“Hello.”
A tingle raced up her spine at Roger’s neutral, cold tone. Oh no.
“Roger, this is Gwen.”
“Hello, Gwen. Hold on for a moment, I was in a meeting.” His tone reminded her that he’d told her that he would be calling her, not the other way around. After a brief muffled conversation, it sounded as though Roger changed locations and closed a door. “There. Now we can talk.”
Gwen bit her tongue and tried to breathe slowly. “Can you please tell me what’s happened, Roger? I’ve been waiting since yesterday afternoon.”
“Sorry, darlin’. I was called away on business this morning. The auction didn’t go through.”
“Didn’t go through?” The blood drained from her head and she had to sit down or fall down. Whatever that meant, it didn’t sound like a good thing.
“I wasn’t able to win your ranch back for you. There was a bidding war. I was outbid. My heart just wasn’t in it, I suppose.”
How unspeakably cruel he was, turning her words against her like that.
A deep, painful void opened in her chest. The Bucking H was gone. For good. “Where’s Dad?”
“I’m not sure. He has a place in town now.” That must’ve been a new development because he had been staying with Roger. He’d said it coldly like he didn’t care where her father was.
“Did you do this to get even with me?”
“Auctions are tricky things. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.” Roger cleared his throat. “Life goes on. Adults learn to compromise, darlin’.”
If he calls me that again, I’m driving up there and ripping his throat out.
“I do, however, have your horse.” His gloating tone sent a rivulet of fear up her spine.
She did her best to not sound worried. “You do?”
“Mmm-hmm. Yes. And at the moment she’s tying up quite a little chunk of change and I want you to come and get her.”
“Fine. I can be there next week.”
“No. This time it’s on my terms. You humiliated me in front of those ranch hands and your father. I can have any number of women at my beck and call in ten counties, but I drove through the night to see you and bring you home—and you refused my generous offer.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You have forty-eight hours to get to my ranch. If you’re not there by one o’clock on Sunday afternoon, she goes to the processors, to be butchered and made into dog food.”
“I’ll be there.” I don’t know how in hell but I’ll be there. Then another thought occurred to her that made her go cold. She didn’t have enough money to pay for Zephyr and there was no way he intended to just give her to Gwen.
“And Gwen. I’ll expect payment.”
“You can have every dime I earned in the last two months, plus my savings and all the cash I have. Please don’t kill her.” She hated the pleading tone in her voice but she’d beg for Zephyr if she had to. He had her right where he wanted her.
“I’m not interested in your money, darlin’. When you get here I’ll show you exactly what my terms are and you’ll put out exactly as requested. Once I’m well satisfied and finished with you, you’ll be allowed to take your horse and go. See you at one o’clock on Sunday. The anticipation almost makes the hassle of the last two months worth it.” The line went dead.
“Bastard.”
She started to dial Chris’s number and then stopped. There was no way they’d let her drive to Colorado knowing what Roger’s terms were. If she were in their shoes, she wouldn’t let her either. But they didn’t know Zephyr. They didn’t love Zephyr like she did. They couldn’t understand. Instead of calling Chris, she pulled out a piece of the same note paper Chris used. With shaky hands, she wrote her message explaining that Roger had Zephyr, that she had to arrive by Sunday to claim her or Roger would send her to the processors. It would be a horrible way for such a beautiful, valuable animal to die but that was evidently just how ruthless Roger could be in business dealings.
Why didn’t I see it before?
Because I trusted Dad to know a snake in the grass when he saw one.
She could barely think as she ran out of space on the note and finally just signed it and ran out the door with keys in hand. She stopped, ran back inside, packed a lunch, a snack, and made an extra sandwich because she’d be in the middle of West Texas by the time supper rolled around. It was a bad idea to assume there would be a decent place to eat open whenever she rolled through. She also packed fruit and a cereal bar for the following morning because the stretch of Southern New Mexico she’d be driving north through would be pretty sparsely populated too.