She just wanted to keep sending her checks to the rental company and not dealing directly with Wests.
Yes, not dealing with all of this was definitely her preferred method.
Hopefully, Gage would do the very best thing he actually could do to try and make up for what had happened seventeen years ago. Hopefully, he would leave her alone.
* * *
“WHAT THE HELL are you doing here?”
Gage wasn’t terribly surprised to receive that greeting from his younger brother. He was standing on Colton’s porch, his hands stuffed in his pockets, more or less expecting to be punched in the face.
Surprisingly, Colton made no move to attack him physically. He did not, however, allow him in. That was not surprising.
“I suppose you wouldn’t believe it if I told you I was here to catch up on every Christmas dinner we have ever missed.”
“No. And I would tell you that it’s way too early to be talking about Christmas. We just had Thanksgiving.”
“The stores put the decorations out earlier and earlier every year. Corporate greed I guess.”
Colton looked at him hard. “I don’t suppose you came by to get philosophical about the morality of retail stores.”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t. But, we do need to discuss the ranch.”
“The ranch that I imagine is one fatted calf short now that you’ve come home?”
Gage examined his younger brother, the lines on his face making his stomach tightened in a strange way. When he had left home Colton had been sixteen. A boy. He hadn’t carried around the burdens of their family, certainly not carved into his skin.
There wasn’t much that made Gage feel like a complete ass these days. But that did it.
“There was no fatted-calf slaughter,” Gage said. “So you can calm down. I’m not the prodigal son. I’m not any kind of son, and we both know that. But I have been looking at all of Dad’s records and I have concerns.”
“Concerns about what?” Colton asked, dragging his hand beneath his chin.
“Dad is broke.”
“What?” Colton lowered his arm, as though he had given up on being gatekeeper between Gage and the house.
“That’s what I’m saying. I’ve been going over all of his assets, all of his debt. He and Mom don’t have any money. What they have is property. Lucky for them they own most of it outright.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. How could they not have money? The equestrian facility is doing well.”
“Yes. But he’s been diverting those funds. It looks to me like it’s probably gambling debts. At best. At worst he’s deeply involved in a very sketchy ring of high-priced hookers.”
Colton shook his head. “Or, he has more bastard children.”
Gage gritted his teeth. “You know about him, do you? I mean, do we know about the same one? I wouldn’t be surprised if the Oregon coastline were littered with secret Wests.”
Colton’s expression went slack. “I only know about the one. Jack Monaghan?”
“Yeah. That’s the one.”
“When did you find out?” Colton crossed his arms across his broad chest, and this time Gage put a little bit of thought to the fact that it was entirely possible his younger brother could take him in a fight. Well, depending on what sort of fight Gage treated him to. He was never going to fight his little brother the way he’d learned to fight on the rodeo circuits, and in the bars. He didn’t want to kill him, after all.
It wasn’t just years that stood between them. It was experience. Colton might have earned some facial lines here in Copper Ridge, but Gage had earned scars all across the country.
“I’ve known.” He could remember clearly being introduced intimately to the shady underworld of their father’s empire. Finding out who the man beneath the façade was. It was clear that his father had taken a similar approach to indoctrinating Colton into his world as he’d taken with Gage. And that made him think a little bit differently about his brother.
“Interesting,” Colton said.
“Why is it interesting? You clearly know.”
“Oh, I found out on accident. We’ve all known about Jack for about a year now.”
Just like that, he found himself reevaluating again. “So Dad didn’t tell you?”
“No.” Colton frowned. “Did he tell you?”
“It was one of the payments I needed to understand. Before I left he was priming me to take over the business. You know that.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with his dirty secrets. He didn’t tell me.”
Gage lifted his shoulder. “Yeah, I imagine he figured he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, seeing as I took off after I found out what a gigantic prick he was, I imagine he figured he wouldn’t let you in on the secret. Losing one heir is a problem. Losing two just starts to look careless.”
“That’s why you took off? Because you found out what a terrible person Dad was?”
It was damn sure close enough. “Yes. I was poised to become king of his trash heap. And it wasn’t what I wanted.”
“And you think it is what I want? Did you think for one second what kind of position it would put me in? Mom?”
“No,” he said. It was honest. When he had taken off he had been eighteen years old, full of self-loathing and anger. All that had mattered was his pain. It had been unique to him, of course. And nothing anyone else could possibly understand. Because he had been eighteen. So, he had been a dick.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you did.” He took a deep breath. “Thanks for not lying about it, though.”
“There’s no point. I didn’t come back here to be the hero of the story. But I did come back here to take care of what I was asked to. Dad’s lawyer contacted me and said that I’m still the person Dad has written down to be the executor in case he was incapacitated.”
Colton shook his head. “I’ve been the one here taking care of things.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t messed up. I’m just telling you how it is.”
“So, now you’re going to step up?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s it? Whether I think you should be here or not?”
Gage pushed his hat back on his head. “Look. Nobody asked you. And I can understand why you’re not happy about it, but that doesn’t change anything. I have some things to take care of here, and I damn sure intend to take care of them.”
“What will that entail? Are you going to deal with Mom’s emotional fallout when she finds out that she’s destitute?” Colton took a step forward. “That’s what I’ve been dealing with. The fact that Mom is always one major incident away from a complete emotional meltdown. And Sierra is pregnant.”
“I know. I mean, I noticed at the hospital.”
“She’s a woman. When you left she was a kid.”
Gage’s face heated. He felt like a fire had started in his chest and spread outward. Anger, pouring through him like molten metal. “I know.”
“Madison... You have no idea what she’s been through. The things they say about her... She could have used you here. I could have.”
“What