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“But no hero, amada. I refuse to be cast in that role.” Lucas smiled unpleasantly. “As for the maiden…My grandfather might have fallen for the story of your supposed chastity but I’m not so easily fooled.”
Color flooded her face. “Good. Because my chastity, or my lack of it, is none of your damned business!”
“I don’t buy any of it, chica. For all I know, marrying me is precisely what you’re after.”
God, the insolence of the man! “You wish!”
Lucas grinned. “Ah, amada, you say that with such conviction.”
“Just—just go away. Forget you ever came here.”
“I would love to.” A muscle knotted in his jaw. “I’d like nothing more than to walk away and know I’ll never see you again.”
“Do it. Turn around and start walking.”
“I can’t. My grandfather’s lawyers wrote this damned contract because he wanted them to write it. Now he’s ill.” His voice roughened. “For all I know, he’s dying. He made a commitment that matters to him and I’m not going to turn my back on it until I find a way out he can accept.”
“You don’t need to take me with you for that to happen.”
“Unfortunately I do. I just explained the reason.”
“You explained nothing!”
“This is a waste of time. Get in the car. Norton? For the last time, give me your keys.” Lucas smiled coldly. “Unless you’d rather explain your part in all this to the Texas Bar Association.”
It was a long shot. What did the lawyer have to explain, after all, except that he’d been unable to convince a dead man not to enter into an unenforceable contract?
But it worked. The attorney’s face lost its color. Lucas saw it. So did Alyssa.
“Thaddeus,” she said desperately, “Tell this—this lunatic that he can’t do this!”
“This lunatic,” Lucas said with some amusement, “is your only hope.”
“You’re not my hope! I’d sooner lose everything than marry you!”
“Haven’t you been listening? You are not going to marry me! I am not going to be a sacrifice o
n the marriage altar.”
“You, a sacrifice? What about me? This—this plan your horrible old grandfather hatched is—”
She gasped as Lucas grabbed her shoulders. “Watch yourself,” he said softly. “And remember the bottom line. El Rancho Grande is at the heart of this situation.”
“You don’t give a damn about the ranch.”
“You’re right, amada, I don’t.” His expression hardened. “But my grandfather says you do. And, in honor of his commitment to an old friend, so does he.” His mouth flattened. “That puts finding a way out of this mess squarely in my hands.”
Alyssa’s head was spinning. Refuse to go with Lucas and the land was gone. Go with him and maybe, only maybe, it could be saved.
“This,” she said shakily, “this has—it has become very complicated.”
Lucas gave a bark of laughter.
“What if I agree to go with you? What will happen?”
“I’ll convince my grandfather that the contract is unenforceable, write a check for the arrears and the balance of the mortgage, deed the ranch to you and pretend we never met.”
She stared at him. “Can you do all that?”
