Sticking to Her Guns Read online

  “I’m not sure you understand how the business works,” James said as he leaned back in his chair, but Tommy could tell that he was intrigued. He quickly told him about running into Bella as she was coming out of the bank crying.

  “She’s engaged to Fitz!” James shook his head. “I thought you said you and she—”

  “Exactly.” He told him about their conversation and then about Fitz showing up and the two arguing on the street. “I could tell something was wrong so I went into the bank. Did you know Carla Richmond works there?”

  “Davy’s old girlfriend. They were pretty serious back in high school.”

  “Right, anyway, she couldn’t divulge anything about bank business...”

  “But you got it out of her.” James was sitting forward now, clearly interested.

  “It’s Nolan Worthington. He’s in financial trouble.”

  James blinked. “Bad investments?”

  “I don’t know. It still doesn’t make any sense. Why would a self-made man who went from nothing to filthy rich be so stupid as to make bad investments?”

  “Is the partnership in trouble or just him?” James asked.

  “No idea.” He hadn’t even thought of that. Maybe his brother was a better investigator than any of them had thought—and the one big cold case he solved wasn’t a fluke.

  James opened his computer and started to type, then abruptly stopped. “Wait. You were just with her in Denver. She didn’t mention any of this, including the engagement?”

  “She wasn’t engaged but she said she’d gotten a call from her father and was headed for the ranch. She didn’t sound happy about it. Something is wrong for her to even consider marrying Fitz.” James looked away. “What?” Tommy demanded, knowing the look all too well.

  “I didn’t want to be the one to say it, but...” James looked up. “Maybe she’s marrying Fitz because her dad’s in trouble financially.”

  “I already thought of that, but we’re talking about Bella. She isn’t like that.”

  When James raised a brow, Tommy swore, wanting to cuff his brother upside the head for not believing him. “Then how do you explain it?” James finally said. “Did you ask her?”

  Tommy sighed, got up and walked over to the Hollywood poster of his grandfather. Her being engaged to Fitz made no sense. Was it possible this woman he’d loved for so long was that shallow? Had he been a fool to quit the rodeo and come back here?

  He turned back to his brother. “She said Fitz was the only one who’d asked.”

  “You think she’s just trying to get you to step up?” James asked.

  Tommy shook his head. “She knows how I feel about her. Even if I haven’t spelled it out, this engagement is too sudden. Knowing what I do know about her father, I have to help her.”

  “That’s just it,” James said. “You don’t know anything for certain. You need facts.”

  “You’re right,” he said as he came back over to the desk. “I need to find out the truth—with your help, bro. I need a quick course in PI.”

  “Then pull up a chair and let’s see what we can find out about Nolan Worthington and his business and partners, Edwin Fitzgerald Mattson and his obnoxious son, Fitz.”

  * * *

  THAT FIRST DAY BACK AT the ranch, Bella had been forced to drag the sorry tale out of her father. He’d said he hadn’t been paying enough attention to what was going on with the business. Edwin had him sign papers all the time. He hadn’t thought anything about it.

  “What did he get you into?” she demanded. She’d never trusted Edwin Mattson let alone his son Fitz, who was now invested in the business.

  Her father shook his head. “I’m in trouble. The Feds are involved. I have no proof that I didn’t do any of it. But these businesses it says I bought? They’re money laundering operations.” He broke down, dropping his face into his hands. “I sold them as soon as I realized what I’d apparently done, but I lost so much money and the Feds are even more interested in me now.”

  She had to pull every sorry word out of him, but she quickly got a picture of what Fitz had done to him. He’d tricked her father, who hadn’t realized that at least Fitz—and maybe his father as well—had set him up to take away the business Nolan had started. Of course, if he were arrested on a felony, he would be forced out of the business he’d started.

  “It’s worse than even that,” her father said. “Fitz says he has proof that I’ve been embezzling from the company for the past six months for my drug habit. I’m sure that if any money is missing, it’s been going into his pocket. But while none of that is true, added to the mistakes I’ve made...”

  “You look guilty.” He was also acting guilty, she noted. “So basically they’re about to fleece you,” she said and frowned. “You’ve hired a good lawyer, right?”

  He looked at the floor. “I made a bad investment. I’m afraid I’m broke. It’s all gone. Everything but this ranch and now I’m headed for prison.”

  Her hatred for Edwin and his son had her pacing the den in fury. “Surely you have some recourse.”

  He lowered his head, shaking it slowly. “The judge usually goes easy on a first-time offender—if I agree to pay back the money, but that’s impossible. On top of that, now with the Feds... Edwin and Fitz have been setting me up for months.” He met her gaze. “They have our investors believing I have a drug problem. A few months ago at a restaurant I was drugged and appeared...” He broke down again. “There’d been rumors going around about me, I guess, started by them. I found drugs in the glove box of my car and got rid of them, but I never know where drugs are going to turn up. They have me tied up. There is nothing I can do.”

  Her blood boiled, but she knew she had to keep her head. One of them had to be strong right now. “There must be a way to prove that this is all a setup.” She stared at her father. It couldn’t be possible. There was no way the man she’d known all her life was taking this lying down. Nolan Worthington had gotten where he’d been by being smart and doggedly determined. He’d built the business that Edwin and Fitz were now stealing from him. “There has to be something we can do.”

  His gaze lifted to hers. She caught hope in his green eyes so much like her own. “Fitz said he can make it all go away.”

  She waited, knowing that whatever her father said next would be bad. She just didn’t know how bad. “What do you have to do?” she asked in a whisper.

  “Fitz has been taking over his father’s part of the company for some time now. He’s the one who’s in control, according to Edwin. If so, Fitz has me right where he wants me. You know he’s always been jealous of what I built, this ranch—”

  “What is it Fitz wants?” she demanded, fear edging her voice. She knew Fitz, knew the kind of boy he’d been, the kind of man he’d grown into. “What?”

  Nolan Worthington held her gaze tremulously. “You. He wants you.”

  She shook her head and took a step back, too shocked to speak for a moment. “Well, he can’t have me.”

  Her father nodded in resignation. “I can’t say I blame you.”

  They both went silent for a long moment. “What happens if he doesn’t get his way?” she finally asked, remembering the deplorable child she’d known.

  Nolan Worthington looked away. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t ask you—”

  “Tell me.” She waited.

  He finally looked at her again. His eyes filled with tears. “This isn’t your problem. I got myself into this and—”

  “Tell me what happens if he doesn’t get me.”

  “He’ll send me to prison,” her father said. “He’ll plant more drugs. He’ll see that I get the maximum time. Twenty years.”

  Twenty years. A life sentence at his age. She swallowed and said, “Fitz is going to have to say that to my face.”

  “You won’t have to wait long. He said he plans to meet you here at the ranch.” Her father pulled himself together. “I need to tell the staff. He’s replacing them all and basically kicking everyone out but you—even if you agree to marry him. I’d rather let them go than have him do it.”

  “Wait, he can’t just take over the ranch. You said it’s in my name.”

  Her father stared at the floor. “He said he plans to stay here until the wedding and if you didn’t like it, you could discuss it with me in my jail cell.”

  Bella was unable to speak. If Fitz thought he could bully her... But even as she realized it, she knew that it wasn’t an idle threat.

  Her father stumbled to his feet and reached for her. “I knew I had to tell you what was going on. I’m so sorry, but I can’t ask you to—” He hugged her and she felt him trembling.

  “And if I do this?” she asked, her anger making her blood thunder through her veins.

  He let go of her to step back so he could see her face. She saw a glimmer of the father she’d known flash in his eyes as anger. “Then he will produce evidence that proves I’m innocent. He said he’d even buy my share of the business. I’m sure he will do it for pennies on the dollar, but at least I won’t be in prison.”

  She wasn’t able to believe this. “How can he make this all go away just like that?” she demanded with a snap of her fingers.

  “Apparently he has another scapegoat.”

  Bella stared at him. “His father?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe this was Edwin’s idea.”

  She shook her head wondering if her father really believed that. “So what do you get if I go along with this?”

  “I’d be out of the company,” he said. “But Fitz will pay me enough that I could live comfortably, but only i
f I left the country since my reputation is ruined, thanks to the two of them. Even with proof, no one will believe I wasn’t guilty.”

  Chapter Six

  As threatened, Fitz had arrived a few days after Bella’s return to Lonesome. He’d driven up in his expensive yellow sports car—one that verged on ridiculous in this part of Montana. He’d be lucky if he didn’t break an axle on the ranch road. Come winter, he’d high center the car in the deep snow and freeze to death. She could only hope.

  Bella had warned herself not to lose her temper. It wouldn’t help her father even though she knew it would make her feel better.

  Fitz shook back his mop of blond hair to expose small blue eyes the color of twilight. He had that same haughty look on the classically handsome face that he had as a boy. It said, I’m spoiled rotten and hateful and there is nothing you can do about it.

  She feared this time he was right as she opened the door before he reached it. She’d called him days earlier, wanting him to confirm what he’d told her father—and record the conversation. He’d ignored the calls.

  He stopped, a smirk coming to his lips as he pushed his sunglasses up onto his head and met her gaze. Bella thought she could have started a fire with the heat radiating out of her eyes. For a moment, he didn’t look quite so sure of himself.

  “I’m assuming you talked to your father,” he said as he looked around, clearly avoiding her laser gaze.

  “My phone messages weren’t clear enough for you?”

  His gaze came back to her along with the smirk. He raised an eyebrow. “You called me?”

  She said nothing, waiting. Let the bastard admit what he’d done. She had her hand around her cell in the pocket of her pants, her finger hovering over Record.

  He finally looked at her again. “I suppose he told you. Damned shame. Your dad should have known better.”

  That she could agree on. She’d never liked him going into business with Edwin Fitzgerald Mattson even before Fitz got involved. There was something about the man that she hadn’t trusted—even as a child.

  “So now what?” Fitz asked, getting visibly annoyed to be left standing outside the lodge. Had he really expected to be invited in?

  “You tell me.”

  “At least invite me in. After all, pretty soon this ranch will be mine.” He laughed and started up the steps toward her. “Excuse me, ours. It will all be ours.”

  “Over your dead body,” she said, making him stop in midstep.

  He raised an eyebrow, his mouth quirking into a smirk. “I thought your father would have told you how much trouble he’s in. I hope you have the money for a good lawyer for him. He’s going to need it. My father and I were shocked when we found out what he’s been doing behind our backs.”

  She couldn’t believe Fitz would lie like this to her face. Then again, she knew she shouldn’t be surprised. She said as much, daring him to tell the truth for once. His expression suddenly changed as if he realized what she was up to.

  He came at her, grabbing her arm and pulling her hand from her pocket with the cell still clutched in it. With a laugh, he pried the phone from her fingers. “You said you wanted to talk, when you left me all those messages.”

  “So you did get my messages,” she said. “Too bad you didn’t take any of them to heart.”

  “Threatening my life?” He shook his head. “You are only adding fuel to the fire. Like father, like daughter.”

  What made her even angrier was that he was right. She needed to keep a clear head and find a way out of this. Threats were a waste of time. But it would be next to impossible not to want to claw his eyes out.

  “If anything, you should be nice to me,” he said smiling broadly. “It’s to your advantage.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that,” she snapped, unable to hold her tongue.

  His blue eyes, a deep navy, darkened even further as he gave her a push back into the open doorway.

  It was all she could do not to physically push back. She feared what would happen though if she could get her hands around his neck. But he was right. He had the upper hand. At least for the moment. She took a step back and then another, afraid of what she would do if he shoved her again. She needed time to try to find a way out of this. She wasn’t letting her father go to prison. But she also wasn’t marrying this fool.

  Once in her father’s study, Fitz closed the door. “I could use a drink. How about you?” he asked as he walked to the bar.

  “A little early in the day for me.” He went to her father’s bar as if he owned the place. Apparently he would soon enough unless she could stop him.

  “Where’s the help?” Fitz asked as he turned from the bar, a full drink in his hand. “There’s no ice in the bucket.”

  Since her father normally lived in an apartment near his office in Missoula, there had been only part-time staff at the ranch except during the months he came here to stay. “My father let the staff all go as per your instructions apparently,” she said. It was hard to be civil to this man. But she’d try a white flag of surrender first. If she didn’t get the information she needed, she’d resort to all-out war.

  Fitz chuckled. “I think that is the first time Nolan has ever done anything I asked him to do.” He smiled. “How times change.”

  She watched him take a slug of his drink, lick his lips and settle his gaze on her again before she asked, “Your idea of a marriage proposal is to frame my father?”

  He had the good grace to drop his gaze to the floor for a moment. “Over the years, I’ve tried other approaches.”

  “I recall. Slamming me against a file cabinet to grope my breast. Cornering me in the kitchen and spilling your drink down the front of my blouse as you forcibly tried to kiss me.”

  “‘Forcibly’ is a tad dramatic,” he snapped. “I’ve tried nicely to get your attention. I decided on a different approach after you rebuffed my every advance.”

  “You could have just gotten the message and backed off.”

  His gaze hardened to ice chips. “I don’t want to back off. In case you didn’t get the message, I want you and I will use any measures to have what I want.”

  She nodded. “Just like when you were a boy and didn’t get your way. This is just another form of tantrum.” She turned and walked to the window so he couldn’t see how hard she was shaking. None of this was going to help her father. If anything, Fitz would tighten the screws.

  Bella turned to look at him again. It was all she could do not to gag at the sight of him slurping down her father’s expensive bourbon. She could never let him win, for her father, for the ranch she loved, but mostly for her own sake. She swore right then, she would kill him before she ever became this man’s wife.

  “What now?” she asked trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.

  He smiled as if he thought she’d finally accepted the inevitable. “We get married. Didn’t your father tell you that I want the whole package? A big wedding. I’ve already sent out invitations to most of the county. It’s going to be in the barn here at the ranch. It’s going to be till death us do part.”

  She nodded, thinking she could live with the death part. “I really can’t see you married to anyone, let alone me.”

  He put down his empty glass and stepped toward her. She stood her ground even as the floor seemed to quake under her. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a velvet box and shoved it toward her.

  She didn’t take it, didn’t move. Instead, she looked down at the floor. Fitz was simple and spoiled, but he wasn’t entirely stupid.

  He let out a sigh. “Fine. We can do it your way if that’s what will make you happy.” She watched him drop to one knee and thought since he was already on the floor how easily it would have been to end this right now. One good kick with her cowboy boot and he would be helplessly writhing on the floor. But it wouldn’t help her father if she went to prison as well right now.

  “Bella Alexandria Worthington, I’m asking for your hand in marriage,” he said with a sigh and opened the box.

  The diamond engagement was gaudy and ridiculously ostentatious. She looked from it to him. “It looks exactly like something you would choose.” If he caught the sarcasm, he didn’t show it.