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And I’ll never get myrealprize.
Out in the parking lot, I pause at my car and make a call. Colton Leader answers on the second ring. His voice is a rasp, the last gasp of a man that spent all his life with a thin cigar between his lips and is paying the price. “Warren. How is my daughter?”
“She’s doing good,” I say and glance back at the bar. I wonder what she’s doing alone in there now. Drinking, feeling sorry for herself. Wishing I’d kissed her. “I think I’ve almost got her convinced.”
“Good,” he says with a grunt. “Very good. Keep at it. My offer still stands.” He wheezes like his lungs are leaking. “The Leader Ranch needs a Leader at the helm, and Melody’s all I have left.” He pauses to take a phlegmy breath. “Bring her home. Marry her. Keep her here where she belongs. You stand to inherit a fortune if you can pull this off.”
Chapter5
Melody
“What do you know about Warren Temple?” I sit with my legs crossed in Ford’s office while a gas fireplace crackles in the far corner.
Ford pours himself a drink and rolls his shoulders. “Not a whole lot, if I’m honest.”
“I thought you two were related?” I shake my head when he offers me a whiskey. A hangover from two days ago still pulses in the back of my skull. I donotgo drinking like that anymore, but I was feeling raw and vulnerable, and I wanted to let out some steam, and I went a little overboard.
“We’re something like fourth cousins,” Ford says and sits down across from me in a green leather armchair. “His family was always a little…” He trails off, staring at the fire.
“A little, what?”
“Strange,” he says and gives me an apologetic look. “My family’s always been big and there’s this pecking order, and if you’re not on the inside, you might as well not exist. I think I saw War like three or four times at most growing up.”
“How were they strange?”
“They were always into these business schemes. I remember my father complaining about them once, said that Warren’s dad has a million ideas and none of them are good. I heard a rumor they struck it rich making these rubber reusable pen caps or something like that, but I also heard they went bankrupt because of a Nigerian prince scam, so I don’t really know.”
I sigh and lean my head against the couch. War’s a knot I want to untangle, but there are no loose threads to pull at. He’s got a Facebook page, a Twitter, all the usual stuff, but he’s not active on any of it. His friends are generic, and there’s no information about his family anywhere—no news stories, no obituaries, nothing at all. It’s like the Temples barely exist, and Warren’s practically a ghost.
I want to know what he’s been doing in the years since Jameson. He says he’s a fixer for the rich, but I think there’s a lot more going on. Why would my father hire him, of all people, instead of a real private detective? My father’s not the kind of man to be embarrassed because he wants his estranged daughter to come see him before he dies. If that’s all my dad wanted, there are a thousand better ways he could’ve gone about getting in touch.
Instead, he sent War, and I don’t know why.
Ford’s lack of information only deepens my suspicions. War’s too slick, too charming, too clever. Too attractive. I think of that kiss, or that near-kiss, and the way he clung to that stupid mechanical bull like the prize for staying on was eternal life. And in the end he didn’t even claim what he wanted—instead, he fed me some line about being cut off.
If War was related to a family like the powerful and mega-rich Arcs, he’d be at their house every weekend making sure they all knew him.
Unless he had a reason not to get anywhere near his wealthy cousins.
It all makes me frustrated. I want to know War’s game, and I need to know why my father would send him in particular to fetch me, and it doesn’t feel like any of those answers are forthcoming.
“I wish I could help you more,” Ford says and swirls his drink. “You know I’d tell you whatever you wanted, it’s just that Warren’s as much a mystery to me as he is to you. I honestly forgot we were even related until he asked about buying Bomber.”
“I know and I appreciate that. You and Kat have been very good to me. Especially considering—” I stop short and look away.
“Considering you’ve been lying about who you are since you met my wife?”
“I guess she told you.”
“No, actually, she hasn’t said anything about it.”
I look at him sharply. “Then how do you—?”
“You went to Jameson. Your last name isLeader,for fuck’s sake. You really think I didn’t figure out who you are, like, the instant I saw you?”
I laugh in disbelief. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“We’ve all got our pasts and our baggage,” he says and looks away. “I figured you’d come clean when you were ready, and if you were never ready, well, that’s fine too.”
