Sticking to Her Guns Read online

  “Only the biggest and best for you,” he said and took the ring from the box and reached for her hand.

  She thought of her father and tamped down her fury. Was she really going to let this man blackmail her into becoming his fiancée? If she hoped to stall for time to figure a way out of this, she had to at least let him think she was.

  She stuck her hand into his face and he put the ring on her finger. It surprised her that it almost fit. He must have found out her ring size. She met his gaze, wondering what else he’d found out about her. That she’d been with Tommy recently for an entire weekend? It wouldn’t matter that they hadn’t made love. Fitz had always been jealous of the closeness she and Tommy had shared over the years.

  As Fitz awkwardly got to his feet, she realized how dangerous this man was. What he’d done to her father was diabolical. All because she’d spurned his advances?

  Bella looked down at the ring on her finger. Maybe this was just a show of power. He wanted her to know that he was in control. He didn’t really want to tie himself to a woman who couldn’t stand the sight of him, did he?

  “Why would you want to marry me?” she asked quietly.

  The question seemed to take him by surprise. “Have you looked in the mirror lately?” he asked with a laugh. “I want other men to look at me with naked jealousy.”

  “I saw your sports car. You can have any woman you want, women who are better looking than me. So why me?”

  “Because I can and because you and I are the same.” She instantly wanted to argue against that, but he didn’t give her a chance. “Bella, you go after what you want. Look at the way you turned your father down when you had a chance to go into business with him.”

  “With you and your father you mean.”

  He smiled. “Yes, with me. That was a mistake. You should have joined the partnership and not forced me to take other measures.” He was blaming her for this? “You and I could own the world.”

  “I don’t want to own the world,” she said and swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat. The conceit of this man, the hollowness of his desires, his all-out criminal behavior, and for what? Just to feed his ego?

  “Well, you’ll be with me soon and I want to own the world any way I can get it,” he said.

  “I can see that.” He seemed to take her words as a compliment until he looked into her eyes.

  “You may not like my methods. Fight me all you want, but I’d hate you to have to visit your father in prison. That is, if he doesn’t overdose before then. Or jump out a window from our office building. Desperate men do desperate things.”

  Her hands knotted into fists at her side. She heard the threat and knew it wasn’t idle. It was all she could do not to lunge for his throat.

  “As your fiancé I’ll be moving into the ranch right away since the wedding is going to be here and it’s coming up soon. Your large new barn is the perfect place for the wedding, don’t you think?”

  She shook her head. “You’re not moving in here.”

  Fitz moved swiftly for a man of his size. “When are you going to realize that you no longer have a say in anything?” He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into a kiss. She bit his lip, making him howl. He took a step back and slapped her so hard her ears rang, but he didn’t try to touch her again.

  As he’d gone back to the bar, Bella had promised herself that Fitz would never be her husband. One way or another, she would stop this marriage.

  Chapter Seven

  Tommy pulled up a chair as his brother began to type at his computer. “Let’s see what we can find out.” He watched James go to a variety of sites, taking notes, determined to learn as much as he could quickly.

  “This is interesting,” James said. “Six months ago, Nolan bought some small businesses. During those six months, he’d gone through a lot of money on top of what appears to be several bad investments.”

  “So he is broke?”

  “This does not look good. Car washes are cash-heavy businesses like casinos and strip clubs. Simply owning businesses like that is a red flag for the Feds. This could get him investigated for money laundering even though it appears that he turned around and sold them quickly at a loss, which frankly I would think makes him look even more guilty.”

  “You think he’s involved in money laundering?” Tommy asked in surprise.

  James lifted an eyebrow and shrugged. “The thing is, in most business partnerships, if one of the partners is arrested for a felony, the remaining partners can buy him out for pennies on the dollar.”

  “So you’re saying that Nolan Worthington could lose everything.”

  “It certainly looks that way,” his brother said. “I always thought he was a smart businessman. Didn’t he start the investment business from the ground up? No wonder Bella’s upset.” James began to type again on the keyboard. “But at least it looks as if the ranch is in her name. That’s good.”

  “Until she marries Fitz,” Tommy said. “Then he’d own fifty percent should there be a divorce.” Tommy thought about the ranch that Bella loved. She wouldn’t jeopardize it to save her father, would she? “How did this happen?” He knew he was asking why Bella would have ever agreed to marry Fitz under any circumstances.

  “Greed? The business with Edwin Mattson seems to be doing fine,” James said. “Maybe Nolan wanted to make more money. Maybe he got involved with the wrong people.” He seemed to hesitate. “I did hear a rumor that he might have gotten involved with drugs.”

  Tommy shook his head. “Nolan? That’s not possible.”

  James shrugged. “Fitz started his own business no doubt financed by his father. He’s doing fine. Didn’t Bella start her own business?”

  He nodded. “But she’s barely gotten it off the ground. She wouldn’t have the funds to bail out her father.”

  James closed his computer. “Could explain why she’s agreed to marry Fitz, though.”

  Tommy wanted to argue that James didn’t know Bella the way he did. She’d never marry Fitz under any circumstances, let alone marry any man for money. But there was that huge rock he’d seen on her ring finger. Not to mention the words out of her mouth. He stood and shoved back the extra chair. “I’ve got to talk to Bella.”

  * * *

  BELLA KNEW THAT she had to move quickly after Fitz’s visit. The wedding day he had chosen was coming up fast. She realized that her father hadn’t really explained how Fitz had left him so bankrupt. Conning him out of the partnership was one thing. What about her father’s other investments? He shouldn’t be this broke.

  She called Fitz’s father, wondering what kind of reception she would get. Edwin senior had always been kind to her even though she’d never trusted him. But when it came to Fitz, Edwin had almost been apologetic. Had that changed? Surely he was aware what Fitz was up to.

  “Edwin, it’s Bella,” she said when he answered his phone at the office. For a moment all she heard was silence on the other end. “I’m sure you know why I’m calling. There’s a few things I need to know. Starting with my father’s finances.”

  There was a deep sigh. “This is something you should be asking your father.”

  “I’m asking you,” she said, hating that underlying regret she heard in the man’s voice as well as the pleading in her own. “Please. There is so much going on right now with Fitz... Tell me why my father’s broke.” She could understand Fitz and Edwin using the clause in the partnership to get him out of the business. But there had to be more going on here.

  Edwin cleared his throat. “Apparently you are unaware of your father’s indiscretions.”

  “Indiscretions?”

  The man sounded embarrassed. “You really should take this up with your father.”

  “I would but I don’t know what this is,” she said losing her patience.

  “Ask him about Caroline.”

  The name meant nothing to her.

  “That’s all I can tell you. I’m so sorry.” Edwin disconnected.

  Bella knew he could tell her much more, but he wasn’t going to. Apparently she would have to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. How much more had her father kept from her?

  He had gone back to his apartment in Missoula, which was only blocks from his office. She’d been so busy starting her online Western wear business that she hadn’t been to his apartment since he’d first rented it. Instead, what little she’d seen of him had been at the ranch—usually at his request. Now she wondered if that was because he kept this Caroline at the apartment.

  On the drive to Missoula, she had too much time to think about all of this. As she reached the new high-rise apartment house and parked, that stupid engagement ring on her finger caught the light, winking at her as if in on the ruse. She took it off and tossed it into her purse.

  Her father’s SUV was in the lot, but when she reached the reception area on the lower floor, the man behind the desk wasn’t going to let her go up.

  “He’s had movers in and out all day,” the man dressed in a security uniform told her. “Other residents are complaining about him tying up the elevator.”

  “You can take it up with him,” she said. “I’m his daughter and I’m going up to see him.”

  The man looked as if he wanted to argue. “Fine, but please tell your father that the movers he hired need to use the service elevator.”

  Her father was moving? So much for her theory that he was keeping this Caroline woman in the apartment. But where was he moving? Surely not back to the ranch. Or was he preparing for prison? she thought with a sense of panic as she took the elevator up to his floor and rang his doorbell.

  Her father opened the door, clearly surprised to see her after their discussion at the ranch a few days ago. She was equally surprised to find him in such disarray. He hadn’t shaved for a couple of days and appeared to be wearing the same clothes he’d had on the last time she’d seen him.

  Past him, the apartment was filled with boxes. She caught the scent of old takeout and saw the food containers discarded on the breakfast bar along with several nearly empty alcohol bottles before she closed the door behind her and stepping past him. Her father never drank much, just a nightcap of his precious bourbon—not the rot-gut stuff that had been in the discarded liquor bottles she was seeing.

  “I haven’t had time to pick up,” he said, stepping to the breakfast bar and beginning to toss items into the trash.

  She moved deeper into the apartment. “What is going on?”

  He stopped cleaning up, seeming surprised. “I already told you.”

  “You apparently left out a few things,” she said. “Who is Caroline?”

  All the blood drained from his face. He planted a hand on the breakfast bar as if to steady himself. “Who...who told—”

  “It doesn’t matter who told me.”

  “Fitz? Or his father?”

  She’d never seen Nolan Worthington look more defeated. She wanted to reach for him and assure him that they would get through this. Except she didn’t know the extent of what this was. But from the look on his face, this was even worse than what he’d told her before. “What have you done?”

  He bristled and straightened taking on the stature of the father she’d always known. “I’d appreciate you not using that tone with me.” She waited. “Could we at least sit down?”

  She looked around for a place to sit, moved a couple of half-packed boxes and sat. He went to the breakfast bar. Picked up one of the almost empty bottles of bourbon and poured what there was into a dirty glass.

  “I’d offer you one but...” He drained the glass, then came into the living area, moved a box and sat down some distance from her. The alcohol put a little color back into his face. “I made a mistake. It happens.”

  Bella sighed. How many mistakes had he made? Even more than he’d admitted to so far. “Just tell me so we can deal with it.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed for a moment before he spoke. “I met a woman. Caroline Lansing. I... I fell in love with her.”

  “She took all your money.” It was a wild guess, but she saw at once that she’d hit a bull’s-eye on the first try even as she told herself that her father was too smart to be swindled by a gold-digging woman. But he’d been alone for years since her mother’s death. Lonely men could be easy prey for a female with criminal designs.

  And Bella hadn’t been around. “How bad is it?” She knew it had to be very bad.

  “She... I...thought we were getting married. She let me believe that she had money, but that it was tied up in real estate, so I...” He shook his head. He didn’t need to continue.

  “She’s long gone?” He nodded. “With your money?” Another nod. “None of that matters right now,” he snapped. “Fitz is trying to put me in prison.”

  When she said nothing, he added, “Go ahead and say it. I was stupid. I was played for a fool.” His voice broke. “I was in love for the second time in my life.”

  Bella didn’t know what to say. There really wasn’t anything she could say. “Is there nothing left?”

  “Just the ranch.”

  She had a feeling that her father would have probably raided the ranch for this woman if he hadn’t legally put it in his daughter’s name. She would bet money Caroline, whoever she was, had wanted every last cent he had and would have gotten the ranch if she could have.

  “So this is why you’re broke, this woman? Do you have any way to get your money back from her, legally or otherwise?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “It’s gone. She’s gone.”

  “How long did you know her?”

  “I met her six months ago,” he said. “I was...distracted and Fitz took advantage.”

  Six months. Was that when Fitz began plotting to destroy both her father and her? Bella glanced around at all the boxes. “Where are moving to?”

  “Everything is going into storage.” He met her gaze. “My life is so up in the air, and I can’t come back to the ranch. I know Fitz is moving in.”

  “That’s what he says.” She had much bigger problems. If she didn’t marry Fitz, her father would be going to jail and then prison. Even if she did marry Fitz, her father’s future was still uncertain. He was broke. Fitz was threatening to enforce the breach of contract clause in the partnership so that her father would lose everything, including his reputation.

  “How did you meet this woman?” Bella asked.

  “She came to the office, wanted advice on an investment,” he said sheepishly. “One thing led to another.”

  She didn’t doubt that Fitz had taken advantage of her father being distracted by this woman. But she couldn’t help being suspicious that he’d been set up, and not just by Caroline. It seemed odd that the woman just happened to be sent back to her father’s office.

  “Do you have a photo of her?” Bella asked.

  Her father looked surprised. Who kept a photo of the woman who had fleeced him? A man who’d truly believed he’d been in love. He started to reach for his cell phone.

  “Send it to me and everything you know about her.” She got to her feet. Her father looked better than when he’d opened the door. He had raised a strong, resourceful, smart daughter. However, she doubted even she could save him from himself. But she would try because he was her father.

  She kissed him on the cheek as she left. The tears she’d seen in his eyes made her hate Fitz even more than she thought possible because all her instincts told her that he’d had something to do with everything that Nolan Worthington was now going through—and her as well.

  * * *

  FITZ STOOD ON the steps of the ranch house, considering what he would do with the place once it was his. Once Bella was his. He touched his tongue to his lip where she’d bitten him. Anger made him see red. Once they were married, she was in for a rude awakening.

  He’d moved up the wedding from the original date he’d planned, anxious to teach her how things were going to be. That was if he could wait that long. She would soon be his in every way whether she liked it or not.

  Smiling to himself, he realized that he wouldn’t mind if she fought back. It might make taking her all the more enjoyable. He knew it would be an even bigger thrill to get her on her knees than the excitement and joy he felt when he took over businesses and crushed the life out of them.

  A truck pulled up out front. He saw it was from the locksmith shop in town. An elderly man climbed out. “You the one who needs the locks changed?” the man asked, glancing around. “Where’s Nolan?”

  “He’s away on business. He asked me to take care of it. Unfortunately, I’m locked out.”

  The locksmith looked wary.

  “I’m Edwin Fitzgerald Mattson the Third. My father and I are Nolan’s business partners.” At least for the moment. “Bella’s my fiancée.”

  The man didn’t move. “Where’s Bella? Going to need either her or her father before I change the locks.”

  Fitz was about to let out a string of curses when he heard a vehicle approaching. With relief he saw it was Bella. He wondered where she’d been. He was going to have to clip her wings. She couldn’t just come and go without a word to him about where she was going, but one step at a time. Clearly, she needed more convincing about who was in control here.

  “Here’s Bella now,” he said, seething inside at how she’d locked him out of the ranch house. He really needed to bring this woman to heel and soon, he thought, narrowing his eyes at her as she climbed from her SUV. And he knew exactly how to do it.

  “I understand you want the locks changed,” the elderly locksmith said to her as she approached.

  Bella glanced from the man to him. Her look was so defiant that for a moment Fitz worried that she would embarrass him in front of this old man.