Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run 6)

Zane knew Laredo was controlled by the Gulf cartel, the same cartel that had dealings with Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil. The tenuous connection to his work in Miami was frightening, as was the mystery of why that much product had been shipped so far into the Hill Country. He left the sheriff and the San Antonio field office with enough information to watch over the connection in case it wasn’t a coincidence.

When they were finally able to leave the sheriff’s office, all that was left for them to do was tell Zane’s family good-bye and go home.

Chapter 11

Harrison dismounted and wrapped his horse’s lead around the deck railing, then pulled a large manila envelope out of the saddlebag before he walked across the stone pavers toward the guesthouse. Zane chewed on the inside of his lip as he watched from the kitchen window.

Beverly hadn’t changed her mind after the attack on the ranch, too stubborn and too proud to admit that she might have been wrong. Or the alternative: she didn’t think she was wrong at all. If Harrison supported Beverly’s decision to write him out of the will and essentially out of the family . . . Zane shook himself, not even able to think about it.

“Hey,” Harrison said, voice gruff.

“Hey.” Zane’s wounded thigh pulled as he held himself straight and tall.

Harrison shook his head and reached out to pat Zane’s shoulder. “Relax, son,” he said.

Zane thought he might drop in relief right there. He swallowed hard and nodded, stepping back to let Harrison into the house.

Harrison walked to the kitchen table and dropped the envelope onto it. “You two doing okay?”

Zane glanced up the stairs to the loft. “Yeah. Ty hit the bed and fell asleep before I could make him take his boots off. He lost a lot of blood.”

Harrison pursed his lips, which made his mustache twitch. Zane smiled fondly. “Got a little time?” Harrison asked.

“We’ve got another hour or so until we need to go to catch the plane.”

“I’m glad I came right over, then. Sit down, Z. We need to talk.”

The apprehension hit Zane again like a hammer. He edged into one of the chairs, babying his leg.

Harrison sat opposite him, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. “I’m proud of you, son. What you did was damned brave.”

The words warmed Zane to his toes. “I could say the same of you. I never realized how lucky I was to have you as a role model.”

Harrison raised an eyebrow, and his mustache twitched again.

Zane grinned. “Thank you for teaching me how to stand my ground, Dad.”

“Garretts got iron in their spines. You remember that.”

Zane nodded.

“What your mother’s done is a terrible thing, Z, and I won’t excuse her for it.” He sighed and shook his head. “Not that it matters much to her what I think.”

“Dad, what happened to her?”

“She’s always been a person who saw things in black and white, Z. Either it’s good for business, or it ain’t. You must remember what that felt like.”

Pain shot through Zane’s chest. He did remember. It had been a cold world. The only people who’d ever been able to see through his own icy exterior had been Becky and Ty. Was his father able to do the same with his mother?

“Are you happy, Dad?”

“I always have been.”

“But—”

“The love of my life is my ranch, Zane. It’s all I need to be happy. Beverly runs the money side of it and she’s good at it. I run the people side. Horses run themselves.”

Zane nodded, finally seeing a glimpse of the real marriage between the two of them. He didn’t understand it, but he believed his dad when he said he was happy. He stared out the glass wall over the rolling hills, seeing nothing but blurry grass and trying to ignore the awful, hollow feeling in his chest.

“I don’t put my nose into her side of the business, and she leaves her opinions out of mine. But this is one decision she won’t be making alone. I won’t allow it to tear my family to pieces.”

Zane blinked at him in shock.

“If she wants to take the Carter name and all that goes with it from you, she can.” He reached out and clasped Zane’s shoulder. “But you’ll always be a Garrett. Nothing she does or says can ever change that.”

Zane nodded, blinking against the stinging in his eyes.

“Now, when you were born, your granddaddy set up the Garrett Ranch in a revocable living trust,” Harrison said, his grip on Zane’s shoulder loosening. “I’m the successor trustee, so I’ve run the Garrett Ranch right along with the Carter Ranch ever since your granddaddy passed. But they’re still two completely separate entities.”

Zane frowned. “So you own the Garrett Ranch separate from the Carter Ranch?”

A smile played around the corners of Harrison’s mouth. “No, Zane. You own the Garrett Ranch.”

Zane stared at Harrison, his mind gone blank. “What?”

“You own it. You’re the beneficiary of the trust.”

Zane shook himself. “That’s not possible. There would have been paperwork.”

“Oh there is, and there has been since you were a baby. Trust takes care of itself,” Harrison said as he pushed the envelope under Zane’s hand.

“I own . . . own half the ranch?”

“The Garrett half. The Carter half was originally Garrett land, deeded to the Carters when we married as a dowry. Your mother inherited it and it folded back into the Garrett Ranch. Now, if something like, say, divorce papers got filed, the Carter half would revert back into the Garrett name, and that half is in my name alone. Beverly would walk away with nothing.”

Zane gaped, unable to say anything.

Harrison smirked. “We Garretts, we may be a lot of things, but we ain’t stupid.”

“Jesus, Dad.”

“Now, Beverly knows all that, and she knows if she raises a hand against you, or speaks against Ty as long as you’re with him, I got no need for her.”

“So . . . I own the Garrett half, and you own the Carter half?”

“That’s right. Meaning, one day, you’ll own the whole thing.”

Zane opened his mouth to speak, but failed. He’d never had any inkling the Garrett half of the ranch was the ranch in power. His mother always ruled the roost as if her family’s money fed it. It made sense now, all those years of her heavy-handed ways; she was compensating for having no monetary importance in the alliance of the families. Harrison’s mellow temperament made it easy for her to control things, and her savvy business sense had made it a good arrangement.