Page 37 of Steers and Stowaways
Apparently, she preferred to fight. “What I am,” he informed her flatly, “is someone worthy of your trust. Someone who would never inflate your vendor fees or fabricate service charges.” He watched Chip, pretty sure he was looking at the person responsible for the fraudulent entries on the expense sheets for Evans Ranch. “And I sure as all get out would never charge you top-dollar pest control fees for a company that hasn’t paid a single visit to your attic since they don’t even exist!”
He gave the teenager the full blast of his sneer.
Chip looked thoroughly gobsmacked. “I-I can explain!”
“I bet you can.” Tucker lurched his way menacingly.
“Tuck,” Mallory protested, trying to dance into his path again.
He two-stepped around her. “As Mallory’s future business partner,” he informed Chip frostily, “it’s very much in my interest to clear up every anomaly on the financial records for Evans Ranch. And by anomaly, I’m referring to the way you and your family have been robbing her blind!”
Mallory gave a squeal of outrage on Chip’s behalf.
“I’ll tell you everything,” the eighteen-year-old exploded, sending her a look of supreme distress. “I’m sorry, ma’am…I mean, Mallory. I never meant to hurt you, oryour ranch, or the steers. It’s just that…” He swallowed hard. “They made me do it,” he concluded on a crackling sob of remorse.
Tucker had already come to that conclusion himself. “The facts say you were seventeen when you started doctoring the books at Mallory’s ranch.” He made up that part on the spot, hoping to startle the truth out of the kid.
“Seventeen!” Chip made a strangled sound. “Dude, I’ve been doing this kinda stuff since the sixth grade.”
Boom!It was all Tucker could do not to turn around and point at the security camera in triumph. Chip’s sixth grade year had occurred long before his family had met and become employed by Mallory. It was a hefty checkmark in the column supporting her innocence.
“It’s not his fault.” She bristled at him like an angry kitten. “None of this is his fault! So help me, Tucker, I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ll apply to become his sponsor.”
He shook his head in wonder at her, making the words freeze on her lips. “Or we could apply together. What do you say, partner?” He held out a hand to her.
To his disappointment, her gaze latched onto it like it was a coiled snake.
Too bad.But he couldn’t afford to back down now. “Not only will we be combining our extensive ranching experience, you’ll get all the benefits of a personal bodyguard while I’m around.” He’d been working at Johnny’s Dairy in the evenings and on the weekends for the past year to avoid wallowing in his darker memories, but he’d give his second job up for her in a heartbeat.
Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
“I’ve also just been informed,” he added, knowing he needed to slip the most crucial detail in somewhere, “thatall the backup we enjoyed today is an employee perk on my end. If you agree to be my partner, it’ll remain an employee perk, thanks to having yours truly in your court. Otherwise, you’ll have to either fork over more money, or we’ll have to make do without backup the rest of the way to El Paso.” He wanted her to know right up front that he wouldn’t leave her to face her enemies alone, no matter what. That said, he didn’t relish the thought of doing it without backup.
Suspicion lit her gaze. “This feels like blackmail.”
“How so?” He glared at her. “I’ve stuck my neck out further for you than I have for anyone else on the planet.”
“If I say no, we’re dead.” Her lips twisted stubbornly. “If I say yes, we’ll have to put up with each other…indefinitely.”
“So, what’s it gonna be?” He gritted his teeth, knowing his fellow Lonestar investigators were probably laughing their rear ends off in the other room.
Chip stirred from his momentary stupor and came alive again. “Do I get a vote?” he asked in a small voice.
“No!” They shouted the word in unison without turning his way.
“What about my cell phone?” he whined.
Tucker tossed it to him to shut him up.
Mallory made a hissing sound at Tucker. “Fortunately for you, I like being alive.”
A smile tugged at his lips that he felt all the way to his soul, but he didn’t dare give in to it. “Let’s shake on it.” He held out a hand, instinctively knowing she would be a woman of her word. Resting on his palm was the cell phone he’d taken from her earlier.
“We’ll get to that.” She shoved the phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “But I’m gonna need an independentvaluation of all assets first, and a fifty percent buy-in from both of us.”
It was a fair request, one that might require him to bring more money to the table to get started. “Deal.” He didn’t care what it cost. He was all in.
“I also want a fifty percent split of the workload,” she pressed. “I’m not putting in most of the elbow grease while you dedicate your best efforts to two other jobs. I don’t care how you do it, but you’re gonna pull your weight.”
