Gabe felt sucker punched. Just when he was starting to think Raylene wasn’t the evil witch everyone thought she was…a motocross track. A goddamn motocross track. Sure, it was her property to sell to whomever she wanted to, but really? It was certainly an effective way to get back at everyone who’d been hateful to her. But he’d sort of gotten the impression that her trip here was as much about redemption as it was about Logan’s wedding.
Well, you were wrong, sucker.
He turned the water as hot as he could take it and stepped into the shower. Logan and Annie had redone the plumbing and gotten one of those tankless water heaters, so maybe he’d stay in here for the rest of the day.
He heard the door creak open and pulled the shower curtain open enough to see Raylene standing there.
“It’s not what you think,” she said. “I don’t want to sell to Moto Entertainment, but I need the money.”
He pulled the curtain closed, wanting his shower in peace. “You’ve got loads of it, Raylene. More than most people will ever have in a lifetime.”
“That’s the thing: I don’t.”
He didn’t want to hear her bullshit now. He just wanted a little time to himself to wash her away and get his head on straight. “I’ll help you look for the gold today if you promise to be out of here after we find a place for your horse.” When the neighbors caught wind of who she was selling to there’d be hell to pay, and he was duty bound to Logan to defend her.
“Can’t we talk about this?”
He could hear a tremble in her voice and thought she might be crying, but he wasn’t going to let her tears sway him. “There’s nothing to talk about. Let me finish my shower and we’ll go.”
She drew the curtain open. “Please.”
“Out!” he shouted, and she jumped. Gabe didn’t like yelling, he didn’t like scaring her, but he had nothing to say. “Please go away.”
By the time he got dressed she was gone, and so was the metal detector he’d stowed in the garage.
He found his phone on the floor of Raylene’s bedroom and called Griffin.
“Yo,” he answered on the second ring.
“I’ve got a favor to ask.” Gabe sat on the edge of the bed, which Raylene had remade, and explained the situation with her horse.
“There’s room,” Griff said, “but the stable is for residents only. I’m a resident and could presumably sponsor her but…”
“I know, I know.” Gabe pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, the sooner I can square away her horse, the sooner she leaves, which would be best for everyone. It’ll just be until Logan and Annie get back from their honeymoon and we figure out a more permanent situation.”
“All right. But who’s going to take care of the horse in the meantime? I’m looking to hire someone, but until then everyone takes care of his or her own animals.”
That was step two in Gabe’s nonexistent plan. “Still working on that. But having a place for the horse in the interim is half the battle. Thanks, Griff. I owe you big time.”
“You don’t owe me a thing—Raylene does. And she can pay me back by leaving Lucky and Tawny alone.”
Wait until he heard what good ol’ Raylene had in store for her former neighbors. Not that it was the horse’s fault, so why should he suffer?
After he hung up with Griffin, he called the hardware store. His last call was to Rhys, to see if there was anything new on their overnight break-in. Earlier, before Raylene had woken up, Gabe had spied one of Rhys’ officers outside, processing her truck. No matter how much he wanted to convince himself that it was the work of the homeless trio Rhys had spotted, something about it—them—felt weird, like there was a missing piece to the puzzle.
Rhys wasn’t in, so Gabe left a message, then headed out.
Raylene was digging a few feet away from where they’d found the musket ball when he got to the property. She was covered in mud, and her pants were wet from kneeling in the melted snow. It was a hell of a day to be searching for buried treasure. Even though the sun was out and the temperature was a balmy fifty degrees, the ground was still slushy and, in the shady spots, blanketed in a layer of ice.
She gazed up at him. “I don’t need your help.”
From where he was standing, what she needed was to have her head examined. Wasn’t it enough that she’d make a small fortune from the entertainment company who wanted to buy her land?
“I told you I’d help you, and I keep my word.”
“Maybe I don’t want you around.” She sounded like a petulant child.
He grabbed the shovel out of her hand. “Let’s get this over with. Where’s the map?”
She stomped off and came back with the map a few minutes later. So much for her not wanting him around.
“FYI: I found a temporary home for your horse. Griffin said he’d sponsor you at Sierra Heights. You’re welcome.”
Her eyes filled and he turned away so he wouldn’t see her cry. He was feeling pretty low on sympathy for her but Raylene had a way of sucking him in. Not today, he told himself. He was standing firm, despite their night together.
“I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Hire someone to care for him and go back to LA.” Out of the side of his eye, he saw her flinch.
He took the map and spread it out on the hood of his SUV, looking for something he might’ve missed the first time. Of course, there wasn’t anything he’d missed, because there was no gold. But at least if they covered enough ground, he could persuade her to call off this fool’s errand.
She sat on a log and kicked at a berm of snow. “I’m broke. Last I looked, I had two thousand four hundred and fifty-two dollars and fifteen cents in the bank. That’s it.”
He knew how much Logan got from Ray’s will, and it was a hell of a lot more than a few thousand dollars. They’d built L&G Security with Logan’s inheritance.
“I think we should start looking over there.” He pointed to a new spot on the other side of the grove of trees. There was nothing on the map that indicated the gold might be there, but it was as good a guess as any.
“You don’t believe me?”
He didn’t know what he believed, but it was best not to get too involved in her crazy life. “So being broke is a good excuse to get even with your old boyfriend?” Lucky’s dude ranch wasn’t likely to survive with a motocross track next door. His guests didn’t pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of noise pollution. They could get that at home in the big city.
“I’m not trying to get even with anyone, I’m just trying to come through for a worthy cause.”
“The women’s shelter?” It sounded a little too convenient to him.
“Lucy’s House. It’s had some financial problems and will shut down without enough funds to keep it running. It’s a good place, and without it there will be one less shelter for women in need.”
Gabe had heard enough. He swiped the metal detector from the tree where Raylene had left it resting and turned it on, hoping she’d take the hint. End of conversation. He didn’t know what to believe where she was concerned. What he did know was that she shouldn’t be using the shelter as an excuse to hijack her neighbors, even if said neighbors hated her guts. She’d brought that on herself.
He moved the detector halfheartedly across a new swath of land, forcing himself not to look at her. Occasionally, he’d get a hit. So far, he’d dug up a few quarters and an old tackle box. Raylene had planted herself at their original search spot, trawling through the snow and mud.
Gabe heard a motor over the low hum of the detector and shielded his eyes from the sun. In the distance, a pickup truck was coming toward them. Raylene stopped what she was doing and looked up.
“You expecting company?”
She shook her head. He tried to make out who it was, but with the sun reflecting off his shades he couldn’t identify the truck. He hid the detector and shovel behind a tree, not wanting anyone to think he was gullible enough to have fallen for the foolish legend. Raylene quickly shoved the map in her jacket.
As the truck got closer Gabe saw who it was. A few minutes later, the Dodge Ram screeched to a halt, and the first thing to exit the cab was a pair of custom boots. Then two hundred pounds of angry cowboy. Gabe moved swiftly in front of Raylene.
“We don’t want your money.” Lucky flung a white envelope at her. “I just saw Dana in town. Is it true?”
Well, that hadn’t taken long. Then again, Gabe knew that news traveled faster in Nugget than the speed of lightning.
Raylene shuffled out from behind Gabe’s protective cover and stood nose to nose with Lucky. “The money is for Tawny’s dress.”
Gabe had to give her credit. She was taking the bull rider by the horns, so to speak.
“I don’t give a shit about the dress. I’ll buy Tawny a new one.” Lucky stared her down. “Are you selling your land to a company who wants to build a motocross track?”
Gabe wondered if she’d tell the truth. She had with him, but he hadn’t had as much to lose as Lucky.
“I’m considering it, yes. It’s the only offer I’ve got and, frankly, I’m in need of the money.”
Okay, Gabe had to give her points for being straight up, even if he didn’t necessarily believe that she was as broke as she said.
“I’d hoped that either you, Clay McCreedy, or Flynn Barlow would’ve made an offer,” Raylene continued, holding her ground, while Lucky looked ready to mow her down. “I’d prefer for one of you to have the land.”
“Would you now? Cut the crap, Raylene. If you think I don’t see what you’re doing, you’re out of your mind.”
“What am I doing, Lucky?” She asked it with such composure that anyone would’ve thought she was as self-possessed as the queen of England. Anyone but Gabe.
He saw the slight tremble in her left hand and imagined that right about now she was wishing she had a drink. Lucky fisted his hands at his side and his jaw clenched. Gabe wedged himself between the two of them.
“Let’s take it down a notch, okay?”
Lucky threw his head back and let out a bitter laugh. “Take it down a notch? She doesn’t know when to quit. First, she wanted to send me to prison for crimes I didn’t do. And when that didn’t work, she decided to financially ruin me and my family. So you take it down a notch.” He got up in Gabe’s face, close enough for Gabe to feel Lucky’s spittle.
Ordinarily, that would’ve been a colossally bad idea, but Gabe liked Lucky.
“Everything isn’t about you, Lucky.” Raylene stepped up and nudged Gabe aside. He didn’t know whether she was trying to protect him or Lucky. “If you’d like to make an offer, I’ll give you first priority.”
“So you can use my bid to jack up the other one you’ve got, or vice versa? You’re a nasty piece of work, Raylene.”
“I said I’ll give you first priority.”
“I don’t have that kind of money, and even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you.” He spat the words with such venom that for a second Gabe thought Lucky might hit Raylene. “Know this,” he continued, “Clay, Flynn, Gia, and I will fight a motocross track with everything we’ve got. Be sure to disclose that to your buyers.”
“Clay, Flynn, and Gia are free to buy the land themselves. And just like you, I’ll give them first priority.”
“You’re not going to extort us into buying your land,” Lucky fired back. “When we’re through with you, no one will buy it.” He turned around, got back in his truck, and peeled off.
Gabe watched the Ram disappear in the distance. “What do you mean by giving them first priority?” He wondered if it meant the same thing Lucky had accused her of—creating a bidding war. That’s what a good business person would do. It’s what Ray Rosser would’ve done. But it wasn’t necessarily how a good neighbor would play it. Then again, Lucky hadn’t been very neighborly.
“Moto Entertainment made me a full offer. I’ll take that from Lucky, the McCreedys, the Barlows, or anyone else from Nugget who wants to run cattle.”
Gabe didn’t know how much she was asking for the land, but two hundred acres of prime California riverfront property couldn’t be cheap. Lucky, the McCreedys, and the Barlows were far from paupers, but he didn’t know if they had that kind of cash to throw around. Lucky had said he didn’t have the money.
And even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you.
Nope, Gabe thought. This looks like flat-out war.
* * * *
Feeling dejected after meeting with Dana, Raylene took a drive. She’d put off signing the real estate papers by giving Dana a bullshit excuse about Butch and how she needed her divorce attorney to look everything over first. The truth was she wanted to give Lucky, or any of the other locals, time to step up. Plus, she still hadn’t found the gold. Lord knew if she ever would. Gabe certainly didn’t think so.
Gabe.
The man was an enigma. Shutting her out one minute, having her back the next. Lucky had been spitting mad during their confrontation, but he’d never hurt her. Not physically anyway. Yet Gabe had rushed in to keep her safe. No one but Logan had ever done that for her. Once upon a time, Lucky had. But they’d just been kids. Now when she looked into his big dark eyes all she saw was hatred. And at the rate she was going, Gabe would detest her, too.
She certainly had the golden touch where men were involved. Come to think of it, women, too.
Raylene drove aimlessly through the backcountry. Even after all the time she’d been gone, she knew these roads like the back of her hand. Up ahead was the swim hole where she and Hannah used to ride their horses and swim naked out to the big rock in the middle of the river. There, they’d lie in the sun until their skin turned golden brown. She passed Buckie Graham’s house and remembered that time in high school when his parents had gone out of town and they’d thrown a giant kegger. Raylene had gotten so drunk she’d thrown up on the Grahams’ bearskin rug. Wyatt’s family lived out here somewhere, too. As a teenager he’d been madly in love with her, but she’d been dating Zachary Baze, captain of the football team. A more suitable boyfriend than Lucky, in her father’s eyes.
As she continued to drive, she eventually found herself in the most familiar place of all. Most of the thousand-acre spread was fenced for cattle, but there were places a person who knew her way around could get in. She took the fire road to the back lot, parked near a small graveyard, and got out of the truck.
Though she hadn’t meant to visit, something pulled at her. Ghosts? Things that still needed to be said? The cemetery had been here since the Rossers settled this land during the Gold Rush. They’d come to sell beef to the miners. Even though the Rock and River belonged to Gia and Flynn when Ray died, they’d allowed him to be buried with his ancestors—and his prized horse, who had died a few years earlier.
She swung open the gate and wandered the grounds, reading the tombstones. As kids, she and her friends used to come on Halloween and try to psych themselves out. Back then, Ray hired a crew to weed and place flowers on the graves. Now brambles and scrub grew rough, making the little cemetery look like something out of the Wild West.
She kicked at the dirt with the point of her boot. “Hey, Ray.” She sat on the cold, hard dirt and pulled her knees up to get warm. “You down there, or did the devil turn you away for being more evil than him?
“Lucky’s married now. Despite all you tried to do to him, he’s happy. And alive, unlike you. He’s got a nice daughter and a big old ranch and he’s the longest reigning world champion in the history of the PBR. Remember when you said he’d never make anything of himself? Guess you were wrong.
“I loved him, Daddy. And you made me do terrible things to him. Hateful things. I don’t even know how I live with myself after what I did.”
A tear leaked down her cheek and she swiped it away. “Butch and I are divorced now. The man was a cheating, vicious piece of shit. I should’ve known what he’d be like when you picked him for me. He was just like you, Daddy.”
She wiped away another tear, then just let them come until they poured down her face. “Logan’s ten times the man you ever were. Funny how you wished I was a son when you already had one. But you wouldn’t even claim him. You let him grow up without a father. For what? To protect your stupid name? A name that’s dirt now. That’s right, Daddy, you ruined the Rosser name. You dragged it through the mud until it meant nothing. Everything Papa and Grandpa worked for, you ruined. And Mom, you beat her down to nothing. She’s a shell of the woman she used to be.”
She tried to collect herself, but she wasn’t done yet, not by a long shot. “Everything you built is gone now. And me? You had me under your thumb for so long, I didn’t know up from down. Good from bad. But I’m trying to change that. I’m even selling the last of your land and moving on. You know what helps me sleep at night? Knowing that you’ll never be able to hurt anyone again.”
Raylene took a long, deep breath, got to her feet, and leaned over Ray’s grave. “See you in hell, Daddy.”