Joanna Wayne - Trumped Up Charges

That’s why the letter requesting his presence for the reading of the will had come as such a shock. He hadn’t even heard that R.J. had died.

Oddly, Adam felt a twinge of loss as he opened the door to his truck and planted his feet on the hard earth. He wasn’t sure if it was for R.J. or just for what might have been had R.J. ever been a real father to him.

But being overlooked by R.J. was only a precursor to the rejection that had come later. Hadley O’Sullivan had seen to that.

While he’d been fighting for his life from injuries sustained in an ambush on a craggy mountainside in Afghanistan, she’d found a replacement lover. She’d married him and given birth to twins before Adam was even out of rehab. Apparently Hadley, like R.J., figured Adam was easy to forget.

All in the past, he reminded himself as he climbed the wide wooden steps to the house. The clamor of voices coming from behind the closed doors promised that this was not a friendly meeting. Dread punched him in the gut. He didn’t need this.

His phone rang as he turned the doorknob. He checked the caller ID. It was his mother, no doubt wanting to know how the gathering of the clan was going. He ignored the call and turned his phone to vibrate.

Right now he just wanted to get the will reading over and done with. He’d expected nothing from R.J. while the man was alive. He didn’t expect any more now, so how bad could the meeting be?

As soon as he took a seat, Attorney Conroe Phipps called the meeting to order and had the siblings introduce themselves. And then the fun started.

Phipps used his laser to point out each preposterous detail as he went over the requirements to receive a share of R.J.’s estate. The jolts came hard and fast, similar to an emotional earthquake with countless aftershocks.

Adam scanned the room, briefly studying each of his half siblings. They were clearly as stunned as he was.

Jade, the only female of the group, was kicking her crossed leg with a ferocity that made him think she was about to propel into orbit. Even Cannon, the rodeo cowboy of the group and the one person Adam thought might have been more receptive to the terms of the will, wore an expression that looked as if he’d been kicked by a bull.

No one was smiling. Adam himself swallowed a few curses along the way. He figured there would be time to vent his protests and frustrations once the long-winded attorney finished his spiel.

“To sum it up,” Phipps said as he put down his laser, “in order to collect your share of the estate, you have to not only live on the ranch but take an active role in its operations for one full year.”

Questions and arguments started flying with everybody talking at once. Phipps’s only response to the chaos was a look of snide satisfaction, as if the uproar was exactly what he’d expected and possibly hoped for.

“I have a successful career. Do you honestly expect me to give that up to play cowboy?”

“How can we possibly all live here at once? It’s a big house, but not that big.”

“How much money are we talking about? Is there any oil involved?”

“If there’s nothing but the ranch, why can’t we just sell it and split the money? This much land so close to Dallas should be worth a small fortune.”

“My mother was right. R. J. Dalton was nuts. I say we get our own attorney and prove he was mentally incompetent. There’s no way I’m living out here in the middle of nowhere.”

That last complaint had come from Jade who had stopped kicking and was now standing with her hands firmly planted on her hips.

Phipps clapped his hands loudly to get everyone’s attention. “I know you have lots of questions, so I’m going to turn this meeting over to the man whom the money currently belongs to and whose last will and testament seem to be causing you so much distress.”

He grinned and nodded toward a door that was opening behind him. “Come in, R.J., and meet your loving and appreciative family.”

Mouths flew open, including Adam’s, as an older, gray-haired man with ruddy, weathered skin and an eagle tattoo on his wrinkled right arm sauntered into the room.

Apparently R. J. Dalton was still very much alive. If there was any grief in the room after this, Adam figured R.J. would be the one dishing it out.

* * *

R.J. TOOK HIS PLACE at the front of the room and eyeballed each of his offspring in turn. He recognized all of them from current pictures he’d had his neighbor and former private investigator Meghan Lambert locate for him.

A few of his adult children showed a slight resemblance to him. Most didn’t. But the most surprising thing was that they’d all shown up today and none had bolted and run yet even though they had no idea how much he was really worth.

“Guess you’re surprised to see me here,” he said, purposely exaggerating his Texas drawl. “Didn’t see why I should send a corpse in my place and miss all the fun. But don’t worry. According to my friendly neurosurgeon, I’ll be lucky if I see the new year ring in.”

To his children’s credit, no one cheered at that pronouncement. But that could be because they were still in shock that he wasn’t already dead as they’d been led to believe.

“I know it’s only eleven in the morning, but this is Texas. There’s beer, coffee and some of the best dad-gum barbecue this side of the Mississippi River in the kitchen.”

“The kitchen we’re all supposed to share for a year,” someone grumbled.

“There’s nothing in the will about sharing living quarters. There’s a bunkhouse, a horse barn and a drafty old foreman’s cabin on the property. I have to warn you, though, the cabin’s starting to lean and the bunkhouse needs a new roof.”

“And I suppose the horse barn is full of dead horses?” Jade quipped.

“Wrong. I got ten of the best damn thoroughbreds in the county and eight other good riding horses. I’m sure your mothers have told you that I’ve got a head as hard as a frozen wheel hub. That’s all true. However I’m open to questions or just to chat. But I can assure you that the rules aren’t going to change. So basically all you have to do is make up your mind. Do you want to be cut in or cut out?”

“To start, I think you should at least give us a ballpark figure as to the stakes we’re talking about,” Adam said.

“I reckon that’s fair. We’re talking about four hundred acres of prime ranchland that includes the house, outbuildings, about two hundred head of cattle and the horses I’ve already mentioned.”

“What about cash and investments?” one of the guys asked.

“I’m worth about eight million dollars—give or take a few thousand.”

Someone gave a low whistle. R.J. didn’t see who, but he could tell from the way they all sat up a little straighter in their chairs that he had their attention.

R.J. saw no reason to mention that most of the money had come from the one gamble in his life that had actually paid off for him—a one-dollar lottery ticket purchased from the truck stop in Oak Grove.

He winked and managed a smile. “I’m glad you all came and hopefully we might even discover we like or can at least tolerate each other. Now who wants a beer?”

* * *

THE OTHERS FOLLOWED R.J. to the kitchen. Adam stepped outside to clear his head.

So this is what it felt like to be bought. Was that what R.J. had done to his mother, insisted she dance to his tune or leave the party? Adam wondered how much it had been worth to the man to get rid of her and Adam.

He expected it was a sizable amount, enough to ease R.J.’s guilt if he’d had any. Even before Adam’s mother had remarried, they’d lived in a nice house in an exclusive neighborhood and as far as he knew, there had never been any money worries. His mother still lived in that house.