Page 34 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

“Come on. We’ll take the snowmobile back to the cabin and your car. The public roads are probably clean by now, but you’re going to have to wait for Ethan to clear the driveway before you’ll be able to get out.”

“That’s fine. If you don’t mind, I’ll come inside and use your internet.”

“Of course.”

He liked the idea of not being alone. He’d have too much time to think and worry about this new turn of events. Although being with Eva on her computer was kind of like being alone so…

“You going to do some work?” he asked her.

With a look of determination, she opened the front door and said, “No. I’m going to fix this mess that I made.”

Damned if he didn’t believe she’d try. The question was, was this mess even fixable?

ChapterSeventeen

No job had ever felt so personal to Eva.

Yes, when she’d set up that website exposing the atrocities happening within Ukraine and populated it with actual photographs and video smuggled out of their countries by both Russians and Ukrainian eyewitnesses, that project had felt like she was doing something important. Something meaningful that mattered.

But sitting in Linc’s home while digging up what had happened with John T. Wilder and his multiple wills over one hundred years ago, as well as what felonious deeds Emmett Wilder might be up to in the present… this was personal.

What she discovered could change Olivia’s life. Affect Poppy’s career. Alter the futures of every one of those who had John T Wilder’s blood running through their veins.

The former Union Army general had bought up land on and around Roan Mountain in the 1870s and established an iron ore operation that populated the town of Bitter End.

The man was successful, no doubt. But by the end of his life, some bad business deals and trusting the wrong people, on top of the cost of maintaining the huge inn on the mountain, had nearly bankrupted him.

It looked as if his son—make that hisfirstson, John Stewart Wilder—had stepped in after his father’s death to save the inn and the family’s holdings.

He was a smart and hardworking businessman—and he was a 47-year-old adult at the time he inherited, while his half-brother was only ten.

Eva had seen the history of John T and how he and his businesses had benefited the town of Bitter End enough times, printed on the paper placemats at Rosie’s, that she’d memorized it.

What wasn’t so readily available to the public was the rest of the story. Such as his controversial second wife Dora, who besides being his nurse to start, was younger than the daughter he had with his first wife Martha.

That daughter had married, moved out West and died of the Spanish flu in 1918. Being female and married, she hadn’t even been named in the will, so it had taken some digging on Eva’s part to discover her story.

At the top of Eva’s list of what she still needed to find was the copy of the will that had been used to grant John S the entirety of the estate in 1917.

The date that will had been signed would determine how much of a mess she’d created for the Wilders when she’d found not only the lock that the mysterious key opened, but also that Pandora’s box containing the will.

Few things chafed Eva like injustice. And Emmett—who had done nothing but cause problems during the few months he attempted to be a part of the family—inheriting half of the Wilder’s current vast wealth was a gross injustice in her opinion.

Ethan and Linc might be swayed into burning that damn will and saving the family, but she suspected that idea wouldn’t fly with Wyatt. The eldest Wilder brother was honorable to a fault. Wyatt might want to uphold the will, in spite of the fact they didn’t know if that version had been John T’s final wishes, or even if at the end of his life he’d beenof sound mind.

Hell, he could have possibly been coerced or tricked into signing it.

And what if the boy Dora gave birth to wasn’t even his child and Emmett wasn’t a blood Wilder?

Emmett Wilder.Ugh!Just the thought of him had her blood pressure rising.

She’d thought they’d all be able to move on from the nightmare Emmett had inflicted upon her, Poppy and Olivia, in spite of them being in a town lousy with Wilders. Apparently she’d been wrong.

Emmett was like that stink that hung around the dumpster behind Rosie’s Café. Like a stain that won’t come out of the carpet. Like the proverbial bad penny—one that could cost the Wilders millions of dollars.

Maybe hundreds of millions. She wasn’t sure of their current net worth…

Butshe could probably find John T’s worth at the time of his death.

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