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“He had Katie?” Her mom shrieked, horrified.
“I’m fine, Mom.” Katie was totally floored and looked back to Josh. “Where did we get the money to pay him off?”
“Evidently, my dear father didn’t have enough time to spend all the money before he died.” Josh’s countenance darkened; Katie knew he hated even remembering the man who’d abused him. “It was found in an inactive account at the bank with my name on it.”
Katie was dumbfounded. “That’s … that’s wonderful.” Now she understood Josh’s earlier question. When exactly had Zach told her he would extend better terms to her parents? As she tried to remember, a ribbon of unease slid down her spine. In her mind, Zach had pretty much redeemed himself ever since he’d found out about her attack. But was that true? Had he redeemed himself? Or was she still being made a victim of his manipulations?
She thought hard about the timeline at the beach house.
It was definitely before. He’d definitely told her before his conversation with Josh.
Thank God. Katie instantly felt a trickle of guilt for doubting him, but she brushed it away. Zach had manipulated her in the past, so she would forgive herself for doubting him now.
She focused on her cousin and answered his original question. “It was before. He for sure told me that he was bringing me home and extending the loan before he spoke to you.”
Josh crossed his arms over his chest and curtly nodded his head as he held his body rigidly. “That’s good. But I promise you, Katie. If I find out otherwise, I’ll beat the living shit out of him.”
Katie shivered at Josh’s words. He sounded completely serious, and nothing good could come from the two men being adversaries. And a physical fight between them? Just the thought of it made her blood congeal. If it came to that, they’d kill each other before either one gave in. “He’s sorry for what he did,” As Katie said those words, she realized that she believed it. She wasn’t just trying to soothe things over with Josh and her mother, she really believed that Zach felt remorse.
Josh stiffened his shoulders. “So you say. Time will tell.”
****
The Bar M Ranch
When Zach got to the ranch, everything was quiet on the inside of the house. The kitchen and living room were deserted, and the floor creaked as he walked down the hall. He could hear his stepmother humming softly, off-key, from the master suite. The sounds of his childhood home soothing him, Zach continued walking until he was standing in front of his father’s study.
He reached out to tap on the already opened door, but his father must have heard him because he looked up and his expression softened when he saw Zach standing there.
Zach breathed in deeply. He and his father had gone through some tough times after they’d lost Zach’s mom, but since his dad had found Janet, Jeffrey McIntyre had been a happy man.
“Son,” his father greeted him in a booming voice.
Zach faced him across the room. “What’s going on?”
“Come in here and sit down,” he father offered, tossing his pen down as if everything else could wait.
Zach walked in and sat in one of the chairs that flanked his father’s desk. He casually looked around the room, and the memory of that night from years past, when he’d cornered Katie in here and proceeded to decimate her with both his actions and his words, pierced his heart with guilt. He didn’t know if he could ever be in this room again without remembering.
“Are you home for awhile?” Jeff McIntyre asked him and it was obvious from his tone that he wanted the answer to be affirmative.
“I don’t know. At least for tonight.”
“Good, good. How’s it been going? Did you get the consortium lined out?” Jeff steepled his fingers together and leaned back in his chair.
Zach nodded distractedly. “Yeah, I did.”
“I knew you would.”
Zach took a deep breath. “I have some stuff I need to run by you. You got a minute?”
His father’s gaze intensified as he came to attention. “Sure. Janet’s dyeing her hair and painting her nails and all that female shit she thinks she needs to do. We’ve got a while.”
Zach nodded and tried to think of where to start. “Hannah completely blew me away when she came to see me last week.”
A startled look came over Jeff’s face. “You okay to talk about this?”
Zach stared at his father and shook his head in disgust. “Crap. How fucking fragile do you people believe I am? How could y’all have hidden all this shit from me for all these years?”
“We didn’t know she was getting married, son. She just did it. And all I can say is that you were grieving, grieving badly, and the time never seemed quite right to tell you that your only sister was involved with the son of the man who had a hand in breaking up your marriage. I hope that one day, you’ll be able to forgive us for not telling you. Our hearts were in the right place, even if we did screw up.”
Zach nodded in acceptance of the apology. “Chris Turner didn’t break up my marriage. It was on the rocks long before he came into the picture.”
“I’m glad you’ve come far enough to be able to see that. Trust me, it took me a while to figure that out as well. But in case you’re wondering, Josh is a good boy … well, he’s a man now. But when all this started, he was little more than a boy.”
Zach felt the need to confess or show his remorse or whatever the hell he was feeling. “I’m not proud of myself for turning my anger on the Turner family.”
“I know you’re not,” Jeff answered, as if letting his son get some much-needed stuff off his chest.
“Katie Turner … ” Zach began and then abruptly stopped, not knowing where he was going with this or how to say it.
“What about her? She’s a good girl. She’s been through a lot.”
Zach’s head lifted as he snapped to attention. “You know what she’s been through?”
“Just about the whol
e town knows what she’s been through. Do you know what she’s been through?” At Zach’s nod, his father continued, ” I’ve probably known longer than most.”
“How’s that?”
“Well, because the kid who hurt her was working here at the ranch, and Josh came to see me and fairly had to lay it out for me. He didn’t spell it out to me in plain English … he tried to protect Katie’s privacy, but I could read between the lines.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Hannah was only fifteen at the time and her mother and I were shocked and rightly so by the depth of emotion that the boy felt for her already. Josh took the bull by the horns and told me the kid needed to be fired.”
“Josh did that?”
“Yeah.”
Zach thought about that for only a second before he understood completely the timeline of events. “Because of Hannah.”
“Yeah, because of Hannah. The boy was scared shitless Whitaker would get a hold of her as well.”
“Whitaker?” Zach felt a surge of anger that grabbed him by the throat and wouldn’t let go.
“Yeah. Jesse Whitaker was the one who hurt Katie and damn near got a hold of Hannah a few years later.”
“What?” Zach almost had a coronary.
His father continued, “Feels good to unload about this. We never meant to hide anything from you, son. And we didn’t think you were fragile, exactly. Just trying to protect you. It’s what parents do for their kids.”
The apology rushed over Zach and he knew he understood his parents’ motivation. “What about Hannah? Was she hurt?”
“No, thank God. Just scared. Josh got to her in time, and so did the sheriff. But she had enough ammunition to testify against him, and along with Katie’s testimony and the sheriff’s own daughter’s who’d been placed in a threatened position as well, it was enough to send Whitaker to prison for a long time.”
“How long?” Zach gritted his teeth as pure satisfaction bled through his veins.
