Breathless (Steel Brothers Saga #10)(41)

“I’m Lori. Are you Ms. Steel?”

I stood and held out my hand. “Marjorie, please. Thank you for talking to me. I understand you were on duty yesterday, caring for my mother?”

“Yeah. Mrs. Steel is never any problem.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I do have a question, though. I just saw my mother, and she says she had a male visitor yesterday. A man with gray hair?”

“Not while I was on the shift, ma’am.”

I truly hated it when older people—or anyone, for that matter—called me ma’am. “She says it was my father, but my father is deceased. And he never had more than a few strands of gray hair.”

“I don’t mean to upset you, Ms. Steel, but she probably imagined it.”

“She definitely could have, but wouldn’t she have imagined my father as she remembered him? She even said he’d grown shorter. How does that make any sense?”

“She’s not well, ma’am.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew all that. And I had to remember that she saw Dale and Donny as young Joe and Talon, despite the fact that the boys were green-eyed and blond. Still, something niggled at me. “Do you know when Barry is coming in?”

“I only keep track of my own schedule. You can ask at the front desk.”

“Okay. Thank you for your time, Lori.”

“No problem.” She smiled and walked out of the waiting area.

After finding out Barry would be in the next day for the afternoon shift, I left. Jade and the boys would be needing me.

I jumped when my phone dinged with a text message from Talon.

Come home. We need to talk.





Chapter Twenty–Six





Bryce





I squirmed in my seat like a high school boy. Marjorie was on her way home to join in the impromptu meeting at the main ranch house. Joe, Talon, Ryan, and I sat in Talon’s office discussing my phone call with Ted Morse. He’d hung up after the ominous statement that none of us were safe.

“He’s bluffing,” Ryan said.

“That’s my take too,” I said, “but we still need to look into this. I have a son. Tal, you have two kids, and you and Joe both have one on the way. They can’t be in harm’s way.”

“Agreed,” Joe said.

I’d argued with them when they’d suggested bringing Marjorie into this discussion. She was so young, had been through so much already. Why worry her more? But they’d ultimately overruled me. She was their sister, after all. Their sister, and nothing to me.

Even I didn’t buy that one.

Especially not when she knocked softly at the door and entered after Talon’s, “Come in, Sis.”

She walked in, looking so effortlessly beautiful as always. Her long dark hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and she wore skinny jeans, short cowboy boots, and a light-green tank top with lacy straps. Man, did those lean, muscled arms look great in a tank. And her chest…

My groin tightened at the sight.

She walked in stoically. “I’m feeling a little like the odd man out here, no pun intended.”

“Some stuff might be going down.”

“You’re telling me. I was visiting Mom this morning.”

“How is she?” Joe asked.

“Same,” Marjorie said. “But she claims she had a male visitor yesterday. A guy with gray hair who she says was Dad.”

“Gray hair?” Talon said.

“Yup. Apparently Dad got shorter too.”

“Well, we know it wasn’t Dad,” Ryan said. “He’s dead. We all witnessed it.”

“Maybe she imagined it?” Talon said.

“She could have,” Marj said. “But if that were the case, wouldn’t she have imagined him as he looked the last time she actually saw him?”

“So you think someone was actually there.”

“There’s no log of anyone visiting her. I checked. But someone must have been there, someone she could describe, even if she thinks it was Dad. You know, how she thinks the boys are you two”—she nodded toward Talon and Joe—“even though they’re blond?”

“Okay,” Ryan said. “This all just got weirder.” He then explained to Marj about the phone call I’d had with Ted Morse last night.

Marjorie’s eyes widened, and her beautiful face paled a bit. “Wow,” was all she said.

“We all know Ted Morse is a mercenary,” Talon said. “And a dick. He’ll say whatever he needs to say to make a buck.”

“I went to school with Colin,” Marjorie said. “The Morses are hardly hurting for cash.”

“That doesn’t mean they don’t want more,” Joe said. “Some people are always looking for an easy way to add to their coffers. I’ve seen a lot of this since I took over the beef ranch. Plus, the bastard is willing to resort to extortion, as I know firsthand. He’s not a good man.”

“I know.” Marjorie shook her head. “But Colin is. Or at least was.”

“Good men don’t usually leave their fiancées at the altar,” Joe said.

“True,” she said. “And he regretted it, which makes me wonder if…”