Reunion of Revenge

She walked back over and sank into the chair. “After Daddy had the stroke and couldn’t work, there wasn’t enough money to keep up the premiums on the insurance and he’d withdrawn everything in his pension fund to invest in the stocks.”

Nick would have thought the judge had more sense than to deplete every resource he had. But then, greed could do that. And if there was ever a more greedy, power-mad human being than Bertram Holbrook, Nick had never met him.

“You didn’t know any of this?”

“No.” She rubbed her forehead with a trembling hand. “Daddy never discussed finances with me. He always told me that I’d never have to worry about those things.”

Nick would bet every dime he had that finances weren’t the only things the man had kept her in the dark about. “I’m sure it all came as quite a shock when you found out.”

She nodded. “I had no idea what we were going to do. Fortunately Emerald, Inc. contacted me about buying the Flying H right after I came to the conclusion there was no alternative but for us to file for bankruptcy.” Her cheeks colored a deep rose. “Then, when it became clear there wasn’t enough money from the sale of the ranch to pay off Daddy’s medical and rehabilitation bills, Mr. Freemont told me the corporation would pay off the rest of our creditors, allow us to stay in our home and pay me a modest salary if I signed a ten-year contract to be the ranch foreman of the newly formed Sugar Creek Cattle Company. At the end of that time, our debts will be considered paid in full and I’ll be free to renegotiate my contract or move on.”

If Nick had thought things were strange before, they’d just taken a turn toward bizarre. But the more he thought about it, the more it sounded like Emerald had learned of the Holbrook’s money problems and, in the bargain, seized the opportunity to mete out a bit of revenge for the judge’s treatment of him and his mother all those years ago.

Unfortunately it wasn’t Bertram Holbrook who was having to pay the price for Emerald’s retaliatory actions. Cheyenne was the one who’d practically sold herself into servitude to bail the old man out of his financial woes. And it didn’t sit well with Nick one damned bit that his indominable grandmother had obviously been taking advantage of Cheyenne.

“Do you mind if I keep this for a couple of days to look over?” he asked, picking up the contract. If there was a way to get them both out of this mess, he intended to find it. “I need to figure out if you owe me or Emerald, Inc.”

She shrugged one slender shoulder as she rose to her feet. “You might as well, since it appears that I work for you now, instead of Emerald, Inc.”

“Where are you going?”

From the look on her face, she couldn’t wait to end their meeting. “Unless you have something more you want to discuss, I’ve got work to do.”

He did, but first he wanted to talk to Emerald. “I’ll go over this and see what the exact wording is, then we’ll discuss it tomorrow afternoon while we inspect the herds.”

“Can’t you do that on your own?” She sounded close to going into a panic at the thought of spending time with him.

Nick smiled. “I could, but it’s standard practice for the foreman to show the new owner around. Besides, I’m sure I’ll have a few questions about the way you’ve been running the operation.”

Clearly unhappy, she hesitated a moment before she nodded. “Fine.” Walking to the door, she turned back. “I’ll be here tomorrow after lunch. Be ready.”

“I’ll have the horses saddled.”

“The truck would be faster.”

“I’d rather ride.”

She glared at him for several long seconds before she finally nodded. “All right…boss.” Then, opening the door, she walked out into the hall and slammed it shut behind her.

Once he was alone, Nick inhaled deeply. He hadn’t drawn a decent breath since Cheyenne had walked into the room. He wouldn’t have believed it was possible, but she was even prettier today than she’d been yesterday. Her turquoise T-shirt had brought out the blue-green of her eyes and the sun shining through the window behind her when she’d turned to face him had accentuated the golden highlights in her long brown hair.

His temperature soared at the mental image and shaking his head at his own foolishness, he did his best to ignore the tightening in his groin. But then, it had always been that way with Cheyenne. From the first moment he saw her at the homecoming dance his senior year, he hadn’t been able to think of anything but making her his wife and living out the rest of his days trying to prove himself worthy of her.

Thinking back on that summer after his high school graduation, he still couldn’t get over how naive they’d been. He and Cheyenne had gone steady throughout his senior year, even though her father had forbidden her to have anything to do with Nick. Neither of them had understood the judge’s intense dislike of Nick, but they’d managed to sneak around to see each other at school functions and met in town every Saturday afternoon to hug and kiss their way through a double-feature matinee at the movie theater. And despite Bertram Holbrook’s concentrated efforts to keep them from seeing each other, by the end of the summer they’d fallen in love and were desperate to be together.

Nick couldn’t remember which one of them had hatched up the plan to run away and get married. Truth to tell, it really didn’t matter. It was what they’d both wanted and they’d heard that for a couple of hundred bucks the clerk over in the next county would issue a marriage license to anyone, whether they were of legal age or not. So he’d worked at the feed store on weekends and saved every dime he could until he had enough to make Cheyenne his bride.

Then, one hot night in late August, he’d picked her up at the house of one of her friends and they’d driven across the county line to get married. But just before they were pronounced husband and wife, the judge and his cohort, Sheriff Turner, had shown up to stop the ceremony.

Nick rubbed the tension gathering at the back of his neck. Until yesterday afternoon, his last remembrance of Cheyenne had been watching her sob uncontrollably as her father led her away from the little church to his car.

But things had a way of working out for the best. Marrying his high school sweetheart had been the lofty illusion of an eighteen-year-old boy with more hormones than good sense. He was a grown man now and no matter how alluring he found Cheyenne, there was no danger of falling under her spell a second time.

Besides, after discovering that his father was an irresponsible player who had thought nothing of walking out on not one, but three women he’d impregnated, who was to say that Nick hadn’t inherited the same “love ’em and leave ’em” gene? After all, he was the one who’d lost interest in every relationship he’d had since leaving Wyoming.

Picking up the contract, he scanned the contents of the document a little closer. There had to be a clause concerning termination of the agreement—a way to free them from having to work together.

His frown turned to a deep scowl when he found it. In the event that Cheyenne quit or her position as foreman was terminated for any reason, the balance of the money immediately became due and payable to Emerald, Inc. No exceptions.

He should have known Emerald would cover all the bases. She hadn’t gained the reputation of being an invincible force in the boardroom or become one of the richest, most successful businesswomen in America by accident.

As he dialed his grandmother’s private number, he took a deep breath to control his anger. Although he no longer had feelings for Cheyenne, he didn’t like the idea of Emerald taking advantage of her or circumstances that were beyond her control.

Instead of Emerald, Luther Freemont answered. “I’m sorry, Mr. Daniels. Your grandmother is unavailable at the moment. May I take a message?”

Nick could tell the man had him on the speakerphone and knew the old gal was probably sitting right there at the desk listening to every word he said while her assistant ran interference for her. “Maybe you can help me, Luther. I have a few questions about Cheyenne Holbrook’s employment with the Sugar Creek Cattle Company.”

There was a long pause before the man spoke. “What would that be, sir?”

“I’d like some more information on Ms. Holbrook’s salary, the balance on what she owes Emerald, Inc. and if she’s my employee or Emerald’s.”

Another long pause signaled that the man was most likely looking to Emerald for direction. “I’m not at liberty to say, sir. I’m afraid you’ll have to discuss that with Mrs. Larson.”

Irritated with the entire situation, Nick muttered a pithy curse. “Tell Emerald to give me a call as soon as possible.”

“I’ll be sure to do that. Is there anything else I can help you with, sir?”

Nick couldn’t resist teasing Emerald’s stiff and formal personal assistant. “As a matter of fact, there is, Luther.”

“Yes, sir?”

“You sound like a robot. Loosen up and stop being such a tightass.”

“I’ll take that under advisement, sir,” the man said with a hint of laughter in his voice.

Nick grinned when he heard the definitive sound of a woman laughing in the background a moment before the connection ended.

“Daddy, I have to go up to the summer pastures to check the herds this afternoon,” Cheyenne said as she put their lunch plates in the dishwasher. “Will you be all right until I get back?”

Her father nodded as he backed his wheelchair away from the table. “I’ll be fine, princess. Gordon called this morning to tell me he’s going to stop by for a while.” He chuckled. “I’m sure he’s got some hot piece of gossip he’d like to share.”

Cheyenne smiled wanly. She’d never cared for Sheriff Turner, but he and her father had been friends for over twenty years and her father always looked forward to his visits.

She kissed her father’s cheek. “There’s some lemonade in the refrigerator and peanut butter cookies in the cookie jar if you two get hungry.”

Smiling, he patted her arm. “What would I do without you, princess?”

“I’m sure you’d do just fine, but that’s something you won’t ever have to worry about.” Checking her watch, she gave him a quick hug, then grabbed her truck keys from the counter. “You and Sheriff Turner stay out of trouble.”

Her father laughed. “Now what could a county sheriff and a crippled old judge possibly do to get themselves in hot water?”

“Let me think.” Tapping her index finger on her chin, she acted as if she had to give it a lot of consideration. “I’m sure you’ll turn down the extra cigar that Sheriff Turner just happens to bring with him?”

“Of course I’ll turn it down. Just like I always do.” Her father’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “I wouldn’t think to do anything else, princess.”

They both knew he was telling a fib. The sheriff always tried to time his visits to coincide with her working on another part of the ranch in order for her father to smoke a cigar—something his doctors had advised him to cut out. But he had very few pleasures left in life and she decided the occasional cigar he enjoyed once or twice a month while he visited with his best friend wasn’t going to do that much harm.

Smiling, she opened the door to leave. “Just remember, if the sheriff wants to have a cigar there’s no smoking in the house. You’ll both have to go out onto the back porch.”

Her father waved for her to leave. “You just be careful out there in the pastures. You might run across a wolf, or worse.”

Cheyenne’s stomach twisted into a tight knot. She wouldn’t encounter a wolf somewhere along the way, she’d be riding right along beside one.

Nodding, she ducked out the door before he had a chance to see the guilt she knew had to be written all over her face. It had been three days since she’d run across Nick repairing that section of fence and she still hadn’t found the courage to tell her father about him being back in the area or that he owned the very house they lived in.

For one thing, she wasn’t sure how her father would react. He’d already had one stroke. She certainly didn’t want to run the risk of him having another when he learned that she was working for Nick. And for another, she didn’t want or need to listen to him tell her how disreputable Nick was or that she’d do well to steer clear of him. She knew firsthand how unreliable Nick was.

Cheyenne sighed heavily as she climbed into her truck and drove the five miles to the Sugar Creek ranch house. She really didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. Even if they figured out who held the promissory note—Emerald, Inc. or Nick—heaven only knew she didn’t have the money to repay it in order to get out of the work agreement.

Ten minutes later, when she pulled into the ranch yard and got out of the truck, the first thing she noticed was the bay and sorrel geldings standing saddled and tied to the corral fence. They were waiting for her to take Nick to see the cattle company herds—his herds. But he was nowhere in sight. And that suited her just fine. The less time she had to spend with him the better off she’d be.

Walking over to the horses, she patted the sorrel gelding’s neck. She’d been more humiliated than she’d ever been in her life during their meeting yesterday when she’d had to tell him that she and her father were practically destitute. But that hadn’t stopped her from noticing that the boy she’d once loved with all her heart had grown into a devastatingly handsome man or that whenever he turned his deep blue eyes her way, her chest tightened with an ache she’d thought she’d long ago gotten over.

“You’re late.”

Her stomach did a little flip at the sound of Nick’s deep baritone and, turning around, she found him standing with one shoulder propped against the edge of the barn door, his arms crossed over his wide chest. She swallowed hard and tried not to notice how his chambray shirt emphasized the width of his shoulders or how his worn jeans hugged his muscular thighs and rode low on his narrow hips. As he pushed away from the barn and walked toward her, her pulse sped up and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

“I had things to do,” she said, hating the breathless tone of her own voice. “Besides, this shouldn’t take long. Both herds are pastured within a few miles’ ride of each other.”

He nodded as he untied the two horses, then handed her the sorrel’s reins. “I need to be back before supper.”

“We’ll be back well before then,” she said, mounting the gelding.

“Good. I have plans.”

Cheyenne couldn’t believe the twinge of disappointment coursing through her. She couldn’t care less if he had a date. She really couldn’t. As long as he left her alone, he could date and bed the county’s entire female population and it wouldn’t bother her one bit.

“If you’d like to postpone checking the herds, it won’t bother me. I have other things I need to be doing anyway.”

He effortlessly swung up onto the bay and rode up beside her. “No, I want to see what we’ve got so that when I go to the auction tomorrow night, I can compare what we have to what’s being sold. Then I’ll have a fair idea of how much I can get when I sell our cattle.”

“You’re selling out?”

Panic sent a cold chill snaking up her spine and caused her stomach to twist into a painful knot. If he sold everything, how was she supposed to pay off the remainder of her debt?

“Don’t worry, you’ll still have a job,” he said as if he’d read her mind. “I’m starting a new breeding program that will make the Sugar Creek a major force to contend with in the beef industry. And I can’t do that with the cattle we have now.”

“You’re not going to start raising some obscure breed that no one has ever heard of, are you?”

“Not hardly.” Laughing, he shook his head as they nudged the horses into a slow walk. “The Sugar Creek has always raised Black Angus and we always will. The same as the Flying H. But they’re going to be free-range cattle. No more supplements, growth hormones or commercial cattle feed. We’re starting an all-natural operation.”

Relieved to hear that she wouldn’t have to worry about finding a way to pay back money she didn’t have—at least for now—she nodded. “Free-range stock of all kinds are becoming very popular.”

“It’s getting bigger by the day and we’re missing out on a fast-growing market.” When he turned his head to look at her, he adjusted the wide brim of his black Resistol so that their gazes met. “The way I figure it, between the two ranches there’s a little over a hundred and fifty thousand acres of prime grazing land and plenty of good grass to cut for hay to feed the cattle in the winter months.”

He definitely had her interest. It could take several years for an operation like that to reach its peak. Maybe if he was busy planning how many acres he’d use for graze, how many for hay and where and how to market the beef, she’d be free to do her job and get through the next four years of her contract without having a lot of contact with him.

“When are you going to start selling off the herds and bringing in the new stock?”

“Within the next couple of weeks. I’m going to talk to the auction house tomorrow night about selling off the cattle in lots of ten to fifteen. I think I’ll get more out of them that way.”

She frowned. With the cold Wyoming winter just around the corner, it seemed like a bad time to be bringing in a new herd. “When will the new stock arrive?”

“Next spring.”

Glancing over at him as they rode across the pasture behind his house, she couldn’t help but wonder where she fit into the equation. With no stock to feed or any need to chop ice for the cattle to get water from the ponds and streams this winter there really wasn’t going to be any work for her to supervise.

When they reached a gate at the back of the pasture, she started to dismount, but Nick was quicker and jumped down from the bay to open it. “I’m betting you’re wondering what you’ll be doing with your time this winter.”

She led the bay as she rode the sorrel through the opening into the next field. “Well, now that you mention it, it did cross my mind.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry. There’ll be more than enough work for both of us.” Taking the bay’s reins, he swung back up into the saddle. “After the herds are sold, we’ll be busy planning how many acres per head of cattle we’ll need, how we intend to rotate them and how many acres of hay we’ll need to cut in the summer to get them through the winter.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “We? Why can’t you do that yourself?”

He stared off across the Sugar Creek Valley at the Laramie Mountains in the distance. “I’m changing your job description. From now on, you’ll be working in the office and I’ll be out supervising the men and managing the daily operation.”

“Excuse me?” She reined in the gelding at the edge of the creek the ranch had been named for. “What office are you talking about?”

Stopping the bay, he shrugged. “My office at the Sugar Creek.”

Cheyenne felt a chill travel from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. How on earth was she going to keep her distance from him if she had to work in his office? In his home?

“You mean until the new cattle arrive in the spring?”

He shook his head. “From now on. I’ve missed being out in the fresh air and feeling like I’ve actually accomplished something when I go to bed so tired that I’m asleep before my head hits the pillow.”

She couldn’t help it, she laughed out loud as she urged the sorrel across the slow moving, shallow water of Sugar Creek. “Give me a break. You can’t tell me you’d rather be out in weather so cold your breath freezes on your lips or so hot that you feel like your brains are baking inside your hat.”

“I’m serious, Cheyenne.” He rode up the bank on the other side of the creek. “I’ve been stuck being a desk jockey for the past eight years and I’m tired of it.”

It wasn’t any of her business nor did she care what he’d been doing for the past thirteen years, but curiosity got the better of her. “What kind of job did you have?”

“I developed software for a bank’s online customers to pay bills and transfer funds from one account to another.”

“You graduated from college.” She couldn’t keep from sounding wistful.

“Yep. I have a degree in software development and computer applications.”

“And you gave up all that to come back here to shovel manure and cut yourself to ribbons stringing barbed wire fence? Are you nuts?”

He grinned. “Put that way, it doesn’t sound real smart, does it?”

Laughing, Cheyenne shook her head. “I’ll bet your mother is very proud of you for earning your degree, but fit to be tied that you won’t be using it. She always wanted you to go to college.” It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn’t asked about his mother. “By the way, how is she doing?”

His smile faded and stopping his horse at the top of a rise, he gazed out over the herd of sleek black cattle grazing in the shallow valley below. “Mom died about a year after we moved to St. Louis. She never knew that I went to college, let alone graduated.”

“Oh, Nick, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” She’d always liked Linda Daniels and hated to hear of the woman’s passing. “Had she been ill?”

Cheyenne knew from experience how hard his mother’s death had to have been for Nick. She’d lost her own mother when she was very young and had it not been for the love of her father, she wasn’t sure she would have survived. But Nick hadn’t had anyone to lean on. His mother had never married and it had always been just the two of them.

“Mom knew she didn’t have long to live when we left here,” he said quietly.

“Was that why you went to St. Louis? I think I remember you mentioning that your mother had a cousin there.”

Nick turned to stare at Cheyenne. The sincerity in her blue-green eyes convinced him that she didn’t have a clue why he’d run away in the middle of the night like a coyote with a backside full of buckshot. And that had him wondering just what the good judge had told her about his disappearance the night they were to have been married.

“That’s where we went to live,” he said, turning his attention back to the herd of cattle in the valley below. “But that wasn’t the reason we left here.”

He could tell from her intense stare that she was baffled by his answer, but she didn’t pursue the issue further. Instead she reined her horse toward the path leading down into the meadow. But the gelding balked, then gingerly held his front hoof off the ground as if it might be injured.

“I think we have a problem,” Nick said as they both dismounted to examine the sorrel’s left front leg. Bending down, he gently examined the inside center of the animal’s hoof. “The sole looks swollen.”

“It’s probably a stone bruise.”

Straightening, he nodded. “That would be my guess. Looks like we’ll have to ride double.”

She shook her head as she patted the gelding’s neck. “It’s only a few miles. You go ahead and I’ll walk him back.”

“I don’t think so, sweetheart.” He took the reins from her. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to ride back to the house and leave you out here alone with a lame horse.”

“You can go faster without me.” She took a step back. “You said yourself that you have a date tonight and I certainly don’t want to be the cause of you being late.”

Nick stared at her for several long seconds. Had there been a bit of sarcasm in her voice?

He knew he should let it go, but some part of him had to know. “Does it bother you that I might be seeing someone, Cheyenne?”

“Not at all.” Her laughter was as hollow as the old bee tree out behind his barn. “I don’t know why you’d wonder something like that. I gave up caring what you do a long time ago.”

He knew she was lying and for reasons beyond his comprehension, he wanted her to admit the truth. “You never could lie worth a damn, sweetheart.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Yes, you are.” He stepped forward and putting his arm around her waist, drew her to him. Lowering his voice, he whispered close to her ear. “You don’t like caring, but you do.”