Taking Charge (Lone Star Burn #4)(58)

Lucy shook her head and brought herself back to the present. “Hi, Michelle.”

Michelle kept her hands gripped to the handle of her grocery cart. “You never called me back.”

Lucy was instantly contrite. “Oh my God, I’m sorry, Michelle. Things have been so busy with my new business and—”

“David.” Michelle smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I hear he’s living with you now.”

Small towns. “He is.”

“That’s good, Lucy. You deserve someone in your life.” Michelle’s face crumpled, and tears filled her eyes. “I threw Ron out.”

Lucy didn’t know what to say. She felt guilty about being too happy to have known her friend was going through something like that. Although she’d vowed to see her more often, so far most of Lucy’s time had been spent with David or working. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Michelle sniffed. “He started drinking again. He used to when he first met me but stopped because I wouldn’t marry him if he didn’t give it up. He only has a temper when he drinks.”

Lucy swallowed hard. “He didn’t—”

“Hit me?” Michelle shook her head. “He’s never touched me, but it was getting ugly at our house. I feel awful, though, because I think this time was my fault.”

“Michelle, don’t say that. Of course it wasn’t.”

She lowered her voice. “He’s been a good husband to me, but I told him I wanted more. I asked him if we could figure out why I could orgasm with a toy but not with him. I thought talking about it would bring us closer. He walked out of the house that day and came back drunk. I tried to explain it to him the next day, but it escalated into a nasty fight, and he called me all sorts of ugly names. I gave him a chance to apologize. I mean, marriage is for better or for worse. His apology was to come home drunk and yell at me again. Sheriff Dodd helped remove him from the house that night. It was humiliating, but I didn’t want him to do anything I couldn’t forgive him for. I love him, Lucy. What if I drove him to this?”

“You didn’t,” Lucy said emphatically.

“We were happy before I bought that toy, Lucy. This is my fault.”

“Were you? Happy, I mean. Or was he happy, and you were settling for the best you thought you could have?”

A tear rolled down Michelle’s cheek. She wiped it away with a fisted hand. “I’m pregnant. This should be a happy time for me. I don’t want to raise my children without a father.” She whispered again, “Maybe this is God’s way of punishing me for touching myself.”

Lucy walked over and hugged Michelle. “If God punished people for that, Michelle, there would be no men on the planet. And hardly any women. God wouldn’t push your husband to drink. Not the God I pray to. This will work out. You’ll see.”

Michelle shook in her arms. “What if it doesn’t?”

Sarah’s words came back to Lucy, so she said, “You are not alone, Michelle. No matter how this turns out. You have people who care about you, and that’s what’s important.”

Michelle sniffed and wiped her cheeks again. “There’s something I should have told you, but I didn’t want to believe it. It’s something Ron said to me while he was drunk.”

The hairs on the back of Lucy’s neck stood up. “What did he say?”

Michelle took a fortifying breath before saying, “Ted hates you. Ron warned me to stay away from you, or I could get hurt, too.”

“Too?”

“I know. I tried to ask him about it, but that’s all he would say. He’s staying out at York’s place now, and it scares me. Working for him is bad enough, but the men who stay with York—they change. It’s like a cult out there. An angry mob of men who do whatever York tells them to do.” She lowered her voice again. “Things happen when York wants someone’s land, things that everyone calls accidents, but aren’t. If he wants a family out of this town, they don’t last long. Everyone is too afraid to talk about it. I couldn’t say anything to you when you were marrying him because I didn’t think you’d believe me. But I’m afraid for you now. You’re smart to have David and Wyatt out there with you.”

“It’ll be okay, Michelle. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be okay.” She knew she couldn’t really promise that, but surely Ted wasn’t really as dangerous as Michelle suggested.

She talked to her friend for a few minutes longer before promising to call her the next day, but she was trying to wrap her head around what Michelle had said. Outside of the one prank call, nothing had happened at her ranch.

Was the warning nothing more than a drunk Ron trying to scare his wife into taking him back?

Ted no longer had a financial hold on her land. Even if he burned it all to the ground, he wouldn’t get it. David held the note on the property.

And why would Ted want her property that badly? Why was he buying up all the land around him? It wasn’t as if the price of beef was going anywhere.

On the way back to her ranch, Lucy stopped by town hall. She asked the clerk if she could see a map of the properties surrounding hers.

The woman said, “Sure, I still have that out. It’s a popular request lately.”

“Really?” Lucy asked, trying to sound as if she weren’t interested in the topic at all.