Silken Threads (19 page)

Grasping the reins tightly, Cassandra started to turn Suzi. Jane, seeing this, reached out and stopped her. “Wait!”

“Jane—”

“Cassandra, I thought we were friends?”

“We are.”

“Are we? Do you always turn your back on your friends?”

“I…” Cassandra began but stopped. She looked into Jane’s eyes, and suddenly the wall she had erected tumbled. Words poured from her like a waterfall. She told Jane the story of her father’s deception with the meat distribution and of Kirk’s sudden rejection. When she was finished, she stared at helplessly Jane.

“There’s nothing you can do about your father, but do you remember what you said to me when you left for New York?”

Cassandra shrugged.

“You said you didn’t want Kirk to know yet, because of his pride. What else is this all about?”

Cassandra considered Jane’s question, and slowly shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think it’s something else. Something he won’t discuss.”

“Ask him!”

“He won’t listen to anything except business.”

“Make him,” Jane stated. “Make him listen to you!”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Getting a person to listen to you is easy. Getting him to hear you is the hard part,” Jane said.

“Ah…a quote from one of your psychology text books,” Cassandra responded sarcastically.

Jane shook her head. “It’s one of my cousin’s sayings.” Cassandra smiled.

“I really do want to meet him one day.”

“You will; I promise you. But talk to Kirk.”

“I’ll try,” Cassandra said, relenting.

~~~~

The music barked loudly in Kirk’s ears, but he didn’t care. He lifted his drink and stared at himself in the barroom mirror. He didn’t like what he saw. His eyes had a vacant faraway look. His mouth was tight and his jaw was stiff.

During the last weeks he’d become a loner, speaking only when spoken to and answering in monosyllabic replies. He was growing more distant from his work, and from caring what happened at Twin Rivers.

Only once had he thought about the ranch with any real concern, and that had been on the very afternoon Cassandra had given him the computer printout. Not even knowing why he was bothering, late on the night of their argument, he’d called a friend of his, a man he’d worked with in the Middle East. Darren Hawks had been a computer expert in army intelligence during the war. As a civilian, he worked with the State Department.

When Kirk had reached him, he’d explained what a little about the situation and asked if there was a way to break into the system to find the password. Darren had been noncommittal but had promised to look into it.

“I haven’t seen you drinking alone since—” Jane’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“You were twelve,” Kirk finished for her.

“Fourteen actually. You came home on leave.”

“What?”

“Can we talk?”

“Are you asking if I’m sober?”

“Can we talk?” Jane reiterated.

Kirk nodded his head. “Go on.”

“Why are you treating her this way?”

“Why not? I got seduced into playing rich people’s games for stakes that are too high.”

“Are they?”

“They were.”

“You’re in love with her,” Jane stated with finality.

“So what? She’ll be marrying the very rich Somner Barwell after the end of the fiscal year.”

“If you let her.”

“Wrong. It’s her…game.”

“I don’t think it is a game. I think you’re making it into one so your own bruised ego can survive.”

Kirk turned and stared at Jane, his eyes hard and flat. “Don’t give me a lecture about myself,” he warned, his voice a low growl.

“Don’t try to scare me. I’m not your ten-year-old cousin anymore. Kirk, Cassandra loves you. She’s terribly hurt by whatever it is you’ve done to her.”

“Me? I think you’ve got things backward.”

“Do I Kirk? Do I really?”

“Really!” Kirk snapped.

Jane gazed at her cousin, the man she respected and loved above any other person in the world, and found herself unable to accept the changes she saw in him.

“I grew up having you set examples for me. You taught me how to love, how to feel, and how to be a person. When I lost my self-confidence, you showed me how to get it back. I want to do the same for you, but I don’t know if I can. You also taught me never to quit, never to run away. What happened to you, Kirk?”

“I realized my limitations,” he answered in a barely audible whisper.

Jane stood slowly. Her hand went to his shoulder, and squeezed it. “No, Kirk, you just narrowed them.”

When Jane was gone, Kirk stared at the drink. He lifted it, but before it reached his lips, he’d set it down.

A moment later, he was out of the bar and behind the wheel of the Land Rover. After an hour and a half of driving, he pulled the vehicle off the road and cut across the moonlit terrain until he reached a spot he hadn’t returned to in the last eighteen years.

There, under the gentle glow of the moon, he looked around at the land that had once been his, and remembered who he was and where he’d come from, and remembered, too, the promises he had made so long ago.

~~~~

The sun was up when Kirk returned to his house. He walked into his bedroom and saw the red flashing light on his answering machine. He rewound the tape and played the messages back. The first was from Cliff Showmen, reporting a break in the north border fence. The second was from Darren Hawks in Washington.

Looking at his watch, Kirk saw it was only five o’clock in Washington and he would have to wait before calling Darren. To kill the time, he took a shower, dressed in fresh clothing, and drove to the northern border to check the fencing. He found the damage minimal, but the fencing was old, and at least a half a mile of it needed replacing.

When he returned, the hands were getting ready to start work. He found Cliff Showmen and told him to get the fence repaired immediately, because they would be driving the herd there in two days.

Although Kirk wasn’t hungry, he went inside and ate a small breakfast. When he was done, he returned to his house and called Washington. The call lasted ten minutes. When he hung up, there was a shadowy smile on his face.

Darren Hawks had somehow found a way to bypass the security of the Leeds computer. When Kirk had asked him how, Darren’s voice had changed, warning Kirk not to ask any more questions. “Let’s just say we have our ways.”

Kirk sat back and smiled to himself. He opened his desk drawer, took out the small leather pouch, and rolled a very rare cigarette and lit it. He took a deep draw and let the smoke fill the air.

There was a lot he wanted to find out about the Leeds Corporation. If nothing else, before he packed his bags and left, he would get some answers.

~~~~

At two o’clock, Cassandra stood, gazing out the office window, wondering how she should approach Kirk. After talking with Jane, she’d realized it was because of his foolish pride, Kirk would never make up to her. If anything were to come of their relationship, she had to take the initiative.

Cassandra knew if she wanted a life with Kirk, she couldn’t wait any longer. She had to talk to him; they had to figure out a way to beat her father in the two weeks remaining. She loved him too much to let a stupid, irrational promise, given out of desperation, destroy the rest of her life.

Tonight
! she declared.

Even as she made up her mind, the drone of a low-flying plane cut through the silence of the office as it descended onto the airstrip.

“
Who?” she asked aloud, waiting at the window for several minutes until she saw a lone figure walking toward the house. Her breath caught when she recognized Somner Barwell.

Now what? she asked herself. She thought about going out to meet him but decided against it and returned to the desk, spreading out several pages to make herself look busy.

A few minutes later Thelma stepped into her office and announced, “A Mr. Barwell to see you.”

“
Send him in,” Cassandra said, lifting the papers and stacking them as Somner walked into the office.

“
Cassie,” he said in a loud voice as he went around the desk and bent to kiss her.

Cassandra turned her face, giving Somner her cheek. “This is a surprise,” she said in cool tones.

“
I had to see you,” he informed her as he walked back around the desk and sat in one of the two chairs. “My, you do appear to be extremely efficient.”

“
Thank you. Why did you have to see me?” she asked.

“
You look lovely in your cowgirl outfit,” he said with a wide smile. “You seem to have made yourself fit in nicely.”

“
Why are you here, Somner?” she repeated.

“
Cassie, stop being so cold. I’m here for two reasons. The first is to apologize for the way I acted that day.”

“
You’ll never be able to apologize for that,” Cassandra stated, unable to hide the anger in her voice. At the same time, Cassandra steeled herself to face him and maintain her own convictions, no matter what.

“
I hope I will,” he said, unperturbed by her words. “You see, the second reason I’m here is to give you good news,” he said with a proud look on his self-satisfied features.

“
Yes?” she asked when his pause lengthened into an uncomfortable silence.

“
I’ve done a lot of thinking since we had our...ah…little disagreement last spring. I acted foolishly, without thinking. Cassandra, I do love you, and I want to marry you. We make a perfect couple. We complement each other, and we’re good for each other.”

“
Is that your good news?”

Somner didn’t seem to hear the sarcasm in her reply or if he did, he was ignoring it. “No, just the prelude. Father is partially retiring. I am taking over as president of Barwell Industries. Before that happens, Father insists I spend the next six months running our European division so I will be totally familiar with all aspects of our companies.”

“
Congratulations, Somner,” Cassandra said in an even voice.

“
I must leave in two days. Cassandra, come with me. We’ll be married in Paris and honeymoon in Nice. I know how you love Nice. Afterward we’ll work together. You can take any job you want. Anything you desire.”

Cassandra leaned back in her chair and studied Somner for several long minutes before she shook her head. “No, Somner, I won’t marry you.”

“
Why?” he asked, bewildered at this latest refusal. “I apologized for my actions in New York. Cassie, it will never happen again.”

“
Oh. Somner, I know it will never ever happen again. The truth is very simply that I don’t love you. I won’t be possessed by any man, and especially not by you! Good-bye,” she said in a voice edged with steel.

Somner shook his head slowly. “Cassie, I think the sun out here has addled your brains. You don’t belong here with cows, horses, and hay. You belong with me. Don’t you understand what I’m offering you?”

Cassandra didn’t let her anger rule her words; instead, she nodded her head to him. “Only too well.”

This time Somner’s eyes hardened, and his features grew taut. “I won’t ask you again,” he stated.

“
Thank you for that!”

Somner looked at her for several long seconds. “You’re making a mistake you’ll regret for the rest of your life.”

“
No, I’m making a decision that will give me back the rest of my life. Good-bye, Somner.”

Somner glared at her until finally he stood. “You’re a silly stupid fool,” he snapped, turning and walking out of the office in quick, curiously ungraceful strides.

“
A fool maybe,” she whispered, “but not stupid.” Cassandra realized her anger wasn’t from Somner’s gall in showing up eleven-and-a-half months after their last meeting with a pseudo apology, just as she was certain no coincidence brought him here.

Until the very second Cassandra had spoken her final words to him, she hadn’t realized she had made up her mind.

It was more than Somner’s appearance that had spurred Cassandra to her decision; he had only been a catalyst. She had finally seen the futility of her attempts to save Twin Rivers, and she knew it no longer made a difference. Win or lose, she would not be returning to her father’s domination. She was no longer a pawn in his business machinations. The game was over, and with it had gone her innocence.

Standing, Cassandra tried to control her emotions as she went to the door to watch Somner leave the outer office and her life.

In a corner of the main office, Kirk sat, half hidden by a computer console, his fingers racing over the keys.

He had chosen this time—noon in New York—because most of the data personnel at Leeds would be out to lunch, which meant there would be less chance of them detecting an outside source looking into the computer memory banks via the Internet.

As he entered the string of passwords, one by one, that Darren Hawks had given him, he glanced up to see a well-remembered face standing at Thelma’s desk—Somner Barwell’s.

His body tensed. A moment later when Somner went into Cassandra’s office, Kirk’s anger flared anew.

Last night he had wondered if he had indeed lost his self-confidence. Before he’d arrived back at his house and found the message from Darren, he’d decided he would speak to Cassandra and tell her how he felt, regardless of the consequences. He had to do it for his own peace of mind.

Now, with the appearance of Somner Barwell, Kirk realized, again, words were to no avail. Cassandra’s year was almost over, and Barwell had come to claim his prize. He punched the keys angrily as he entered the next password. The computer screen suddenly filled with data and charts. When he finished reading, he lifted his eyes from the screen, his mind strangely calm. Bastard!

As he cursed, Gregory Leeds he saw Cassandra’s office door open and Somner Barwell walk stiffly away, his face set in angry lines. A moment later Cassandra appeared in the office doorway, a sad but determined look on her face for the few seconds she remained there.

When she was gone, Kirk went back to the console and checked one last detail at Leeds International. Finished, he went to Cassandra’s office. It took him ten long strides to reach her door and step inside, where he found her staring out the window.

“
Cassandra,” he called. She turned to him, and he saw her eyes filled with tears. “We have to talk.”

Cassandra felt mired in the thickest mud. She gazed at Kirk, and let the feelings of her love for him surface for one pitying moment before she dismissed them, turning her thoughts to business.

“
Talk about what?” she asked, taking a deep breath.

“
About Leeds International.”

“
Why? It’s over, Kirk. We’ve wasted a year beating a dead horse.”

Kirk ignored the strain in her voice. “Don’t you want to know what’s going on? I found out about the geological survey, and I can guess about all the rest.”

Cassandra shrugged her shoulders. “My father lied to me, Kirk. He made a deal with me, let me think I had a chance, and then extracted a promise from me for what he wanted. But he lied to get it.”

“
That’s big business, isn’t it? Isn’t it exactly what you told me?” Kirk challenged.

“
Yes,” she admitted, “but I believed I could do it! I really did.”

“
It’s all academic now whether you made a profit or not. You see, the ranch was never ever intended to make money.”

“
Why? Just to let Carway earn a few extra profit dollars?”

“
Do you really want to know what it’s all about—this game your father’s playing with Twin Rivers?”

“
He’s playing it with me, and with you, too, Kirk.”

“
Not any longer! But that doesn’t matter. The geological survey shows there are vast—and I do mean vast—quantities of natural gas under Twin Rivers. There may be oil, too, but it’s the natural gas your father—Leeds International—is after.”

Cassandra stared at him, puzzled. “Then why keep the ranch operating?”

“
Two reasons. The first is to make Carway a bigger operation. It makes a lot of sense to build up the profits on the distribution end and to take the tax losses on the breeding. The government has several tax shelter benefits for farm losses, and it looks plausible in the annual shareholders’ report.”

Kirk paused for a moment as he searched Cassandra’s eyes. It was harder than he’d expected to tell her the news. He loved her, and that hurt, too, knowing their time together was over.

“
The second part is more difficult to explain, because it’s guesswork. Leeds International, according to the computer, has been trying to get into the petrogas market for three years. But, petrogas is a hard market to crack unless you’re willing to lay out a lot of cash and take gigantic losses for several years. The only other way is to take over a smaller company, one without a lot of reserve fields. Which is what your father is doing.”

The facts and figures Kirk just learned about flashed through his mind with maddening speed. “Three years ago, Leeds International began buying the stock of the Inter Ocean Exploration Company. Because they didn’t want the prices to go too high, they bought only small blocks. As of right now, they own a good portion of stock, but not enough to complete the takeover. According to the Leeds’ projections, the takeover will occur in the next year and a half.”

“
I’m not following you,” Cassandra admitted, although she had been so lost in what he was saying that the deceptions and heartaches of the past year had fled in their wake.

“
You will,” he said, his voice warmer than he’d intended. “Once they own the company, Twin Rivers will go out of business and the gas-drilling will start.”

“
But why keep it a secret? What difference does it make?”

“
Plenty. First, Leeds is most likely buying up as much land in the area as it can, knowing how gas disbursed. Second, they must fight the environmentalists. To do this, they have to use the ranch as a cover. Only when the drilling starts will anyone know what’s happening. By then, the opposition will have an uphill battle to stop it.”

“
How can you be so certain?” Cassandra asked, unwilling to believe what she’d heard.

“
As I said, it’s all conjecture, but it’s nothing new. It happens all the time.”

“
What you’re saying is that in two years, Twin Rivers will be just a bunch of natural gas fields?”

“
Exactly!”

“
They can’t! They can’t destroy it!” Cassandra cried, turning away from Kirk to look out the window at the beautiful land. Suddenly she saw Somner’s plane take off.

“
I’m sure he’s happy to know he’s won you,” Kirk said in a low voice.

Cassandra stiffened, her emotions running on a wild rampage, tears filling her eyes. Turning suddenly, she gazed at Kirk through a hazy film of moisture. “Damn you, Kirk North! I’m not a pawn to be played at the whims of everyone but myself.”

Kirk stared at her and saw the crystal tears run down her cheeks. His throat tightened; his heart wavered. He took a deep breath. “Cassandra, I came in here to tell you two things: First, I’m not a pawn, either. I’m handing in my resignation today. I’ll leave as soon as possible. Second—I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Because I know how different we are, and I understand how hard it would be for you to give up everything you’ve always had. I don’t have the right to ask that of you.”

Cassandra’s world spun. At first, she had trouble accepting what he was saying, but the way her heart sang told her the truth. She took a deep breath, her eyes sweeping across the planes of his face.

“
No, you don’t have that right. Only I do,” she said.

“
And you don’t break your promises.”

“
No, I don’t break my promises,” she repeated, her voice growing lighter instead of heavier.

Kirk watched the green flashes of fire sparkle in the hazel depths of her eyes and, for no reason at all, his emotions swelled.

“
Somner Barwell is a lucky man.”

“
Somner Barwell is a pompous fool who thinks money, looks, and parental approval are the most important things in life.”

“
But a lot more secure than an itinerant cowboy.”

Cassandra was silent, her breath trapped in her chest, not because of Kirk’s words, but because of a powerful, and cutting thought that held her transfixed for an eternal minute. In two days, she would be twenty-eight years old, and it had taken her all that time to discover exactly what she wanted out of life. With the knowledge came the release of the shackles, which had held her prisoner to her own fears, and to her father.

She let her breath escape, and smiled. “The last thing in the world anyone could call you is an itinerant cowboy, Kirk North.”

“
What am I?” he asked, his voice low, his nerves tense.

“
The man I love. The man I want to spend my life with, working with, and loving with.”

Kirk gazed at her, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. “But you have your bargain with your father.”

Cassandra nodded her head slowly in agreement with Kirk, yet the challenge was still on her face when she spoke. “I gave my word to my father. We made a bargain, and I kept my part. I accepted his conditions, and I met them. I succeeded—we succeeded—in doing what I set out to do. And we both know we did, don’t we, Kirk?”

“
We know we could have done it.”

“
Yes, we could have!” Cassandra stated. “If my father had given me an honest chance to prove myself. I gave him my promise in good faith. He broke that faith; he broke the contract between us.”

“
He played to win,” Kirk reminded her in a gentle voice.

“
No. What he did was to rig everything so he could beat me down and make me do what he wanted.”

“
What about Somner? Wasn’t he just here to claim his spoils?”

“
He left alone, didn’t he?” she asked, her voice harsh. “I told him I would never marry him. I plan on telling my father the same thing. I...I want to tell him something else also,” Cassandra added.

“
What?” Kirk asked, his eyebrows raised, sensing his destiny was about to be revealed.

Cassandra, her hands suddenly trembling, locked them together. “About us—about our future.” After saying those words, the weight of the world was suddenly pressing down on her heart. She thought she would fall but, bracing her legs, she stood, waiting.

“
Do we have one?” Kirk asked in a tight voice.

Cassandra didn’t answer right away; she knew her reply was too important to fling words at him. She closed her eyes. Opening them, she said, “When I came here, I didn’t know what having a future meant. I knew I would always have the security of my father’s money, his influence, and his position in the world. But a future....” She shrugged. “I had no idea what that was. Now I do—or I don’t. And that, Kirk North, will be up to you to decide.”

Hearing the emotion and honesty in her voice was the key to breaking down his last defense. He gazed at her, drinking in her beauty, and made up his mind. “Do you really think you can handle being a cowboy’s wife?”

Cassandra, her heart beating out of control, went up to him, slipped her arms around his back, and stared directly into his warm brown eyes. “I thought you’d never ask.”

~~~~

The week following Cassandra’s confrontation with Kirk passed faster than any other time in her life. She knew how deeply she loved him and was just as sure of his love for her.

She was determined, too, to make certain her father would not stop their marriage. To that end, she and Kirk planned every detail with excruciating calculation.

In exactly seven days, her father would arrive for the final accounting. In seven days, he would get his accounting, and much, much more.

She had asked Kirk not to hand in his resignation yet, but to give it to her father in person. He had agreed, liking the plan she’d developed in order to extract the full pleasure of handing her father his defeat in the face of what Gregory Leeds considered an accepted victory.

Their only argument had come when they discussed marriage. Kirk wanted to wait until they settled everything with her father, instead of sneaking off to be married in secret.

“
It doesn’t make any difference,” she’d stated.

“
You’ll have the rest of your life to look back on our marriage and wonder if we shouldn’t have waited,” he had advised.

“
Are you getting cold feet?” she’d asked jokingly.

“
You keep them warm enough,” he’d replied with a smile that made her heart beat faster.

“
Then what is it?”

“
Sneaking off into the night isn’t the way to get married. And,” he said as his arms tightened around her, “You gave your word to do a job, even if your father did deceive you. You have to see the fiscal year through to its end, if only for your own peace of mind.”

Cassandra gazed at him and kissed him, putting all the love she had into the kiss. When it had ended, she drew back. “You’re right, Kirk. We’ll wait, but not a minute past the appointed hour!”

~~~~

The three-hundred-and-sixty-fourth day was just ending, and the three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth would arrive with the dawn. For Cassandra, it would be the most important day in her life.