A Rancher's Pride(48)

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I was planning to call shortly. I finally got some info on that suggestion you had about an incident when he was a teenager.”

“You did?” She gripped the cell phone more tightly. At last, she was going to find out something that would give her custody of Becky once and for all. “And—?”

“And it turns out, he’d almost done jail time when he was seventeen. He set fire—accidentally, he claims—to a barn on a neighboring property.”

She gasped. “No one was hurt?” Despite the news and what it might do to help her cause, she couldn’t stop herself from asking the question. The thought of Ronnie’s accusation ran through her mind. She pushed it away, hard. The judge and Ellamae had shown her that wasn’t true. She trusted Sam.

Yet, he had just gone off, alone, who knew where, with Becky.

She shook her head. Everything was all right.

“No one was hurt,” Matt confirmed.

She gave a sigh of relief.

“But it’s still not good, Kayla. Half the livestock inside the barn died from the smoke. The barn was considered a complete loss. And the family had no insurance to cover any of it. From what we were able to gather, Robertson’s mother made restitution for her son, but the Porter family holds a grudge against him to this day.”

Kayla closed her eyes against a sudden painful stinging beneath her lids. How awful for that to happen. And how terrible for Sam to have to live with it. It had to have been an accident. She refused to believe he could do something like that on purpose. Not Sam, who lived on a ranch filled with animals.

Now she could even understand his reluctance to have Pirate on his property. The dog belonged to that family next door.

Refusing to believe in Sam’s guilt only increased her own. She knew she would use this information against him if she could.

She had to.

“What happened after?” she asked Matt.

“He got off lucky. He was sentenced to a substantial number of hours of community service and had to report in to the local judge weekly for quite some time.”

“The local judge? What was his name?”

“Hang on, let me check.” She heard computer keys clicking in the background, but already her spirits were sinking. “Here it is. The Honorable Lloyd M.—”

“Baylor,” she finished in the same breath. She sighed. “I’m afraid that’s a dead end. He’s the same judge we’re dealing with now. He already knows about what happened back then. The information won’t do us any good.”

“True,” he agreed.

“So we’re no further along than we were before.” She dropped into the nearest chair at the kitchen table. “And time’s running out, Matt. I’m getting desperate. The judge is due here this Sunday for a good old-fashioned barbecue—and I just know Sam plans to pull out all the stops to win him over to his side.”

“I haven’t given up,” Matt said.

“I know, but it’s only two days away—”

“We’ll keep digging. Just hold tight.”

A noise sounded in the yard. She raised her head and caught her breath. Through the window, she heard the sound of a horse’s whinny.

Sam had come back with Becky.

She stood and moved over to the back door, keeping to the side so he wouldn’t see her. In one fluid movement, he swung himself from the horse’s back to the ground. When he reached up, Becky stretched both hands out to him. He lifted her from the saddle and set her beside him.

Even from this distance, Kayla could see her niece’s flushed face and sparkling eyes. Could see Sam’s grin as he stroked Becky’s hair.

Kayla’s grip on the phone made her knuckles hurt. “Yes, keep digging, Matt,” she said. She had to force the words past her tight throat. “Do what you can. And, please, do it fast.”





Chapter Fifteen





Early the next morning, Kayla stood beside Sam at the cash register at Harley’s General Store as he paid the bill. She ran her hands up and down her arms, trying to warm them. They’d spent too much time in the frozen food aisle while Becky deliberated over the ice cream. If Sam had gotten his way, Kayla didn’t doubt, he would have bought every flavor in the freezer case.

“I need to thaw out,” she told him, reaching for the handle of their overflowing cart. Sam had told her all the food for the barbecue would be taken care of, but she and Sharleen between them had come up with a long list of things they still needed. “Becky and I will take the groceries to the truck.”