Defending My Mobster (BWWM Romance) (16 page)

I nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Vanessa behind in my bed. Sometimes it was a relief to escape from her. I wasn’t sure why. It shouldn’t have been that way. But I’d long ago given up the concept of being in love. It just brought a truck load of heartbreak, and I didn’t need more of that. Vanessa was just too perfect sometimes. I couldn’t always keep up. It was bad enough that I was the loser son of a drunkard that had never been able to take responsibility.

I didn’t even have to hear her say it to feel that way around her. Everything she did was organized and calculated. She had five-year plans and ten-year plans. I was lucky if I knew what I needed to get done before the end of the day.

I opened the cabinet above the fridge and pulled out a packet of jerky. The half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels stared at me. I shut the door in its face. From the fridge I took a can of Dr. Pepper instead, and stepped out into the crisp morning air.

The ranch lay at my feet, and the thin fingers of morning sunlight painted it with color, draining away the inky black of night. There was rain in the air, same as yesterday. It would catch up with us soon. I stepped off the porch and headed for my truck, driving down to the cabins about a mile south of the ranch house.

This was where I’d lived before I became the owner of the farm. My manager and other staff lived here now, those who didn’t have places in Ingram. They would be in by six.

Once I caught up with my manager on everything that needed to be done, I had a trampled fence, a cow that needed vet-checking and a risk of disease doing the rounds on my hands. I got on Spartan, my buckskin. There were a lot of places on my ranch that were easier to access on horseback, and I loved doing things the old way.

Spartan was a young colt, only four years old, but with a will bigger than any horse you’ve ever seen. I trained him myself, and he was great for herding. He also had an array of tricks under his belt, and we often opened rodeos with an act before I got onto a bull or two. Every rancher has to have an outlet. The more dangerous, the better.

By the time I bothered to look at the time, it was almost nine already. I swore and kicked Spartan in the direction of the barn. I had to get into Ingram still, and the meeting I’d promised Vanessa I would go to would start in less than ten minutes.

I didn’t have time to change, and I got in my truck dusty and sweaty. I looked in the rearview mirror and tried to rub streaks of dirt from my face. My shirt was stained.

No time.

I floored it all the way into Ingram, crossing the Ingram Lake Dam and making my way through town. I made it to the hotel forty minutes late.

“I’m just going to head on through to Vanessa in the conference room,” I told Carol passing through the lobby. She nodded, not even looking up from her screen.

The Conference Room was really just a room with a table and chairs set out around it and a white sheet against the one wall with a projector pointing at it. The hotel had the funds to spice it up a bit, but most of the meetings that had a lot of attendance happened in the local church hall. I pushed open the door.

“Sorry I’m late—“ I started, but the scenario in front of me stopped me dead in my tracks. I’d expected a stately looking lawyer with a stack of papers, telling Vanessa how things were going to be, and Vanessa red-eyed and teary sniveling into a tissue. Those were the kind of things they showed on television on the odd occasion that I had some time to watch.

Instead, Vanessa stood leaning her knuckles on the table, and she looked about ready to kill someone. Across from her was Tamika, of all people. She wore a soft-orange blouse and a black pencil skirt, and she looked business-like and important. The shade of orange made her skin radiant and glowing. It was so different from the Tamika I knew that I just stood there gaping. Aaron was seated next to Tamika, looking nervous. His fingers traced the edge of a manila file on the desk in front of him, but it was closed.

That’s what she was in town for, then. Aaron’s air of importance made sense now. I was guessing he was the lawyer, and Tamika was the estate manager. I was impressed that she’d built such a complete life for herself. I felt impressed, and abandoned, all at the same time.

The atmosphere in the air was explosive, and so thick it made it hard to breathe.

“I’m sorry, Miss Bloom, but there’s no way I’m going to be able to let you take care of your father’s estate,” Tamika was saying.

“But it’s my father, and now that he’s dead, it’s my estate!” Vanessa wasn’t as calm and professional as Tamika. I tried to match up the wildly emotional woman in front of me with the woman I’d been dating for five years. I didn’t even recognize her.

For that matter, the only person I recognized in the room was Aaron, and that was because I didn’t really know him.

“Miss Bloom, your father didn’t have a will. The Last Will and Testament is the document that usually appoints someone to take care of the deceased’s estate. If there isn’t a will, then the state has a list of people that the state appoints instead. Family usually falls first on the list, but your residence is here in Texas, not Louisiana where your father lived.”

“And the fact that I’m his daughter?”

Tamika took a deep breath and glanced down at papers in front of her. “Miss Bloom, I have it here on record that Mr. Hart was your stepfather, not your real father.” I looked at Vanessa. I hadn’t known about this. I guessed it made sense in a lot of ways if I did think about it.

“Does it matter what relationships my father had?” Vanessa asked. Her voice was challenging.

“No, it doesn’t unless he was married at the time of death, which he wasn’t, and if he had children, which technically he didn’t, because you were too old to be adopted by him when he married your mother.”

Vanessa’s mouth dropped. “So you’re saying I don’t count as a close relative because he didn’t legally adopt me? The fact that my mother married him when I was nineteen now effectively cuts me out of the will?”

Tamika and Aaron both nodded.

“That’s why we’re here to take care of your father’s estate and his debts and taxes until the assets can be taken care of.”

There was a moment of silence where the words sunk in and Vanessa found her bearings. Then the storm broke loose.

“My father didn’t have any debts! He was a gentleman, he did everything by the book.”

At the word ‘gentleman’ Aaron shook his head. Maybe it wasn’t a term lawyers knew too well. “Miss Bloom, we need you to remain calm. We can’t get anywhere with this discussion if we can’t come to some sort of conclusion.” I had to give it to Aaron. To both of them, actually. Vanessa was losing it, and even though Aaron looked like he was about to run out of the room himself, his voice was steady.

“I don’t understand this,” Vanessa said, and her voice trembled.

“It’s quite simple. The will appoints an Estate Executor, which is someone that the deceased chose to take care of the state after his passing. In this case there is no will, so the estate is passed over to the Estate Administrator, which is Miss Davis.”

“But my father had a will,” Vanessa said, tears spilling onto her cheeks. “He was an organized man. He would never have left something like that to chance. You can’t just walk in here and take everything away from me.”

Tamika sighed. “We’re not taking anything away from you. But legally we have to handle this. Until we can find a will we’re going to have to stick to these arrangements.”

Finally she looked up at me, like she just noticed me in the room now, and her eyes sent a jolt of electricity through my body. But she didn’t look happy to see me. In fact, she looked slightly irritated, like my presence was another stumbling block in a day that was supposed to run smoothly.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice still professional.

“Oh my god, Noah,” Vanessa jumped up and stormed towards me, falling onto my chest, sobbing. I slowly wrapped my arms around her body. When I looked up at Tamika she frowned slightly. Other than that, her face showed no emotion. It was like she was on the other side of a wall and I couldn’t reach her.

“I take it you know Miss Bloom,” she said icily. “I didn’t realize you would be joining the proceedings.”

Vanessa sniffed and looked up. Her mascara streaked dark lines down her face. She turned to Tamika. “Of course he’ll join me. I have a right to have someone here with me, don’t I?”

“Usually we advise against people taking part in something like this unless they’re close family and friends—“

“We’ve been dating for five years. Right know he’s about as close to family as I have.” I squirmed at the thought of being called Vanessa’s family. Tamika’s eyes widened for just a moment, before she slipped that expressionless mask back into place.

“Well,” she said. “I think we’re just about done here. Don’t you, Aaron?”

Aaron got up looking relieved, patting the sides of the manila file like he was straightening a stack of loose papers. “I think so. There’s not much else to discuss here. We just needed to straighten things out with Miss Bloom. We can take care of business now.”

Vanessa shook her head so her bob swayed. “I can’t allow this.”

Aaron sighed. I watched Tamika closely, but she was checking her phone with a serious face.

“Honey,” I said softly. Both Vanessa and Tamika looked at me. When Tamika realized I hadn’t spoken to her, she flushed. Somewhere deep inside me something stirred at the idea that Tamika still answered to a pet name, but I crushed it. “Why don’t we just let them do what they need to do? If there is a will, like you said, they’ll find it at the ranch. Otherwise, legally, there’s nothing we can do.”

“But it’s my dad’s stuff!” she cried.

“I know,” I said, stroking her back. I didn’t want to soothe her as much as I just wanted to the tears to stop. I couldn’t handle dribbling women any better now than I could seven years ago.

“Technically there’s not really a way you’re allowed to stop us from doing this,” Tamika said. “We were being polite letting her in on what needs to happen.”

Vanessa glared at Tamika. I nodded.

“Why are you taking their side on this?” she asked when she saw my gesture. Her anger was turned to me now.

“Because there’s nothing else you can do. I don’t want you standing here, being upset with them when they’re just doing their job.”

Vanessa pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest, hunching her shoulders. She looked small that way, and it was the first time I’d seen her where she wasn’t in control of a situation. I looked at Tamika, who dropped her phone to her side. Her face was still blank when she looked at me, and I thought that if I reached out now and touched her, she would fracture into a million little pieces and she’d be gone forever.

“Where do we go from here?” I asked.

Aaron was the one that answered and looked happy to be of some use. “We just need to work through some paperwork, visit the ranch, that sort of thing. I take it the ranch is open?”

“It’s always open,” Vanessa said with a clipped voice. “It’s a tourist ranch. There are probably people staying there right now. It’s a business.”

“We know,” Tamika said. Vanessa opened her mouth to say something back, but I took her hand and pulled her out of the Conference room before she got a chance to. I was very aware of the fact that Tamika was staying behind. With Aaron. I steeled myself against the thought.

“This is unbelievable,” she said when we stepped out into the light. “It’s only ten in the morning, and already this is turning out to be the worst day.”

I turned to her and put my hands on her shoulders.

“Sweetheart, I know this is hard. Losing someone always is. Everyone has to go through these things, and it’s never pleasant.”

“Did you go through this when your dad died?” she asked. I stilled, let my hands slide off her shoulders. I adjusted my hat, and looked over her shoulder down the road.

The truth was when my dad died he’d been deeper in debt than anyone in a family as poor as mine could ever be. He hadn’t had any property of his own, and I’d sold off some of the land I’d owned to pay his debts when he was gone. I hadn’t seen him in the last two years before he’d died, and if I had the chance to do it over again, I would do it exactly the same way.

“My father was a bit of a different story. My family didn’t exactly come from money.”

Vanessa nodded. I didn’t like telling those that didn’t know that my father had been the village drunk, that every pub knew him and he had a tab with them that owed so much in the end they’d all turned him away.