Slow Ride Home (The Grady Legacy) (3 page)

“Yeah, she does.” He blocked Logan from moving toward the stairs. “How come you didn’t warn me it would be her we’d be meeting?”

“Because I only just found out myself.” He raised an eyebrow at Ben. “Do you mind moving so I can get my briefcase out of the back seat?”

Ben stepped back and grinned at his friend’s dark blue suit. “Wearing one of your fancy cat hair and hay attractors today, huh? Thought you’d learned your lesson last time you wore one of them out here.”

Logan grimaced and glanced down at his mirror-shiny shoes. “I didn’t have time to change. Besides it might give SSTG a reason to support your claim if they know you have legal counsel backing you.” He turned his body so Allie couldn’t see his face. “What have you two been talking about so far?”

“Not much. She asked about Ma. Asked about the claim.” He held up his hand at Logan’s thunderous look. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. I know you said I shouldn’t say anything until you got here, so I told her Tammie had told me about the damned claim and how someone’s bought part of Bull’s Hollow and now the bank was threatening to call in their notes. That’s all.”

All of which was the truth and couldn’t come back to bite him in the ass. None of this should. He’d not sold any land. Neither had Jake. Either some lowlife was deliberately trying to cause trouble—which they’d succeeded in doing—or whatever lawyer filed the damned land sale claim had listed the wrong land by mistake.

Dust rose like a rooster tail behind a bright red sports car bucketing toward them at far too fast a speed.

“Your boss, I’m guessing?” Ben called to Allie.

“It would.” She slipped past them to await the newcomer at the free space on the other side of Ben’s truck.

Logan grabbed Ben’s arm. “Wait for a minute. I need to talk to you before we get started.”

Biting the inside of his cheek so he wouldn’t comment on the dust settling over Logan’s suit like a fine mist, Ben nodded. “Then talk fast.”

“Charlie’s researchers told me that Allie’s not just a claims investigator, she’s a lawyer.”

Why hadn’t she told him before? Mystified, he shook his head. “You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

“It’s good and bad. Good because she’ll know all the ins and outs of title claims, and bad because she’ll know all the ways to reject your claim.”

“Why would she reject it? I didn’t sell any land and that’s what all those payments for title insurance are for.” Though if SSTG were like some other companies they’d be looking for a way to walk away without paying out if something screwy had happened. Not that it had. No Grady would have sold any part of Bull’s Hollow.

“Just bear in mind, she holds Bull’s Hollow’s future in her hands. So play it cool. Don’t do anything to rile her up. And for God’s sake, don’t think with your dick around her. Keep her at arm’s length.”

“Give me a fucking break. She’s been married and divorced and is a different person from who I remember. I’m not going to sleep with her.”

Logan’s jaw dropped. “Oh fuck. I never said anything about sleeping with her, which means you are thinking about it, aren’t you?”

“No.” He glanced toward the sports car and found Allie leaning into the window, speaking to the woman inside. Man, he shouldn’t have looked. Her skirt pulled tight over her delectable round ass. “Okay, maybe I am. But at the moment it’s just a fantasy.”

A fantasy about getting her naked in his bed wearing only those fuck-me high heels.

* * *

Sweat coating her neck as the sun blazed down on her, Allie waited through Kathy’s complaints about how Lucy, as her boss had nicknamed her GPS unit, had steered her the wrong way once again. If she hadn’t driven out on calls with Kathy on occasion and seen firsthand how the unit repeatedly gave wrong directions in its breathy porn-star-sounding voice, she might not have believed it.

“You got here just in the nick of time. I wasn’t looking forward to having to make small talk with both of them while we waited for you.”

Kathy tilted her head as she observed the two men in a heated discussion near Logan’s shiny sedan. Her lips tilted into a very rare smile. “Gotta love a guy in chaps. Always want to ask them to model them for me without their jeans, you know what I mean?”

Allie looked away as the memory rose up of Ben giving her a private viewing when she’d asked exactly the same thing. “That’s Ben.”

“I bet you had to beat the other girls off him with a baseball bat.”

“He’s not worth it.” The time she’d gotten in a fight over Ben with Tiffany Stokes, she’d used her fists, not a bat, simply because that’s all she’d had available at the time.

“Going by his suit, I’m guessing the other guy is his lawyer?”

“Logan Vance, yes.” Who, from the fancy designer suit, silk tie and matching silk handkerchief jauntily sticking out of his breast pocket, had been much more successful than he’d dreamed back in high school. Gone were the hand-me-down jeans and shoes, along with his glasses, replaced either by contacts or laser surgery. It pained her to admit the high school nerd who’d been one of her best friends had become a sophisticated stranger. It hurt worse that they hadn’t maintained their friendship to cheer the other with each accomplishment.

“Nothing turns me on like a guy in a good suit and tie.” Kathy grinned. “Hell, they’re both pretty damned good-looking. I wouldn’t mind being the jelly in their sandwich.”

Allie was grateful Kathy had turned to grab her briefcase from the back seat and didn’t see her wince. Her briefcase wedged between her ample bosom and the steering wheel, Kathy checked her phone, skimming through her emails and checking her text messages.

“Are you sure you can’t assign someone else? Maybe Jessica? I could take over one of her cases.”

“It’s your territory, you get to deal with it.” Her boss finally looked up. Her eyebrows arched in a calculating expression. “My momma always used to say when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Well, now’s the time to start squeezing them lemons.”

Allie plucked at the zipper pull of her purse to distract herself from rolling her eyes. Unfortunately, her mouth didn’t fall for such diversions and she blurted, “Everyone fails to mention that lemons are sour as shit unless you add sugar. And I’m plum out of sugar these days.” Though Ben would probably have more than enough to spare—he’d been the sweetest-talking boy back in high school.

Kathy chuckled. “Given your history with these guys, you won’t mind if I have to reject their claim, will you?”

“No, but won’t they argue that I’ll be biased and you could end up being sued?”

“Trust me, if you do your job right, they won’t have a leg to stand on if I do turn ’em down.”

“Trust isn’t a word I’d use when it comes to the Gradys.”

Lamb to the slaughter
ran through her mind as she followed Kathy toward Ben and Logan. After she’d made the introductions, Ben read Kathy’s card, and he passed it without comment to Logan whose brows lifted in surprise.

“Executive Vice President. Sending in the big guns right off the bat?”

“A potential loss of almost eighteen million isn’t something my company takes lightly, Mr. Vance. Since I was in the area I decided to swing by so we could talk with your client personally.”

Logan’s gaze swung to Allie. There was no trace of the warmth and lack of guile that once filled his whiskey-colored eyes. So much for hoping their friendship might have survived. “Can I still call you Allie? Or do you prefer AJ these days?”

“Hello, Logan. Allie’s fine. AJ works better for the boardrooms.” The lack of surprise at her appearance and his unspoken acknowledgement of her married name told her he’d researched her before she’d arrived. “Shall we go inside and get out of this heat?”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Kathy marched up the stairs like a general leading her troops.

Once inside, Allie realized there were only two chairs in the office, which meant two of them would be left standing. Logan shot them both a veiled glance then sat in the chair behind the desk and set his heels on the desk. He crossed one leg over the other at the ankle, as if he were the owner of Bull’s Hollow, a king at home on his throne. The hesitant nerd she used to be able to read so easily had learned how to hide his emotions as well as gained a confidence that looked good on him, though not when she sat on the wrong side of his desk. Ben’s desk, she reminded herself. Ben, who was standing so close she could feel the heat emanating from him, could smell the scent of leather from his chaps.

Kathy examined the single wooden chair available to her with a doubtful eye before lowering her designer suit to the well-worn seat. Once settled, she withdrew her tablet from its case.

“Mr. Grady—Ben,” Kathy amended, “when your grandfather took out title insurance with Stars and Stripes Title Guaranty, he listed all the owners of the ranch. According to our files, there was no George Grady Junior listed on the form which means the claim DBP has purchased almost half of the spread from someone named George Grady Junior is our first line of investigation. So my first question to you is, is there a George Grady Junior who George Senior, as we’ll refer to him for now, deliberately left off the title?” She held up her hand before he could answer. “I must inform you both that we’ve hired private investigators to double check that your grandfather didn’t have any other offspring. If there are any family secrets, now’s the time to reveal them.”

“There’s never been a George Grady Junior,” Ben growled.

Logan rested his elbows on the worn wooden arms of his chair and steepled his fingers. “George Grady loved his wife and took his vows seriously, Ms. Berner. He wouldn’t have cheated on her, and even if he’d ever fathered any other children before he married Agnes, he’d have acknowledged them.”

“Damned straight,” Ben muttered behind her. “Gradys always look after their own.”

No matter what it cost anyone else, Allie wanted to add.

“Then we shouldn’t have any problems proving that the Memorandum of Land Sale is bogus, should we? We’re on the same team here, gentlemen. It’s in SSTG’s best interest, as well as yours, to get this matter settled quickly.”

Kathy checked her tablet, though Allie knew Kathy had memorized the information before they’d left the office. “Now, DBP Single Star Corp is listed on the Memorandum of Sale as the buyer—the state registry shows it belongs to a Duane and Bonnie Panola. Do you know them?”

“Tank?” Why hadn’t Kathy mentioned his name before? “It doesn’t sound like the Tank I remember.” Then again, she’d badly misjudged Ben too. “There’s no way Tank and Bonnie could afford to buy half of Bull’s Hollow, not on his salary.”

The phrase “what goes around comes around” floated through Allie’s mind. George Grady had destroyed her reputation and her father’s, and now Tank was destroying the Gradys by attacking their claim to Bull’s Hollow. Karma could be such a bitch.

Kathy swivelled to look at Allie. “You know the Panolas?”

“Tank worked with my dad. His wife Bonnie used to help me do my math homework.” She’d been one of the few people Allie had missed. Besides Ben. And Logan.

“People change, Allie,” Logan said quietly.

Ben wasn’t so circumspect. “The man’s a thief and a swindler.”

Allie carefully kept her gaze on Kathy rather than face Ben, who was all but vibrating with anger beside her. “Granted, Tank was rough around the edges, but I’d trust Bonnie with my first born.”

“Well, that should make your job easier when you go ask him about who he claims he bought his share of the ranch from, won’t it?” Amusement, with a touch of relief, sparkled in Kathy’s expression. She glanced up at Ben. “Am I right in assuming Mr. Panola is no longer an employee?”

“Damned straight. I caught the bastard selling my calves right out of my pastures and pocketin’ the money,” Ben answered. “He said Jake had given him the okay to sell them, but Jake says no way would he have given his permission. We checked to see if he’d tell Bonnie and she’d put it in the books, but when Ma went over them at the end of the month, the sale didn’t show up. So I fired both their sorry asses.”

Allie reluctantly forced herself to face Ben. Laugh lines creased the corners of his eyes, but they weren’t deepened when he met her gaze. She found herself longing for him to crack a smile, for a trace of the dimple in his cheeks to reappear, instead of the George Grady clone standing in front of her. “Bonnie’s been doing the books? I thought your mother did them.”

Ben nodded. “Ma turned them over to Bonnie after Gram had her stroke about four years back. Who knows how much the two of them have been stealing from us since then.”

“Your accountant never noticed anything in all this time?” Kathy asked.

“Bonnie’s brother is Bull’s Hollow’s regular accountant,” Logan explained. “He’s the one who arranged all the audits before this. I’ve recommended Ben hire a new firm as well as search for an independent auditor. Unfortunately the ones we decided upon won’t be able to start for a few weeks.”

“If they find anything, I’d be interested in getting a copy of their report. It might be useful as leverage if this Panola plans on holding the title hostage.”

“Whatever we can do to make the process as painless and speedy as possible. The banks holding Bull’s Hollow’s loans are nervous since the entire ranch was used as collateral so we’d prefer the claim be settled quickly.”

Kathy snorted. “Bankers. They insist you get title insurance and then when there’s a problem they panic.” She glanced up at Ben. “Have them call me. I’ll set ’em straight.”

“While the banks understand title insurance,” Logan pulled the conversation back to him, “my client’s other creditors aren’t well-informed, hence the need for speed.”

“Of course. But I will warn you, if this Panola fellow is doing this because of a grudge, he’ll know the creditors will be anxious and will try to drag this claim on as long as possible. The best thing your client could do might be to make nice with him and see if they can come to some accord.”

“You mean pay him off,” Ben snapped. “I refuse to pay Panola for my own land any more than I would hire back that lying sack of shit, even if he came crawling on his knees.”