“Why are we stopped? The pond’s right there.” She’d been so eager to ride horses, but now all she wanted was to get down and play in the cool water.
“Sorry, sweetheart. Change of plans. Let’s head to a different spot I know where we can walk through a creek. Maybe we’ll see a beaver dam.”
I had to take her somewhere else. I didn’t know who those men were, or why they were on my land. But having Ariel with me wasn’t the time to figure it out.
Two hours later, Theo came to pick her up. We were outside the stable and practicing mane braiding we’d learned from an instructional video I’d pulled up on my cell.
“Hi, Theo!” Ariel chimed.
“Hey, squirt. Have fun?” he asked, tapping on the riding helmet, then looking my way. His gaze raked over me and I heated all over. Had I actually sucked his dick as his friend fucked me?
Ariel giggled as she took off her helmet, and I blushed.
She leaned close to me and whispered, very obviously, “See, he likes you.”
Theo grabbed his sister by the shoulder and tugged her over to give her a noogie. “Yes, I like her. So let me talk to the pretty lady without you giggling all over the place.”
Of course, that made her giggle even more.
“I didn’t know we had guests.” I turned at my dad’s words. He’d just come from inside the stable, most likely coming in from the far pastures through the back entrance. Neither his voice nor his gaze were filled with welcome, and the way he was looking at Theo told me he wasn’t thrilled to have him here.
“You remember Theo Decker from the other day? This is his sister, Ariel. We just came back from a girls’ ride.” I tried to keep my voice light because Dad might hate Theo, but Ariel was innocent.
“That so? You ride Patches?” my father asked. Fortunately, he wasn’t an asshole to little kids.
Ariel nodded, wide-eyed, completely in love with the animal. “She’s such a nice horse. I want a horse just like her.”
She glanced up at her brother, who didn’t look anywhere but at my father. His blue eyes were narrowed, and his jaw was clenched. If she was going to get a pony out of her brother for her birthday, it wasn’t going to be today.
Yikes. If it hadn’t been eighty degrees out, I’d think a winter frost had cut through the valley.
I cleared my throat. “Ariel, go put your helmet on the hook inside, all right?”
She nodded and scurried off, oblivious to the tension.
“Why is he here?” Dad asked once Ariel was inside the stable.
Theo remained silent but his presence was powerful.
I took a deep breath, prayed for calm. “He’s not here to arrest you. Jesus. He’s picking up Ariel. Horseback riding, Dad,” I prompted.
All I got in response was a grunt.
Ariel came back and hugged me tight. “Thanks, Ali!” She dashed off to Theo’s truck, clearly focusing on the next thing in her day. Most likely dinner. We’d had a snack at the beaver dam, but she was a kid with a bottomless pit for a stomach, and had eaten all the apple slices and cookies herself.
“Thanks, Ali, for taking her,” Theo said. His gaze softened when it turned my way. “I’m sure she won’t stop talking about it for the rest of the week.”
I couldn’t help but smile because I’d had fun too. “She loved it. She’s welcome anytime.”
“The girl is,” my dad added, putting a little more clarity on who he felt was to be a guest.
“Dad!” I faced him and set my hands on my hips.
“I’ll be in touch about the next time,” Theo murmured, and I had to wonder if he meant the next ride for Ali, or the next ride on his dick for me.
Only when Theo left did my dad speak again.
“What the hell, Ali? I thought I made it very clear how I felt about him.”
“Are you angry because he’s wrong about you, or because he might be right?” I countered.
“Don’t push me, young lady.” He pointed at me and glared.
“I’m not eleven like Ariel, Dad,” I replied, with a mixture of annoyance at his behavior, and concern over whether he’d somehow gone off the deep end. “I’m here to be your partner in our family ranch. Why are you so angry all the time? And what’s the deal with the single-wide out by the pond? Why didn’t you tell me it was even there?”
My father stilled. “What the hell were you doing out there?”
“Taking Ariel to the pond like you used to take me.” I hoped the reminder would calm him.
“That’s Tim Hollaroy’s building.”
I frowned. “Tim Hollaroy? His property’s all the way on the south side of the valley.” Why was that cranky, old rancher over here?
“He’s having problems with his wife and he’s staying there.”
“In a single-wide trailer in the middle of our ranch? There can’t even be running water.”
He shook his head, turned on his heel, and headed toward the house. “Let it go, Alison. You don’t need to be involved in everything.”
I stared at him as he went. What the hell? I didn’t need to be involved in everything? This was my ranch.
Something was wrong here. I could feel it. There was a trailer on our property with barely any access. Those trucks I’d seen had to have roughed it. It made no sense. My father was making no sense. Was that place part of the meth thing the guys had mentioned? Was the trailer being used to make it? I’d thought maybe it was for ranchers to stay in if they were working out this way. But now my father was claiming it belonged to Tim Hollaroy, of all people? Something didn’t add up.
The only answer I could come up with was that he didn’t want me to know.
Which meant I needed to learn everything, because I was doubting my father. Questioning what I’d thought was accurate about him. I was also questioning Theo and Holt, because all three men couldn’t be right. Someone was lying. How could I believe my dad and be in bed with the other two? How could I trust Theo and Holt enough for them to tie me up but not enough with anything else?
Later. I’d go back to that trailer tonight and see if Tim Hollaroy was really sleeping in it. I’d find out the truth. Not what Theo and Holt said, or what my father shared with me.
I’d learn it all on my own.
Five hours later, the last bits of daylight were fading to black over the western mountains. I’d driven on the service road as close as I could get to the single-wide trailer as I could and parked, then hiked in the rest of the way. In the winter, my father would bring us out to the remote pond to ice skate. To make the journey faster, he’d drive instead of ride horseback, so I knew just where to leave my pickup.
Fortunately, the moon was out and it was clear. Seeing without a flashlight was doable. I didn’t want to alert anyone to my presence, especially my father. He didn’t like me snooping as it was, and I felt like we were on shaky ground.
Did he want me to work the family ranch, or not? And what the hell was going on with him? If he wasn’t going to tell me, then I’d find out. That meant sneaking across my own land in the dark to figure shit out. I cut through the tall grass and made my way to the row of cottonwoods by the creek. If anyone was out, I had the protection of the tall trees and also the water softly tumbling over the rocks to cut the sound of my footsteps. That I felt the need to be secretive only made me nervous and a little freaked. I wanted Holt and Theo here with me. They made me feel safe. I craved the super-sized protection they’d provide. I was sure they’d want to know about the new single-wide since they’d checked out the burned out homestead cabin.