THE TIES THAT BIND Page 6

  "I didn't mean to upset anyone. I was only trying to point out the downside of living here."

  "Bull. You're between a rock and a hard place, and that frustrates the hell out of you. You can't run me or my brothers off without losing the ranch, so you thought you'd see if you could get rid of the wives and kids. That way you wouldn't feel quite so outnumbered. Nice try, but it won't work. We're here to stay. All of us. Is that clear?"

  Humiliation, shame and temper tangled together inside Willa, but it was pride that saw her through. She tilted her chin at a regal angle. "Yes. Perfectly."

  "Good."

  * * *

  Chapter 3

  « ^ »

  Willa rose earlier than usual the next morning. In the kitchen, over Maria's objections, she grabbed a couple of hot biscuits and made her escape, and moments later she drove her pick-up out of the yard.

  At the ranch entrance she turned north onto the highway and headed for Helena.

  It wasn't Willa's nature to run away, and her conscience pricked her as she punched the accelerator, but she kept going. She simply wasn't up to facing Zach and his family just yet, not after the night she'd just had. She had behaved badly and she'd paid the consequences. Long after she'd heard the others come upstairs she'd lain awake, staring at the ceiling, wrestling with her guilt and anger. Even when she'd finally fallen asleep she had tossed and turned fitfully.

  Willa justified the trip by telling herself she had to pick up the new boots she'd had made. Never mind that there was no hurry, and that anyone from the ranch who was going to Helena within the next few weeks could have picked them up for her. She wanted to do it herself. Anyway, she deserved a day off now and then, didn't she?

  Willa was so unaccustomed to having leisure time she hardly knew what to do with herself, but she forced herself to delay her return as long as possible.

  At ten after eleven that evening she pulled into the ranch yard. The house was dark except for the light in the kitchen, but Willa wasn't surprised that Maria had left it on for her. Intent on getting upstairs without waking anyone, she eased open the back door as quietly as possible.

  "Oh. What are you doing still up?"

  Seamus's grandsons sat at the kitchen table, watching her.

  "Waiting for you." Zach gestured toward the chair opposite his. "Have a seat. We need to talk."

  Willa didn't budge. "What now? It's late and I'm tired."

  "And whose fault is that? If you hadn't run off, we would have had this discussion at breakfast."

  "I did not 'run off', I had some errands to run."

  He simply looked at her. She tried to weather that steady gaze, though she felt a guilty blush spread over her face. "Oh, all right. We'll talk." She jerked out a chair and plopped down with a huff. "What is so important that it couldn't wait until morning?"

  "Before we go any further, we need to decide who's going to be in charge of the ranch operation."

  Shock slammed through Willa, jerking her head back. "What do you mean, who's going to be in charge? I'm in charge."

  An uncomfortable silence filled the room as the three men exchanged a look. Finally, J.T. cleared his throat. "Well, the thing is, since we all own equal shares of the Rocking R, my brothers and I feel that we should take a vote on that."

  "That's right," Matt agreed. "Let's face it, you can't run a place like this by committee. There can only be one person giving orders."

  "I agree with that. I just don't understand why we're having this conversation. None of you city slickers knows beans about ranching. I'm the only one with experience."

  "Uh … that's not exactly true," J.T. corrected. "Zach has ranching experience."

  "A rodeo cowboy?" She gave a scornful laugh. "You want to put a rodeo cowboy in charge of this ranch? Are you crazy? This may surprise you, but on the Rocking R we don't spend a lot of time riding our bulls."

  "Actually, Willa, Zach has worked on a ranch before."

  "Oh, please. Hiring on as a wrangler at some hard-scrabble little spread between rodeos hardly qualifies him to ramrod a spread the size of this one."

  "You don't understand. Zach is highly qualified for the job. He has—"

  "Never mind, J.T." Zach watched Willa, his expression inscrutable. "I don't think she wants to hear any of that."

  "But—"

  "No, it's okay. She's entitled to her opinion. Just as we are to ours. Which is why we're going to vote."

  "Then I vote that Zach should be in charge," Matt said.

  "So do I," J.T. concurred.

  "Since I agree with them, that settles it." Zach's cool gaze drilled into Willa. "From now on, I'll be giving the orders. Are we clear on that?"

  Willa's hands curled into fists. The fierce emotions roiling through her set off a trembling deep inside her body. She gritted her teeth and glared at him, too furious to speak.

  Zach cocked one blond eyebrow. "Well?"

  "Fine!" she snapped. "Go ahead and play cowboy. Just don't come whining to me six months from now when we go belly up." She exploded out of the chair so fast it toppled and crashed to the brick floor, but she paid it no mind and stomped toward the back door. She had to get out of there – now – before she blew apart.

  "Willa, wait. We have some other decisions to make."

  "Make them yourself. No matter what I want, the three of you will outvote me, anyway."

  The back door slammed with a force hard enough to rattle the windows and make the brothers wince.

  J.T. gave a long, low whistle. "Man, that is some temper."

  "Yeah." Zach stared at the door, a furrow creasing between his eyebrows. "But she has reason to be angry. I hated to deal her another blow, but I don't think we had a choice."

  "Maybe we could have been a little more subtle about it."

  Matt snorted at J.T.'s suggestion. "And just how were we supposed to do that, Einstein? There is no gentle way to strip someone of their authority."

  "Oh I don't know. Zach could have taken over bit by bit over a period of time."

  "And you don't think she would've notice? Yeah, right. That lady is as possessive of this ranch and her position as a dog with a meaty bone."

  "I agree," Zach said. "You don't maneuver around a strong-willed woman like Willa. Anyway, clean and quick is usually less painful in the long run.

  "As for the other things we need to hash out, I think we'd better give her time to cool down. We'll continue this discussion in the morning."

  "Fine by me. I'm ready to turn in. I'm beat." Matt stood and stretched, then unhooked his cane from the back of his chair. He limped away a couple of steps, then stopped and looked back at his brothers with a wry half smile. "The funny thing is, Willa assumes because we're triplets we're going to agree on everything. Man, is she in for a shock."

  * * *

  Willa always rose early, and the following morning was no exception, even though once again she had gotten little sleep.

  After storming out of the house the night before, she'd made a beeline for the barn, as had been her habit in the past whenever she'd been upset or smarting from Seamus's criticism. There she had paced and ranted and cursed at the rafters. At one point she'd hauled off and kicked a galvanized pail almost the length of the structure. Of course, that had made a terrible racket and frightened the stock, and she'd had to take time out to quiet them, but, oh, it had felt good to vent her fury.

  Finally, with the worst of her rage spent, Willa had wrapped her arms around her horse Bertha's neck and poured out her woes into the animal's sympathetic ear. Of all the unpleasant changes and low blows she'd endured in the past few weeks, this one was by far the worst. The usurpers were taking over, and there wasn't a blessed thing she could do to stop them.

  It wasn't until hours later that Willa had returned to the house and tiptoed upstairs to her room. Still upset, she had slept poorly until just before dawn when she had to get up.

  Confident the others were still asleep, Willa dressed and braided her hair and went
downstairs. She intended to once again grab a biscuit then saddle up and ride out before anyone stirred, but to her surprise, when she approached the kitchen she heard raised voices.

  "No, dammit! I won't do it."

  "Why not? You're the logical one."

  Stunned and fascinated by the unexpected friction between the brothers, Willa paused outside the swinging door.

  "Why? Because I've got a busted leg? Just because I walk with a limp doesn't mean I can't ride a horse or drive a truck."

  "Have you ever ridden a horse?"

  "No, but I can learn. I'd helluva lot rather be out in the fresh air than cooped up inside all day."

  "Actually, Zach, it would be better for Matt to be involved in some sort of physical work," Maude Ann offered cautiously. "He needs to exercise his leg as much as possible."

  Willa slipped inside the kitchen in time to see Zach rake his hand through his wheat-colored hair. The others were so intent on their discussion they didn't notice her standing just inside the doorway.

  The three brothers and Maude Ann and Kate sat at the table, drinking coffee, while Maria prepared breakfast.

  "All right, then J.T. will keep the books."

  "The hell I will!"

  "Dammit, J.T., what's your problem? You're a writer. You're going to be inside working at a desk a lot of the time, anyway."

  Well, well, isn't this interesting, Willa thought. She looked from one man to the other, enjoying herself immensely.

  "All the more reason to get away from a desk for part of each day. You're nuts if you think I'm going to be stuck inside while you and Matt are out enjoying the wide-open spaces and the fresh air. Besides, I'm lousy at figures."

  Zach heaved a long-suffering sigh and massaged the back of his neck. "Look. First of all, ranching isn't fun and games or some kind of lark. It's long hours of hard, back-breaking, muscle-straining, dirty, sweaty physical labor. Sometimes it can be damned dangerous, as well."

  "Don't worry about me. I can handle it," Matt vowed.

  "Me, too," J.T. echoed.

  "How? Neither one of you has ever even been on a horse before, for Pete's sake."

  "Then teach us to ride."

  "I won't have time."

  "Fine, then I'll find someone who will. Because there's no way you're going to turn me into a pencil pusher. I quit the police force rather than take a desk job, and I'm sure as hell not going to be stuck with one here. You got that, Mahoney?"

  "For once, I have to agree with Matt," J.T. said.

  "Oh, great. Just what this place needs – three greenhorns on horseback."

  The drawled statement brought six heads swiveling in Willa's direction in time to see her hook her thumbs into the front pockets of her jeans and saunter toward the table. Matt and J.T. shot her an annoyed look, but the women regarded her with a mixture of wariness and concern.

  Willa tilted her chin. No doubt they knew about that discussion last night and that Zach had usurped her place as boss. Well, if they were looking for signs of tears, they were going to be disappointed. She was mad as hell, not hurt.

  "Good morning." Kate gestured toward the chair beside her own. "Come join us. We're trying to decide who does what."

  "So I gathered."

  Zach focused on his most pressing problem. "Can you keep books?"

  "No." It was a bald-faced lie. In Seamus's later years, when his eyesight had begun to fade, she'd helped him with the accounts, but of all the jobs on the ranch, bookkeeping was her least favorite, and she wasn't about to take it on to help Zach.

  "Great. That's just great."

  "I'll do the books, Zach," Kate offered quietly. "Giving Maria a hand with meals and doing the books should keep me busy."

  "The children and I will help out around the house, too," Maude Ann volunteered. "And we can put in a garden. I noticed there isn't one now, and I do love fresh veggies. Maybe we can build a coop and raise some chickens, too. It would be nice to have fresh poultry and eggs."

  The changes were coming too fast. For Willa it was like being chased by a swarm of bees, and she instinctively resisted.

  "And what about me? What am I supposed to do?" Everything about Willa – her expression, the thrust of her chin, her tone – was a belligerent challenge. If Zach thought he could stick her in the house with the women, he had another think coming.

  "What were your duties before Seamus became ill and you started relaying his orders?"

  "I did whatever needed doing. Usually I worked alongside the men."

  "Then that's what you'll continue to do," he said matter-of-factly, taking the wind out of her sails.

  At the very least she had expected he would assign her menial chores that were reserved for the newest, most inexperienced hands. At worst, that he would relegate her to the house and domestic chores. She'd been prepared to fight him tooth-and-nail over either.

  Zach turned to his brothers. "I want to make one thing clear. If you two insist on working outdoors alongside me, then you're going to darn well pull your own weight and put in an honest day's work. Is that clear?"

  Both men bristled.

  "Hey! I may have a bum leg, Mahoney, but I'm no slacker. I can work you into the ground any day of the week."

  "That goes for me, too," J.T. declared.

  "Fine. Just so we understand one another." Zach looked at Willa. "Can you give them riding lessons?"

  "No." She sipped her coffee and eyed him defiantly.

  "Okay, who do we have on the payroll who can teach these two yahoos to ride and rope and the rest of the basics?"

  Willa gritted her teeth. She was spoiling for a fight and wouldn't you know he'd refuse to cooperate. "Your best bet would be Pete. He's almost eighty and arthritic but he was practically born in the saddle. He's been working here since he was sixteen, and he taught me to ride."

  "Okay, I'll talk to him after breakfast. Now, the next—"

  A high-pitched scream from the front of the house cut him off in mid-sentence. The shrill sound made the hairs on Willa's forearms and the back of her neck stand on end.

  "What the hell!"

  "Holy—!"

  "That's Jennifer!" Maude Ann bolted out of her chair. She shoved open the swinging door at a dead run and raced for the front hall. Everyone else followed right on her heels.

  The screams continued, running together in one long, ear-piercing sound. By the time they burst into the foyer Willa was at the back of the group.

  Jennifer stood by the open front door, rigid, trembling with fright and shrieking. Her face was chalk white, her stricken gaze fixed on the outside of the door.

  Both Zach and Matt cursed and Kate and Maude Ann gave a shocked cry.

  "¡Dios mio!" Maria closed her eyes and crossed herself and began to recite a fervent prayer under her breath.

  "Aw, hell," J.T. muttered. "What a thing for a kid to see."

  "What? What is it?" Skidding to a halt behind them, Willa wriggled her way to the front of the group, and gasped. "Oh, my, Lord."

  Nailed to the outside of the front door was a dead gopher. Between the animal and the door hung a bloodied piece of paper.

  Maude Ann dropped to her knees and snatched the child into her arms. Turning away from the gruesome sight, she pressed the girl's face against her shoulder.

  "It's all right, baby. It's okay. Momma's here, love," she crooned over and over, stroking the child's back.

  The girl locked her arms around Maude Ann's neck in a death grip. "I – I'm s-sorry, Momma. I w-wasn't going anywh-where. I – I just w-wanted to … pet the d-d-doggie," she sobbed against her mother's shoulder.

  "That's okay, baby. You didn't do anything wrong. It's okay, baby. It's okay."

  Striding forward, Zach snatched the paper free and slammed the door shut, removing the animal from view.

  "There's writing on it," J.T. pointed out. "What does it say?"

  Zach scanned the sheet of paper. It was lined and ragged along the left side, obviously torn from a spiral notebook.
"It says, 'Get out, Bastards. You're not wanted here'."

  His head snapped around toward Willa. "Is this your doing?"

  "Me? Of course not!" she denied, but all around the others were staring at her, their expressions accusing. Even Maria looked sad. "How can you even ask that?"

  "Easy. You've made it plain that you don't want us here."

  "That's true, but I'm not a fool. Why would I try to run you off? If any of you leave, I lose everything I've ever wanted. Do you honestly think I'd do something that stupid?"

  "What I think is that temper of yours sometimes overrules your common sense."

  "That's not true!"

  A stony silence stretched out as everyone eyed her with suspicion and hostility. Zach stared at her so long she had to fight the urge to squirm.

  The tense silence was broken when the other four children came clamoring down the stairs, barefoot and in their pajamas and still rumpled and rosy from sleep.

  "What's goin' on? What's Jennifer screaming about?" Tyrone demanded, knuckling both eyes.

  "Yeah, she woked me up," Debbie grumbled.

  "Nothing to worry about. She just had a little scare, is all," Matt said. "But since you're up, you kids go get dressed. Maria will have breakfast ready in two shakes, so move it."

  Taking charge, Kate hurried up to where the children stood. "C'mon, gang, you heard your dad. Time to rise and shine." That produced a chorus of grumbling, but she herded them back up the stairs.

  "C'mon, let's get Jennifer out of here." Matt glared at Willa one last time and put his arm around his wife and daughter and led them into the parlor. "It'll be okay, sweetheart. I won't let anything hurt you," he murmured, stroking the shivering child's arm.

  "I'll get a crowbar and take care of that mess on the door," J.T. offered quietly. "Maria, would you get me a scrub brush and a pail of soapy water and some rags."