AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You son of a bitch,” Daisy whispers.
“Then I went to see Colton,” War says. “I made sure you were all out on your nightly excursion to town. I told him the deal—he could sign now and sell the place and list Melody as the sole beneficiary, or he could do nothing, let the ranch go to nobody, and the whole thing would fall into chaos. I told him it was the only moral thing to do. And the only way to keep this place out of your hands.”
“This is fake,” Daisy says, shoving her chair back. “You forged these documents.”
“We didn’t,” I tell her. “And those are copies. Feel free to tear them up if it’ll make you feel better.”
“You bitch,” she snaps and her lips pull back. “I’m going to fight you. I’m going to rip you to fucking pieces in court.”
“Good luck,” I say and stand, meeting her gaze. “The thing is, we took this long to tell you about it because we wanted to make sure this was ironclad. There’s no judge in the world that’ll side with you, not after we confirmed Colton’s signature, the beneficiary statement, the sale agreement, everything. My father sold the ranch right under your fucking nose, and you’re not going to see a dime.”
Daisy screams and comes at me. Her fists fly, aiming for my face, but I’m ready for her this time. I drop my shoulder, step forward, and ram my weight right into her midsection the way War taught me. She lets out a shockedwoofof air and flips over my shoulder, over my back, and slams onto the floor behind me.
She tries to jump to her feet but War puts a boot on her chest and holds her down. “Stay there for a while,” he says. “I fucked you, Daisy. And I have to admit, I enjoyed every second of it.”
“I’ll sue you both,” she wheezes from the floor. War lets her go and we head to the door. Her unhinged screams and shouts follow us to the street. “I’ll kill you! I’ll find you and kill you, Melody, I fucking swear! Rosie couldn’t do it but I fucking will, you bitch, you fucking bit—” I slam the door, cutting her off, and lean against War.
I’m shaking with excitement and fear, and I don’t know if that was the right thing to do. I didn’t go back to the ranch to get revenge on my family—that’d never been part of the plan. All I wanted was to see my father, say goodbye, and deal with my past.
Instead, they chose to drag me back into hell, and I’m done letting them yank me around.
“How’d that go?” War asks, leading me down the steps and back to his truck.
“I think it went well,” I say as we climb inside. “Daisy seems to have taken the news well.”
“She’s going to fight you, you know,” he says as he puts the truck in gear and starts to drive. “She won’t make this easy.”
“I know, but it doesn’t matter. She can make a bunch of noise and delay things in court, but in the end the ranch is sold and that money is mine.”
He laughs and rolls around a curve. “I’m happy for you, Melody. I really am.”
“You should be happy for yourself, too. You earned your commission.”
His eyebrows raise. “What commission?”
“I believe there was a two-million-dollar bonus involved, if I’m not mistaken.”
He says nothing, only keeps driving, his face suddenly impassive, and I wonder if I said something wrong. I expected him to be happy about this since it means paying off his father’s creditors and getting a bunch of dangerous Greek mobsters off his back, but he looks like I just told him I’m going to have to amputate his leg.
“That’s not why I did this,” he says, voice pitched low. “I can’t take that money from you.”
“You can and you will. You might be an asshole and a liar, but you don’t deserve to get killed.”
He lets out a throaty laugh. “I think there are some folks that’ll disagree with you. Daisy, for one.”
“Daisy doesn’t matter. Are you turning me down, Warren Temple?”
“Never,” he whispers and looks at me, the truck idling at a stoplight. “Let me take you out to dinner tonight.”
“Dinner? That’s all?”
“Dinner, movie, sleepover, camping trip, vacation to Paris, whatever you want. So long as I can do it with you.”
“Let’s start with dinner,” I say, smiling like an idiot. “Maybe if we act like normal people—” I shrug, like, what do we have to lose?
“Dinner it is. I’ll pick you up at—well, how about we skip that part and go right out from here?”
“Sounds good to me.” I reach across the truck and slip my hand into his.
