The Heart of Texas (7 page)

Chapter 14

Side by side, hand in hand, the two men descended the stairs. Gerald looked up as they moved closer, the breath catching in his chest, seeing a Campbell taking the steps one at a time, a male version of the only woman he'd ever really loved. Then finally they stopped in front of him.

"What the hell is going on here, Riley? I won't have a Campbell in my house!"

"Campbell-Hayes," the upstart dared respond.

Gerald ignored him. "What is this nonsense in the papers about marriage, boy?" He moved close, and despite being a good few inches shorter than his middle child, he loomed over them both.

"No nonsense, Dad. Jack and I are married."

"Same-sex marriage isn't legal in Texas! This is ridiculous! For this, you drag the Hayes name through the mud?"

"It is legal, Dad. I'm married as per every single proviso you added to the employment contract for shared vice president."

"Enough is enough, boy! Is this some kind of joke? That contract quite clearly stated—"

"That I should marry for at least one year," Riley interrupted. "There was not a single word that specified the sex of the person I had to marry."

"I will have this thrown out in court! This is a joke! You— married to this—" Gerald's anger reddened his face, his temper muddling his words. "This
homosexual
," he finally spat out. "That is not what the contract was about, and you know it!"

"I married—"

"I will have this lie, this abomination, thrown out!"

"You can't, Dad." To Gerald's horror and disgust, Riley tightened his hold on Campbell's hand, leaning into him for silent support. "See, I married for love."

Gerald's hands clenched into fists at his sides. He wanted to wrap his hands around his middle son's neck, the stupid, fucked up
child
.

"When a court sees you're not even gay—"

"Dad," Riley said patiently, "I'm bi, always have been. I met Jack, and I fell in love, end of story."

"This is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord!"

"So is shellfish," Campbell muttered under his breath, and Gerald saw him squeezing Riley's hand in support.

Gerald took a step closer. His fists rose at his sides, and spittle formed on his lips. "I won't have this under my roof, boy, you hear?"

"Sir—" Jack began as Riley hesitated, clearly blindsided by the near violence in Gerald's voice.

"Don't even think to talk to me, Campbell," Gerald spat out, not looking at him. He stared into Riley's eyes, the betrayal cutting deep inside. How could this boy do this to him? Hadn't Gerald given him everything?

The door opened and closed behind them. Gerald turned on his heel to look at the new arrival. Jeff, his son and heir, stood with his back to the door, just listening. His plans for his eldest son, for Hayes Oil, started to crumble around him and sudden grief —a feeling he thought he'd buried a long time ago— clutched his insides. Turning back, he found himself looking directly into the sea blue of Donna Campbell’s eyes reflected in her son. At once he was assailed by memories of summers so long ago, and it sent steel to his spine.

"I will get this thrown out. You hear me, boy? You think you're clever? You don't know the half of it. I will not have a bastard Campbell under my roof, infecting my family with their sexual deviancy and their working class filth. End of story," he finished, deliberately echoing Riley.

"Don't talk about my husband that way, Dad," he said quietly, markedly calm against the fury and temper thrown at him. "I love Jack, we married, and we are living together in my apartment."

"Know this, Riley," Gerald said. "I will get this stopped. This changes nothing."

"Do your worst, Dad. I wouldn't expect anything less."

Gerald spun on his heel, walking with purpose down the hall to his home office, the door slamming hard behind him.

Chapter 15

Jeff started to clap his hands, slowly, rhythmically. "Well played, little brother. Well played."

Jack let out the breath he didn't even realize he'd been holding. Only certain words stayed in his head, not the abuse or the hate that dripped from Gerald's mouth, but the words Riley had used. One sentence that kind of summed up exactly why Riley was doing what he was doing, or what he believed he was doing it for.

Jack dropped the hold he had on Riley's hand and turned to climb the stairs. "We need to talk," he said softly, waiting for Riley to snap out of his staring match with Jeff and get him back up to the apartment. Riley blinked up at him, and then cast one last look at Jeff before climbing the stairs at a slower pace, finally closing the apartment door behind them. Riley leaned back against it, worrying his lower lip with his teeth, showing more in that single action than he'd done since they had made this bargain.

"You wanna tell me what you meant about the vice president thing?" Jack asked, crossing to the leather sofa and sitting on the edge, hands twined together on his knees. He wasn't going to move until he had the story, the entire background of how they'd ended up here in this room. "Are there reasons for this charade other than just pissing off your father?"

* * * *

Riley sighed and shrugged, knocking his head back against the wood and closing his eyes, he didn't want to show Jack this disillusioned side, this knocked down by the family side. He wanted to be confident, in control of himself. It just wasn't happening, and he couldn't for the life of him understand why. He still had so much to process: the high of confrontation, the success of what he'd done edged with the complete disappointment in his family. Well, his family apart from Eden, who despite trying to hit on the gay married guy, at least seemed to accept the marriage. His mother had yet to give her considered opinion, which he knew would be delivered wrapped in the same ice that ran through her veins. His father had almost popped a vein in temper, no acceptance of what Riley had done, just anger and vitriolic hate. And as for his brother, those few words, the sarcasm, the sardonic, mocking, scornful words… Well, it was no different from what he was used to.

And now Jack wanted to know the details. How could Riley begin to tell this confident man in front of him just how much temper, anger and rage he held inside himself? His only hope was to tell him enough for it to make sense. He needed to start now.

"So it began with my father saying he was retiring. Maybe not retiring as such, but certainly standing back, and calling Jeff and I in to portion out control of Hayes Oil. I deserve my share. Long story short, I didn't get my share." Riley sat on the other sofa, aware he probably sounded like a spoiled child.

"You sound like a spoiled child," Jack pointed out.

Great.
"There are reasons why I should, why I want to have some control. I need to stop them from…" There were far too many secrets and needs that Riley had spent so many years hiding. Wording it right was not easy.

Jack leaned forward, his face carefully blank. "Need to stop them from what?" Riley stared into blue eyes, the light making them translucent, and freckles sprinkled over the far too pretty face of his new husband.
Pretty.
And he really wanted to unload, to Jack, to anyone. Only Steve knew the real Riley, the Riley that still survived the shit piled on to him, survived the secrets and the knowledge he had. He didn't know Jack from the next man. He had only ever heard the detailed, impassioned stories about how the Campbells tried to cheat the Hayeses out of money and land.

About how Alan Campbell had dragged the name of Hayes through the courts, accused Gerald of falsifying land records and forging contracts. How could Riley trust the son of the man who tried to destroy his family? Dysfunctional though it may be, it was still his family, his name.

He stiffened his spine, angry at almost letting his barriers fall at the soft voice and the serious expression on his husband's face. At the questions from his cowboy, he pushed the man who wanted to share back inside and pulled stubborn, willful Riley to the foreground.

"All you need to know is that you're mine for a year, and we need to try a damn sight harder if we have a hope in hell of convincing my father he has no chance of fighting this marriage. , and as it stands, I have fulfilled his contract stipulations."

"Okay," Jack said patiently, "tell me about the contract."

"Simply, my father handed over majority rule to Jeff, being as he is A. married, B. has children, and C. is apparently, therefore, not gay. Which then means he is the best person for Hayes Oil. However, the middle child, apparently, being unmarried, childless, and possibly therefore gay can't be considered as an equal partner in what is a family company." Riley tried to keep any trace of bitterness from his voice, but it wasn't easy to do, and he saw Jack wince in reaction.

He stopped. Familiar anger was climbing his spine, pushing into muscles that tensed and clenched, the pain in his neck pushing up into his headache. Unconsciously, he massaged the back of his neck and tilted his head, stretching the muscles, wincing at the pain.

"As a proviso, he added that should I marry for love and stay married for exactly one year, he would reassign the percentages. I would have the same percentage of Hayes Oil as my brother."

"Married, for a year, for love." Jack repeated. "Can I just point out that, given you have probably worked your way through half the Dallas women under the age of twenty five, finding a suitable wife in amongst them would be fairly easy?"

Riley stood suddenly, a fire in him that Jack could pick so easily on the same thing that Jim and Steve had.

"No," he spat out, turning away from Jack to face the window, trying to calm his emotions before he turned back. Jack just sat and stared up at him. "See, that would play straight into his hands. I would be stuck in a marriage based on a lie. Should we have a child, I couldn't leave that child, that woman. He knows that. He wants me tied down, finished."

"You seem to assign an awful lot of slyness to a man you call your father," Jack pointed out simply. "What makes you think he'd—"

"You don't know him. He might be my father, but he's used to manipulating me. This time he isn't getting away with it."

"You need to show me this contract, this agreement that your father pulled together so I know my role. Maybe Josh should have a look?" Riley was instantly horrified. To have an outsider see the proof of his father's disregard of him was too much. No. He couldn't do that. As usual, words failed him, and he fell back onto his usual method of communication. Superiority.

"All you need to know, Campbell, is that you keep your head down, keep to your side of the bargain, and in turn, I will keep to mine." In a flurry of movement, Riley moved to the door, wrenching it open. "I need to get out of here."

* * * *

Jack blinked, watching him leave. Stress and violence surrounded his new husband like a suffocating blanket. "Campbell-Hayes," he said to the empty room, and sighing, he followed Riley down the stairs and out of the front door.

The Riley he'd seen, a flash of in the man who'd leaned exhausted against the door, had vanished in the blink of an eye. He recognized barriers when he saw them, because he used the same tools to hide his own worries. It was self-preservation that made him not push as hard as he had wanted, sensing Riley was jonesing for a fight.

Riley wasn't aware of it, but his face showed so many expressions from anger to sadness that Jack had a hard time distinguishing the separate emotions.

Chapter 16

The whisky was the oldest, finest, most expensive that Gerald could find, and he had drunk enough to still be on a short fuse when Jeff knocked and entered the office, a smirk on his face.

"Did you really think he was going to take this lying down?" Jeff pointed out, arms crossed on his chest. He seemed composed and in control though Gerald couldn't see why.

In contrast he was furious, almost apoplectic, and he could feel the red in his face. He was pacing the not altogether small space behind his antique desk. "Enough," he spat, finally stopping the pacing. "He is simply being stupid. It will pass."

"He is far from stupid. In fact, I think you underestimate him."

"I am quite aware of how I have underestimated your mother's son," Gerald said fast and instantly, anger at the core of the heated words. "And don't think of talking
at
me, Jeff. You should be thinking of how we can get around this."

"How we get round this?"

"If he finds the papers, if he realizes—"

"It won't happen. We go to source," Jeff said. "Leave Riley alone as the easily maneuvered child that he is and instead focus on Campbell. Turn him against his new…" He hesitated with a look of distaste on his face. "
Husband
."

Gerald raised his eyebrows, admiring the cunning that was twisting in his son.

"His horses," Jeff said. "I hear he's doing more than well with his horses, so we go there first."

"I want that Campbell away from this family."

"Consider it done," Jeff said confidently.

"The day your bastard brother gets any kind of control over my company is the day that hell freezes over," Gerald added, hearing the hate in his own voice.

"He won't. Believe me, I won't let it happen." Jeff matched the venom with the vindictiveness that controlled his every move. "I am not giving up my birthright and certainly not to anyone polluted by association with a Campbell."

* * * *

Jack caught up with Riley as he stood by one of the 4x4s in the drive. His new husband was just staring at him, expectation etched into his features. It sent a skitter of wariness down his spine as the tension permeating the house followed him outside.

"Keys?" he asked. Riley threw them over the roof, and Jack snatched them out of the air and threw them up, thoughtful and suddenly feeling the need for open space. "Where to?"

Riley shrugged. "Beer," was all he said.

"Get in. We're going to the D."

Riley climbed in without argument, but stared resolutely out of the window as they left for the Campbell family home. His phone rang twice. The first time he just cut off the call, but the second time he answered it, with resignation in his voice and words that just fell off of his tongue with practiced ease. Jack only got Riley's side of the conversation, but whoever he was talking to obviously peeved Riley, judging by what he was saying. His frustration and exasperation were obvious, despite turning away from Jack.

"No, we're not. I can't understand why you— Jeez, the kids need their momma. You need to listen to me, Lisa.
No
, I've heard that before. Okay, okay, yes, it's true. Yes, I will." He shot a quick look at Jack. "Yes we'll be there— Whatever good that does." He closed the cell, settling back to face the front and glaring out of the windshield.

"And?" Jack finally said, curiosity pushing at him to question when Riley didn't immediately answer.

"Lisa, Jeff's wife, wanted to check if we would be back for dinner tonight, that's all. She's aware of what's happened and she's…"

As his voice tailed off, irritation sparked in Jack. What the fuck was up with all the half sentences? It was driving him freakin' mad.

"She's what? Pissed? Sad? Devastated she lost you? What?" Jack snapped, taking the next bend maybe a little too sharply and causing Riley to slide against the door with a loud exhalation of breath.

"Scared, she says she's scared," Riley bit out, rubbing at his shoulder and frowning.

Jack said nothing. He added another question to the long list of questions he was writing in his head, a list he would damn sure pull out later.

When he drove through the main gates with the two D's entwined in an intricate twist of metal, he felt every ounce of stress falling away. He was at home, pulling himself visibly taller, a smile on his face, pride in every pore, whilst next to him, Riley seemed to sink lower into his seat. He drew to a stop outside the main house at right angles to the red-sided barn, turned off the engine and leaned against the steering wheel. He had something to say, something that was eating away inside him. Riley had to know, needed to know, what Jack had inside his heart.

"Okay, Het—" he started with his usual lack of reverence, then pushed that down. This was not a joke. "Riley, this is gonna be one hell of a long year, and before we do anything else, before we take one step outside of this truck, I wanna get something off my chest."

Riley paused with his hand on the door. "Okay?"

"I want you to know that I hate you— what you did— that you used Beth against me. I hate that you knew before me and that I had no choice in this." He realized he sounded confused at what he was trying to say, but Riley wouldn't look him in the eyes.

* * * *

Riley said nothing. He just opened the door and climbed out, his feet heavy on the hard packed ground below them and then he stood, looking at the barns and the house as he had done that first day, wondering at how quickly the week had gone. He knew in his heart, where guilt and anger both battled for dominance, just what it was that Jack was explaining.

Suddenly it was just as important for Riley to say what was inside him. "Are you gonna make my life miserable now?" he started. "Are you gonna get your revenge for what I did?"

Jack climbed down from the seat and came round to stand next to Riley, leaning in so he could speak low and firm. "I don't have the capacity for the kind of hate the Hayes family seems to have, Riley. Beth is ill and has been for a long time. She's pregnant and could die. I have two mares about to foal that could make the D the best horse ranch in the state, and now I have the money to help me with both."

He stopped, sighing, then reaching up to grasp Riley at the back of his neck. His hold firm, he pulled Riley's head down. "I don't have anything left inside to deal with you and your petty squabbles. For now, I need to play my part, keep my end of the bargain, and that starts with fairly obvious public displays of affection."

Riley didn't argue as Jack placed warm lips against his, his hands twisting harder in Riley's hair, holding him in place. Jack ran the tip of his tongue over Riley's lower lip, pushing for him to let him in. Pulling back briefly, all he said was, "Fuck's sake, make it a good one for the audience, Het-boy," and then he was drawing the very breath from Riley's body as he slanted his mouth and began the hottest open-mouth kiss Riley had ever been on the receiving end of. It wasn't hard to go with the flow. His hands rested on Jack's hips, one moving to settle at the dip in his spine and one, resting on the belt of his jeans. Whispers of wanting more drifted in his subconscious.

This wasn't a woman, a soft gentle woman, bending back in his arms and letting him lead. This was a battle to take control. A small groan started in his throat as he felt himself hardening against Jack's leg and the flush of arousal burning in the tight restricting denim. Jack said nothing, just twisted slightly, pushing Riley back against the car, his own arousal hard and insistent against Riley. Finally Jack pulled back, Riley chasing the kiss and whining at the loss before he realized where he was and exactly why they were kissing.

"I signed the damn contract, Riley," Jack whispered against damp kiss-marked lips, "and I will be the husband you need. Doesn't mean we have to like each other." Without another word, he turned on his heel, walking halfway to the house and stopping. "Coming?"

Riley was stunned and verging on embarrassed. For a good few minutes, he didn't know what he felt, apart from freakin' turned on. He willed his hard-on to go away as Donna stood on the steps calling down to them both. Riley pasted a smile on his face, a genuine
I'm pleased to see you
smile and joined Jack, who was damn well holding out a hand to grasp, like they were a real couple. Taking a deep breath, he climbed the stairs for the third time in one week.

"The vet is here, Jack," Donna said quickly. "Nothing awful; Solo-Col was just restless." Jack looked back at the first barn, clearly torn between what he wanted to do —visit with family— and what he needed to do— visit with his horses.

"Riley, I just need to go check on her. I'll be back in a bit," he finally said.

"Er— you want me to come with you?" Riley offered, also weighing up pros and cons, though it was more along the lines of death-by-horse versus death-by-Campbell family.

"I'll be ten minutes," Jack said, releasing Riley's hand and jogging towards the barn.

Riley sighed and climbed the last few steps. Jack's mom quickly and efficiently pulled him into a tight hug and guided him into the warm kitchen. It smelled the same. Something was cooking, and Riley guessed it was some kind of stew in the large pot on the stove. The smell of bread permeated the rooms. He sniffed the air appreciatively and was treated to the incredibly awesome sight of fresh cookies and coffee on the table.

Donna glanced out of the kitchen window towards the barn. "You know what Jack can be like." She chuckled. "You realize he'll be at least an hour, if not more." She pushed a fresh coffee his way and indicated he should help himself to cookies, which he did, with a polite "Thank you, ma'am."

Beth came in sometime between the first and second cookie, sitting down diagonally across from Riley. She didn't look at him, just sat quietly sipping on some foul-smelling herbal tea and nibbling on a cookie of her own. Where was the brave girl who'd stood between him and her brother, the one who questioned his motives? She wasn't here in this quiet child-woman who didn't say a word.

"So," began Riley, just for something to say, deciding to stay off the subject of pregnancy in case Donna wasn't in the loop yet. "I've seen you hanging around sometimes with my friend, Steve."

Beth actually smiled and then blushed. "I met him in the hospital when I was fourteen, I guess. He had been through all the same stuff as me and come out the other end, living and well, and he looked after me in the ward. He was only there when my family couldn't be, but it was the lonely times. Three in the morning, the dead hours." She paused, her thoughts obviously lost in memories.

"He's a good guy," Riley offered, wanting to tell her about the Steve that he knew, the Steve who supported him and laughed with him, the man who gave him space away from his family, and put up with all his shit. But he found he couldn't stumble on the words to talk to the girl he'd betrayed to her brother.

Jack wasn't as long as Donna had suggested he might be but was definitely away longer than ten minutes. When he walked back into the kitchen, he had a look of uncertainty etched into his features.

"Wanna see the horses?" he offered.

It seemed like an impulse question, but Riley took him up on it. He found himself in the dim interior of the main barn, his hands gently stroking the softness that was Solo-Col. He listened as attentively as he could as Jack explained her bloodline, her potential, the one point four million her foal could bring if it all went well, and how this foal could be the making of the D.

Riley followed Jack to the fence that formed one end of the corral, leaning against it and looking thoughtfully at the horses in the fields beyond. Quietly Jack leaned in for another kiss, quick and fast, whispering, "We're being watched" against Riley's warm face.

As Riley listened to Jack, listened to the pride and love for bloodlines and the family ranch, he could feel the tension across his neck start to release, as if this was maybe somewhere he could just listen to Jack ramble on and relax.

* * * *

Donna watched them from the kitchen, thoughtful, knowing her son, loving her son, wanting him to be happy. It was easier to lose herself in times when she was happier, before Alan had gone too far, lost his dignity and her love, before resentment took him from her. The pride of the D was in her son, in every inch of him, and she just wondered what deal he'd made with the devil to keep his family safe.

Beth started to leave the table, and Donna couldn't keep things inside any longer. She turned to pull her youngest into a close hug.

"Sweetheart," she began, trying her best not to cry, not to scream, to be the best mother she could. "I think there's something you maybe want to tell me?"