Page 14 of Smokescreen

Olive didn’t hesitate before shaking her hand, determined to remain cool and collected. “Olive Abernathy. Nice to meet you.”

“We’ll see about that.” She pulled her hand away and smirked.

“Enough of your games, Lucy.” Reid’s voice sharpened. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to show you this.” She reached into her purse, pulled out a manilla envelope, and smacked it into Reid’s hand.

He stared at it a moment as if cautious. “What’s this?”

“Open it and see.” Her words sounded entirely too smug.

Reid waited another moment before undoing the clasp on the envelope and pulling out a thick, legal-looking document.

Olive peered over his shoulder, curious.

The letterhead showed the paperwork was from the law office of Radcliffe, Johnson, and Pearson. Olive had only started to skim the words on the cover page when Reid lowered it.

“These documents are forged,” Reid growled.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Condescension dripped from her voice. “You know this is your father’s most recent will. You purposefully hid it so I wouldn’t get what’s rightfully mine.”

“That’s ludicrous.”

She smirked. “But it’s not. You tried to get away with keeping all this property for yourself, but your plan didn’t work. Iwillget my fair share.”

“You really think this kind of threat is going to make me want to give you part of my property?”

“This willislegit.” Lucy jutted her hip out as she stared at him cooly. “I assure you of that.”

“Where did you even find this alternate will?” Olive didn’t want the woman to leave before answering that question.

Lucy’s gaze darkened. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I was going through some of my mom’s things, looking for the title to my car when I found it. If you look at the date, you’ll see this document was created only two weeks before your father’s death. I doubt he changed it again before he died.”

“I doubt he left you in his will at all.” Reid stepped closer, his voice tightening. “You have no rightful claim to my property.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Do I need to remind you that I was a part of this family for five years?”

“None of this was left to you or your mother in my father’s will.” He sliced his hand through the air. “None of it.”

“You know how persistent I am. I’m not going to give this up. You might as well just hand over what’s rightfully mine and save yourself a mountain of debt and legal fees—not to mention a huge drain on your valuable time.”

“Not on your life,” Reid shot back.

Poor choice of words, Olive mused. She didn’t say that aloud, however.

There was obviously no love lost between these two.

Lucy offered a curt half-shrug. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up.”

With those words, Lucy turned on her heel and climbed back into her SUV. Just as quickly as she’d come, she left, leaving another trail of dust behind her.

Olive would definitely be adding this woman to her suspect list.

CHAPTER 6

Before the dust had even settled behind Lucy’s SUV, a man stepped from the barn and waved his hand. “Reid! Could use your opinion on something if you’re free.”

“I’ll be right there,” Reid yelled before turning back to Olive. “One of our wranglers needs me. I’ll get Hannah to show you to your room, and I’ll take care of this. We can finish the tour later.”

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