The room’s emptiness struck her. There was no warm, rugged male snoring softly beside her. She didn’t need to reach out her hand to know Shane’s side of the bed was cool and unoccupied. After the night they’d shared, she didn’t blame him for bolting before sunrise. The sex had been amazing. They’d dropped their guards after the difficult calf birthing, permitting a deeper connection than they’d yet experienced.
Part of her wanted to jump out of bed and run to find him. She longed to see the same soul-stirring emotion she’d glimpsed in his eyes last night. But would it be there? In her gut, she knew he felt something for her. No doubt he was as uncomfortable at being momentarily exposed as she’d been.
As much as she’d grown accustomed to having him around and had put aside her fierce independence to let him help, she was terrified to admit, even to herself, that she craved his companionship as much as his passionate lovemaking. But was it worth losing her ranch?
Brandee threw off the covers and went to shower. Fifteen minutes later, dressed in jeans and a loose-fitting sweater, she headed for the kitchen, hoping the lure of freshly made coffee would entice Shane.
And she’d decided to come clean about Maverick, Hope Springs Ranch and the blackmail.
Over a hearty breakfast, she would explain her fear of losing the ranch and see if he
would agree to letting her keep it for now as long as she agreed to leave it to him in her will.
While she waited for the coffee to brew, Brandee headed to her office to get the document Maverick had sent to her as well as the ones she’d found during her research. Dawn was breaking and Brandee could see her desk well enough to spy the papers strewn across it. She approached and her heart jerked painfully as she realized what she was staring at.
With her stomach twisted into knots, Brandee raced from the room and headed straight for her guest suite. The room was empty. Next she dashed to the back door. Shane’s coat and boots were gone. So was his truck. Her knees were shaking so badly she had to sit down on the bench in the mudroom to catch her breath.
No wonder he’d left so abruptly during the night. He knew. Everything. She’d failed to save her ranch. She’d hurt the man she loved.
It took almost ten minutes for Brandee to recover sufficiently to return to her office and confront the damning documents. How had he known to go into her filing cabinet and look for the file she’d made on him? Had he suspected something was wrong? Or had Maverick tipped him off early?
The answer was on her phone. A text message from Maverick warning her time was almost up. But how had Shane seen it? She gathered the research materials together and returned them to the file. It was then that she noticed Shane’s signature on the document revoking his claim to her land.
She’d won.
It didn’t matter if Shane knew. Legally he couldn’t take her ranch away from her.
But morally, he had every right to it.
Brandee picked up the document. While the disclosure she’d been about to make was no longer necessary, the solution she’d intended to propose was still a valid one.
Brandee grabbed the document and her coat and headed for her truck. As she drove to Bullseye, the clawing anxiety of her upcoming confrontation warred with her determination to fix the situation. It might be more difficult now that he’d discovered she’d been lying to him all along before she had a chance to confess, but Shane was a businessman. He’d understand the value of her compromise and weigh it against an expensive court battle.
Yet, as she stood in the chilly morning air on his front steps, her optimism took a nosedive. Shane left her waiting so long before answering his doorbell that she wondered if he was going to refuse to see her. When he opened the door, he was showered and dressed in a tailored business suit, a stony expression on his face.
She held up the document he’d signed and ignored the anxious twisting of her stomach. “We need to talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. You won. I signed. You get to keep the ranch.”
Brandee floundered. On the way over, she hadn’t dwelled on how Shane might be hurt by her actions. She’d been thinking about how to convince him of her plan so they both got what they wanted.
“I didn’t win. And there’s plenty more to talk about. I know what you must think of me—”
He interrupted, “I highly doubt that.”
“You think I tricked you. You’d be right. But if I lose the ranch, I lose everything.” Immediately she saw this tack wasn’t going to be effective. So, maybe she could give him some idea of what she was up against. “Look, I was being blackmailed, okay? Somebody named Maverick sent me the Jasper Crowley document.”
“That’s your story?” Shane obviously didn’t believe her. “You’re being blackmailed?”
“Maverick wanted fifty thousand dollars and for me to resign from the Texas Cattleman’s Club.” To Brandee’s ears the whole thing sounded ridiculous. She couldn’t imagine what would convince Shane she was telling the truth. “I should’ve done as I was asked, but I really thought it was...”
Telling him that she suspected Cecelia, Simone and Naomi wasn’t going to make her story sound any more sympathetic. Shane liked those women. Brandee would only come off as petty and insecure if she accused them of blackmail without a shred of proof.
“Look,” she continued, “I should’ve come clean in the beginning. Maybe we could’ve worked something out.” She took a step closer, willing him to understand how afraid she’d been. “But when I proposed the wager, I didn’t know anything about you except that for years you’ve been after me to sell. I didn’t think I could trust you.”
“Were you ever going to tell me the truth?”
The fear of opening herself up to rejection and ridicule once again clamped its ruthless fingers around her throat. “Last night...” She needed to say more, but the words wouldn’t come.