Reese shook his head. “Just that she considers him evil. I’ve been trying to straighten out the books before I go see him. I need to have a firm understanding of what’s going on financially, and then talk with the guy.”
“Good luck with that. The Bar C is teetering on the edge of disaster,” Noah said, giving him a sad look. “When Crawford drank and gambled the ranch’s lease money away, he drove the wranglers off with his abuse and anger, and the fence lines crashed and burned. No lease money, no way for Crawford to pay the monthly mortgage on the ranch. You need to know that Marston is in cahoots with Visions Corporation out of Idaho Falls, Idaho. They want to buy this ranch and build a condo resort on it.” He waved his hand around the kitchen. “Visions has already done a fancy media presentation on what they’re going to do when they snap up this property.”
“How can they do that?” Reese demanded, secretly alarmed.
Snorting, Garret snarled, “Because Marston is just waiting for one month’s mortgage payment missed, and he will be swooping in like a vulture to take this ranch away from Shay.” He held up his finger. “One fuckin’ month, Lockhart. Shay has been scrambling for all she’s worth to ensure that the payment is always made. It’s a sword hanging over her head every day.”
“Yeah,” Harper added, “and if we weren’t producing, working to bring in that monthly amount, we wouldn’t have a home to go to, either. We’ve got a big stake in seeing she makes that mortgage payment.”
Reese heard the passion, the frustration, and the worry from the vets. The kitchen felt like a dog with its hackles up and he couldn’t blame the men for their anxiety. Shay had not told him any of this. He was starting to put the financial picture together, but these new revelations impacted him heavily. One month’s mortgage payment that was past due and the four of them would be out on the street again. And Shay would lose a family legacy. God, this was an unending nightmare for all of them.
Garret stared at him. “Obviously, Shay wasn’t forthcoming about all of this when you started digging into those books.”
“You could say that,” Reese said. “I was asking her questions as I went, and she answered them.”
Noah shook his head. “Hey, you know how people with PTSD hate to open up? They hate being asked questions, too.”
Rubbing his jaw, Reese said quietly, “Shay is as bad off as we are, only she hides it a lot better than we do.”
“Got that right,” Garret said grimly. “We’ve all gone into the ‘reading mode’ with Shay. She won’t open up and spill what’s bothering her, what’s hurt her, or what she’s worried about. We’ve all learned by Braille, of a sort, how to read her on a daily basis. You haven’t been here long enough to realize that.”
“You’re right,” Reese agreed.
“Which is why I came to you this morning,” Noah told him. “I saw her face. It was a bad day for Shay. Like she’d run into a buzz saw or something with her father.” He shrugged. “I was hoping you’d have a better connection with her, Reese, than we do. You’re living under her roof.”
Reese grimaced. “I wish I did have a stronger connection, but I don’t. All of you know a lot more about what’s going on here than I do.”
“Let’s not get down on Shay,” Garret warned them. “She’s overwhelmed, and we all know how that feels because we’ve been there far too many times ourselves. The question we want to ask is what can each of us do to relieve that load she’s carrying?”
Reese liked Garret’s insight. But then, Garret was black ops, and those men and women had the ability to look deeply into a person or a situation. They had a fix-it mind-set. “That’s where we need to focus our energy,” he agreed.
Harper finished his dessert and looked toward the doorway. “Look, we need to have this discussion, but not here. What if Shay comes out of her room and hears us talking like this? We need to table this topic, just in case. Can we meet somewhere else at another time?” He looked at all of them.
“You’re right,” Reese acknowledged.
Garret cracked his knuckles. “What about tomorrow? It’s Saturday. Though Shay gives us the weekends off, we still work anyway. We usually break up into two teams and ride fence line and repair it. We could ride together. I don’t think Shay would notice or care if we did. I just don’t want her overhearing us. It would hurt her feelings and the woman has enough to handle with her sick father.”
“I’m in,” Reese told them. He heard Noah and Harper quietly agree to the idea.
“Okay,” Garret said, looking at the watch on his thick wrist, “we’ll meet in the barn at 0700 after breakfast tomorrow morning. Maybe we can figure out some other creative ways to help Shay.”
They all rose and left, leaving Reese in the silence of the kitchen. He wanted to see how Shay was, but stopped himself. He knew what headaches felt like and he hoped she was sleeping it off. Still, her mouth on his, that womanly warmth of hers, had him shaken up and wanting more. Wanting Shay.