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And they would think that seller was a fretting father pacing back and forth at the ranch, full of the same indecision when putting his place up for sale from before.
“I’m not getting any service out here.” The lawyer consulted his phone and held it up in the air. His forehead gleamed with sweat from the hot July sun. Frustration tightened his weaselly features. “I can drive to the end of this property and back to finalize my inquiries.”
“No, no.” Lacy smiled. Of course he’d want to hurry them into signing this deal that would fleece them all. Even if he lost Funches’s land in a bad property exchange, the gamble would be worth it to get one over on the Slades. “Just look over the paperwork. Make sure that it’s legit.”
The lawyer sniffed in outrage, but at Lacy’s pointed gaze, he hurried to do his job. He scanned through the rest of the paperwork, nodding and muttering until he turned the last paper over. “Everything’s in order as far as I can see.” He took his phone out again and held it up like a lightning rod. “I would still prefer an investment clearance.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Lacy cracked a wolfish grin at Porter. “Bring me the deed to Funches’s land.” His lawyer harrumphed at being diminished to delivery boy status and left for the car to fulfill the request. Lacy busied himself with signing through the pages of the contract—all to acquire that useless piece of land.
“Hey.” Porter’s heart thumped a little harder as he thought of another impossible request. “Put an addendum on that. Throw in the other deeds to Harvest Ranch that you’ve got with you, too.”
Lacy’s hand hesitated on the document, his eyes veering up to Porter’s.
“All you need is the Slade Ranch to get your woman to come back to you,” Porter said. “Those other properties are useless to you, and… I could use some more holdings to expand my portfolio—get one over on the neighbors.”
Twisting his lips in irritation, Lacy gestured at his lawyer to add those other contracts from the car.
Porter noticed Black SUVs making their way over the country roads in the distance. Their heavy wheels pushed up dirt, but besides a few rough patches, they were actually making it through.
Was this the trouble that was coming for Lacy… or was it coming for Porter?
He needed to hurry this deal.
Porter took a deep breath while Lacy signed those other deeds over, too. Cadence’s ex turned to the exchange contract, and he finished those off with style. His smile was overly smug as he looked up at him. “Your turn, Nash. We needyoursignature to make this legally binding.”
“Oh!” Lacy’s lawyer let out a happy yelp. He waved his cell phone like he’d won the lottery. “I got service!”
The foreheads belonging to Funches’s friends wrinkled in unison. “Whoa! Really?” Mac asked. “Who’s your cell phone carrier?”
“StarLuv,” the lawyer bragged.
Ugh. Really? The cellphone company was changing the sky as they knew it with the amount of satellites they released daily. So much for going off grid. Under Porter’s suddenly concerned eyes, the lawyer pulled up what must be the relevant information, namely the coordinates of the throwaway land. He was about to find out really soon that they’d been scammed.
A big smile took over the lawyer’s thin lips. “Yes.” He nodded. “All is in order. This is the property that belonged to the Slade family for generations. It was sold to a mystery buyer only yesterday.”
Say what?
Porter extended his hand for the phone. “Let me see that.”
The lawyer’s eyes narrowed with suspicion, but he handed the phone over anyway. “It’s all there.”
Porter’s ears rang with shock at the news, even as he read over the investment info. Everything fit, even the exact acreage being sold. Thiswasn’tsome throwaway land that they were bargaining with. This was home.
His father had sold the place. He really had! And now West was making Porter facilitate a deal with his worst enemy to put their home under Lacy’s ownership? Why? Was it possible that they were working together all along?
His eyes slid back to Lacy who could barely suppress his eagerness.
Porter rememberedeverythingthat Nash had said about how West had tried to justify cheating that woman out of her farmland, but even if Nash had truly thrown that deal back in their faces, there was no way that West could possibly be working with Lacy!
First off, his brother never would’ve bothered making Porter his middleman. He’d have given the land to Lacy straight up. So why the trick? Somehow West was duping them both. Talk about making the enemy think that they had the upper hand. To think that Porter had trusted his brother!
One thing was certain—Porter wasn’t signing that horrible deal.
The black SUVs had finally reached them and parked around the junkyard in a neat formation. He groaned. Here were West’s reinforcements.
He recognized Trout as he shuffled out of the vehicle. The filthy rich oil tycoon was dressed to the nines in the ugliest suit Porter had ever seen, capped off by a white Stetson and white alligator boots.
Lacy’s face reddened with surprise. Yeah, West was setting thembothup.
