Page 5 of Javier

It wasn’t just a deposit. It was potentially worth billions. “I know, Pops.”

“You’re vulnerable, even with the will in place and how the trust is set up. You and Eben don’t see eye-to-eye on much, and now he’s engaged to our nemesis’s daughter. On top of that, he runs with the Rooney crowd. It could get to a point where Arla pressures your brother to take you to court. I think it will.”

“Pops—”

“Let me finish, sweetheart,” he said kindly. “Arla’s the apple of her daddy’s eye, and he wants our land. Trey Rooney has the larger spread, far more resources, and long-held connections. You’re going to need help to hang onto what’s ours. I love Eben, but he is easily led by Arla, and she makes him wishy-washy. I’ve seen how she’s manipulated him. How he’s pulled away more from us since she went after him. He thinks it’s love, but it’s all business to a Rooney. I see it in her eyes. It’s not the look you give someone you love. It’s the smugness of someone who has an agenda.” He paused, breathing laboriously.

“Pops!” She reached for the call button.

“No, sweetheart. This is just you and me time. I’ve got something else to tell you. Please. Give me a minute.” The whisper of machines and his labored breathing were loud during the minutes of silence. “How about a sip of water?”

Memphis scooted the chair against the bed, mindful of the tubes, and brought the straw to his mouth. One sip was a struggle, and that’s all he seemed to want. She sat quietly, frantically watching her father, his eyes closed, holding on to life with steely determination. She took a frail hand in both of hers, caressing the papery skin with feathery touches, noticing for the umpteenth time how cancer had aged him by decades.

Ransom Creed had been bigger than life. A tenacious warrior who weighed the consequences before acting. A man who had come from nothing, created a home and family in Texas, and made his wife’s parents’ ranch profitable after taking it over. A man who had married the love of his life and then lost her during the birth of their son. A quiet man full of grit and integrity.

Even though Memphis was an adult, she still needed him.Don’t let go. Please.She wiped the tears away. Pops didn’t like crying.

He opened his eyes and locked them on hers. “Daughter, I’m asking for assistance from a brother who I fell out of contact with before you were born. I have faith that he’ll do the right thing and convince our family and friends to do the same. As capable as you are, I doubt you’ll be able to hold onto the ranch unless you have help.”

“What? Family?” Her father had never mentioned family, only that he had been on his own and driving aimlessly looking for a place to pitch his tent when he met her mama at a campground in Tennessee.

“I’m too tired to explain it all. And my past.” He gripped her hand tightly and she returned the pressure. “I’m a better man for having met Lindy, for being your dad and Eben’s. God blessed me.”

“Pops!” She cried, understanding he was slipping away.

“Remember. You do love your brother. Try to find your way back to him, to like him. Someday he’s going to need you, especially if he follows through with this marriage. You’ll need him, too. Don’t make the same mistake I did when I was younger. Family comes first.” Ransom encouraged Memphis closer and whispered in her ear, giving her the last of his instructions. “Do you understand?” His eyes searched hers, full of pleading.

She sat up, nodding fervently and wiping angrily at another tear.

“Don’t cry for me, Memphis. You look so much like Lindy. You’re strong like she was.”

“And you, Pops.” She whispered; her throat burned with the burgeoning tears. She had no memories of her mother.

“And me. You have our fire. Embrace it.” His eyes looked deeply into hers. “You’re gonna be alright. I love you so much, my sweet girl.” He smiled serenely, slowly closed his eyes, and exhaled his last breath.

Machine alarms went off. Medical personnel rushed into the room. She faded to the wall, her fist in front of her mouth, disbelieving what she was witnessing. The doctors and nurses worked furiously and then stopped. Ransom Creed had passed.

A male nurse turned to her. His eyes were full of compassion. “I’m sorry. He’s gone.

Sobbing and hiccupping, Memphis staggered out to the hall, into the elevator, to the main floor of the hospital, and then outside.

Eben’s car was not where it had been parked. They had arrived together, but he hadn’t stuck around.Pops wasn’t asking you to leave, just step out, Eben.She would bum a ride—hell, she knew just about everyone in the county as well as a number of residents in the city of Massy—after walking and emptying some of her grief.

A small, private service was held, and his cremated remains were next to their mother under the shade of the trees on Witness Hill. It was there that Memphis had often watched sunsets and sunrises, enjoyed many picnics with Pops and Eben, learned to whistle with and without a blade of grass, and pondered over the heart that held Lindy Fuller-Creed + Ransom Creed within it. Carved into thick trunk of the Witness Tree all those years ago, it was still visible.

“It was one of the first things your mama and I did when we inherited the ranch.” Pops ruminated every so often, his voice cracking and eyes misting.

Three months after Pops joined Mama, Memphis packed her things into Ransom’s GTO, now hers, and high-tailed it out of Texas, leaving during an epic storm that matched her mood. She was on her own, tasked by her father to reach out to a total stranger in a town she had never heard of and hopefully secure her future and that of Creed Ranch.

* * *

The journey to Torch River had been long and uneventful. A woman named Rose at Daphne’s Diner sent her to Cabrera’s when she said she was looking for a “lady-killer, with dark hair and a beard streaked with gray.” She felt uncomfortable using the description, but those were the exact words Pops insisted she use.

In reality, the guy’s hair and beard were almost all salt, with what pepper he had filling the mustache and the soul patch area. Thick dark brows framed delicious dark brown eyes. And that body … Her mind seemed to be fixated on it and his strong-looking hands that could probably make her shatter over and over. She shivered.Stop it. You’re on a mission. Not here to get laid.

Memphis pivoted on her heel, strode to the building, and raised her hand to knock when the door yanked open. She hadn’t even heard the click of a lock and stutter-jumped back. Too quickly, taking a nice tumble onto the filthy wood floor of the covered entry. “Dammit.” She smacked her hands together, trying to clean the dirt off, while taking stock of her body. No injuries other than a bruised ego, and maybe her ass.

The man she assumed was Cabrera towered there, the deep-throated rumbling making him shake. The telltale heat bloomed in her chest and rushed up her neck to her face. Great.

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