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THE NEXT FEW DAYS WERE busy and by the time lunch came around on day three, everyone in the house needed a break. Declan, who had finished his papers and was going over the accounts, sent Renee with instructions to bring him back food, lots of it. He was going to finish what he’d started and still had a seminar class late that afternoon.
Avery had started back to work. While Stryker wanted to ask why she was avoiding him, it wouldn’t have washed because, in truth, he hadn’t come up for air much himself this morning. What he could do was make sure Avery got a break and was fed. Any attempt at refusal was not to be allowed even though she tried.
“You’re taking a break, having some lunch, and if we have time, we’re going for a short walk. If we weren’t so busy, I’d send you up for a nap, but today it just doesn’t seem likely.”
“I don’t nap, Stryker. I never have, really.”
“You’ll learn to take them when needed and without fuss.”
“Cute, but I’m an adult. You seem to forget that too often.”
“And you need to take better care of yourself, a fact you seem to overlook. When you don’t do it, I have to step in. Besides, another thing you seem to forget, I have the leather strap.”
“You don’t, do you?”
He loved her eyes and even more when they got that surprised, wary look. Stryker merely shrugged. No use telling her he couldn’t imagine her doing something so naughty to make him consider it. They had made sweet love last night, and he was glad it wasn’t hampered by the gaming room spanking. Stryker didn’t understand how he could love her more every day.
Avery was concerned about everyone’s comfort and happiness. She checked with Callen to make sure every guest was taken care of as though it was a normal expectation of her job. It wasn’t. That was Callen’s bit. Once she was signed on as permanent, she practically inhaled the whole ranch operation. Avery was fast becoming the go-to person for most questions. And even more remarkable, she often had the answer. Stryker hoped she didn’t take on too much. He’d have to watch.
After lunch, Stryker and Avery went for a short walk. Her responses were one syllable, non-disclosing bits of talk. Stryker was chomping at the bit to know what was bothering her, and he nearly demanded she say what it was, but not a word of explanation fell from her lips. Just as he had worn his patience to a frazzled end, Carson walked up to them with a clear mission. Stryker’s attention was diverted.
“Stryker, Seamus and I have something to discuss. Can we snag you before you go back to your office?”
Stryker hesitated, and Avery half-smiled. “Go on. I have so much to do, I really need to get back. I know how to get there.”
After another hesitation, Stryker dropped a chaste kiss on her cheek before leaving with Carson to fix whatever dilemma they had before them. He really didn’t need another problem, but he guessed it would be an even longer day since trouble never asked permission. As they walked closer to his brother’s domain, Stryker glanced around, trying to locate what the issue might be, hoping for an easy solution. The reality was, if it were easy, they would never have even told him about it. Carson didn’t want to discuss things without Seamus.
“Hey, what’s up? It isn’t like my brother to ask me for help.”
Seamus shook his head in mock disdain. “This is really your problem more than mine. But it landed on my doorstep, so I’m sharing.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. What is it?”
“Ben Camden hasn’t shown for work today. We can’t locate him, and his dad was out working on the farm, so he just called me back. He said he hasn’t seen him since yesterday morning. He assumed he stayed the night here or more likely in town.”
“You’ve had no shows before. Dock his pay and move on.”
“Sure, if that were all, but there’s more.”
Stryker ran his hand through his hair. “Don’t tell me. He had something to do with our extra early morning on Saturday.”
“Seems likely. One of the guests, Mr. Carnegie, mentioned the new couple of workers. Had me floored for a minute, but he described the men well enough that it’s likely to be Camden. I thought the second man he was describing was another guest, and they just hadn’t met before.
Today, when we were waiting for the sheriff to arrive to talk to the guests, he brought some photos, and I got the sheriff to leave me pics of the guys and bingo. I pulled Camden’s photo, and Carnegie identified him too. Couldn’t find the other man in the photos, but nearly all our guys were in one of the pictures. Camden knew and likely got one of our would-be cattle rustlers on the ranch so he would know the lay of the land and the schedule. It wouldn’t be difficult during Duder season. A deputy came and took Mr. Carnegie’s statement.”
“This is going to kill Avery,” said Stryker. He walked as he thought, a tell when Stryker was working out a problem. He didn’t want to tell Avery her brother might be a thief in the making. He wasn’t sure he needed to tell her.
“Are you sure she doesn’t already know?” asked Carson.
“What do you mean, am I sure?”
Stryker rarely found himself at odds with the man who had been his best friend since the second grade, but today was one of them. Avery would never be in on something like this.
“I mean, she knows her family and her brother. He might have said something to her.”
“She hasn’t been back home since that incident in town. She doesn’t talk to Ben, and he wouldn’t have told her, anyway, knowing she would tell me. He thinks she betrayed him not once, but twice to me.”
“Good enough. I just had to ask.”
“You didn’t, and I’d tap ‘er lite when talking about Avery. Be very careful about asking something like that again.” Stryker left his thoughts clear on the subject of his girl. “Now, how do we handle this?”
“That’s where you come in, big brother. I like Avery, and I am expecting her to become my sister, but she’s yours, and as such, you get the privilege of handling any family issues. Benjamin Camden is a big family issue.”
“Well, hell. I guess you’re right. Okay, we do it this way. You deal with the missing work without a call, and I’ll handle the passing of information. Divide and conquer.”
“Yep, sounds like a plan. Better Avery be mad at you than me,” said Seamus.
“She isn’t on good terms with Ben right now, and I have no tolerance for the idiot, but it is her brother. I’ll have to handle it carefully.”
As Stryker walked back to the ranch offices, he thought about how he should deal with this issue. Avery was so loyal she would stand up for her brother even though she realized how wrong he was. She took it too far in Stryker’s opinion but, on the other hand, knowing she would believe in you no matter what happened was a comfort. He hoped he was in that position soon. It took time, and he was willing to wait. In the interim, he needed to call Mr. Camden and discuss his son with him.
“Avery, could you follow me to my office, please?”
***
SHE COULD STILL HEAR that opening line as she climbed in her car to go to the farm. She didn’t even see it as her home anymore, but the farm. Her dad’s house. Cassidy’s place. This ranch was what she considered home now, but in the same thought, she wondered if it would last. This family was becoming important to her. True, in a different way than her own, but her loyalties were building for the Red Eagles. Not like her own family, not yet anyway, but it would hurt if she had to break off ties with them. It would hurt more than she could contemplate.
After following Stryker into his office, he had brought Avery down onto his lap before telling her why he was so serious. “Do you know where Ben is today?”
“No, where is he?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t come to work.”
“Maybe he’s sick. Call my dad.”
“It’s possible, but...” And then the whole sordid tale came out.
“That doesn’t make sense that he would come in on Saturday and Sunday but not today. Wouldn’t he have not come in the day it happened? Saturday?”
“Sure, except it was his weekend off this month.”
“Oh.”
How could Ben do that? Surely he didn’t. Seamus and the guest were mistaken. But deep in her gut, she knew they weren’t. Stryker was right. A guest had no reason to make something up like that. Mr. Carnegie didn’t even know about the attempt until he had come back from his cattle camp experience today. And Ben had shown he had poor judgment these last months.
Gambling. Ben didn’t have a hard heart, but he had become a gambler. While Avery didn’t want to admit it, she knew it was an addiction like any other. And not having the means to feed his addiction, one became desperate. Losing meant no money to gamble again. As an addict, he would do whatever he had to do to regain access.
Stryker received a phone call, and it sounded like the sheriff. Stryker kissed her temple before Avery walked out of Stryker’s office, closed his door, grabbed her purse, and left. She drove off before he could know she wasn’t in the front office. It wasn’t something he needed to deal with on top of the full plate he had daily to keep up with this big ranch.
Avery gave up trying to figure out when things went bad for Ben. Knowing that Ben would pee in his drinking water, so to speak, told the real story. That the ranch had paid off his debt did not hold his allegiance because Ben had none but for the next bet. She found it easier not to try to rescue him this time. Her loyalties had changed to put Stryker first.
Avery knew it was a difficult position for Stryker to be in, but he would do what he had to do for the ranch and to keep her safe. She would do what she had to for Stryker. It was out of her hands, but Avery wanted answers. She knew Stryker was going to roast her butt when he got his hands on her, and not the sexy type of spanking, either. It was an acceptable consequence. It was time that her father got the whole story about the man her brother had become because of the gambling.
As she pulled up to the farm, she sighed in relief. Ben’s truck was gone. Hungarian Rhapsody was playing from her phone. She didn’t need to check the caller ID to know it was Stryker. Avery sent him an auto-response text and clicked disconnect. She called her father’s cell, and when she didn’t get an answer, she called the barn. That phone was used more than the house’s phone ever was, so it was the natural second call.
“Hello.” Mason Camden sounded steadfast and content when he answered the phone.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hey, honey. Where are you? And what’s wrong?”
“Here. I was just trying to find you. I’ll be in the barn in a minute.”
She hung up and headed in the direction of the familiar. She would always find her dad when things had gone belly up in her younger days, usually in the barn. In the summer, they would talk over a cold beverage he kept in his little fridge or over hot chocolate he kept just for her in the winter.
She walked with all the determination she could muster. The bruises on her face from hitting the table and floor in the gambling hall were ugly now. She hated to hurt her dad, but if he didn’t see the results of Ben’s out-of-control behavior when this latest thing came out, he wouldn’t believe any of it. They couldn’t help Ben if they didn’t accept the hard truth.
Avery took a deep breath and stepped into the barn. Mr. Camden raised his head, his expression happy and welcoming until he took a few steps in her direction.
“What the hell happened to you, honey?” He reached out to touch her face and stalled his hand. His tone turned granite. “Who did this to you? Did Red Eagle touch you?” He reached for his pitchfork as though he would go after Stryker at that very moment and run him through.
“No, no, he didn’t touch me. Honest. It was Ben.”
“What? Do you expect me to believe your brother did this?”
“He did. That night I was here to try to mend the fences with him. I left here and drove through town to see if I could find him. I found him gambling. If it weren’t for Seamus Red Eagle, I don’t know what I would have done.”
And then it was Avery’s turn to tell an unsavory story. To his credit, Macon listened to every detail through and an even more detailed rendition of what had happened Saturday when Ben tried to steal cattle. And today’s new information. Macon didn’t say a word. Avery’s phone had rung a few more times while she retold the tale. Finally, when she was done, and it rang again, Macon nodded in the direction of it.
“Better answer it. I imagine that man of yours is going to be none too pleased you haven’t responded, and when he finds out you’re here, he’s likely to take exception.”
“Stryker doesn’t blame you. Ben is responsible for his own actions.”
“Nonetheless, I feel some responsibility by not having pushed his accountability more. Ben was such a dreamer, and I didn’t want to squash that energy and drive to be something better. I want something better for all my children. But I want it achieved with hard work and ingenuity, not dishonesty.”
The phone had stopped again. “I better go back. I just thought you’d want to see for yourself in case Ben wants to deny it. I told the hospital I fell, but when I got back to the ranch, Renee snapped some pictures if I needed proof for some reason. I had a room full of witnesses, but she said I’d never get a chance to go back, so we took them.”
Stryker would have to wait a little longer. She sent him a text and saw he had sent her no less than five messages. She sent him a second message. His response left her in doubt as to his true meaning.
Avery: Be home soon.
Stryker: I’ll be here.
Did that mean he would be there waiting for her in a good way or a bad way? Was it I’ll be here when you are done, so do what you need to do or was it like I’ll be here waiting to address this issue when you get here?
She left her father in the barn and headed inside to grab a few things she had wanted recently. Soon, half her clothes and personal items would be at the ranch. All her favorite things already were. Throwing the items in a summer bag she liked, she was bouncing back down the stairs when Ben walked in the door, stopping her progression immediately.
Wary, Avery looked at Ben and then stood quietly, hoping he would just walk away. When Ben saw her face, the surprise that registered on his was profound. Then the guilt that might have come was covered in anger.
“You think you’d have learned your lesson, Avery. Go away and stay away from me and my business.”
“I’m here grabbing some things. This is still our family home. That is if you haven’t tried to gamble it away again.” Stryker was sending warning vibes to Avery, and she tried to listen. She really did.
Ben took a step toward Avery and stopped. “I intend to enjoy my life, and sometimes you have to do things you might not have wanted to do to get there. When you have that goal of better things dangling before you like a carrot for your horse, you take that risk because it will be worth it. I’m beginning to see the fruits of my efforts.”
“Yes, like stealing from others so you can selfishly have more. You mean like when you told some guys where and when to go onto the Red Eagle and steal cattle? In case you haven’t heard, they were caught, and someone is singing like the birds on a spring morning. And guess whose name has cropped up?”
A ping told Avery she’d gotten another text message. She looked at her phone quickly.
Stryker: I’m coming to you.
Avery: With Ben.
Stryker: LEAVE. COME HOME NOW!
Her belly wiggled at the command, and she intended to leave, but not before Ben said a few parting words.
“You are such a little shit, you know that? You hooked up with that holier than thou family equipped with too much of everything, including their over-inflated egos.”
“I love him, and I don’t care what you think, but the fact that you blame everyone else for what you don’t have instead of working for it is so like you. I don’t intend to be part of your plans for getting rich without work. I won’t be a party to you or your garbage in this lifestyle ever again.”
She slowly but deliberately finished descending the staircase and headed for the door when he grabbed her arm as she tried to pass him. He leaned down and spoke close to her ear.
“I wouldn’t get too attached to Stryker Red Eagle. I hope you didn’t mean what you said about loving him, or you are going to be in a world of hurt. That family has been earning a huge takedown for a long time. No one does that well without cutting a few corners and walking on a few people to get there. They have done it for years.”
“They work hard on their place, just like dad and Cassidy work on this place. Something you wouldn’t know anything about.”
“Take my warning or not, but Stryker and the other Red Eagles are about to wish they weren’t so big or so greedy after I’m done with them.”
“What are you talking about?”
Ben shrugged. “Accidents happen all the time on a ranch.”
Avery yanked her arm out of his hand and hurried outside. She jumped into her car and pulled out quickly. Heart racing, breathing more labored, she had to take her foot off the gas, or she would be pulled over for flying on a country road. Her phone rang again. Her mind was trying to process what Ben meant about accidents, causing it to be too jumbled to realize the phone was ringing until she had to stop for sheep crossing the road.
She hit the Bluetooth connection button. “Hello?”
“Thank God. You have so much to explain, little girl.”
“I know, I know, but Stryker, I need to talk to you when I get there.”
“Oh, we will be talking, don’t you worry. We might not be facing each other for the whole conversation, though.” Her butt muscles tightened, and a tremor of understanding galloped up along her spine and throughout her body ending in a pronounced shiver.
“I’m serious, Stryker.”
Stryker barked a nearly mirthless laugh. “I am too, my girl. You have walked over the line this time. It’s only been days since the last time you went headlong into trouble. This may be a two-parter. For a woman who says she doesn’t get into trouble, you sure do it often enough.”
“Dammit, Stryker, listen to me! Ben may do something to hurt you. And your family, the ranch, I don’t know. He threatened you, everyone, everything.”
Stryker was instantly silent, but Avery knew he was listening to her. His voice was urgent. “Where are you, darlin’?”
“By Georgetown Acres.”
“Concentrate on the road and come straight to the offices. I’ll call the guys in and keep Renee here.”
“Okay.”
“Avery, I love you. Drive very carefully, darlin’.”
“I will,” replied Avery in a less stressed voice.
By the time she arrived, all but Declan, who was conducting a class, were in the offices. The room was crackling with assorted conversations going on. The noise stopped as they realized Avery had entered the room. She explained about the conversation she’d had with her dad, the one she’d had with Ben, and the fear that he evoked in her when she saw how filled with hatred he was.
“I know dad is going to do something about Ben, but I worry it may push him over the edge to do something terrible. He never has liked being forced into a corner. If he thinks dad is no longer on his side...” Avery shrugged.
Renee asked the hard question. “What do you think he is capable of doing?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Avery continued. “He’s irritated about being forced to work off his debts. Ben doesn’t see Stryker stepping in and getting him out of a jam. He sees it as a betrayal, an ego buster. Then it angers Ben that he consistently loses more than he wins. Now that he’s heard the information he shared had ended without any cattle to sell, he is desperate. That foiled effort left him with no easy way to lay his hands on cash. It made it less likely he can get away with not working off his debt. And he blames Stryker. He threatened him.”
“Do you think he will do something that would put the ranch and those on it in danger, or is he all talk?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? I have no doubt that he was ashamed that he had used the farm and almost ruined everything. Dad, and now Cass and generations before them, had worked hard to maintain their land. I get that, but I’m afraid the biggest danger about Ben is his anger towards the Red Eagles themselves. He is a man possessed with a craving for revenge for a vendetta that wasn’t earned.”
Avery explained that anger extended to the Red Eagle family, their holdings, and their guests. It also seemed to extend to her, now.
Seamus spoke when she had finished. “I was afraid of that. I saw him talking to some of the day labor people, but I’d hoped he was just being friendly or had finally decided to try to settle in, but after this, I know differently.”
“I feel like I’m betraying my brother, but I have to say that you should be on your guard. I don’t think that Ben would actually hurt me, and I’d like to say the same about everyone, but I just don’t know anymore.”
The group spoke for a while longer, and then they locked up, Stryker and the rest taking extra precautions to lock up all important paperwork in the huge safe in the back wall of the bathroom. If you didn’t belong to the family, you didn’t know it was there. Next, they talked about personal precautions.
“Avery and Renee, you don’t go anywhere alone. Not until we have figured out whether Ben was all talk or if he plans on backing it up with some kind of trouble. I’ll call the sheriff and update him, but in the meantime, Callen, you make sure you have extra hands around the guests and let’s get them out working the cattle to move them from the main ranch.”
“I’ll work on making sure our guys are all armed and on their guard. Buddy system in effect all around,” said Seamus.
Carson said, “I’ll make sure that everyone knows how to handle the fire equipment, and we’ll go over the safety protocols for the ranch. I don’t want to lose anything, but we have some new guys that I want to be sure know the priorities in a disaster. People, livestock, things, in that order.”
“I wish I could fix this,” said Avery.
“You don’t have that kind of power, darlin’. Besides, you have gotten into this more than you should have.” Stryker lifted his hand to stop her response. “But I understand that it’s your brother, and I would have done the same.”
He pulled Avery into him and kissed her soundly. After sending the women to the house to secure paperwork in the office in a matching safe in the study, the men left to work on their own area preparations. Stryker told them he would call the sheriff, Declan, and then their father.
Stryker left his mother to Até. At least there was one less woman he had to worry about. He laughed and then groaned. Avery was like Renee and his mom. None of these women would stop to think about their gender before stepping up to any challenge to one of their own. That’s what worried him.
***
STRYKER HAD HEARD AVERY’S news with a heavy heart, but after quizzing her to make sure she didn’t have more than a little soreness after her ordeal the other night, he decided they should clear the air. And he needed to set down some solid ground rules about this thing with Ben. She was ashamed of her brother’s behavior and felt at a loss because of the delicate position. Stryker knew his family didn’t blame her, but she blamed herself, plus he needed to spank her ass for today. No time like the present. Besides, he needed a good fuck, and Avery craved that after he addressed her error in choices.