Clint leaned back in his expensive leather chair and folded his arms. “Your point?”
“She’s got it all wrong,” Nash said firmly. “You’re a sonuvabitch. Plain and simple.” Clint’s eyes darkened, as Nash knew his own eyes did whenever someone dared speak anything but high praise for his family. “And you know why I know that?”
“I don’t particularly care.” Clint snorted.
“Oh, I think you might care about this,” Nash mused, moving closer to the bastard who had tried so damn hard to ruin the Blackshaw name. He stepped forward behind the client chair and gripped the smooth wood. “Yesterday, the police arrested Butch.”
Clint’s expression remained emotionless except for the slight tightening around the corners of his eyes. “Which matters to me because. . . . ?”
Nash strode around the chair, inhaling the natural wood aroma in the space. He pressed his hands against the desk, bringing his eyes level to Clint’s. “No more games, Harrison. It all ends now.”
A dark smile crossed Clint’s face before he rose from his seat, moving to stare out the window. “I have no clue what you’re talking about, boy.”
Sure, Nash didn’t have any proof of Clint’s involvement, but he didn’t need any. One look into Clint’s cold, dead eyes, and Nash knew. “I know you’re paying for Butch’s wife’s cancer treatments and that’s the reason he set out to sabotage the ranch,” Nash said, tossing his theory out there. “Whether you knew what Butch’s plans were with the fire and the drugging of the guests or Butch acted drastically in fear you’d stop helping his wife is up for debate, but he wouldn’t have done those things if you hadn’t wanted the ranch shut down.”
Clint’s expression turned hard, revealing nothing. “Get out—”
Nash knew he had him pegged. He could feel Clint’s guilt seeping into his bones. “The feud between our families stops right here, right now.” And that was what all this boiled down to. Nash refused to mirror the mistakes Harrison had made. Yeah, sure, Clint loved his wife and Megan, and obviously he’d been good to them, but his hunger to prove something, to be the best, to come out on top, had burned wicked until he’d enabled a man to do unforgivable things.
Nash wouldn’t be that man.
After a long deep breath, he added, “Neither Megan or Loretta deserve to be dragged through this shit any longer.” It was an odd thing. Nash would’ve dreamed of this moment before. He had Clint by the balls. He could’ve twisted this in any way he wanted to benefit his family. “But here’s the thing, Harrison: I don’t give two shits about you. I love Megan.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, feeling far more relaxed than he ever had before in this man’s presence. That was what happened when you were no longer on edge, coiled, and ready to snap. “She’s all that matters here. From here on out, I’m choosing to listen to what she’s been trying desperately to tell us. She doesn’t want to choose between us, and I’m not going to make her.” Which was exactly what he’d be making Megan do if he told Darryl about his suspicions or hired an investigator himself to possibly find the evidence on Clint he needed.
Clint’s glare lessened.
Truth was, while Nash knew Clint was a sonuvabitch, he believed Clint didn’t have it in him to order Butch to give a vomit-inducing drug to children. The missing cows were more Clint’s style. And Clint had always been friendly to Jenny. The feud had been between the husbands. Nash agreed with his mother and Chase that Clint wouldn’t have ordered her barn set on fire, which could have burned down his mother’s house. Nash now suspected that Butch had acted desperately, possibly because he thought if he didn’t, the payment for his wife’s treatments would stop.
Nash was done with this man in front of him, and he got to the real point of why he had come. “Here’s what’s going to happen, Harrison. Since this wouldn’t have happened without your pursuing Blackshaw land, you’re going to put your money to good use. You’re going to pay the medical bills of all the guests who were sent to the hospital. For all the guests who had a bad week because of your shit, you’re going to pay for them to come back for another week at your expense, including any lost wages they suffer away from their jobs. You’re going to pay to rebuild my mother’s barn and the side of her house. Plus, because you nearly killed me and the kittens I went into the barn to save, you’ll make a sustainable yearly donation to the River Rock Animal Rescue in Megan’s name.”
Clint returned to his seat behind his desk and snorted. “And why would I agree to any of that?”
Nash leaned in and put it all on the line. “For Megan.”
Clint’s jaw clenched once, then he softened in a way that Nash had never seen in his presence. “For her?”
Nash wasn’t sure if Clint was admitting guilt by agreeing to his demands. Or if Clint knew all this had gone too far and felt regret over that. Or if he simply agreed not to put Megan and Loretta through an investigation. It didn’t matter anyway. “No more animosity between the families,” Nash said. “It’s done. I’ll get you the information you need on the guests, and this will be done. Over.” He paused. Then, “We’ll make this right for Megan.”
Clint hesitated, his love for his daughter shining in his eyes. “Only for her and my grandbaby.”
Nash knew as he turned away, letting Clint have the last word, and headed out of the office that the condition of this peace only lasted as long as Megan loved Nash. And Nash was perfectly fine with that.
He planned for their love to last forever.
* * *
The second time Megan had woken up that day had been to an empty bed. Not nearly as perfect as she’d woken up the first time with Nash touching her belly. Yeah, she was becoming a real sucker for that, and her heart melted every time his hand came to her stomach. After she ate breakfast and showered, she fed the kittens wet food and left a bowl of dry food for Diva.
Megan was out the door before she knew it, and hit the ground running. She stopped at the River Rock’s Pawn Shop for the appointment she’d made yesterday while at work. Then she had another appointment with the bank, and with Jannie to sign a whole slew of documents.
By the time she arrived at Kinky Spurs for her shift, her emotions felt run through a cheese grater. Which was maybe why when she found Emma and Harper sitting at the bar waiting for her, her throat squeezed tight. At one time, they all worked here together. God, that felt like a lifetime ago. Life had changed so much.
The emotion began to spill out, and there wasn’t a damn thing Megan could do to stop it. She desperately sucked in air, trying to fight the tears threatening to release, hoping to hell the girls didn’t notice her.
They did, of course.
“Oh, my God, Megan, are you okay?” Emma was off her stool, rushing toward Megan and throwing her arms around her.
Always the sweet one, that was Emma. Which also wasn’t helping the overflowing emotion. Especially when Harper leapt in for a hug too.