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“Good. Then I’ll stay.” She whips her hands to her hips.
Right, Dale. Good luck getting our hotheaded little sister to let this one go.
“Sorry, Dee,” he says. “This is business.”
“Steel business? Last time I checked, I’m a Steel too.”
“You’re going to have to trust me,” Dale says as he shoves me out the door. “Let’s take a walk.”
We walk down the hallway, past two nurses’ stations, to the elevator. Dale punches the down button.
“If you think—”
“Save it,” he says.
And I shut up. I listen to my big brother. Because that’s what I do.
Once we’re in the elevator—which is empty save for us—he starts in. “Don, you’ve got to get hold of yourself. This isn’t helping Mom.”
“Don’t you try to tell me what isn’t helping Mom. You don’t—”
He grabs my collar—much like I grabbed Dr. Lodge. “Don’t go there. Just don’t. You know I love our mother. My relationship with her is different from yours, but I love her just as much as you do.”
I nod—sort of—and he lets go.
“I know that. Damn.” I tug my fingers through my hair. “It’s just… It’s just…all this shit. Sometimes I think I should have stayed in Denver.”
“Dad would still be lying in that recovery room if you had, and you’d be here anyway.”
“Would I? How much of this shit can be tied to me coming home? To the two of us talking to Brendan at his place? Those documents?”
“That’s a big if, Don. We can’t do anything about it anyway. It is what it is. Dad was shot, and apparently someone poisoned him as well. Let’s just thank God that he’s pulling through and figure out what to do next.”
“I fucking bribed a government official to manufacture a fake gas leak on a property so we could break and enter.” I shake my head.
“And this is just now occurring to you?”
“No! I mean… No. I… I know there was no other choice, but just when I wrap my head around that, convince myself I had to do it, this goes and happens. Someone wants to off our father, and damn it, I want to know who.”
“It’s still possible that the target was Uncle Joe.”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better? Uncle Joe’s like a second dad to us.”
“You’ve got to hold it together. For God’s sake. You’re the level-headed one, Don. The one I depend on. You’re our voice of reason. You keep Uncle Joe and me in line.”
“Get over yourself. I’m risking my career here. I’m keeping the Murphys from their livelihood just to—”
“Just to find out what our parents have been lying to us about,” he interrupts. “This affects the whole family.”
“Then why us? Why do we have to deal with it?”
“We’re the oldest.”
I regard my brother. My strong and fierce brother. And before me stands a man who’s keeping his temper at bay. Who has something else to live for besides himself and his vines. Ashley. Ashley has calmed him.
It’s like we’ve traded places.
I’m in love too. Why the hell am I going off all high strung?
“I’ve got a mercenary government agent who wanted me to pimp out Dee to him, dude. I’m a little on edge.”
Dale’s cheeks redden. “What?” he grits out.
“Yeah. Well, not in so many words. He wanted me to get her to design his new house. His party line was that he wanted the first Steel-designed house. But I read between those lines. He wants to bed her.”
“Isn’t he like twice her age?”
“Almost.”
“Fuck.” Dale messes with his mane. “Fuck it all.”
“See what I mean? Our life is whacked right now. It’s fucked up. And in the middle of it…”
“In the middle of it…what?”
“Callie.”
“What about her?”
“I love Callie, Dale. And I have to end it. I can’t drag her into this shitstorm.”
“I think she’s already in.”
I scoff. “More than you know.”
“What?” he grits out again.
“Don’t even start with me. You dragged Brock in last night.”
“Brock is family, Donny.”
“Well…so is Callie. To me, anyway. Except I can’t let her be. The Pikes have been through enough. I can’t drag their daughter into this Steel mess.”
The elevator doors open, and we zigzag through the people getting on. Why people won’t let an elevator unload first is beyond me. I feel like punching each one of them in their smug faces.
I follow Dale outside and into the parking lot. “Where exactly are we going?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere where I can yell the way I want to.”
Chapter Eighteen
Callie
Still no sign of Donny after lunch—which consisted of a turkey sandwich that I took two bites of and then threw away. I spent the remaining time going through more title documents.
And finding the same kind of stuff.
Steels, Steels, Steels.
They’re everywhere in Snow Creek, and I want to know why.
And then…
Something occurs to me—a frightening thought.
Do the Steels have a lien on our property? The Pike ranch and vineyards?
