Page 57 of River Legacy
Silence, then, “I planned to take immediate possession, but I could give you twenty-four hours to say goodbye. But then I want you on that plane.”
She disconnected and turned to Ryder. “We have twenty-four hours. Maybe we should make the most of them.”
From the abandoned house on the hillside, Claude saw Ryder and Victoria through his binocularsreturning to the ranch. They seemed thick as thieves, all wrapped up in each other, as they’d gone inside the house. He doubted this was the kind of information CJ wanted him to call about. But he was bored out of his mind, so he made the call.
“Nothing much is happening at the ranch. Just saw Ryder—”
“It’s over.”
For a moment he wasn’t sure what was over.
“You’re done. You can go back to wherever you came from,” CJ said.
“I haven’t gotten paid,” Claude said, hating the way this small-time crook talked to him. It was one thing to let Wen berate him, but not this cowboy criminal.
“Talk to your boss,” CJ said and hung up.
He had a bad feeling that CJ was right. Whatever the two of them had been up to, it was over. Which meant that his boss had gotten what he wanted—the Stafford Ranch. How had he done it so quickly? Not that it mattered. What did this mean for the cowboy Victoria only moments ago had been snuggling with? Maybe the two of them didn’t know that her daddy had bought the ranch.
Didn’t that mean Wen would be kicking them out? Maybe they had come back to pack. But if Wen had kept his word, he would have already cut Victoria off. So where would she go now? Poor princess, he thought, smiling.
She was broke, and now her boyfriend was losing his ranch. Maybe the cowboy didn’t deserve it,but once Wen set his mind to something, there was no stopping him. Claude knew that for a fact. If he’d ever questioned just how coldhearted Wendell Forester could be, he didn’t now.
Wen didn’t answer the phone when he called. Claude left a message, then disconnected and looked around the old house he’d been hiding out in. Wen was avoiding him. Just as he would forget the promise he’d made him to pay him and put him on the jet home.
Claude realized that he was no better off than Victoria or her cowboy. He was just waiting to find out what other dirty job his boss was going to give him, because Wen would never let him go. How did he find himself in this position time and time again? What was wrong with him?
“Thanks for the expensive binoculars,” he said as he began to pack up, unsure where to go now, but he really didn’t want to do this anymore. Last time he’d tried to quit, Wen had talked him out of it. Because he needed him.
Not this time, Claude promised himself. He’d go back to Billings. The least Wen could do was let him take the plane home early. He wouldn’t tell his boss his plans until he was back in Dallas.
He picked up the gun CJ has given him. Maybe he’d hang on to it. Maybe he’d even try a little target practice behind this place before he left here.
Ryder took Vicky’s hand and led her down the hallway to his wing of the house. It seemed a lifetimeago that she’d appeared looking like a drowned rat at his bedroom door. He opened the door, his arm around her, and the two of them stumbled in to fall on his bed.
If this was now Wendell Forster’s ranch, then they planned to enjoy it until he took possession. Tomorrow, Ryder would worry about what to do with the animals. Vicky said they had twenty-four hours. He figured Wen had only given them that because of her.
Right now, all he cared about was the woman in his arms as he freed her of her clothing and buried his face between her breasts. She giggled as she worked the snaps open on his shirt and placed her warm palms against his flesh. Desire like he’d never experienced before raced through his veins like hot lava. He lifted his head to look into her eyes.
“You do know what’s happening here, right?” he asked.
“I sure hope so,” she answered, smiling.
“I love you, Vicky, and that scares the hell out of me since I’ve never felt like this before.”
“Scaresyou, cowboy? How do you think I feel? I really thought this would be one weekend, something to tell my friends back home about. But once I got to know you and your family...” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine going back to that life. I can’t imagine leaving you.”
He drew her close and kissed her, pulling her over on top of him. “I don’t know what the future holds. Doesn’t that scare you?”
“It probably should, but it doesn’t because I feel like you, and I could do whatever we wanted as long as we’re together.”
He nodded. “I’m not broke. But I don’t have enough to buy a decent-sized ranch, nothing like this one that my mother spent her life building.”
“I do have some money of my own that was left to me by my grandmother in a trust fund that I’ve never touched. I think we’ll be just fine.”
Ryder smiled, shaking his head. “So you did have access to money without your purse and your phone. You could have used the landline to hire a helicopter to pick you up at any time without your father’s help.”
She nodded. “I could have. If I had wanted to.”
