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He slowed to a stop in front of me. I rested my head on his nose and stroked his neck. “You taught me to love, handsome.”
He snorted, stomping his hoof.
“That man over there thinks I can be a mama,” I said, letting my horse absorb some of my fear. “Which is crazy. You’re the closest thing I’ve got to a kid, and I’ve abandoned you.”
He nuzzled me, the wildness in his eyes tamed. I ran my hands down his sides and kissed the tip of his nose. “I kinda like it when Easton does that to me. Guess affection isn’t so bad, huh?”
Hot breath blew in my face. “Are you trying to get rid of me? Or do you want to scare them again?”
I hugged Rage and walked backward toward the fence. “We’ve got a date tomorrow, handsome.”
He watched as I climbed the gate and made a disgruntled noise when Easton placed his hands on my shoulders.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“He wouldn’t hurt me.” I felt Easton’s tension and understood his concern, but I knew my horse.
“He’s wild.”
I looked into my husband’s sky-blue eyes. “So am I.”
“You might need to be jealous of a horse,” Daniel observed, leaning back on the fence.
“Probably.” Easton grumbled as we walked over to join him. “What did you find out?”
“What do you know of a transcontinental pipeline?” Daniel’s posture remained relaxed while tension radiated off Easton and me.
“We took a look at it, eight, maybe ten months ago. Another company proposed we go in on it together, but the cost wasn’t worth the risk.”
I pulled my ponytail tighter on my head. “If it hadn’t been for the legal shit, we might have done it, but as it stands, nobody has secured the right to go across some of the property the pipeline is supposed to cover. The landowners were putting up a heck of a fight and refused to agree to the lease terms or outright sell. It’s already been held up in court over a year. And Washington can’t make up their minds if the project is off or on.”
“Not to mention the terrain. A lot of it is easy building, but some of it, not so much. The construction costs alone were way out of line with our breakeven timetable on other projects.” Easton zeroed in on Daniel. “What’s the pipeline have to do with Carter Energy?”
“Not Carter Energy. You and Mulaney.”
We looked at each other. Easton and I had been firmly on the same side when it came to the pipeline. It hadn’t taken us long to come up with an absolute no. That had been the end of it.
“Does the name Muldoon mean anything to you?” Daniel asked.
Easton shook his head, and I wracked my brain. “Seems like there’s some people who own a property we lease with that name. Over in—” I could picture a dilapidated house on that land, but couldn’t remember what part of Texas it was in.
“Hang on a sec. In the early days of Carter Energy, my grandfather needed more capital and couldn’t get it from the bank. He partnered up for a couple years with a Henry Muldoon Statesman IV.”
“You remember his whole name?” I asked incredulously.
“Every time Grandpa Carter mentioned him, he said his whole name.” Easton mocked how his grandfather would’ve said it, like the guy was a highbrow man. “They had some sort of falling out. I think the man tried to force my granddad out of his own company, but I don’t know anything about it.”
“I take it you two haven’t formed an LLC by that name to buy a pipeline?”
I gripped the gate. “Are you saying—?”
“How is that even possible?” Easton shoved off the fence and paced the yard.
“The offshore accounts that are empty now? The money for the purchase has been traced back to them.”
My head spun. I trusted Daniel and his contacts, but the news was a lot to take in.
“Did you find where the money originally came from?” Easton stopped moving and waited for Daniel to answer.
