Truth and Humility (5 page)

He slapped a few documents on his desk and closed the drawer with his boot.  “It’s fraud.  They have laws against that.”

“If you think you can throw a lawsuit at me because I failed to supply my last name, you’re out of your mind!”

Her middle name was Connor?  Odd.  His hand came up, casually dismissing the notion while his other hand scribbled on the top sheet.  “The thought crossed my mind, but then I asked myself,” he paused and smiled sardonically, “what would be the fun in that?”

Danny gripped the arms of her chair willing her heart to slow down.  His mood made her wonder what he was writing on that paper, knowing it had something to do with the “fun” he had planned for her.  “Look, all I wanted was to work.  I had no ulterior motive, it’s just that I need money to pay for college and –”

“Dreams are nice,” he said, completely deadpan.  “I’ve had some, too.  But if you want to work, you came to the right place, because you’re about to get more than you bargained for.”

Of course he wouldn’t care about her motives.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Here are those documents, boss.”  Sue was in and out fast, but not before Danny could get a better look at her.  She had the appearance of a truck driver, stocky build, wide forehead, straw-like hair the color of earth and a few plump, rosy moles on a tough face.  The woman’s voice was more feminine than her looks would suggest, but Danny would have sensed a softness in her without hearing it.

Austin took the folder that was handed him and leaned back while he leafed through it.  “Do you know what the NRHP is, Dan?”

She rolled her eyes at the deliberate misuse of her name and sat back in her seat.  “No.”

“National Register of Historic Places.  You see this property is on that register, as well as the water tower you just defaced.”

“I told you I didn’t touch that plaque, it fell off before I even made it up there.”

“And how did you get up there?”

“I climbed.”

“When I specifically told you to wait for Stan.”

“Stan never came!”

“Then you should have come to me.”  He let it sink in for a moment, sensed when it did then shoved a small stack of papers under her flared little nose.  “If you did what you were told, you never would have touched that water tower and that plaque wouldn’t be in pieces right now.”

“What’s this?” she asked in a small voice.

“An appraisal.  You just destroyed a $25,000 piece of history sculpted by Edward Kemeys.”

Her face went peaked.  “I’m sorry?”

“And as far as I know, you did it deliberately.”

She shot to her feet.  “What?  Why would I do that?”

He stood now, meeting her nose-to-nose.  “Maybe you didn’t like what it said.”

“I didn’t even read it before it was smashed!”

A photo sliced through the space between their faces and it took her eyes a moment to focus.  When they did, she was able to take a good look at what the plaque used to read along with the intricate western-scroll border around it.

Cahill Homestead

Ean"New Romstablished 1886

It didn’t take a genius to catch on.  “You think this was personal because the plaque doesn’t have the Bennett name on it? ”

“Isn’t it always
personal
, Bennett?”

And then she came to another revelation.  Danny shoved the photo away from her face and let out an incredulous laugh.  “Oh, I get it.  It’s personal, all right.  Personal for
you.
”

“You walked through
my
gate, lady, not the other way around.”

“And you think you can use me to get back at Derek.”  When he didn’t deny it, she shook her head and paced with hands on hips.  “I should’ve known.  What are you going to do, duck-tape my mouth, tie me to a chair and send him pictures?”

Austin would have laughed if he weren’t so fired up, but this was the moment he’d been waiting for and he was determined to make it count.  “Maybe I believe in an eye-for-an-eye.”

Danny’s hands balled into little fists at her side, unfazed by the threat.  “My brother didn’t drown your girlfriend.”

“Is that what he told you?”

“He doesn’t talk about it.  But I know him, and you did too, once.  He loved you like a brother despite the risks.  He vowed that the feud wouldn’t touch his friendship with you, but he was wrong!  The feud always gets in the way,
always!”
  As it was now getting in the way of her college plans.

“And who’s fault was that?”

“Yours!”

Austin suppressed a growl and his eyes narrowed to blackened dangerous slits.  “Sleeping with a woman isn’t quite the same as getting one killed.  And I didn’t know
who
I was sleeping with.  Your brother knew
exactly
who Rena was when she drowned in that river.”

“Oh, come on!  How many ‘Brynns’ with blond hair do you know, Austin?  It’s not a common name and as soon as you heard it you should have backed off.”

Maybe
, Austin thought, having considered that very thing after the deed had already been done.  But he’d be damned if he was going to apologize again for an honest mistake that happened "48at happnine years ago.  The teenaged girl he remembered was no angel and certainly no flower. 
Oh, Austin, make me come,
she’d begged as he pounded into her like a young jackhammer in the back of his ’66 Mustang.
  Yes!  More to the left!  There, yes!

“Brynn was a slut,” he replied dryly.  “Derek was better off.”

Danny blew out a disgusted laugh and continued to pace out her frustration.  “It never occurred to you that she may have known
exactly
who
she
was sleeping with?”

“Of course it did.  After.  And, hey,
I
was the one used in that deal.”

“You broke Derek’s nose.”

“He threw a punch, I threw a punch.”

Her eyes traveled to the hooked scar beside his brow.  “And the whole thing could have been avoided if you’d just thought with your head instead of your –”

“Watch it.  There isn’t a sixteen year old kid out there who doesn’t.”

“Oh, come on,” she scoffed, “Bennett-versus-Cahill.  We’re all pretty well schooled on the history of this feud, how it works, how people take advantage.  Even at that age you should have known what Brynn was doing.  You were just too horny to notice.”

“Is that what you’re doing, Danny?”  When she stopped her pacing to frown at him, he crossed his arms, looked back at her pointedly.  “Taking advantage, I mean.”

Jeez, the man was thick.  “I never wanted anything to do with you or the damned feud.”

“You threw rocks at my head when we were kids.  What do you call that?”

She closed her eyes and took a cleansing breath.  “I was seven.  And they were acorns, not rocks.”

Likely story.  “I thought acorns floated.”

Who cared?  “Not the ones on the ground,” she bit out as if he should know.

“Well, it felt like rocks,” he mumbled, remembering the painful knock on his scalp like it happened yesterday.  He sat back down and indicated she do the same.

“I want to stand.”

“Too bad.” 
Such a rebellious one
, he thought deliciously, wondering how heettering h could use that particular weakness to his advantage, even when she finally complied.  “I want to wrap this up, I have work to do.  This is a contract.  Read it.  You’ll want to sign it.  If you do, no legal action will be taken against you.  If you don’t, you’ll be contacted by our attorneys within the next 24 hours.”

Danny snatched the paperwork in her hand and scanned through it as Austin continued to scribble on a notepad.  She couldn’t get past the first page.  “You’re saying I owe you $25,000.”

“Yep.”

“And I must pay off the debt in manual labor.”

“She can read.”

“What in hell makes you think I’ll agree to this?”

“Second page.”

She flipped and read on.  “You’ll have charges brought against me for ‘vandalizing’ a historic structure listed on the National Register?”

He stopped what he was writing and spared her a matter-of-fact glance.  “I’d take the deal if I were you.  It’s cheaper.”

“Vandalizing?  Don’t you think that’s a stretch?”

“It can be anything I make it, Bennett.”  He re-focused his attention on the document.  “You brought this on yourself.  You can fight it if you want to, but history proves Cahill lawyers are better than yours.”

Well that was the damned truth, she thought, her heart sinking to her toes.  Everything in that last statement was true.  She had thoroughly screwed herself by disobeying orders and in the process set her college plans back at least a year.  And if she or her family were pursued legally, well...she’d be busted.

“Okay.  I’ll sign it.  But only under the condition this doesn’t get back to my family.”

The woman still thought she had a say and Austin wasn’t in the mood to let her down easy.  “You aren’t in any position to make deals.  As soon as you sign on the dotted line, I own you.”  Her tough façade slipped a little.  “And don’t fool yourself.  I’m
counting
on this getting back to your family.”

“So Derek will come after me?  What little ‘trap’ are you setting for him?”

“Don’t even think to accuse me of anything you can’t prove, lady.  I won’t be the one to tell your precious brother, but it’ll get out eventually.  When it does, if Derek decides to come for you, I’ll deal with him my way.”  His scowl indicated she sign already and he watched her until she reluctantly took the pen from his outstretched hand.

Hesitating, Danny considered her options.  They were few.  But, when she thought about it, her odds of leaving this place whole were much greater than how she’d farehe she’d after facing her father with this gem of deceit.

“I’m growing old.”  His growl prompted her to scribble her signature without further consideration.

“I’m only doing this because you don’t scare me,” she grumbled impudently then threw in a comment about her father as she threw down the pen.

Austin didn’t really care.  Now that step two was complete, he verbally laid out the rules while he turned to the computer screen beside him. “You’ll clear out of your private room, I need it for a new hire.  Instead you’ll be staying in the servant quarters in the main house.”  To keep a closer eye on her...just in case her brother should get involved.

Danny’s mind instantly revolted. 
Servant quarters!

He fiddled with the mouse until the ink-jet printer began to feed paper.  “After putting in a full eight-hour day in the yard, you’ll be expected to work a second job, that of maintenance crew.”

“I wasn’t hired to work in the salvage yard.”

“It pays $60 a day as long as the work gets done.  And since I know you’ll be in a hurry to get this over with, ninety percent of your weekly wages will be put toward your debt.  That should leave you with enough money to feed yourself at night if you limit the menu to peanut butter and crackers.”

Pig.  Obviously she would not be working demolition, but in the
prison
yard.  “Why not just go the distance and make it bread and water?” she sniped.  The paper he handed her was still warm from the printer.

“A checklist of your nightly chores,” he supplied before she could ask.  “Good timing, too, because my full-time maintenance lady just went to Hawaii for a month.”