Page 38 of Stone Cold Sinner

“One day, I’m going to make you eat those words, Cutty.” Nash insisted with a grin, “I’ll show you dim.”

“You already have, baby brother.” Cut chuckled. “Many… many times.”

“Okay, now that we’re done playing Cops and Robbers, Guess Who, and exchanged some friendly insults, let’s get this knocked out so we can tuck these papers away so we can check it off the list and call it done.” Devyn redirected, “Like I said, this is all pretty standard stuff and what you would expect. When Mama fell ill, I helped her put it all in writing just in case the courts, government, and the like want to get involved and cause us trouble given the amount of land we possess… probate can also be a real bitch, and this is simply to protect the legacy.”

Each of the siblings nodded along, listening to Devyn describe what was in the paperwork they held. One by one, they looked confused as they flipped through the pages, looking for the language, in writing, that Devyn was sharing.

“So, basically, as I stated about fifty times now, exactly what you’d expect. What we’ve been told our entire lives stands about our future here stands. Nothing changes. The Stone Valley Ranch remains in the family, with equal ownership inherited by each of us, and we are not allowed to sell our portions to anyone but each other, and the land must remain in the family, then deeded to our heirs, when our time here is done. That means your piece goes to your children, should you have any –– otherwise, it’s divided amongst your living siblings whose heirs stand to inherit it upon your expiration. Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada, yada. You get the rest.”

“Sis, that’s not what this says.” Coy chimed in, flipping back and forth between papers.

“Right, I forgot how literal you can be. So, blah and yada aren’t really in there. They were just placeholder words to represent all of the boring words that don’t really matter since we know the main point is that we are all equal property owners like we’ve been told our entire lives.”

“No. He’s right.” Dillon said, pointing out language to Ransom, whose brow lifted in surprise. “This doesn’t say anything about that. This… this talks about a trust and companies.”

“And land.” Coy shared. “Since when did we acquire more land? What is it being used for?”

“More land?” Cutler flipped through the pages. “We haven’t purchased more land. What are you talking about?”

“Okay, I know I’m the one about to graduate from law school, but I assure you, this is all on the up and up. I wrote it myself, even had my mentor look it over and then went through the proper channels to make it official. We haven’t purchased any new land –– you’re probably just confused by the legal jargon because it’s often confusing… even to lawyers. These things require novel-like writing, multiple pages of endless paragraphs, and way more words than needed to say simple things like, you get all the land. It’s ridiculous but necessary because once upon a time, someone thought they’d show off their vocabulary and called it law, and here we are still using it today. You can have your lawyers look it over for you if…”

“No, Dev. They’re right. This stuff is usually way over my head, but even I see what they are talking about. This isn’t a simple land and asset inheritance. There’s something about S-corps, some other kind of corporations, trusts…”

“The ranch isn’t in any of those. It’s a simple family trust, really, what are you…” Devyn began to read, then quickly went through the packet of pages, eyes wide and jaw tense. “She… she changed it. This isn’t the will I prepared. Why would Mama change the will after I…”

Devyn looked around the fire at the questioning eyes all on her, “She didn’t trust me. She let me go through the motions of setting up her affairs so as not to hurt my feelings, then… had someone else, some,” she referred to the last page, “Ellis Steel, redo it all. Why would she do that? Why didn’t she tell me? I told her to get a second set of eyes on it if she wanted, and she said… She said she trusted me. Mama… lied to me?”

“I think Delilah Stone had secrets. More than we care to know.” Coy shared. “First, the bank loan. Now this?”

Dillon looked at Coy, “You don’t suppose…”

“Don’t say it.” Coy leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh.

“You have to be wondering too, Coy…” Dillon pleaded.

“Someone want to clue in the ones who are lost here?” Nash asked.

“Second that,” Cut added.

“Well, to keep it simple, we have a mysterious loan, mysterious will, mysterious land none of us knew anything about––"

"And let’s not forget all of these… shell corps. What the hell would Mama set these up for?” Devyn asked, eyes glued to the paperwork she was reading. “I didn’t think she even knew what this kind of stuff was. I haven’t heard her reference any of these… businesses. Ever. Cut? Do you know anything about Stone Valley Investments or… The Stone Group?”

“No. Never heard of either.”

“What’s… The Stone Group?” Nash asked, looking through the will. “Is that us?”

“No. It’s a holdings company… I think. None of this makes sense. There must be a dozen different companies listed, and what do you want to bet they’re all tucked under other assets or a shell company for assets we didn’t know existed… like this big chunk of land none of us knew about.”

“None of this makes sense,” Nash said.

Dillon snickered, “Seems to be a running theme around here.”

“I can’t even tell where that land is based on this. It’s hidden under something else. We need to figure this out. Something’s wrong. Really, really wrong.” Coy pulled out his phone and began screenshotting the pages of the will.

“You mean, like, finding the remains of a dead body, wrong?” Nash asked.

The group froze as fear struck the five of them simultaneously. A grim reminder that sparked more questions than generated answers as each of them pondered the question. What had they just uncovered? Was it all connected?

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