Gerard (13 page)

Gerard didn’t go far either, and the two of them, Mason and Gerard, stood close enough that if Howard did anything at all, he’d be dead in seconds.

She smiled up at the man now, knowing a bit more about him. He looked so innocent, she wondered if he knew how his brother was getting him into trouble.

“I have to go inside now.” He nodded, and she smiled again. “I’m having dinner with some people about some things. Maybe we can see each other tomorrow. You could meet me for lunch or dinner.”

“You mean like a date?” She said she’d like that. “I never been on one before, but I don’t have no money.”

“I’ll take care of it. You can buy next time.” He nodded and told her he should have the stash for his brother by then. “Good. Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow. At the diner. You want to meet for lunch then?”

“Sure. Lunch. I like lunch.”

After she left him, she knew that lunch with this man wasn’t going to be just the two of them. She had a feeling that the entire FBI and her family were going to be there as well.

Chapter 10

“This is…it’s….” Gerard looked at Susie, then the contract again. “This is a joke, right? You did this because you thought it would be funny. I think it’s funny, don’t you, Susie? It’s funny, right? I think it’s…it’s funny.”

“It’s not funny, and I worked hard for that, young man.” Ed laughed, his good humor almost sucking him into their fun. “You’ll get the rest of the money when the horses are picked up. Which will be in about a week. I know that’s not a lot of time, and he knows that, but you—”

“I think this has gone far enough.” Gerard stood up, then sat back down. His hand was tangled up in Susie’s, and she seemed to be frozen in place. “I mean, I want to make some money off these horses too. They’re eating a lot more than cattle do, and we have to put a roof on the barn. That’s what we were hoping for.”

“You got that.” Todd laughed as he handed him the thick file that had been in front of him. “This is what you can expect from Rose. And trust me, Gerard, this one is as real as the one that Ed gave you.”

With shaking fingers, he opened the file. He could see the check, just as the other one, had been attached to the front of the contract. Gerard looked over at Susie when she squeaked. If it wasn’t so unmanly like, he might have done the same thing. As it was, he was having a hard time holding down his dinner. Susie took the check with trembling hands before she spoke to them.

“This is for over three million dollars. Three million. With the other check…I’m with Gerard on this one. This is a joke. No way did these two men just pay us seven million dollars for a couple of dozen horses each.” Ed told Susie that it was only a start for Jackson. “You’re not helping.”

“Honey, I’m trying to help you. You have—and I’m paraphrasing here—you have the finest stock of pure blooded race animals he’s ever seen. Not only that, but he’s going to tell some of his other competition what he got and where he got them. He figures that he got the best of the best, and they can have the rest. He also wants to be notified as soon as you get new stock in.”

Gerard wondered if there was any more new stock to be had when Susie spoke again.

“What if he gets these horses back to his stables, or whatever they’re called, and they turn out to be duds? Is he going to sue us?”

Todd answered her this time. “No. It’s part of the contract. He can’t even bad mouth you to others because he picked the horses himself. It’s not like you told him which to pick. Also, Rose wants the same deal. You get in more horses and he wants to be notified. I have been talking with Ed, and we think that these two men are the only ones we’ll give this deal to. The rest, well, they can be notified, but only after Rose and Jackson have had what they want out of the deal.” Todd looked at Gerard as he continued. “You’re going to make a killing off this venture. And there are some things…some that you’ve been made aware of, and others I would very much like for you to think about. The bed and breakfast for starters.”

“I have something to add on that.” Gerard had been talking to his brother Darin on their way there. “I’ve changed my mind on that. I think that they should purchase one of the older buildings downtown and convert it. There is one in particular that will suit, I think. It has nine floors, and it could be renovated to accommodate six businessmen and their staff. Also, I think that the lower floor, the one on the ground floor, should be a nice restaurant. One that caters to large groups of people, and has a few tables for other guests. High-end food, with a staff that will give them all the room that they need.”

“Who would rent an entire floor to come to this town?” Susie flushed when she looked at him. Her voice had been high and loud, and he knew just how she felt. They were well and truly over their heads with this. “Look, I’m not sure this is a good idea. I have a feeling this is going to go downhill fast.”

Todd turned his computer toward them as he explained. “There are fourteen emails from men just like Rose and Jackson that want to come and have a look-see—their words not mine—at the horses. Three had expressed an interest in taking as many as a couple of dozen, and there is one that is coming from across the world to see them.”

Gerard felt his head start to spin, and he felt his dinner begin to feel very lead like. Before he knew it, he was facing his feet and someone was holding him down.

“I’m all right now.” Mason growled at him to shut up. “I’m really okay. Let me up, please.”

When his hand moved, Gerard sat up. They were all staring at him as if he was going to explode or something, so he just grinned. This wasn’t something he wanted anyone to witness, and knew for as long as he lived, he’d be teased about fainting like a little girl.

“I’ve never been a millionaire before.” Everyone laughed, and he looked at Susie. “You did this. All of this. I don’t know how to thank you for…for just being my mate. I love you.”

Gerard was feeling sort of sappy, and when he kissed Susie on the mouth, the room cheered him on. But he wasn’t all right, not really. Christ, he really was a millionaire, and he had no idea what to do. Emma congratulated him, and his brothers teased him just in general, but inside, his belly was making all sorts of protests.

As they talked about what was going to need to be done for the next cattle drive, he tried to pay attention. In a week, he and his brothers were going to go two states over to bring in three hundred head of cattle that Zach had gotten for nearly nothing. It looked like they were going to have to get some help with the run, and it was mentioned that Paddy and a few of his men should come with them.

“Do you take a chuck wagon?” Ed only smiled when they all stared at him and his question. “I’ve never been on one, and I’ve only seen what they do on television. Is it any different?”

“We do take a chuck wagon, as a matter of fact. It’s mostly filled with convenient stuff. Coffee and some clothing. We have a portable shower too. Things just to make it easier on us. Someone will go into a town along the way and meet us for dinner with food that has been cooked and ready for us. Usually there are about five or six men or women that run it. It’s not as high tech as some of them, but it beats cooking over an open flame every night, and eating nothing more than a few cans of whatever was there and some jerky. Which travels well, but tastes nothing like meat.” Mason smiled at he continued. “We’re going to be gone for about a week and a half and, trust me, no one wants my brothers to have a shower more than I do.”

“What about things like bathrooms?” No one answered Emma, and she seemed to get it. “Ah. Men can do it standing up.”

“Honey, there are a lot of things that men can do standing up. But it’s more fun with a mate.” Aunt Georgie hit Jace on the back of the head, and he kissed her on the cheek as he finished talking to Emma. “But seriously. It’s not as bad as it looks on television. We hope for good weather and usually get rain if it’s summer. It’s easier to do in the cooler time of year, not as much dust or rain. Water is a big factor. It’s dry going, and the cattle and the horses need more.”

“With this many cattle coming with us, we’re going to need to take our time. It’s not like we might have a stampede or anything, but with county and state roads all over the place, we have to be careful of strays getting into a town and causing some damage.” Gerard was feeling better as he continued. “You’d not believe the paperwork involved in coming near a town. The police need to be notified, as well as any local farms. We have to be careful not to trespass on a ranch where our cattle might get mixed with theirs. All kinds of things to worry about as you do this. Railway is better for most of the things we’ve mentioned, but it’s also expensive. Especially if you’re only going as far as we are with this herd.”

They talked about the cattle and the ranches. The McBrides were due back before the cattle run, and they wondered if he’d want to come with them. Gerard hated to leave Susie, but she said that she had plenty to keep her busy, and they both could talk all the time should they need each other. And Paddy was going to have some of his men around if there was trouble.

He thought of the conversation he and Mason had had with the big wolf. He was nearly in tears when he told them how the men had gotten by him. He’d lost three of his men that day, and two of them had small children. They’d had their throats cut and were left to die all alone, for no reason other than some bastard thought he was in the right.

That was when Mason told him what they’d worked out about his missing pantry food. Gerard had been lucky in figuring it out. Had he not been there when the sale had happened, a lot of things might have gone wrong. As it was, the wolf had been arrested.

“He was stealing it to make your wife look bad. And selling it to the local places for next to nothing gave him some pocket money, he said. His wife was in on it too. I’m not sure what you’re to do about something like this, but you should know that the diner had no idea.”

Gerard picked up where Mason left off. “He came in the back door, like the regular delivery guy does. He told them that for special runs he had to use his own car…that’s how he explained not having a truck. The produce and other items were not selling well in the warehouse, he’d told them, and he could cut them a deal. Margaret, the owner of the diner, said it really helped them out a few times to have some extra around like he’d brought them.”

“He’ll be shunned.” Gerard knew that would happen. His family would be thrown out of the pack too. And the male would be marked, a mark that would never heal on him so long as Paddy was alive. “He’ll also lose it all. His home, his status. How could he do this to us? To his pack.”

Gerard told him what the man had told him. “He said that you were hanging with us too much, and that he needed for you to see what it was going to cost you to have us as friends.”

“I should simply kill them. Both of them. But not…not with the other deaths. I can’t do that.” Both he and Mason said they understood. “Thank you. I’m in your debt for helping me out. I’ll think of some way to repay you too.”

And now they were going over what had happened the day that his men were killed yet again. The pack was having some major issues, and if things didn’t start to turn around soon, it was going to fall apart, and Paddy might be killed.

“I was talking to Colbert when he was murdered by that bastard. We were talking about the way his little girl was coming up on her tenth birthday. She was going to get herself a new haircut, and her momma was taking her to get her nails done. A girly thing, he called it. Then he was just…I never had someone so close to me die before. I mean my parents, yeah, but to be having a conversation with someone and it just end was…it was too much for this old man.”

Gerard felt like finding Benjamin and killing him again. As it was now, no one would ever find even a bone fragment of either man. They had been dealt with pack style.

Gerard was surprised, but Susie only smiled as she watched Palmer walk to the love of his life. Aunt Georgie deserved this. Hell, they both did. And when he went down on one knee in front of her, Aunt Georgie was nodding even before he asked her. They were going to be very happy together, Gerard thought.

After dinner was cleared away, they talked about what to do with Vance and his brother. Logan was going to go over the building to find where the money might be. He had a nice metal detector that he’d been wanting to use since it came in. And Zach and Darin were going to see if they could find out how long Vance had been here in town. Everyone had assumed that he’d left the country, but apparently he’d been right under their noses all along. Todd said he’d make some calls now, and left them to do so.

Gerard told his family he and Susie had to get home. They were going to walk around town for a little while, he and Susie. They wanted to walk by the building that Darin was talking about and think about what he’d been telling them. Gerard hadn’t thought of the money anymore, because every time he did, he got a little tense. When they were alone, he asked Susie about it.

“I’m not sure what to think.” He smiled at her when she laughed. “It’s a lot to take in, don’t you think? I mean, I’m still having trouble just thinking all those zeroes are real. And we have two checks with that many on it.”

“I know what you mean. With you, I don’t feel so overwhelmed, but I’m telling you, for a while there, I thought for sure I was going to puke or pass out. I’m glad I did the latter of the two.” She laughed with him as they made their way in the back of the empty building. “Todd seems to think this is only the beginning. Do you think so too?”

“I don’t know. I’m not really ready to think in those terms yet. I would like to try our hand at being rich. Buy the building, this building, and have it changed up. Even if this thing doesn’t work out, we’ll have something to rent out should the town need it.” He liked that idea.

The building wasn’t in terrible shape, but it was pretty dirty. The windows had been broken on the lower levels, and someone, the city more than likely, had put up boards all around it. The police, Mason told them, had been making it a habit of running the homeless out, and Landon was working on a homeless shelter for them just on the outskirts of town. He supposed that when the man returned, he’d be right back on that project too.

As they made their way up the stairs to the second, then the third level, he could see what his brother meant. This would make a great suite for a meeting, as well as a nice comfortable hotel.

There were hardwood floors on each level that would need some pretty intense sanding. The windows would need to be replaced with something more efficient, and the furnace would be upgraded, with air added too. He doubted that this place would be all that cool in the heat of the summer. Then there was the plumbing.