Chapter 17
Mattox leaned back in his chair. “Thank you for breakfast, Melody. That was fantastic.”
She beamed at him. “You certainly did it justice. I swear I don't know where you hide it all.”
“Look at him,” Azer interjected. “I'd say he puts it to good use.”
Mattox pushed his chair back and stood up. “Come on, Azer. Let's get out there.”
Azer tossed his napkin into his plate. “I'm ready when you are.”
Mattox put his arm around Lyric and kissed her on the lips in front of everybody. “I'll be back in a little while. Be ready to ride after lunch.”
Lyric pressed her hands against his cheeks to savor that kiss as long as she could. “I will. You better believe I will.”
Mattox let her go and headed for the door, where he found Rex and Azer waiting for him. Mattox started to walk away when Rex clapped his hand on Azer's shoulder. “I just want to tell you, I'm proud of you, son. You've done a man's job keeping this ranch going the way you have. I couldn't have done it better myself, and you kept the family together when I couldn't.”
Azer started. He fidgeted under his father's hand, but he could only mumble a feeble reply. “That's all right. You don't have to say that.”
“I don't have to say it. I want to say it. I want you to know I've seen what you did. No one could ask you to do a better job.” Rex blinked back tears. “You're ten times the man I am, son. I let you down. I let the whole tribe down, and I'm sorry about that. I can't take back the years I wasted, and I won't insult you by asking you to forgive me. I know you can never forgive what I did to you and your sisters. I can only say I'm proud of you. I wish I could take the credit for raising you to be this kind of man, but you did it all by yourself.”
Azer fought to keep his emotions under control, but his face twitched and his lips trembled. “I'm just glad you're back, Papa. I'm glad you're not…I'm glad nothing happened to you out there. I couldn't live with that.”
Rex laid both hands on his son's shoulders. “I'm back, son, and I'm not going anywhere. I don't want to be anywhere else. I've got too much to live for here. I was a blazed fool to squander this family, and I won't make that mistake again.”
Azer cleared his throat, but he couldn't trust himself to answer.
Rex extended his hand to Mattox. “You're in charge around here now, and I want to be the first to say you won't get any trouble from me. You're marrying my daughter and taking over the ranch. That's the way it should be. I'm entrusting my son to your care. Make sure he gets what he needs. I know I can trust you.”
Mattox shook Rex's hand on it. “I'll take care of him. I'll take care of this family as my own. I just hate to see you two parted. You both deserve as much peace and happiness as I've found in this family. If there's anything I can do to bring you together, I'll do it.”
Rex cast a sidelong glance at Azer. “He's a good man. I wish I could make him happy, but I've only ever caused him pain. Sometimes I think I'm doing him a favor by staying away.”
Mattox murmured in his ear. He spoke the words Azer couldn't bring himself to speak, “Is that why you left when your wife died?”
Rex kept looking at Azer to answer those disembodied questions. “I couldn't face you, son. I couldn't face you when your mother died, and I couldn't face you when I started getting sober, either. You're the hardest thing I ever had to face. I just love you and your sisters so much. I couldn't face the pain. Then when you took over the ranch, I couldn't face the pain I knew I was causing you. You were doing the job I should have done myself. You showed me what a coward and a waste I was. I hated myself. I wished I was dead to make your load lighter.”
“He worried about you more than you can know,” Mattox murmured. “He had to protect himself by hating you. He had to wish you were dead so he wouldn't have to worry about you dying the way his mother did.”
Rex tried to blink his tears away, but they overflowed and streaked down his cheeks. “I know, son. I know. I know I should have done a million things differently. I should have held onto you and never let you go instead of running away. I should have made you and your sisters my life to take your mother's place. I threw my life away, and I threw you away, but I never stopped loving you. I love you, son. I love you like you can't believe.”
He put out his hands to his son, but Azer recoiled a step to get away from him. His voice cracked with emotion, and he wheedled like a little boy. “How could you do this to us—to me? How could you leave me like this? Don't you know how much I needed you? Losing Mama was bad enough, but then I lost you, too. I lost everything when you left. You're supposed to be my Alpha. You were supposed to teach me how to lead this family. Instead you abandoned me. I had to do everything myself. I had to ask Lyric for help to keep this place afloat.”
“I know, son,” Rex moaned. “I know, and I'm sorry. Let me try to make it up to you. Let me be there for you now. You've got a strong Alpha now, and he's gonna take care of you from now on.”
“I don't want him,” Azer blurted out. “I want you.”
Rex rested both hands on Azer's shoulders. “I'm here, son. I'm right here.”
He gave Azer's shoulders one soft tug, and the walls came crumbling down. Azer collapsed into his arms. Rex surrounded his son in a tight embrace, and Azer buried his face in his father's neck. Rex clasped his head in one hand and breathed into his hair. “It's all right now, son. Everything's gonna be all right.”
Mattox stood back and watched in silence until the two men pushed each other back and wiped their tears. If he never did anything else for this family, he could be proud of this moment. Rex was right. Everything would be all right between them now. They could talk to each other. Azer wouldn't wish Rex dead anymore. They could come back together after ten years apart.
Rex patted Azer on the shoulder and steered him toward Mattox. “You go on ahead with your work. I'm trusting you with my boy, Mattox. I'm trusting you with my most precious treasure.”
Mattox nodded and stepped off the porch. “You can trust me, sir. Azer is safe with me.”
Mattox threw his arm around Azer's shoulders, and the two strode off to the barn. Azer cast one glance over his shoulder before they went inside. As soon as the porch passed out of sight, Azer shook Mattox's arm off. He rounded on Mattox with his teeth clenched. “You can stop now.”
Mattox's eyes flew open. “What do you mean?”
“You can cut out the whole benevolent leader act,” Azer snarled. “You put on a good show for my father, and I guess you've got Lyric snowed into thinking you're the greatest thing on the planet, but you don't fool me. So, you're Alpha around here now. My father laid his mantle on you, though I can't figure out why. You won't get any trouble from me. I know you're stronger than I am by a country mile. I won't try to challenge you, but you don't have to pretend to be my best friend, either.”
Mattox squared his shoulders. “It's not an act, Azer. I promised your father I would look after you, and that's what I'm gonna do. I brought you out here to bring you in on my selective breeding program. If we work together, we can both get rich beyond our wildest dreams, but we can't do it alone. Neither of us can improve our herds without the other.”
Azer furrowed his brow. “What are you talking about?”
“You've got your herd, Azer, and I've got mine. Each herd on its own can be profitable and successful, but if we combine them, they can both be better and far, far more profitable.”
Azer didn't budge. He pulled his head down between his shoulders. “I don't believe you. You're trying to trick me into helping you at my own expense.”
Mattox waved him toward the tack room. “Come here. I want to show you something.”
Azer watched him walk away, but he didn't follow. Mattox disappeared into the tack room while Azer stayed fixed to the spot. After a while, though, Mattox didn't reappear and curiosity got the better of Azer. He inched forward until he could see Mattox in the tack room. He leaned over a hay bale and flipped the pages of an old book.
Mattox smiled up at him. “Your father recorded all his breeding activity in this book. That's how I found out those cows belonged to an old pedigree you and Riskin don't use anymore. I want to combine this old pedigree with the best genetics of your current herd.”
Azer took another step forward, but he still didn't enter the tack room. “Why didn't you tell me and Riskin about this before?”
“You wouldn't have listened to me if I had. You were too wrapped up in your own projects, and you hated me too much to think I could have a decent idea about this ranch. None of that matters now, because I've got a plan for this place that will make it a lot more successful. Take a look at this. These are budget projections for the next five years on my new breeding program. I plan to take out a loan from the bank to finance it all.”
Azer couldn't see the budget forecast from his place outside the tack room door. He had to step inside to see. “If you think you're going to mortgage the ranch to float your wacky experiment, you can forget it. We've kept this ranch debt free for forty years, and we're gonna keep it that way.”
“I don't need to mortgage the ranch. I can mortgage those cattle you sold me yesterday. You and your family and your herd will get better and bigger and stronger and more profitable. You have nothing to lose. I carry all the risk.”
Azer stared down at the pages in front of him. “If this is true, you'll carry all the repayment cost, too. Why would you do that?”
Mattox took the papers out of his hand. He turned Azer's shoulders to face him. “I'm marrying your sister, Azer. I'm taking over as Alpha of this tribe. That makes the well-being of your whole family my responsibility. I'm doing this to make the Mackenzie tribe as strong and profitable as possible. My wife is Mackenzie, and my children and grandchildren will all be Mackenzie. We're family, Azer. Your father entrusted you and Lyric and Melody and this whole tribe to me. I take that responsibility very seriously.”
Azer blinked at him. “You can't do this, man. You can't throw away everything to put money in our pockets. It's not right.”
Mattox broke into a grin. “Listen to me, Azer. Brody is Alpha of the Farrell tribe now. I'm here, and I'm marrying Lyric. Mackenzie is my tribe now, too. We're one blood, you and me. My money is your money. My success is your success. I'm taking your father's place as head of this family, and I will guard that trust with my life. You can trust me. I won't let you down the way he did.”
Azer swayed on unsteady legs. “I can't believe that. I'm sorry. I know you think it's true, but after the way my father ran out on us, I can't trust you. I can't trust anybody to be the Alpha we need.”
Mattox bent over his papers again. “I understand that. That's why I brought you here. I'm gonna show you exactly what I'm doing so you understand everything. I need a strong right-hand. If anything happens to me, I want you to understand enough to take over.”
Azer started back. “What? Me?”
“Who else? The ranch is yours by right. I'm only taking over because I'm marrying Lyric. Maybe someday you'll get married and then you'll be able to take over. We don't know what the future holds. That's why I want you to learn this stuff. In a way, we'll be learning it together, and I can't do anything without your help. I need you to work your herd while I work mine. We'll work them together to make one giant super-herd.”
Azer gasped. “You're serious! You're flamin' serious!”
Mattox clapped him on the shoulder. “I was never more serious about anything in my life. Now, come on, and knuckle down. We've got a lot of work to do.”