Chapter 18
A haze of anger filled Kade as he relived the painful memories. He felt as if he was going to explode. He paced the width of the small room, back and forth, until finally stopping at the sawhorse. He rubbed the back of his neck, the muscles tight and corded. Rolling his shoulders, he could feel the start of a headache.
“Where was I? Oh, yes, the fleecing. She had a reason for everything. And lie? She could look you in the face, let those sky-blue eyes fill with tears, and feed you the biggest slice of bull.
“I have no clothes, Kade. I was forced to flee in the middle of the night.”
“Why, honey?”
“I’m so embarrassed.”
“You don’t have to be embarrassed to tell me anything. I love you, Caroline. I can’t believe fate put me at that bucking chute at the same time you were. Tell me. Please.”
She told the tale, words mingling with sobs.
“My mother’s boyfriend tried to . . . He tried to force himself on me one evening when my mother was still at work.”
“The sonofabitch.” Kade growled and wanted to feel his hands around the man’s throat.
“I waited until dark and tiptoed down the stairs, taking only what I could throw in a small suitcase. Oh, Kade, I was so frightened.”
He wrapped his arms around her, cursing the man who had caused her to shake so with fear. “No one will ever hurt you again. I promise.”
Caroline sniffed into his chest. “I hate the way I look. The old clothes I wear. I want to make you proud of me. I want everyone to know I belong to you and the Double K.”
“So, you bought her clothes,” Declan said.
“I bought her enough clothes to fill two closets.”
“I would have, too.” He tried to reassure an unhearing Kade.
“She had no way to get to town.”
“I need to be independent, Kade. I want to do my share, and if I had a car, I could run errands for the ranch, do the banking, buy groceries, all the things a partner and . . .”
Kade rubbed his hand across the evening’s rasp of whiskers.
“She didn’t finish the sentence, but I did. The things a wife would do? I tell you, Declan, I held my breath for fear she’d say no.”
“She didn’t.”
“Are you kidding? She about knocked me over, crying ‘Yes’ and smothering me in kisses.”
Declan got to his feet, left the room, and returned with two cold beers. He handed one to Kade and hurt when he heard the strong man’s muffled, “Thanks.”
“That about sums it up. She needed a credit card, so she wouldn’t always have to ask me for money to make ranch purchases and the like. So, I gave her not one, but two credit cards with twenty-thousand-dollar limits.”
The words were spilling out of Kade’s mouth now, flowing like a river’s current racing to the sea.
“I want to help out more, Kade. I’m bored. Gran won’t let me do much in the house. She tells me to get out from underfoot,” Caroline had implored.
“I’ll talk to Gran,” I told her.
But Caroline begged, “No, please don’t tell her I told you. Is there anything I can do, working with you? I know,” her eyes had lit up, and she clapped her hands. “I can help in the office. You hate the paperwork, and I’m very good with numbers. Please, Kade.”
Kade drained half the bottle in one gulp. “It was like turning the fox loose in the henhouse, Brother. But she didn’t lie. She was good with numbers. Damn good.”
Declan muttered an oath.
A few weeks later, I went overnight to a ranch auction in Cody. When I returned, she was gone. The fancy red sports car I put in her name, because she’d never had anything that special of her very own, was gone, too. So were all her clothes, the two credit cards, which I found out later had been maxed out, and a hundred thousand dollars magically transferred from the ranch account to, you guessed it, her account.”
Kade tossed the empty bottle in a trash can and started for the door.
“Oh, I forgot to mention Caroline took my good friend, Chad, with her.” He barked a cold laugh. “I introduced them at one of the parties she dragged me to. She left me a note telling me she wasn’t made for ranch life. And, not to take it personally, but I just wasn’t her first choice. See, Chad’s daddy owns three banks. Guess she’s made for bigger things. Poor Chad. And poor Daddy’s banks.”
He paused and turned to Declan. “So that’s why I was forced to take out a mortgage on the Double K. I threw away our parents’ trust. And I hurt the one person who remained loyal to me throughout it all, Gran. I took the meager amount Caroline overlooked in another account, carved out yours and Morgan’s land, and made sure it wasn’t a part of the loan.”
Kade disappeared out the door. His voice drifted back. “What the hell, let’s call it a night. What we can’t finish before Ms. Jackson arrives, can wait. Frankly, I don’t give a damn if she likes it or not.” His voice lowered. “I’ll never dance to any woman’s tune again.”