, he didn’t say it, but I guess I wanted to believe it. Hearing him tell Logan he never loved me snapped me out of that fantasy. But what he said to Pam…I hope Brian apologizes. He might not love me, but his daughter loves him and needs her father.” Pricilla sipped some coffee, then leaned on her forearms. “On the upside, Pam and I are getting closer to Logan by staying here. Before he married you, living together like this would never have happened, he’d stay somewhere else. He’s changing, letting us in more. You’re good for him.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. But she was curious. “Did you know he had PTSD?”
“Not for a while. About six months ago he came home and showed us the plans for his camp. That’s when I realized what Logan had been enduring, but Brian lost his temper. It was ugly.”
“Why?”
“He was raised in a different generation by a miserable old bastard who ruled with an iron fist. He tolerated no weakness, no hint of softness in his son. Brian broke free once with Indigo. Stood up to the old man, married her, and brought her to the ranch. Then she ran…and the old man never let him forget his mistake.”
Becky stared down at her baby. Jiggy was licking her toes, making her laugh hysterically. “He’s repeating that with Logan.” It was so sad, but what could they do?
“He’s afraid Logan will end up like his mother. Wandering around, chasing dreams, but not happy. Indigo never grew up.”
“You’ve met her.” She must have.
“Oh yeah. That woman broke Logan’s heart until the scars ran so deep I never thought he’d be able to love again.” Her eyes burned with anger. “She’d show up for a day, talking about how her big break was just around the corner. Then she’d take off again while Logan slept.”
Becky couldn’t stand it. “Doesn’t she love him at all?”
“She does, but she loves herself more.” Pricilla stared at the countertop. “I think the guilt made it hard for her to stay around Logan more than a day or two. He needed his mother, and she couldn’t be what he needed. He was so lost for a while. It was heartbreaking and unnecessary. Indigo should have chosen her son over her career.”
Becky began to get a sense of what they went through. “Why are you telling me this?”
Pricilla opened her mouth, but pounding on the door cut her off.
Jiggy scurried over, barking. Becky followed and opened the door. “Brian.” Finally, one of them caved. Her father-in-law appeared to have aged as much as his wife. “Come in.”
Pricilla stood by the couch, her eyes softening with hope. Even after all this, the woman loved her husband.
“I’ll be in the bedroom. Come on, Jiggy.” She wanted to give them privacy.
“Stay,” Brian snapped. “This is about you.”
Her? Butterflies jittered in her stomach as she paused by the table. “How so?”
Electric fury raged in his gaze as he stomped over and tossed down something on the table.
The air crackled as if a storm approached. The hair on the arms stood up. With her baby in her arms, she lowered her gaze.
“Recognize it? Your contract with my son for a temporary marriage. With a fifty thousand dollar payout.”
No. It wasn’t possible. “How did you get this?” No one was supposed to know. Becky couldn’t look up, couldn’t face them.
“It doesn’t matter. You and Logan are in a sham marriage.”
“Becky?” Pricilla picked up the pages and started reading.
She wanted to grab it out of her hands and rip it to shreds. To tell them it wasn’t true. How had this happened?
“What’s going on?” Pam’s came into the room, rubbing her eyes. “Dad, you came.”
Brian looked at his daughter then back to Becky. A tremor shook his hands and lined his voice. “You not only entered into a scam on me and the courts, but you deceived my wife and daughter. They love you. Pam looks up to you. And it’s all a lie. A goddamned lie!”
Becky jumped at his rage. Sophie yelped, and started to cry. “No, it’s not a lie. I love Logan.”
“Don’t you dare. It’s all there in black and white. You’re a gold-digging whore and I want you off my ranch today.”
“I need to talk to Logan.” She didn’t know what to do.
“It’s true?” Pricilla stopped flipping pages. “You married him for money?”
“No! I don’t want the money. I married him to keep Sophie. I can’t lose her. She’s my baby.” Tears burned her eyes and scorched her nose. “Logan is helping me.”
“You’re both liars. I’ll deal with Logan when he gets home.” He stepped closer. His eyes slid to Sophie. “You used your baby to get to us all. What kind of woman does that?”
“I…” Oh God. What could she say? “I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Pam lifted her gaze from the pages in her mother’s hand. Her eyes shimmered with tears and betrayal. “You lied to us? Why? For money?”
“No. Pam, please, don’t believe that.”
“I trusted you. I’ve babysat Sophie, played with her, loved her. I wanted to be her Aunt Pam.” She choked on a sob.
Pricilla hugged her daughter.
Brian put his hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Go pack. I’m taking you home.”
Pricilla closed her eyes, her shoulders sagging. Grooves dug into her face, adding ten years to her.
Becky had done this. She’d hurt two women who’d treated her and Sophie like family. Pricilla had been confiding in her this morning. All the things Becky had longed for all these years…
She’d had it. A family in all their dysfunctional glory. They had been hers. Until they learned of her deception. “I’m sorry.” She barely got the words out. Sophie sensed her distress and buried her face in Becky’s neck, sobbing.
Pricilla led Pam down the hall. They had nothing to say to Becky.
“If you get out of this house and out of my son’s life today, and don’t return, I won’t give this to the social worker or courts. But if you so much as talk to Logan, or take one dime more of his money, I’ll turn this over to them.”
The full implications of his threat stabbed her chest. “You can’t. I’ll lose custody.” Oh God. No. “She’s just a baby. Please, Brian.” She reached out to him in desperation. “Don’t do it. Dylan doesn’t want or love her.”
He jerked back, evading her touch. “That’s my only warning. Get out and stay away from Logan. From where I’m standing, the kid would probably be better off with the Ridgemonts than you. Don’t test me.”
Ice cold fear for Sophie seared her veins. “I’ll go.” She couldn’t fight this. She headed for the room to pack.
Logan. What would he think when he got home and she was gone? She’d leave a note or something. At the bedroom door, she spun around. “I’m leaving, I’ll do exactly as you want under one condition.”
“Money?”
What else would anyone think who’d found that contract? Greasy nausea churned in her stomach. “No. Give Logan his land.”
…
Turning into the Knight Ranch, Logan breathed a sigh of relief. He wanted nothing more than to get home to his wife and Sophie. He even missed Jiggy.
Once he’d thought he’d have to live alone, that it was the only way he could cope. But then Becky came into his life, and when the ghosts in his mind surged, her touch calmed them. It dawned on him that this was what real happiness felt like. What if Becky decided not to stay?
You have to ask her to stay. Tell her you love her.
He sucked in a breath. He’d planned to take her to the hotel for a romantic evening, just the two of them, and tell her. But he’d let work interfere.
No more excuses. If he didn’t tell Becky, didn’t give her a reason to stay, she’d leave.
Arriving at his land, he pulled in the driveway, surprised to find it empty. Becky’s car was probably in the garage, but he’d gotten used to his stepmom and sister’s cars there.
Maybe they’d gone home.
Then he, Becky, and Sophie could have the house to themselves again, and he could tell his wife he loved her. Beg her to stay and be his permanent life partner. He couldn’t lose her now. Getting out, he grabbed his duffle bag and quickly checked his gun to make sure it was secure.
He looked over at the house. It all appeared…empty.
Shit. Instincts had kept him alive. Something was off.
Dylan?
Anxiety pooled in his guts, spreading black dread. What waited for him in that house? No shadows moved across the huge front window, no sign of life. Logan tried to shake it off. They were just out shopping, or up at his dad’s house. Or maybe they had gone riding.
He had to go in the house. A war broke out in his body: His muscles tried to grow roots straight through the ground, while his training demanded he be loose and ready for action. Logan eased his gun out but kept the safety on. Approaching the house, every step echoed in his head: Not dead. Everything’s fine. They are not dead.
When he reached the door, he didn’t hear a thing. Not even Jiggy’s toenails scrabbling across the floor.
Wrong.
The dread grew, spreading in his lungs.
Don’t go in. Can’t go through the doorway.
Ice coated his skin in the blazing sun as he unlocked the door and eased it open. Silence, broken only by the low hum of the refrigerator. His gaze pierced his living room, dining room, and kitchen. Empty. No blood, no sign of a struggle.
They were just out somewhere. Maybe they all went to lunch. But where was Jiggy?
Go inside, damn it.
Sharp awareness boxed the ugly dread trying to pull him into that black pit that had lived inside him ever since that hideous day in Afghanistan. Logan took a breath. He had a job to do—take care of his family. He stepped through the door and kept going.
Down the hall, he turned to Sophie’s room and froze in absolute shock at the empty space. Everything was gone, the crib…everything.
What the fuck? Logan spun, went in his room and yanked open Becky’s drawers in his dresser. Checked the closet. All her stuff was gone.
She’d left him. Becky and Sophie had left him. Even Jiggy was gone. Why?
Pure reflex had him clear the last bedroom and two bathrooms. Pricilla and Pam were gone, too. Everyone left.
He was alone.
…
Becky hugged Ava. “Thank you for helping me.”
“I don’t like leaving you here.”
“I won’t be here long. I have to meet with the real estate agent. Whatever the offer she has on the place, I’ll probably take it. I need the money.” She was barely functioning, but she had to keep going for her baby. Ava had helped her by borrowing a truck, helping move Sophie’s furniture, and she had stayed with Becky as long as she could. Becky couldn’t have gotten through the last day and a half without her.
“Call me after you talk to her and find somewhere to stay tonight.”
Becky refused to cry anymore. What good would it do? She was so broken, so afraid. She’d already lost Logan; she couldn’t lose Sophie. But how would she fight now? She’d made such a mess she didn’t know how to fix it.
“Becky—”
She shook her head, cutting off the sympathy. “Go, Ava. I’ll call you once I talk to the real estate agent and lawyer.” That was another problem—how much was left of the retainer Logan had paid the lawyer? She had to pull herself together and figure all this out. She needed to sell her mother’s rings today.
Ave nodded in understanding. “Kiss my princess for me when she wakes up.” She got in her car.
Becky watched her pull away. Jiggy sat on the steps behind her, his eyes sad and slightly accusing. “I tried to write him a note, but I…” No more crying. Her head ached, she couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep.
She’d just closed the door when her cell rang. Snatching it up off the counter, the name on the screen screamed at her.
Logan. He must be home.
What should she do? Everything in her cried out to just hear his voice. Talk to him. Desperation drove her to tap answer on her phone. Putting it to her ear, she spilled out, “I can’t talk to you.”
“Becky, what the hell? Where are you? What’s going on?”
She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. He didn’t know; Brian hadn’t talked to him yet. “Your father found the contract.” Her legs gave out and she slid to the floor as she told him what happened.
“Shit, when? How? Why didn’t you call me?” His voice sharpened with accusation. “You just left.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. Hot tears spilled down her face, but she clung to the last of her self-control. “What else could I do?”
“Trust me. You could have trusted me!”
His rage shot through the phone and hit her so hard, she gasped. How many times had he told her to trust him?
“I did. I trusted you and look what that got me. My copy of the contract was missing. Who do you think stole it? Not your mom and Pam, they were too shocked, too horrified to learn how I had betrayed them.” Their hurt faces made her cringe in agony all over again. Anger was easier than her sick regret. “Who do you think rifled through my things and stole my contract? Then ran to your daddy? It was Kendra, the woman you kept telling me to stop worrying about. The woman I didn’t want in my house, but it wasn’t really my house, was it?”
And Logan hadn’t really been hers, either. She loved him so much, was willing to give up anything but Sophie for him. She’d told him she loved him. But he didn’t love her.
“Damn it, Becky, you should have called me. I’ll fix this, you just have to trust me.”
“No.” She had nothing left. No tears, no hope, just a heart so shattered, she didn’t know how to keep functioning. It hurt to breathe. “As long as I don’t talk to you, see you, or take your money, your father won’t turn that contract over to the social workers, and he’ll give you your land. You got what you wanted. Now I need to figure out a way to keep Sophie safe. Good-bye.”
…
“Don’t you dare hang up!” Anger boiled up from Logan’s soul. Years and years of agony and loneliness, of knowing no matter what he did or how hard he tried, he never truly belonged. She hadn’t even called him; she just left. “So it was a lie. A goddamned lie.”
“What?”
He barely heard her over the tears in her voice. That pissed him off more. “You said you loved me.” He’d believed her. Was trying so hard to be the man she could love. “But at the first sign of a real fight, you bail.” He shot his gaze around their room, so empty without Becky’s things, Sophie’s toys, even Jiggy sprawled out on the floor, snoring.
They’d really left him. The hot anguish mixed with explosive anger. The walls of his house pressed in with unbearable pressure.
“What choice did I have? I had to go. For Sophie.”
Christ, her broken words hurt him as badly as his own pain. “I wouldn’t let my father hurt you or Sophie. Don’t you understand that?” How could this have all gone so wrong?
She didn’t believe in him. Desperate to escape the walls closing in, he stormed out of the front door, seeing nothing except the red mist of blind rage. “You didn’t trust me. I was trying to love you, trying—” The words shot out with uncontrollable force. “But you didn’t give me the chance, you just left. Didn’t even wait to face me, but snuck off while I was gone.” And wasn’t that all just too fucking familiar. How many mornings as a kid did he wake up and his mother had left again?
“Why would I think you’d fight for me or Sophie? You wouldn’t listen to me be about Kendra. She belonged in your family more than I did.”
The truth of that slammed into him, draining some of the air from his throbbing betrayal and rage. She’d tried to tell him Kendra shouldn’t be at their house, and he’d shut her down. He opened his mouth, but she cut him off.
“You wouldn’t even tell your boss about me. You hid me from your Marine friends.” Her breath hitched into painful gasps.
Logan’s guts seized and his chest clamped hard. He’d done that. He’d hidden her from the men he loved like brothers, and Becky thought he was ashamed of her. “No, it wasn’t like that.” His throat closed up at her broken sobs. But he’d never been ashamed of her; he was ashamed of himself for luring her into a marriage contract. Becky had done it out of desperation for her child. He’d known that from the start. And if his Marine buddies or Sienna had found out? That shit would get ugly. They’d be all over his ass, calling him on his bullshit. Then they’d have done whatever it took to help her defeat Dylan.
Logan would have lost the only leverage he’d had to have Becky and get his land.
The sheer, raw ugliness of what he’d done rendered him mute. The lies he’d told himself fell away. He hadn’t done anything to really help her fight against Dylan. He could have had Sienna running checks, digging, finding any ammunition to keep Becky from losing Sophie.
“I have to go.”
Panic clawed at his throat. “Becky, please, give me another chance. I won’t let my father—”
“I can’t. It’s too late. I won’t risk Sophie.” She hung up.
Logan closed his eyes, the weight of what he’d done nearly dropping him to his knees. He’d lost her, lost his wife, child, and dog. And for what? A piece of land.
God, he was no better than his father. Brian had engineered a way to control Logan through a contract for his land. Logan had engineered a way to use Becky and her deep love for her child to keep his land, and have her in his bed. Then he’d gotten trapped in his own game by falling for her. He’d said he was trying to love her?
He was a damned liar.
He loved her so deeply he couldn’t bear it, but didn’t have the guts to stand up for his woman.
Turning, he faced the doorway to his house. Dread built that familiar black anxiety, not from the PTSD but the realization that in this moment…
His house was just a house.
Becky, Sophie, and Jiggy were his home.
It’s too late.
Her words bounced in his brain. Logan stood there, alone on his porch, surrounded by the land he’d once thought the most important thing in the world. He scanned the horizon, the day so bright and clear he could see the pond, and the camp he’d poured his passion into taking shape.
None of it mattered without his family. So what was he going to do? Be a quitter like his mother?
Or fight to win the love and trust of his wife?
Easy choice. Logan scrolled his contacts on his phone, and hit call. Once his lawyer answered, Logan said, “Brody, drop whatever you’re doing. I have an emergency. Here’s what I need…”
A few hours later, Logan and Brody strode into his father’s office.
Brian Knight shoved back in his chair, put his elbows on the arms, and steepled his fingers. “You don’t need your lawyer. As long as your wife stays out of your life, the land is yours.”
If it had been anyone else but his father, he’d have decked the man for what he did to Becky. “You had Kendra spying on us.” He should have listened to his wife.
“Kendra was suspicious when you didn’t know Becky was allergic to bees. And she pointed out that Pam had gone home with a man she barely knew, then was attacked by the same guy after she started hanging around with that woman.”
Rage spattered across his mind.
“Kendra thought you were going to come home and marry her, not some—”
“Bullshit. I told her straight up we weren’t anything more than friends. I don’t give a rat’s ass about her except that she will never come near my wife again. And if I read one word about Becky in her e-zine, I’ll tell the entire world what a conniving, two-faced bitch Kendra is.” If Kendra were a man, she’d be picking her sorry ass up off the ground and searching for her teeth.
“You’re not getting this. You won’t go near that bimbo again if you want your land.”
Logan turned to Brody. “Let’s do this.”
His lawyer set the pages in front of him. “You sure?”
Never more sure, but he didn’t bother to answer. Instead, he took the pen and signed.
Brody shoved the papers in front of Brian. “Sign here, here, initial here.”
His father’s eyes hit Logan. “Another contract? I don’t think so.”
Anger, and the sick knowledge of how terrified and alone Becky must feel, churned up black rage. It took iron control to keep from attacking. “This is the deed to my land, and all rights to everything on it except my truck, weapons, laptop, and clothes, which I’m taking. It’s yours.” Uncrossing his arms, he slapped his palms on the desk. “Listen up, old man, if you ever threaten my wife and child again, I will rip you apart. Becky and Sophie are mine and no one threatens them.”
He spun to walk out and saw Pricilla and Pam white-faced in the doorway. “Not a word from either of you. Becky rescued Pam from a rapist and took both of you into our home, and you turned on her because she did something desperate to protect her baby. You got your feelings hurt, while she’s out there in total terror with no money or help trying to figure out how to survive and keep her child out of the clutches of a man who beat Becky badly enough to put her in the hospital.”
He strode out to find his wife. He had to convince Becky that he loved her and would always put her and their family first.