Stealing Hearts (Wild at Heart #1)(89)
He tilts his head. “Well, now that’s hearsay until he’s tried in court, isn’t it?”
That’s how he wants to play it? “Harlan, his son, and the Texas Livestock Commission investigator all got arrested last week. I have copies of the arrest warrants from the sheriff, and my wife has a video of Harlan basically admitting to his crimes. Would you like to watch it?”
He waves it off. “That doesn’t have any bearing on your ability to repay that bridge loan our bank extended to you.”
“It does when Harlan stole my cattle, got them sick, and then paid off someone at the state to shut down my ranch so I couldn’t sell them at auction.”
Kacey shrugs. “That’s not really my problem. You either repay that loan today as you agreed to do or you default and we seize all of the assets you listed on the loan application.”
I have a sudden fantasy of leaping over the desk and strangling this little piece of shit.
My wife growls, and I place my hand over her leg to reassure her. “Kacey,” she says with a strange nonchalance in her voice. “Did you have a nice time at the Moonlight Mixer?”
His brows furrow. “I guess. Why?”
“I saw a funny thing out in the parking lot that night.”
He stills. “What are you talking about?”
“You mean you don’t remember getting a blow job from Prescott’s wife?”
What the hell is she talking about?
The douchebag straightens his tie. “I think you have me mistaken for someone else.”
“Really? So if I strolled upstairs to your boss’s office and mentioned this, do you think he’s going to be confused too? Do you think he’ll care that his wife was sucking your dick that night?” His eyes widen, and then Paige taps her chin. “Better yet, what if I called Georgia Hightower at the Gazette and mentioned this to her? You know how much she loves a good story. That way, we can get the whole town in on this juicy situation.”
Kacey starts coughing. “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’ve reconsidered your loan situation. Maybe we can work something out. What if I gave you a three-week extension, Rhett? Would that be long enough to take your cattle to auction? I don’t want to be unreasonable, and you made a good point about Harlan causing your troubles to begin with.”
I give him a shit-eating grin. “Three weeks should work.”
Paige taps on his desk. “We’d like the extension in writing. Today. Before we leave.”
Kacey tugs at his tie. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
When we walk out of the bank an hour later, I press her against my truck and kiss her. “How’d you know Kacey was fucking Tiffany Calhoun?”
“I saw it with my own two eyes. Only I wasn’t sure who he was messing around with. Fortunately, my best friend hears everything at the salon, and Baylee filled me in on the scuttlebutt when she drove me home that night.”
My wife is a fucking genius.
I’m gonna build her a bigger chicken coop.
EPILOGUE
PAIGE
Did I say I wanted to have lots of babies? Holy shit, contractions hurt like a bitch. One might be enough. At least we got our driveway regraded, so when Rhett races down the road, my guts don’t fall out.
I shut my eyes and grit my way through another contraction. “How much longer?”
Rhett hums. “Might be a few minutes. Don’t worry. I’ll get you there in time.”
He’s remarkably calm. It’s hard to believe this is the same man who didn’t want more children. In the last few months, he cleared out his father’s office, painted it, set up the crib, and even had his friend Brady paint a field of wildflowers across one wall.
Thanks to that video I took of Harlan, we were able to get the Texas Livestock Commission out again to give our cattle a bill of clean health two weeks after he was arrested. We got them to auction and repaid our loan.
Harlan, his son Jimmy, and Eugene Dods are awaiting trial for conspiring to defraud several ranchers out of their property, which they planned to lease for mining rights.
Apparently, we have a huge high-quality quartz reserve on our ranch, which the Calhouns discovered when they were scouting the Gibson property two years ago. These kinds of gems are in demand for manufacturing semiconductors.
But Harlan definitely played the long game, offering Rhett’s father the second mortgage through an affiliate bank and then making sure the statements went to the nursing home. While we’re not totally sure what Gus did with those funds, we suspect he blew them gambling online.
I try not to dwell on what happened because it still upsets me. The lengths the Calhouns went to acquire our property are jaw-dropping. Jimmy even messed with our trailer last spring so Rhett couldn’t take any animals to auction.
Because Jimmy didn’t want to go down for attempted murder when he chased me, presumably to throw me in a damn trunk, he spilled the beans on all the dastardly things his father was doing. Including why Harlan offered Rhett the bridge loan when he already had the Walkers in so much debt. Harlan thought the second mortgage might be contested since Gus was in a nursing home when he signed off on that paperwork, but getting Rhett wrapped up in financial trouble would close that final loophole.
However, the investigation cleared Prescott of any wrongdoing. As far as I know, Marcus wasn’t involved either.