Page 63 of River Legacy
He smiled over at her, and for a minute she didn’t think he would answer. His smile was almost more frightening than his snarl. “You, your father and I are flying to Dallas this evening. The pilot is making the arrangements as we speak.”
Claude was too happy. She had a bad thought. “My father’s pilot?”
“He won’t be flying with us. Maybe you hadn’t heard, but your father fired his bodyguards. I assume you knew that they were both former pilots Wen hired as backups should his pilot be indisposed in some way. JJ Gibson is flying us. Your father used to make me call them with their orders for the week, so I had their phone numbers. JJ was still in Billings and happy to have a ride home.”
She shook her head. “Claude, this can’t end well. You have to know that my father will—”
“Bury me. I know, he’s told me that numerous times. It’s up to him what he decides to do, but he’d be smart to put a million dollars in my offshore account before we land in Dallas. Otherwise...” His gaze held hers for a few seconds, long enough that she could see how much he hated her. She couldn’t even blame him. “Otherwise, he’ll never see his princess again.” He reached over and turned up the music, giving her a headache.
There was no way her father would give Claude a million dollars. As she watched him attempting to sing along with the rock music, she had a bad feeling that this wasn’t even about the money. This was about vengeance. It was why her father was rich and not behind bars. He’d never let emotion cost him any money.
Sheriff Stuart Layton had just walked into his office when he got the call.
“I think something has happened to CJ,” Charlotte Stafford told him. “I’m worried about my son.”
“The son you didn’t want me to arrest for stealing your ranch,” Stuart said.
“That is hearsay,” she said indignantly.
“I saw him yesterday out at Treyton McKenna’s place,” the sheriff said. “I did as you asked, not taking either him or Treyton in for questioning. I only confiscated Treyton’s .22 rifle to check against the slug taken out of your son Brand’s shoulder. The ballistics didn’t match.”
“I doubted he would use his own rifle,” she said. “I have a bad feeling that CJ is still out there.”
That catch in her throat caught his attention, as well as her words. “A bad feeling.” He swore. He’d known when she’d contacted him that she was up to something. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t like it, Mrs. Stafford.”
“Don’tMrs. Staffordme, Stuart. I’ve known you since you were knee-high to a badger. I’m worried. Will you drive out and check or not?”
He sighed, worried about what he was going to find. “I’ll head out there now and call you if I find him.”
“Thank you, Stuart.” Her voice broke again before she could hang up.
Swearing, he headed for the door. Stuart drove toward Treyton’s place in the badlands outside of Powder Crossing, admitting he had a chip on his shoulder when it came to CJ Stafford and Treyton McKenna. While Stuart had been raised by his father, the local sheriff, lived in a small house in townand had a mother who’d run away, CJ and Treyton were spoiled-rotten ranch kids.
Both had never wanted for anything as the eldest in their ranch families. CJ even more than Treyton had no respect for the law. Worse, they’d never had any respect for him. After he’d taken over his father’s job as sheriff, he’d had to deal with both of them. Arresting CJ and putting him behind bars had been a highlight.
Unfortunately, and without surprise, his mother had gotten him out, and trouble had soon followed—just as he’d known it would.
As he turned down the dirt road leading back into Treyton’s property, he found himself slowing to pull out his shotgun. He had no idea what he was walking into, but his instincts told him it was going to be bad. As far as he knew the two hadn’t started up their meth lab and human-trafficking business again, but one never knew with these two, he thought as he topped the hill. The first thing he saw was CJ’s SUV parked where it had been before. The sound of his patrol vehicle’s engine approaching sent a flock of carrion birds scattering across the barren yard like a scene from a scary movie.
That was when he saw what was on the ground.
Chapter Twenty
Holden had been sitting in his home office thinking about his upcoming wedding when he got the sheriff’s call.
“Maybe you should sit down,” Stuart had suggested.
His heart had almost stopped since his first thought was Lottie.Don’t let it be Lottie.He’d waited almost his whole life for this woman. He couldn’t bear it if anything happened to her.
“It’s Treyton,” the sheriff said. “He’s been killed.”
The words had refused to register for a moment. “Killed?” His first thought was a car accident. His second was suicide. Which showed how little he knew about his son. He hadn’t seen Treyton in months. Their last conversation had been his son telling him that he was too old to run the ranch and how disappointed he was in him. Like CJ, Treyton had just assumed as the eldest son that he would take over the ranch one day—even though he’d hated ranching, seldom worked it and resented his brother Cooper for doing so.
Holden could just imagine how Treyton had taken the news that his father had a love child withCharlotte Stafford. He’d been half afraid that Treyton might try to harm Brand when he heard.
He realized that the sheriff was still talking. “I had just seen the two of them together out there. It was obvious that they had some kind of business going on. CJ was acting... paranoid. It appears they had a shootout. They were both killed. I’m so sorry, Holden.”
At some point he must have stood up behind his desk because now he sat down heavily as if his legs had been knocked out from under him. Treyton and CJ, both dead. “Have you told Charlotte yet?”
