Page 8 of Stalked at Rescue Ridge

“I was going to say a piece of work, but your word is better,” she said.

“And more accurate,” he interjected.

Chloe took a lap around the small space. “He can’t mean what he said.”

“About becoming cozy with us?” Kade asked, but it was a rhetorical question. He grunted. “I think he means to cause all the pain and harm he can to this family.”

“Which is all the more reason for us to stay calm and focused,” she said.

His sister was right. Letting Beau get under Kade’s collar was a mistake. The man was likely to keep poking the tender spots. He sighed. “When did you get so grown up?”

“The day I became a mom.” She relaxed her hand and dropped it to her side. “Babies have a way of forcing maturity on a person.”

Kade smiled.

“Bad news always travels in threes,” she said. “Ever since hearing the news about Zeke, I’ve been waiting for a shoe to drop.”

“Forgive me, but I don’t consider Beaumont dying bad news.” It was true. Kade saw it as freedom.

Chloe shot a look that said she wasn’t talking about dear, old dad. “First Zeke. Now Beau. What’s next?”

“I still have a surveyor coming out to meet me,” he checked his watch, “in roughly forty-five minutes.”

“When did you have time to organize that?” Chloe asked with genuine surprise in her eyes.

“You can use the money, right?”

“I mean, yes, but I’m not going broke tomorrow thanks to the money you send.”

“Everyone will be on the same page about the sale,” he said. “Plus, I planned to talk to everyone before making any real moves. Setting up a surveyor can be done online, so that’s what I did while I waited for my flight. It took two seconds.”

“I guess you can get pretty much anything done in ten minutes or less using the internet,” Chloe said.

“Beau might complicate things.” Kade shoved his hands in his pockets. “He could block the sale for years. Tie up funds.”

“I’d be okay, Kade. Plus, we really don’t know how Conrad feels. He’s so quiet when we talk about the ranch.” Chloe shrugged before touching Kade on the arm. “And you can stop sending meyourhard-earned money.”

“Making money is easy in the military,” he said.

Chloe stared at the boot on his right foot. “You call that an ‘easy’ way to earn a living?”

“That wasn’t supposed to happen.” His thoughts turned to Zeke. “If I hadn’t been distracted that day, then—”

“Don’t tell me you blame yourself for what happened?” Chloe interrupted. “Because I spoke to your superior officer, who said you earned a medal.”

Kade wasn’t having this conversation. “We better get back inside before all hell breaks loose.”

Chloe didn’t immediately move. She stood there, tapping her toe, looking like she was about to say something. She must’ve thought better of arguing or trying to force a talk that would be like pulling teeth out of him.

“Okay, fine,” she conceded. “But this isn’t over. You hear me?”

“Let’s focus on getting this place sold.” That task would put enough on their plate.

A yellow tabby peered down at him from the beam above. Kade smiled. “Tabby is still kicking?”

“She must be on her eighth life at this point,” Chloe said with a smile.

“I thought Beaumont got rid of her years ago,” he said. They’d named her Tabby for lack of imagination on their part. Kade could have sworn Tabby smiled at him as she wagged her tail. He’d been the one to pull her from the creek where he’d found her wet and nearly drowned after Beaumont had tossed her into the rushing water.

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