Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
But she wouldn’t be at the ranch.
I wasn’t sure she even knew where my ranch was.
Or my last name for that matter.
“Says her name is Searcy,” Yates said, breaking me out of my contemplation of the most perfect ass in the continental US.
“I’ll be right there,” I replied, dropping my pliers and the roll of barbed wire onto the ground.
I’d have to come back and finish fixing the fence later.
For now, I had a pair of legs I wanted to see.
The ride back to the ranch on Bumbo—the horse named by Scottie years ago when they’d first gotten him—took a short amount of time.
When I rode into the main parking area of the ranch, I saw Searcy and two of her siblings standing next to that old beater of a car that looked like it should’ve been retired two decades ago.
She was staring at me wide-eyed, fidgeting, and looking strung out.
She kept turning her head to her brother, as if she needed reassurance.
“Hey, everything okay?” I asked, my gaze going between them all.
She swallowed hard and then said, “Do you think we could talk somewhere in private?”
I looked around at the ranch hands that were around, but not paying us any attention, and said, “Uh, sure.”
Was this about last night?
And shouldn’t her siblings be in school right now?
I took her to the house, tugging Bumbo’s reins to get him to follow me.
He grudgingly left his grass behind, and I tied him to the porch railing before leading her inside.
The cool air-conditioned air hit me like a slap as my sweat-covered shirt immediately started to become uncomfortable.
“What’s up?”
The boy gave his big sister a shoulder check, and Searcy jolted.
“This is weird, I know.” She scrunched up her nose. “But I literally don’t trust anyone. I don’t even know that I trust you, really. But seriously, I think I’m in deep trouble right now.”
That had my stomach clenching.
Was it the boy from last night?
Was it her sister?
What was wrong?
That had my back straightening. “What’s going on?”
And who did I have to kill to get that look of complete and utter fear off her face?
Because I’d probably kill anyone for her.
Which was a sobering thought because I’d literally only known her for a very short amount of time.
She bit her lip for a few seconds before the boy blurted, “If you tell anyone what I’m about to say that’ll fuck us over, I’ll go to jail for the rest of my life just to make sure that you don’t ever walk straight again.”
I held up my hands, liking the boy’s gumption.
I easily had a hundred pounds and about eight or nine inches of height on the runt.
“Searcy got a lottery ticket as a tip, and she won the Powerball.”
That was the young girl.
And did I just hear her correctly?
“The Powerball?” I asked, my gaze snapping to Searcy. “You won the lottery?”
She swallowed and nodded. “A few months ago, Taryn Durant reluctantly gave me his Powerball ticket as a tip. The ticket was a winner. The only winner. I shoved it in a drawer in my kitchen and forgot about it until Anders was searching for a highlighter this morning and found it in the drawer. The news happened to be on and she found out that the numbers matched. What do I do now?”
I had…no clue.
“Uhhh,” I said. “I honestly have no idea. But I do know a really good lawyer that might be able to figure it out.”
Or, more accurately, Apollo did.
He’d been in the process of suing someone when his son, Tavi, had died.
His lawyer had been a bulldog, and they’d put the whole thing on pause while Apollo found a way to live again without his kid.
My brother was a lawyer, but I wouldn’t trust him with a sandwich, let alone lottery winnings.
Pulling out my phone, I texted Apollo, and instantly got a text back.
Apollo:
Malone. 817-555-5535 That’s her personal number. Tell her I gave it to you and she probably won’t hang up on you.
Picking up my phone, I dialed the lawyer’s number and hoped she would answer.
She did, sounding annoyed. “It better be good. It’s barely eight in the morning, and this is my day off.”
“Malone,” I said. “This is Finnian’s friend, Posy. He gave me your number because I have a very delicate situation that I need advised on.”
There was a long moment of silence and then, “Is Apollo doing okay?”
I thought about that for a long second before saying, “About as to be expected.”
Which wasn’t all that great.
When you lost a son, pretty much twice, that tended to fuck with a man’s head.
“Damn.” She sounded off. “What’s your problem?”
I looked at Searcy for permission, and she nodded her head.
“I have a friend that won the Powerball from the beginning of summer and she doesn’t know what to do,” I said.