She’d never thought that she’d be a target, even when she knew what her father was really doing to make money. She hadn’t thought that anyone would come after her, or Sari, because of their father. She no longer had those illusions. Timmy Leeds had wanted to kill both women to hurt Darwin Grayling. But he hadn’t known that Darwin was already dead by the time he hired contract killers. Or that he thought his daughters were worthless, good only for getting more money when he married them to millionaires.
It was a good thing that they’d captured Morris so quickly. He was hired for Sari, and now he was behind bars. But Leeds got someone very special for Merrie, because she was the youngest and he thought it would hurt her father more to lose her.
Little had he known that Darwin Grayling didn’t care for his daughters. He kept them chaste because he could sell them to the highest bidder to marry that way. It pained her to recall that Darwin had tried to make Sari fly to the Middle East to marry a prince who would finance Darwin’s defense against money laundering charges and murder. Their father had never wanted them. He’d only planned to use them to get richer.
She would never understand why money was so important to some people. It was nice to have a little spending money, and to be able to pay bills. But other than that, what use was it? You surely couldn’t take it with you when you died.
That brought back to mind how much she was really worth. She hadn’t told Ren, and she knew that Randall hadn’t. Ren thought she was poor. She could see it in his eyes when he looked at her clothing. He probably thought she was a gold digger. He might even think she’d set her cap for him.
That was worrying. She knew that Angie had been Randall’s girl, but she’d gone after Ren when she realized that he was richer than his brother. Delsey had hinted that Ren amused himself with Randall’s women who came to stay at the ranch. They were mostly sophisticated and worldly, and didn’t mind becoming a diversion for the reclusive rancher.
But Merrie wasn’t like that. She knew nothing about men. Would Ren know that? Or would he deem her as fair game because he thought she was Randall’s woman?
Surely he realized that she didn’t know much about men. Or did he? Well, she told herself firmly, if he ever made a real pass at her, the truth would reveal itself.
*
REN TOOK HER out with him the next day, over to where men were fixing a big break in the fence that faced the highway. It was still snowing, but not as much as the day she’d gotten lost.
He crossed his arms over his saddle horn and smiled at her. “We have fences down a lot. Trees fall on them.” He indicated a large tree limb that had broken off a towering pine and was lying across the broken fence. “Sometimes cattle break through them, if they’re spooked. Other times, we have accidents with heavy equipment.”
“Accidents?”
He pulled his hat lower over his eyes. “Tubbs is a disaster on a Bobcat,” he said with a heavy sigh. “Great at wrangling horses. Driving equipment not so much. He ran a Bobcat right through a fence and took the poles on both sides with him.”
She smothered a laugh. “Oh, dear.”
“So we spent the morning fixing the fence. And the Bobcat,” he added. “He took the fence with him right into a lagoon.” He made a terrible face. “The men set records for new cusswords that day.”
“You have a lagoon here?” she asked, wide-eyed. “Like the ones in the movies, with palm trees...” Her voice slowed as he stared at her.
“Lagoons,” he emphasized. “They’re full of cattle waste. Liquid fertilizer,” he clarified.
Her lips fell apart. “And Tubbs drove a bobcat into one? The poor animal!”
“Animal?”
“Yes. You said it was a bobcat,” she faltered.
He rolled his eyes. “Eastern tenderfoot,” he mused. “A Bobcat is a piece of heavy equipment. We use it to dig ditches and push down trees, things like that.”
“Oh, gosh,” she ground out. “I guess I don’t know much about ranches.”
“But you live on one,” he pointed out.
“Yes, but we were never allowed outside when the men were working. Just to go riding, and Paul had to go with us. We were kept clear of anything that involved the horses. We had to sneak around even to see them in the stables!”
He thought that her father was paranoid. But didn’t say it.
She glanced at his expression. “I always loved horses,” she confessed. “The trainer was so kind. When Daddy wasn’t around, he’d let Sari and me play with the colts. They were so sweet. So were the mares. But the stallions...gosh, they made Hurricane look tame.”
“Quarter horse breeding stock?” he asked.
She hesitated for a second. “Well, yes.”
“We breed quarter horses, too, and train them. Well, Tubbs trains most of them. He has two cowboys who help him.”
“Is that why you have so many round corrals?”
“Yes. I don’t like corners,” he said with a chuckle.
“Why?”