Rocky Mountain Angel

Chapter Twenty-Two

Allison leaned her head against the windowpane. Not even the warmth of Puss in Boots in her arms could force her gloom away. The rain streaking down the other side of the glass echoed her mood perfectly.

Mom was fading, but not so quickly it made any sense to spend every moment in the hospital waiting for the final curtain to fall. Every night since the Labour Day weekend, Gabe had dragged her home when Maisey fell asleep. And every night Allison said her final goodbyes in case it was the last time.

Morning didn’t dawn bright and clear in her heart, so the rain they’d woken to on this Wednesday seemed appropriate. Gabe grumbled about the weather, then left to start his day, promising to take a break and meet her for lunch.

The front door slammed against the wall, frightening Puss into jumping free and hiding under the couch. Allison jerked from her musings, wondering what had Gabe so riled. Shock turned to dismay when Ben Coleman stumbled around the corner from the porch.

“Where’s that goddamn son of bitch?” he snarled, water dripping from his slicker, his wet hair plastered over his forehead and halfway covering his eyes.

He looked mad. Insane-type mad, and Allison backed away, edging into the living area. “He headed to the ranch early. Said something about the harvester. Look in the barns maybe?”

She wanted him out of her house. At the best of times Ben was frightening. This version of the man terrified the living daylights out of her.

Ben stopped in the kitchen area, looking her over with disgust. “You’re so satisfied, aren’t you? All smug that you two pulled one over on me.”

If she’d ever wanted Gabe to walk in unexpected, this would be the moment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Ben, let’s go to your house and we can find him. You can talk to—”

“He used you, you know. Nothing changes about that one. Just like he’s always been. Untrustworthy, unreliable.”

Gabe unreliable? Good grief, if she weren’t shaking from having Ben glowering at her she would have laughed at the idea.

“He’s not here,” she repeated. Allison pointed to the door, praying Ben would take the hint.

He stepped a little closer and her heart skipped a beat. “You give him the money, girl?”

Allison hesitated. “What money?”

Ben’s face lit with a twisted kind of delight. “What money, she says. Oh, so did the boy fuck you over without your knowledge? Doesn’t surprise me one bit. Bet that’s why he started up with you in the first place, planning to take advantage of your bank account.”

Her mind whirled as she tried to figure out what he was talking about. If anyone had taken advantage of anyone at the start, it was her using Gabe. “Ben. If you want to discuss the ranch and money, you need to find your son. I’m not involved in that part. I gave him suggestions for changes, and I helped with applications—”

“And he helped himself to your money and paid off the goddamn bet.”

She froze. “A bet?”

“That he could turn this shit-hole of a ranch around with your help. Your help, indeed. It’s not information he married you for.”

Something inside went icy cold. The rain outside could have turned to snow for how frigid it was in the room. “He is turning the ranch around. The changes that have been approved, and all the plans he’s got in place, are incredible. Within five years the Angel Coleman section will be a fully organic operation.”

“Five years? He didn’t have that long. He had until this week. Tuesday, he waltzed into the fucking bank and cleared everything off, and I know that’s fucking impossible. Where the hell did he get the money?” Ben kicked the nearest chair, sending the heavy wooden object flying into the table.

Allison looked around for an escape route. “I don’t know. Ask the person who can help you, because I don’t know.”

Ben stomped a couple paces forward, grabbing the back of another chair. His knuckles turned white. His voice one step up from a growl. “I don’t want to talk to him, or see him. Just the sight of him makes me sick. Told him that years ago when he killed his brother, and every fucking day since he was stupid enough to come back and I—”

“What?” Absolute fury flared inside at his words; the fear and the cold vanished in a blaze of anger. She might be confused over the bet, and the money, and whatever the hell else Ben was going on about, but this? She understood completely and wouldn’t accept. “Shut up. You shut up, right now, Ben Coleman. My God, you really said that to your son? Gabe did not kill Michael.”

Ben snapped his mouth closed, features twisted in anger, and threw the chair he held to the side. It crashed to the floor, and Allison cursed herself for being all kinds of a fool. Trapped in a house with a man she didn’t trust. Great time to go off like a crazy woman.

Still, rage gave her balls. She snapped up her arm to point at the door. “Get out. Get out of my house.”

“If you had any sense you’d dump the bastard. He’s used you.”

“And I used him. It’s called a relationship. Something you don’t know anything about.”

She wanted to go on. To rant at him. To scream. That he’d actually accused Gabe of killing Michael, and continued to torment him for this long was incredibly perverse and hugely wrong. This is what Gabe had come back to? What he’d put up with to save his family from the man’s poison?

Puss in Boots raced across the floor. Ben swung a foot that just missed the little thing as he scurried for safety.

Allison nearly lost it. Everything in her wanted to rush forward and hurt Ben. To punch and kick and cut him like he’d been cutting into Gabe’s soul over the years. Logic made her stand her ground and simply scream the word again. “Out.”

If he didn’t go voluntarily, she wasn’t sure what she’d do. Trying to dodge past him would be her only chance. Snatch up the kitten, and make a break for it. The rain against the window spattered in gusts, a syncopated sound. Not reassuring and calming like rain could be, but violent and hurtful. Destructive. Cold.

Eerily like the man in front of her.

Ben stared at her for a minute before glancing around the cabin, his face gone expressionless again. He turned to go.

A soaking wet Gabe burst in wearing no coat, only his drenched T-shirt, water dripping from the brim of his hat.

Ben jostled past his son in an attempt to leave.

Quick as a whip, Gabe snatched hold, the muscles in his biceps bulging as he fixed Ben in place. “Not so fast. What are you doing here?”

Ben jerked his arm, but Gabe held him. “Telling her the truth. That you’re a cheat and a thief and no better than a goddamn murderer.”

Allison stepped back as Gabe rushed forward, slamming Ben against the wall and pinning him in place. As glad as she was to see Gabe, this isn’t what she wanted. “Gabe, let him go. It’s not worth it.”

“He’s not worth it,” Gabe spat out, shoving his father toward the door as he released him.

She folded her arms around herself, holding in the shaking that wanted to take control. Gabe stepped to Allison’s side, keeping an eye on Ben the entire time.

He darted a glance over her, then placed himself protectively between them as he snapped at his father. “Rafe said you had a problem with me. If that’s so, then you talk to me. Not Ma, not Allison, not Rafe. You be a goddamn man and deal with me, you understand?”

“Because you’re calling all the shots now?” Ben taunted. “As soon as I tell my brothers how you won the bet, they’ll back me up on kicking your ass out of here.”

Gabe laughed. “You’re wrong. It’s all dealt with, square and proper. The bank is happy for the next year, and that’s what you dared me to do. Hell, it’s what you couldn’t bloody well do yourself.”

“That’s not true.”

“You hoped I’d fail so you could blame me, like you’ve blamed me for everything else that’s gone wrong over the years. Even Michael.”

Ben sputtered in anger. “Don’t you talk about him. Don’t you ever talk about him to me.”

“You talk about him all the time, don’t you? Reminding me I was supposed to be there to save him.” Gabe stepped forward, his cheeks flushed, hands fisted at his sides. “Well, I wasn’t and every day I regret it, but I wasn’t the one who told him to go out and have a good time. I wasn’t the one who slipped enough money into Michael’s pocket he could drink himself into a bloody stupor.”

Ben’s face went white, his hands trembling. “How did you know that?” he whispered.

“Michael called me.” Gabe snapped. “Already into the liquor. He teased me to come join him. Said he was flush with cash and he’d forgive me for being a stick in the mud. We could both have a blast on the money you’d given him.”

Oh God.

Gabe took a deep breath, dragging his hand through his hair. “That’s the end of it, Ben. I won’t meekly accept your taunts anymore. Michael’s death is not your fault, but it’s not mine either.”

Ben’s eyes reflected guilt even as anger twisted his features. The pain of what he must have felt would have made Allison more sympathetic if she hadn’t discovered the man had deliberately tormented Gabe for years.

As it was, Allison wanted to grab hold of Gabe and offer her support. Let him know he wasn’t alone. Wanted to hold him until all the pain had vanished.

Ben straightened, his gaze turning on Allison.

Gabe spoke softer. Slower, the calm man who she’d come to know so well pulling himself to the foreground. “It didn’t work, Ben. Your plan to get rid of me. I won. Admit it.”

Ben’s anger still roiled. He should have retreated after that revelation, but it seemed as if all his focus remained on hurting Gabe. Allison wondered what the man thought he could possibly say to defend himself or recast Gabe as the villain.

But when he spoke, it wasn’t about Michael at all.

“Did Mrs. Parker give you money?” Ben demanded.

What a ridiculous question. Now Allison understood what Ben had been accusing Gabe of earlier. She waited for Gabe to deny it.

Nothing came.

Nothing but confusion.

“How do you know about that?” Gabe stammered.

Ben sneered. Allison was already turning away to focus on Gabe. “My mom gave you money?”

He hesitated then nodded. Her stomach turned over.

“Ask him if it was before or after you two got hitched,” Ben gloated, his words thrashing out like a whip being cracked.

The implication was clear. That Gabe had only married her for money.

After all her dealings with Gabe over the past months, and the knowledge of how twisted and hurtful Ben was and always had been, knowing whose word to trust was simple.

Ben was on the losing side.

Yet a part inside her felt ill at the thought of being used. If it was only about money, there was no need for Gabe to extend the deception beyond their initial relationship—she’d already committed to help him if he helped her.

She looked into his eyes and saw the fear there. The hurt. The resigned acceptance that someone else was about to falsely accuse him. To take from him without giving.

In this case, without giving him a chance.

All their time together gave her the courage to lay her hand gently on his arm and trust him.

Trust him to not tear her fragile heart in two.

“Gabe. You had a bet with your father. How did you manage to work things out?”

He answered instantly. “I sold some land.”

“What?” Ben roared as Allison blinked in surprise. “You had no right to do that. You had—”

“I goddamn did have the right. We still have the same amount of land as we had before. The section I traded with the Whiskey Creek clan is worth more on paper, so they paid the difference. That’s where I got the money. That’s why we can make a go of it for another year until the changes Allison and I implemented turn into profit-making ventures.”

“You’ve got no signatures. You’ve got nothing from me to make that land exchange legal,” Ben protested vehemently.

“They’re family. Real family who give a shit that we all survive. Uncle George saw the merit in the swap, even without your approval upfront. It’s not as if they weren’t getting something of value, and the land is still all in the Coleman name. Uncle Mike and Uncle George helped me last Friday. We did up a rough draft and signed it with a gentleman’s agreement. The Whiskey Creek Ranch transferred the money into my account and I went from there.

“If you want to be petty enough to throw the entire Coleman spread into chaos out of some perverse need to hurt me, you’re a sorrier son of a bitch than I thought.” Gabe grabbed Allison’s hand. She held on for dear life.

Ben turned without another word and walked away.

The cabin was strangely quiet for a minute. The rain pounded, water dripped outside the open front door, but something peaceful came in to replace the violent storm that had been roaring through the room moments earlier.

Allison stood in silence, not sure what to ask. What she needed to know. In the midst of the entire chaos, and the fear, one thing had registered the hardest.

The only thing she really needed was Gabe.