Page 72 of River Wild

But Brand and Ryder had been running things with their mother gone. They might not be as malleable as they’d been before. No, he couldn’t see himself fighting for the ranch again. Look what had happened last time. Fortunately, he hadn’t killed either sister, but his actions now had him behind bars, facing years in prison.

When the guard came by to tell him that he had a visitor, he got up off his bunk, determined to do whatever he had to to get out of here. Lying, cheating, stealing, and even stooping to attempted murder hadn’t been a problem in the past.

Being someone he wasn’t? He didn’t know if he could pull that off, but he had to try.

Except when he walked up to the booth and sat down, it wasn’t his mother who was sitting on the other side of the partition.

CHARLOTTESTAFFORDWASback in the Powder River Basin. Rumors ran wild as people speculated on where she’d gone. She’d been at some fancy spa that had taken ten years off her face. She’d been locked up somewhere, taken by one of her enemies as payback. She’d had a secret lover who’d flown her off to an island in the Caribbean.

Holden didn’t believe any of them. After the way the two of them had left things, he figured she’d gone away needing time. He’d hoped that when she was ready, she would come back.

He suspected he knew why she was back now. Her oldest son CJ’s trial was coming up soon, and he’d always been her favorite. Her oldest daughter, Tilly, was pregnant with her first grandchild, and even though Holden’s son Cooper was the father of the baby, Charlotte wouldn’t want to miss the birth. He didn’t kid himself that she’d ever come back because of him.

There was also a rumor that she’d come back to sell the ranch. Few people believed that. “She’ll die out there, be buried in a pasture, before she’ll give up that place. She’d never sell,” he’d heard a rancher saying at the general store.

“I don’t know,” another had said. “Heard there’s been some out-of-state billionaire interested in buying up ranches in Montana. For the right price, hell, I’d sell.”

“Anyway, aren’t Brand and Ryder running the ranch now?” the clerk had said as Holden stood in the back, listening. Other patrons jumped in since out-of-state billionaires were the boogeyman to locals. “I heard that they’re buying up the whole damned state.”

Holden could only shake his head. He couldn’t imagine Lottie selling the ranch she’d fought to keep for so many years. But then again, he couldn’t imagine her leaving the way she had either.

Right now, all he cared about was seeing her. He didn’t care where she’d been or why. He was just glad that she was back. It was odd, since they’d been alienated for years, even more so before she’d left, but he’d missed her. He’d liked knowing she was just next door on their adjoining ranches, a horseback ride away.

But until this barbecue was over, until his daughter was safe, he was in no mental shape to face Lottie. There was so much he wanted to say to her, so much he wanted to make up for. There was also a good chance she wouldn’t want to see him. He had to be ready for that outcome, and right now, he didn’t think he could handle it.

Nor could he tell her about what was going on. If he saw her, he knew he’d break down and tell her everything. Lottie was his heart. He’d give anything to be able to share this burden. He couldn’t even tell Elaine.

“Aren’t you going riding today?” Elaine said, startling him from where she stood in his office doorway.

“I have to do some things for this barbecue.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “As long as you’re feeling all right. You wouldn’t lie aboutthat, would you?”

He heard perfectly what she was saying. She knew he was lying about the barbecue, what he had to do to get ready for it and a lot more. “I’m feeling fine.” Even that was a lie.

She stood in the doorway as if waiting for him to level with her. Then, with a huff, she left.

He put his head in his hands, admitting only to himself how terrified he was that everything would go wrong at the barbecue, and he would lose his daughter for good.

CJWATCHEDHISsister Oakley pull down the phone on the other side of the glass partition and put it to her ear. All he could think was that this couldn’t be good. As far as he could remember, he hadn’t seen her since he tried to kill her the second time.

He took down his phone and put it to his ear, ready for her to go off on him. They’d been at each other’s throats since they were kids. True, he instigated it, but Oakley always held her own. He’d actually admired her on occasion. But then again, she was the reason he was locked up now.

“Mother asked me to come see you,” she said, making it clear this hadn’t been her idea.

Another test? “It’s good to see you. I heard you got married.”

She gave him the stink-eye, not buying it. Oakley had always been able to see right through his lies. Of course, that was why their mother had sent her.

“What do you want me to say? I’m sorry for what I tried to do to you?I am.”

“Sorry I’m alive or sorry you got caught?”

“Sorry I’ve been such a shitty brother,” he said, and realized a part of him actually meant it. He’d bullied his siblings because he could. Also, because they were often in his way to get what he wanted.

“Mother wants to believe that you’ve reached rock bottom and might now see the error of your ways,” she said, glaring at him. “I think she’s deluding herself. You’re incapable of changing even if you seriously wanted to. Oh, you’d say anything to get out of this. But I know you, CJ. You’re rotten to the core. If you get out of here, you’ll go back to your old ways in a heartbeat. No one will be safe from you.”

He told himself to keep his cool. Oakley had always known how to get under his skin. Maybe that was exactly what she was trying to do. “If this is reverse psychology—”

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