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“It’s not what you think,” she insisted and moved into his path, forcing him to stop. “Just listen to me for one minute please. Then if you still want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
He studied her with cold eyes, his attitude hardened by her act of betrayal. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that you don’t own the land.”
“Technically, I don’t, but in fact I do, since I am the sole shareholder of the corporation that holds the title to it.”
“Then there is nothing more you can say that I care to hear.”
When he started to move by her, Tara reached out to stop him. “You don’t understand,” she protested, her eyes dark with entreaty. “The whole thing began as nothing more than a lark. Your father has tried for years to get title to this land without success. It became a challenge of sorts. I wanted to see if I could do it.”
“Then you must be feeling very proud of yourself about now.” Ty looked at her with nothing but contempt in his eyes.
“How can I when it has made you so angry.” Her own expression was full of pain, but Ty was unmoved by it. “Don’t you see—I always knew you were going about things the wrong way. The days when the government sold land to individuals is gone. It’s no longer interested in divesting itself of property, regardless of the price that might be offered for it.”
“You didn’t seem to have any difficulty buying it,” Ty reminded her.
“I didn’t buy it, at least not with cash. I traded for it.”
In spite of himself, her answer snagged his interest. “You traded?”
“It wasn’t exactly an even swap either, considering the exorbitant sum I had to pay for the other tract of land adjacent to one of the national parks. But I knew there were certain officials in positions of authority who wanted to see it come under government control. From there, it wasn’t difficult to get them to agree to an exchange.”
“Very clever. But then you have always been clever.” There was nothing in his tone of voice that made it a compliment.
“But not clever enough to keep you.” The look of abject regret Tara gave him failed to tunnel through his defenses as it had done little more than a week ago.
“Fortunately.” Ty had no pity for her.
She dropped her glance. “I had that coming.”
He wasn’t about to refute that. “How much do you want, Tara?”
Her head came up, her dark eyes wide with confusion. “For what?”
“For Wolf Meadow, of course.”
“I . . .” Tara faltered and looked away, running her gaze through the broken land. “I’m not sure I want to sell it.”
His eyes narrowed with a new wariness. “Exactly what do you plan to do with it then?”
The wind whipped a corner of her silk scarf onto her face. Reaching up, Tara pushed it off her cheek and turned imploring eyes on him. “I know you aren’t going to believe this. It’s hard for me to
believe it when I remember how much I hated this empty country with its suffocating sky. But this past year I have come to realize how much I miss it.”
“Are you saying that you plan to live here?” Ty demanded.
“I do,” Tara admitted, then added in appeal, “Is that so terribly wrong?”
“Not on this land, you aren’t,” Ty stated, flat and hard.
For the first time there was a snap of anger in her dark eyes. “You don’t really have any control over that, do you?”
It didn’t sit well that she was absolutely right. There was very little he could do to stop her. He looked away, his glance briefly landing on Buck Haskell, standing a short distance away but within earshot.
“What’s your game, Tara?” His stony gaze sliced back to her.
“Please don’t take that attitude, Ty,” she murmured in hurt protest. “Not everything I do is a game.”
“That has been my experience.” It was not in him to relent.
