Cowgirls Don't Cry (Rough Riders 10)
“Did he…” How could he ask his uncles if his dad had told them he’d attacked his father?
Cal clapped Brandt on the shoulder. “Son, we know what he’s like. Which is why we all needed to be there. Been brewing for a long goddamn time. It’s time we dealt with it.” He looked at Jessie with that trademark charming McKay smile. “Darlin’, if you wouldn’t mind givin’ us some time with Brandt—”
“Sorry. Brandt and I are a package deal now. Whatever you intend to discuss with him can be said in front of me. Rest assured, I’ll never repeat what I hear, but Brandt and I have had too many family things between us, keeping us apart for too long.”
Brandt had such a fierce sense of pride, such an overpowering feeling of love for this woman. He reached for Jessie’s hand. Right then he knew he’d never have to worry where he stood with her, because she’d always stand beside him.
Jessie said, “It’s too damn cold out here. Let’s head inside.”
After outerwear was removed, Brandt passed around beer. He sat in the easy chair with Jessie perched on the arm beside him. “So I guess I’d like to hear what my dad said to you before I tell you what really happened.”
“It ain’t pretty, Brandt. Just figured I oughta be up front with you about that,” Cal warned.
“Understood.”
“Casper said things’d gone to hell in a hand basket since Luke died. He’d entrusted you with the ranch and you’d make some piss poor decisions and he no longer trusted your judgment.”
Jessie threaded her fingers through his.
“When we pressed him for solid facts, Casper sputtered something about you convincing your brothers to buy more land, when the three of you couldn’t take care of what you already had.” Charlie grunted. “Course, that’s when we pointed out for the last two years, since you’ve taken over, your calves had a higher weight ratio than ever. Then I told him you boys buying that grazing land, even when you had to put yourselves in hock for it, was one of the smarter decisions anyone’s made.”
“Casper didn’t wanna hear that,” Carson pointed out. “He also didn’t wanna hear us tellin’ him that he hadn’t been pullin’ his weight for damn near a decade. And that if it hadn’t been for his sons bustin’ ass, we would’ve redistributed his parcel amongst the three of us and our sons.”
A feeling of pride and dread surfaced simultaneously. Brandt and his brothers had done everything to make their part of the McKay ranch as successful as the others. But with their dad overruling them, they’d lost some of what they’d gained. “What was his response?”
“Typical Casper blustering. Told us if we thought we could do a better job, then we could go ahead and buy him out.”
Brandt went motionless. Not only would Casper McKay cut him out, he’d cut out Tell and Dalton from their heritage too. He took a long swallow of beer and met his Uncle Carson’s gaze, managing to keep his voice steady. “What did you say?”
“We took him up on it.”
Silence.
Brandt felt as if he’d been sliced in two.
“Now before you go getting that look on your face, son, hear us out. You know we’ve been restructuring several aspects of the ranch over the last few months.”
“Chase mentioned it, so did Kade, but I’ll admit Casper kept us in the dark. Whenever we asked, he refused to talk about it.”
Charlie nodded. “Chase said as much. Which let us know that anything we were doin’ had to be completely above board. It also forced us to look very closely at the past legal documentation for the ranch.
And what Dash Paulson found sort of shocked us.”
“What’s that?”
“We were under the impression that if just one of us wanted to sell our portion of the ranch, the other three owners would be forced to sell theirs too. Which is how Casper tried to control us, or at least got away with a lot more shit than we would’ve let him, had we known the real legalities of the matter.”
Carson pointed with his beer bottle. “It entails lots of legal gibberish that took us slow readin’
ranchers some time to understand, but the bottom line is we were wrong. Casper never had the power to force us to sell.”
Brandt held up his hand. “Wait a second. My dad threatened to sell his portion of the ranch?”
“Several times over the years. To be honest, he even went as far as to have it appraised about six months after Luke died.”
That son of a bitch. “Why?”
“So he could point out what idiots we were for keepin’ it, when we could have more money in our pockets than we could ever spend.”
“How much money we talkin’?”
The three brothers exchanged a look. Then Carson met his gaze. “On paper? Over eighty million dollars.”
“Holy f**king shit.”
“So yeah, Casper thought he had the ace in the hole, thinkin’ if we wanted to buy out his portion of the ranch, it’d cost us over twenty million dollars each. Which none of us have in cash obviously.”
Brandt looked at Cal. “What is the legal discrepancy the lawyer found?”
“I’ll tell you, my daughter in law is one smart cookie. Ginger and her dad pored over the paperwork the last couple days and discovered a clause written into the original trust that’d been forgotten.”
“What’s that?”
“Majority rules,” Charlie said. “We’d intended to talk to Casper about it, but he’s been such a prick…” He looked at Jessie. “Sorry, Jess.”
“If anyone knows how much of a prick Casper can be, it’s Jessie.” Brandt kissed her hand. “I’m assuming he told you the choice he gave me?”
“Yeah. He said he wanted you off the payroll and to treat your departure the same as we had when Chase, Carter, Cam and Keely opted out of the land trust.”
Seemed his father really did want to leave him destitute.
“’Course, we said no.” Carson grinned. “Then we sprang the ‘majority rules’ clause on him. Which means we all have a say in what happens to his portion of the ranch, but only as it relates to naming his successors.”
“I don’t understand.”
“We can’t take over or sell his portion of the ranch, but we can give control to his descendents. So you, Tell and Dalton now call the shots. Your father has officially been retired from ranching. He’ll still receive a portion of the profits, but as far as the day-to-day operations and decision makin’? You and your brothers are in charge.”