Page 182 of Embracing the Change

I hoped the G-Force knew that before they called the police and the media.

“I don’t know if the fire was his idea or Jeff’s,” Jamie went on, “because he didn’t get into the fire. All I know at this point is, who I just talked to was a shattered man with all the fight kicked out of him. He’s humiliated. Paloma humiliated him. The only thing he has is that land, and if it goes through, the insurance payout. He wants to sell the land to me for what he owes on the note, which is not what it’s worth, especially now there’s no house or outbuildings on it, so that won’t be happening. But if he can get the payout, drill down the note, I’ll purchase it from him at a price the market will bear, and, from what he says the payout will be, he’ll have a nice sum to find someplace comfortable to live out the rest of his life.”

“Did you tell him you’d buy the ranch for a fair price?”

“Yes.”

“Was the call…antagonistic?”

Jamie suddenly appeared in mild pain. “He…” Jamie shook his head. “Fuck, Nora, he thanked me for calling.”

Oh, my Jamie.

I slid a hand up to curl it around his neck. “It seems, in some cases, revenge isn’t very sweet.”

“This isn’t that, darlin’,” he declared. “He’s not going to wheedle his way in because I’m the last one he’s got, and I’m not even his. But I’m not going to let the man my mother loved once in her life, even if he conned her into that love, end up homeless or whatever is to become of him.”

“You’re a good man, Jamie.”

“I’m my mother’s son, Nora.”

“Yes, like I said, you’re a good man, Jamie.”

His smile was small, but at least it was there.

“Paloma is in real trouble, isn’t she?” I asked.

“AJ said he doesn’t know all that she took, he does know it seems like it was hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of property, so, yes. She’s in a good deal of trouble.”

I’d never experienced it before, but I was experiencing it then.

This being that fact that revenge sometimes actually felt awful.

Jamie slid his arms fully around me and suggested, “Let’s not let this ruin our day.”

“Okay then. Let’s curl up in the hearth room and watch movies all day. We can make popcorn later. I think Alyona has one of those popcorn-popping gadgets, because she’s made it for me before.”

“Sounds good,” Jamie agreed.

I got up on my toes to press my mouth to his.

He angled his head and deepened the kiss.

Jamie then let me go and went to the hearth room to fire up the TV.

I rinsed out our coffee mugs and put them in the dishwasher.

Then I joined him.

Getting ahead a little bit…

In the end, although it was impossible to tell after the destruction of the fire, it was estimated that Paloma stole nearly a million dollars’ worth of valuables from the Oakbilly Gulch estate.

She also took what was left of the proceeds of her sales of purloined merchandise and fled to the UAE. She did this within days of Jeff’s funeral.

The UAE has no formal extradition treaty with the United States.

Nevertheless, deals between the countries could be made.

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