Max and Rye carried Stef away.
Stef was totally going to kill them.
“This place is fucked up, man. I think that dude got sniped.” Chase was suddenly standing beside him, watching as Stef Talbot’s limp body got carried away.
Chase was deeply worried about snipers. He was sure they were everywhere. Wolf needed to let him know the possibility was small. “I think it was tranq darts. Caleb likes to shoot people but he doesn’t actually kill them.”
“A sniping is a sniping, brother.” Chase had his quirks. He also had his extreme talents.
And one of them was finding out any information a man could possibly need. “Hey, could you do a quick job for me?”
Chase perked up. “Sure. Ben passed out in the volleyball pit. I made sure he could breathe and shit, but I am so not reapplying his sunscreen. His ass is going to be bright red for that wedding tomorrow. I’ll be surprised if he can sit in the pew. Nat is going to be pissed.”
Wolf was going to have to drag Ben’s naked ass into the shade. Why had someone thought this was a good idea? “I need you to find out everything you can on Robert Meyer.”
Chase’s eyebrow quirked up. “Your dad? I already have a file.”
There was only one reason Chase would already have a file on Robert Meyer. “Julian. Of course.”
“Of course. Julian doesn’t do the whole ‘wait until people trust me enough’ thing. He just finds shit out and holds the info until such time as he needs it. Are you sure you want to find that asshole?”
“No. I don’t.” Wolf sighed. “The trouble is he seems to have found us.”
Chapter Eleven:
Aidan, Lexi, and Lucas
All around her Shelley’s bridal shower continued, everyone looking politely away as though they hadn’t seen the tense scene that had played out in front of them. They pretended they hadn’t watched as Lexi’s marriage took a nose dive. Lexi wished she could take the last few minutes back.
Lexi was utterly miserable as she stared at the place where Lucas and Aidan had tried to get her attention. She’d been in the middle of listening to a deal to turn her books into audiobooks and it had been hard to hear her agent. The cell reception wasn’t the greatest out here.
Of course it was probably perfect compared to the reception that would be waiting for her when she got back to the ranch. She glanced around and everyone was going on with their lives. There were women all over the beautifully decorated lawn sipping champagne and margaritas and talking with friends.
When was the last time Lexi had simply sat down and talked about anything but business? When she got together with Jessica, they talked about upcoming conventions. She had made friends in Dallas with some writers and she loved to talk to them, but they inevitably spent their long phone conversations helping each other with plots and problems with their characters.
She used to talk to Lucas about things like that, but somewhere along the way she’d lost touch even though he was only in the next room.
And now she was a jealous hag because she’d watched Lucas talking to their host, and just for a minute, his whole face had lit up and he’d been her Lucas again, smiling and charming and witty, and that smile had not been for her.
Her heart had tightened, and she’d been ready to march straight up to Lucas and ask him what the hell he was doing smiling at another woman when his wife was standing not a hundred feet away.
And she’d forced herself to stop because she really didn’t have that right anymore. She sure as hell didn’t have the right to complain about Lucas’s lack of attention when she didn’t have a minute to spare for either of her husbands.
Why couldn’t they understand? Aidan had shot her a look of pure anger when she’d shooed him off. Contracts were important. She had to make as much money as she could. If things went poorly, they would need every dime to fight to save the ranch. That land had been in Aidan’s family for a hundred years. She couldn’t let them lose it. It was her children’s legacy.
She looked down at her phone. She had to be resolute. Her men weren’t thinking in the long term, and if they didn’t, then she had to.
“Don’t you dial another number, baby girl!”
Shit. Her mother was marching across the yard, a stubborn look on her face. She was dressed beautifully in a designer suit, but she was carrying her heels in her hands as she stalked toward Lexi.
This was why she’d been more than happy to find out they were staying with Trev and not Stef Talbot. The whole Dallas gang was at the Talbot estate where none of them could lecture her on how her career was ruining everything.
God, when had talking to her mother become a chore? When had she started avoiding anyone who had an opinion? She hadn’t been to the ranch in Willow Fork in almost a year. She got a little annoyed when her parents descended because they were a drain on time she should spend working.
Guilt settled into her gut.
“Alexis Ann, you have been avoiding me and I want to know why.”
“I haven’t been avoiding you, Momma. I’ve been working.” The words sounded weak even to her own ears.
“You’re always working. Did you talk to Lucas before he left?”
“I was on the phone. I waved.”
“Do you understand what you’re doing to him?”
“To Lucas? Momma, I’m not trying to hurt Lucas. He knows I have to deal with problems as they come up. And I need to call my agent back. Those contracts won’t wait forever.”
“Does Lucas look at your contracts? Why are you dealing with this? Lucas is your lawyer.”
“I’m not going to bother him with something I could do myself. Lucas has enough to deal with.” She looked down at her phone. No bars. She was a little startled. She hadn’t lost coverage once. “Hey, do you have a signal?”
“Lexi, I am talking to you.”
“I know, Momma, but this is important. My cell phone is dead.”
“Well, thank the good lord. Maybe you’ll get your head out of your ass long enough to understand that you are treating Lucas like he is meaningless and it’s going to kill him.”
“Lucas? Meaningless? That’s insane. I love Lucas.”
“Then why are you treating him the same way his father did?”
The truth hit her like a baseball bat to the head. Lucas’s father had treated him horribly by shoving him to the side in favor of his other children. And she could see where Lucas might feel the same way now. She’d marginalized him even as she was trying to build a better world for them all. She’d shut them out. She’d tried to take it all on.
Because it was what she’d watched her mother do. Her mother had worked her ass off, but she’d had to.
“I’m trying to live up to you.”
Her mom shook her head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
She felt a little light in the head, the revelation having an actual physical effect on her body. “All my life I looked up to you because you took care of things. You didn’t complain. You didn’t whine. You did what had to be done. You made sure everyone had what they needed.”
“Oh, honey, everyone was you and me and I didn’t have a choice. Trust me, if your father had lived, I would have leaned on him. Adam took damn good care of me before he died. I might have still gotten a job, but I certainly wouldn’t have expected to take care of you alone.”
“Lucas and Aidan have their own concerns. They have to take care of the ranch. You know how ranching is. It’s precarious. It could all go under with one bad winter.”
“No, it can’t because Jack’s made sure of it. Why do you think he brought Aidan and Trev and James Glen in as partners? They share the reward and they share the risks. If one has a bad year, the others help out. No one is going under. Honey, why are you worried about this? Lucas makes good money.”