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Her laughter danced off her tongue before she sternly bit it down.
“Hey, honey,” he said, more seriously. “Come over here. My momma would be ecstatic to have you.”
“No, no.” Cadence went to the door and bolted it. “I’m locking this door. The sheriff department is just down the street. I’ll call them the second I suspect anything is off.”
He reluctantly agreed to her negotiations, though she sensed the determination threading through his voice as he talked about stealing her away from there soon. Nothing was going to stop him from going after Lacy now.
He hung up, even as her worries gnawed against her insides like a rusty chain. What could she do? Porter was right. If they didn’t make a stand, Lacy wouldn’t stop bothering them, and yet? Could they trust West’s help?
They were throwing their fate into the pathway of another snake.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Everything about this plan should work as long as West didn’t tip Lacy off.
Porter tried to shake all thoughts of his brother betraying him from his mind. Cadence had put those doubts into his head, but the blood was thick in his family. They worked together when it came down to it.
No honor among thieves?
True, but he’d made a deal and West didn’t go back on anything that he promised.
Porter’s truck rumbled along the country road on his way to Funches’s. He made one last call to Cadence before he lost cellphone service. “Hey!” He forced himself to give her a jolly greeting when she answered. “Are you at the fairgrounds?”
“Just about.”
“Save a seat for me,” he said. He was planning on putting this all behind him at the end of tonight. “I want to see those Mackenzie kids rock this town.”
“Don’t be long.” Cadence sounded worried. “I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”
“Oh darling,” he said. “You have nothing to worry about. Funches is with me, and a couple of his lawyer friends, and I think we’ll do all right for ourselves.”
“Lawyers?” Relief shot through her voice. “Oh, I’m so glad to hear that. I thought you’d gone all Wild West on me.”
“Ha!” He had, but she didn’t need to know that. “Like I said, save a seat for me.”
“Will do!” He detected the cheerful note as she ended the call, and he felt lighter at putting her mind at ease.
He might have just enough time to call West before he entered the dead zone at Funches’s. He dialed his brother, who picked up immediately. “You almost there?” West asked.
“Yeah, talk fast,” Porter said. “I’m almost out of service.”
“It’s done. Word’s gotten to Lacy that we’ve got oil on our land, and so he wants it bad now. He’ll meet you.”
Porter took a steadying breath. He was supposed to pretend that he had no idea about this “new development,” only that he would be willing to work outanydeal to get Funches’s property. They just had to make Lacy believe that he had the upper hand. It was the oldest hustling trick in the book.
“You’ll need to work fast,” West said. “I set the other plan in action. I won’t be able to control when it all goes down, and as soon as that trouble hits, you won’t be able to get a thing out of Lacy.”
Porter knew better than to ask about this “other plan.” West had been reluctant to talk about it earlier when he’d pressed him about it—like he refused to believe that his younger brother had the capacity to understand all the chess pieces going into play.
It was maddening, but Porter was used to West by now. He’d do his part.
“All I’m saying,” West said, “is that it’s good that you won’t have cell phone service because…”
And Porter lost reception. West’s next words were swallowed by silence. He had a pretty good idea what his brother was about to say. Whatever trouble poised to hit Lacy was, it was going to be an explosion that would take down Lacy and anyone standing near him. After that, Lacy wouldn’t be letting go of anybody’s land. If Porter wanted to make sure that Lacy didn’t get away with owning one scrap of Harvest Ranch, he needed to act now.
Porter parked behind the trees outside of Funches’s cabin, away from the coming action. His truck was a dead giveaway that he was the culprit behind this trick, and he wanted no evidence linking him to what was about to go down.
The long grass brushed past his legs as he traveled through the long meadow to get to the junkyard where Funches had fenced off all his broken-down farm equipment. Mutt barked out as soon as Porter entered the area. The chocolate Labrador Pitbull rushed forward to greet him, and Porter reached down to pat him behind the ears. He noticed Funches fixing his truck to the side of them. The hood was up on the ancient relic and half his friend’s body hung over the side.
