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Noon came and went with no sign of Sarah and her little family at Troy’s house. No messages either. Would she stand him up after he had volunteered to make sure her boy ended up with a good, trained horse and knew how to take care of him? Had she abandoned the idea of saving Rudy?
Seated at the cooking island in his kitchen, he pressed in her number. When his call went to voice mail, he typed a message.
An hour later, he had received no reply. An odd anxiety niggled at him. He had a driving urge to know where she was and what she was doing. He could think of no one in Roundup he could call to check on her except for Lou Beckman who had a houseful of company for Christmas. Nevertheless, Lou was who he called.
“Troy. I’m glad you called,” Lou said, a mournful tone in her voice. “Jericho Hatch passed away this morning. Heart attack.”
Troy’s stomach dropped. All he could think of was that Sarah and her boy were alone. “Where is she?”
“We’re all just numb,” Lou went on, now in tears. “And poor Sarah, bless her heart, is—”
“Lou. Where is she?” Troy asked again.
“She was at the clinic in town earlier. Her boss at the grocery store and his wife were gonna take her back to Jericho’s house. Something like this couldn’t happen at a worse time. Everybody’s got obligations for Christmas. I got my own family here. I just couldn’t stay in town with her any longer, but I couldn’t get her to come to my house. She wanted to go back to Jericho’s. At least she’s got something to eat. People have been taking food over there all-day.”
In small rural communities, friends always took food to the deceased’s home. Troy’s head was spinning. Again, he found himself mired in helplessness. “Where’s her boy?”
“I did talk her into letting me bring him back to my house. Poor kid hadn’t had anything to eat since early this morning.”
“She’s at home? Why isn’t she answering her phone.”
“I doubt she wants to talk to anybody. She’s kind of a loner, you know. It’s the way she grew up.”
“Look, I’m gonna drive over there. It’ll take me three hours at most. If you talk to her, tell her I’m on my way if you don’t mind.”
“That’s good, Troy. I’ll get the message to her. She needs some help whether she wants to admit it or not. She a smart little gal and she’s independent, but Jericho had some problems I don’t think she can fix. I don’t know if anybody can fix ’em.”
Troy disconnected. He could be in Roundup before dark. He walked outside and ordered Sergio to hook his one-horse trailer onto his pickup bumper. When he called Kate to tell her he was driving over to Roundup and why, she insisted on going with him. “Then get your ass over here. I’m leaving now,” he said.
Sal stood by. “Where we off to?”
“Back to Round-up. If you and Turley are following, you’d better get a move on.”
Kate arrived and they were off.
At the Hatch Ranch, he saw no sign of life. The old house was dark and looked to be buttoned up. He strode up the wooden porch steps to the front door. He saw no doorbell, so he banged on the screen door. The sound of light footsteps came from inside, then the door opened. Through a veil of screenwire, Sarah looked up at him with a woeful expression and swollen eyes. She was wearing a thick blue coat.
“Hey,” Troy said softly.
“What are you doing here?” Her sidelong look of suspicion landed on Kate.
“Lou told me about Jericho,” Troy said. “This is my sister with me. Can you unlock the door and let us in?”
Without a word, she fumbled with the old lock until the door opened. Troy stepped through the doorway, followed by Kate. The large sparsely furnished living room felt like a deep-freeze. “What can I do?”
Sarah’s head shook. “Nothing.” A sob broke from her and she started out of the room.
Troy nearly broke into tears himself. For some reason, something that hurt her heart hurt his. He stepped behind her and caught up with her in the kitchen. He turned her, drew her into his arms and held her close to his chest. “Sh—sh. I know it’s hard. I know you’re alone, but don’t worry. You’ve got me. Don’t worry, understand? You and Wyatt both have got me. And you’ve got my sister. Let her be your friend.”
She pushed away and looked at him, sniffling and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Did you come to get Rudy? He’s still over at Tiffany’s.”
“I came for all of you,” Troy said. He had questions about Rudy, but now wasn’t the time to ask them. She broke into tears again and fell against his shoulder. “Oh, Jericho. ... What will we do without him?”
Troy rubbed her back. “I know, baby. I know. ... Where’s your heat? Why are you keeping it so cold in here?”
She stepped away from him, fished a ragged tissue out of her coat pocket and wiped her nose. “We turned it off. We were about to leave for your place. We had just walked out of the house when Jericho—” A new spate of tears spilled over her eyelids and she looked up at Troy. “He collapsed on the porch. ... We had to wait for nine-one-one.”
Surprised a place like Roundup even had nine-one-one service, Troy pulled her into his arms again. “Where’s your thermostat? Let’s get some heat going and I’ll make us a pot of coffee.” He looked over the large round table that was covered with various dishes of food. None of it looked as if it had been touched. “Look at all this food, sweetheart. Have you eaten?”
“I’m not hungry.”
He guided her to a chair at an old round table. “Here, sit down. You need to eat, hon.”
She stared out at the huge pasture stretching away from the dining room windows into the setting sun and a vast gold and mauve sky. “Jericho must be with his wife now. That’s where he wanted to be. He was just killing time here until he got up there. It’s been hard for him ever since she passed away.”
Troy vaguely remembered Lou saying Jericho was a widower.
Kate sat down beside Sarah and began filling a plate from the assortment of dishes on the table. “Let me to fix you something to eat.”
Sarah’s head shook.
Troy set about making coffee in the antiquated kitchen then took a seat at the table. He and Kate ate, but Sarah stared at the food on her plate. “I understand Wyatt’s over at Lou Beckman’s place,” he said.
Sarah nodded. “Yeah. It’s nearly dark. I need to go get him. I know he’s scared. How’d you know he was over there?”
Troy forced a smile. “When you didn’t answer your phone or answer my message, I called her. Look, I know everything’s up in the air for you right now, but here’s what I think we should do. I brought my horse trailer. I’ll load up Rudy and my sister can take him and Wyatt back to the Double-Barrel, that is if you trust us enough for him to go with us. I’ll stay here and help you sort things out. We can go to the Double-Barrel together later or even tomorrow.”
Her head shook. “I can’t leave here. I have to put together Jericho’s funeral. A lot of people will come. The church in town wouldn’t hold everybody who came to Bonnie’s service. Look at all this food. People have been bringing it all-day.”
Troy had little familiarity with funerals. He had been to only two in his whole life—his grandfather’s and Carl Beckman’s—and he’d had nothing to do with the planning of either one of them. “I understand.”
They sat in silence for a few beats before Sarah spoke. “People are after this ranch, you know. I think the bank in town is in cahoots with one of them. That banker’s already called today. Even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t. They might put a lock on the door. I have to think about what Jericho would want me to do. I have to be here to take care of the place.”
“What people?”
“Jericho owed big money. Every year he kept borrowing more and spending more. He spent a lot of money on me and his wife’s doctor bills. Capital Farm Credit was threatening him. That banker in town probably knew it.”
Troy had never borrowed money from a credit union or bank, but he knew Capital Farm Credit was a federal credit union that lent money to farmers and ranchers. “Threatening him with what, foreclosure?”
Sarah nodded.
Troy stood and walked over to the window and looked outside. The place looked like many of the small ranches around rural Texas—buildings run down, in need of paint or repairs of some kind, fences needing attention, old mechanical equipment, some obviously parked where it quit working. “How much land is here?”
“I think it’s eighteen sections.”
Troy didn’t know West Texas range land values, but he did some quick arithmetic in his head. The place had to be worth a few million dollars. The Double-Bar-L Cattle Company already owned two ranches of approximately the same size in the general area. “Water?”
“There’s plenty of water. Jericho always bragged on the water.”
“How many cattle?”
“Three hundred head or so. Mostly black baldies. A few Herefords.”
“How much is owed on the place?”
“I don’t know. He never told me exactly. All he ever said to me was the place wasn’t worth having any more.”
“You said “people” are after it. Besides the credit union, who else?”
“That B2B company wants it bad, I think. That guy, his name’s Barton, he’s been here five or six times. He’s been downtown to the bank, too. He’s made a big pest out of himself. Jericho always suspected that the banker was helping him somehow. Jericho says this place is located right in the middle of something they’re trying to do.”
An alarm clanged in Troy’s head as the memory of Drake’s lengthy battle with them came front and center. The B2B organization might claim a noble intention, but they used dubious tactics. “I’m familiar with them. Anybody else?”
“The neighbor. Marshall McDowell is his name,” Sarah continued in a dull voice. “He knows about Jericho’s money troubles. He’s been trying to buy it for a really cheap price ever since Bonnie died. He thought that Bonnie being gone, Jericho would want to get rid of the place. He was just over here again last week.”
“What’s his story?”
Sarah shrugged. “It’s for his boy. He was wounded in the army. He’s getting money in some veteran’s deal, but Jericho never paid much attention to it because he said it’s only about half what the place is worth. Marshall wants Jericho to give his boy a big discount because he fought in the army.”
Another alarm. When a property owner passed on, the vultures settled around what he left behind. In rural Texas, Troy had seen it more than once.
Troy glanced at his sister. “We should pick up that horse before it gets dark. Do you want to do that, then haul him back to the Double-Barrel?”
“Sure.”
“Turley can go back with you. When you get there, turn him over to Sergio. He’ll know what to do with him. We’ve already talked about him.” He looked at Sarah. “Is it okay if my sister picks up Wyatt and takes him to the Double-Barrel? They’ll take real good care of him.”
Her head shook. “He won’t want to leave me. He thinks he has to protect me.”
“Should we ask him?”
Her head shook again. “He needs to stay with me. He loved Jericho. He’s just a little boy. I know he’s scared. I don’t want him to be without me.’
“Well, that settles that.” Kate picked up her coat and strode toward the front door.
Troy followed her on outside onto the porch and closed the door behind himself. “What’s with the snark?”
“Can’t you see?” she snapped. “She doesn’t want your help. You drove all the way over here, away from your own family at Christmas and you’re just wasting your time. You think she’s special? I don’t see it.”
“I don’t want to argue with you, Kate. If she doesn’t want to turn her kid over to strangers, I understand that. I’ll stay here tonight and take her and her boy back to the Double-Barrel tomorrow after we get some things ironed out. I’m gonna get a hold of Drake. He and Pic could easily handle this situation with this ranch.”
“What makes you think they even want to? Besides, Drake and Shannon are gone today. They went down to that winery.”
“They’ll be back. All I need you to do is pick up Rudy. Then go to Lou Beckman’s place and pick up Sarah’s boy and bring him back here. Dixon’s been to the pasture where Rudy is and he’s been to Lou Beckman’s. He’ll be able to direct you to both of them.”
Kate’s eyes narrowed in a skeptical look. “What are you up to, Brother? Are you adopting this family or something?”
“I’m trying to be a good Samaritan. You can see this girl has nobody.”
“Lots of people in the world have nobody, but we don’t take all of them to raise.”
Before Troy could reply, her palms came up, her eyes closed and she cocked her head. “I know what you’re planning. You think you can call Drake and get him and Pic over here to fix this problem at the bank, whatever it is. I don’t think you can make that happen.”
They held each other’s stares. Except for Drake, Troy had never met a more hard-headed person than Kate. “Watch me,” he said finally.
To his relief, she gave up with an exaggerated sigh. “Okay, okay. Am I gonna get arrested for stealing somebody’s horse?”
“Kate, believe me, the only people who want Rudy and who might worry about his future are Sarah, Wyatt and me. I don’t think anybody’s gonna accuse you of horse theft.”
“Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” She started for his pickup. Turley fell in behind her.
As soon as Kate left, Troy turned to Sarah. “I know you don’t want to talk about this right now, but it sounds like there’s no time to waste. Did Jericho have a will? Who’s his heir?”
“Me, probably. There’s not anybody else. At least, that’s what Jericho has said in the past, but people change their minds. Even so, he said he owed so much on the land, the place is not worth having. Why would I even want it? ...”
She paused and looked up. “Funny. He and I just talked about the trouble he was in just few days ago.”
“Sarah, look me in the eye and tell me honestly. Do you want to own this place?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. I don’t know how to run a ranch. I just always thought Jericho would be here. I should’ve used my head. After what happened to Bonnie—”
“Do you trust me?”
She cocked her head and gave him a look. “Maybe. A little.”
“You’ve gotta trust somebody and it looks to me like I’m the best candidate.”
Her blue gaze drilled him again and tears leaked from her eyes. Troy couldn’t tell what she was thinking. He reached over and took her hand. “You don’t have to take my word. Lou Beckman has known me for years. She can tell you that you can trust me.”
Sarah cleared her throat. “What—what are you gonna do?”
“I don’t have it all figured out yet. Just hang on to me. I won’t let you fall.”
He called Drake and made arrangements for him and Pic to show up at Roundup’s tiny airport tomorrow morning.
***
THROUGH THE CALL, SARAH had watched him with a hawk’s eyes. After he disconnected, she continued to study him. “What’s gonna happen?”
“My two brothers, both experts in finance and the ranching business, will be here early tomorrow morning. We’ll pick them up at the airport. By the time they leave here, one of two things will have happened. You and I will be partners on ownership of this ranch or it will belong to the Double-Bar-L Cattle Company outright. In either case, you’ll have money in your pocket. What you need to decide is which one of those two things you want.”
“What’s in this for you? Your family gets another ranch? More land? Tiffany’s dad said your family owns half of Texas already.”
“That’s not true, darlin’. Texas is a big place. In the first place, it doesn’t matter what’s in it for me or my family. Circumstances being what they are, you’re gonna be giving up the ranch whether you want to or not. If you don’t deal with me and my brothers, what happens to it is gonna be completely out of your hands. Most likely you won’t end up with a dime. With me, at least, you’ve got a chance to know what’s going on and even influence it. And as I said, you’ll end up money in your pocket. I’ll see to it.”
She stared at him for a long minute. “Things are easy when you’ve got money, aren’t they?
“It helps.” After a few beats, he leaned forward, looking into her eyes. “C’mon, girl. Don’t be stubborn here. Be my partner. It’s your best option.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I need to talk to Lou.”
“Fine. Do it.”
She picked up her phone and walked out of the room. She soon came back carrying a box of tissues. “Lou says I should take you up on it.” She sat down at the table and pulled a tissue from the box, wiped her eyes and nose. “Lou says I’m lucky.” Tears leaked from her eyes again.
“Fine,” Troy said. “It’s a done deal. After we finish tomorrow, I’ll help you put together Jericho’s funeral.”
