“Scheme is a little harsh,” Ben said.
Colt whirled on him. “What about Quinn? Does he know?”
“There’s nothin’ to know. Just something that Tell, Dalton and I discussed.”
“Since you’ve been squawking about wanting an equal say in the operation, this is the type of thing that oughta be discussed by all of us,” Colt said.
Pissed off, Ben shot back, “Like the acquisition of the Foster place was discussed by all of us? Or how about the acquisition of the Hackerly place? Or the acquisition of the Borden place? Or how about the separate section up north that Kade ran for a year? Were we part of that discussion, or did Carson and Cal decide to do that on their own? Oh, right, they didn’t even f**kin’ ask us.” His gesture included Tell, Dalton, and Brandt. “Any of us.”
“Not the same and you know it, Ben.”
“Bullshit. Alls I know is that it’s perfectly fine for your families to add to your sections whenever the f**k you feel like it and run it as a separate operation. But when we wanna do that? It’s like we’re tryin’ to short shrift the entire ranch.” Ben forced a slow breath, trying to drop his blood pressure from the boiling point.
Kane said, “I know it probably don’t mean shit, but for the record, Ben, I agree with you. And if you can get the Wetzler place, or part of it, and be fair to Rielle, then do it. Me’n Kade won’t begrudge you.”
“Well, it’s a moot point because Rielle has already sold it,” Colt said.
“What?” Ben, Dalton and Tell said at the same time.
“When did you hear this?”
“Just this mornin’ from Cord and Colby. We heard last week from someone at the bank Rielle was behind on payments and about to be foreclosed on. So we stopped by to talk to her. Pissed her off. I’ve never seen Rielle like that. Woman had a damn shotgun pointed at us. Said she was tired of the McKay vultures pickin’ at her bones before she was even dead. So we took that to mean you all knew about her situation, and made an offer, which apparently wasn’t enough.”
“Yes it was!” Dalton protested. “We were just waitin’ for her to give us the go-ahead.”
Colt shook his head. “She said she’d hadn’t seen money, and the time was closing in on her. So she sold it to someone else.”
“Fuck.” Dalton turned his anger on Ben. “What the hell did you do? You assured us you had it handled with Rielle.”
Ben threw up his hands. “I did.”
“Did you let her know we were serious? Or did you just mention it in passing?” Tell demanded.
“I told her we’d make the payments to catch her up and then we’d discuss division of property. She said she needed time to think it over. So I gave it to her.”
Dalton stepped forward and poked Ben in the chest. “It’s been three goddamn weeks, Ben. This should’ve been wrapped up two weeks ago. What the hell have you been doin’ with your time? Goin’ to that bar in Gillette?”
He knocked Dalton’s hand away. “Back off. I didn’t have as much cash as I needed so I had to get a loan for my portion and that took time.” Jesus, he hated to admit that.
“You should’ve been able to get a signature loan. We’ve been dealin’ with Settler’s First for years.” Tell’s eyes turned accusatory. “Or are you in hock for something we don’t know about and they wouldn’t give you the money?”
His cheeks burned, not from embarrassment, but from pure anger. “I didn’t go to Settler’s First because it’s pretty f**kin’ obvious that our cousins have someone inside the bank feeding them confidential information. And you can be guaran-damn-teed if I’d waltzed in there, asking for a loan for some land that would be comin’ up for sale soon?” He jerked his thumb toward Colt. “They would’ve known about it and acted on it. So I had to go to the new bank. And like I said, that took time.”
“Which is the one f**kin’ thing we didn’t have. You should’ve come clean with us about your money issues and we would’ve given Rielle a down payment, or good faith payment, or something! Instead of givin’ her time to think us right outta that chunk of land. Jesus. I don’t f**kin’ believe this.”
“Me neither,” Tell said. “This is your fault.”
No one disputed Tell’s statement.
Colt and Kane wandered to their trucks.
“So you really ain’t gonna tell us where he is?” Brandt shouted.
Colt faced Brandt, Tell and Dalton. “Casper will contact you when he’s ready. Let him be until then.”
No one said anything until Colt’s pickup was a black speck in the plume of dust.
“As f**king awesome as this was, I’m getting the hell outta here,” Ben said.
“Maybe you oughta call Quinn on your way home and fill him in,” Brandt suggested with a snarl. “I agree with my brothers, Ben. You should’ve handled this better and now we’re all payin’ for it.”
Rage and regret formed a toxic cocktail and Ben knew if he stayed here another minute, he’d lose his mind. This wasn’t solely his fault. And f**k them all if they expected him to shoulder all the blame.
But he knew he’d never hear the end of it.
“These two are gonna tell me every f**kin’ thing they kept from me while we clean up the shit piles in Dad’s house since he ain’t here for awhile.”
When Dalton opened his mouth to protest, Brandt sent him a death glare.
Fun times.
Ben did call Quinn. He was pissy, in that silent, simmering silent way of his, which bothered Ben far worse than if Quinn had yelled and screamed.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The Wetzlers’ place was in view and against his better judgment, Ben pulled into the drive.
The trio of dogs yapped, but he shooed them aside, as he started up the porch steps.
Rielle stepped outside, and leaned against the porch support, her expression a mix of annoyance and wariness.
“I thought we had a deal, Rielle.”
“We had no deal.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I thought what we talked about was confidential.”
“It was.”
“Then how come your McKay cousins showed up, all charming cowboy smiles, with the aw-shucks, we’re all just neighbors attitude as they were mentally leveling my goddamn creek front and trying to decide how many cows they could run?”