Cowgirls Don't Cry(128)

The three brothers exchanged a look. Then Carson met his gaze. “On paper? Over eighty million dollars.”


“Holy f*cking shit.”


“So yeah, Casper thought he had the ace in the hole, thinkin’ if we wanted to buy out his portion of the ranch, it’d cost us over twenty million dollars each. Which none of us have in cash obviously.”


Brandt looked at Cal. “What is the legal discrepancy the lawyer found?”


“I’ll tell you, my daughter in law is one smart cookie. Ginger and her dad pored over the paperwork the last couple days and discovered a clause written into the original trust that’d been forgotten.”


“What’s that?”


“Majority rules,” Charlie said. “We’d intended to talk to Casper about it, but he’s been such a prick…” He looked at Jessie. “Sorry, Jess.”


“If anyone knows how much of a prick Casper can be, it’s Jessie.” Brandt kissed her hand. “I’m assuming he told you the choice he gave me?”


“Yeah. He said he wanted you off the payroll and to treat your departure the same as we had when Chase, Carter, Cam and Keely opted out of the land trust.”


Seemed his father really did want to leave him destitute.

“’Course, we said no.” Carson grinned. “Then we sprang the ‘majority rules’ clause on him. Which means we all have a say in what happens to his portion of the ranch, but only as it relates to naming his successors.”


“I don’t understand.”


“We can’t take over or sell his portion of the ranch, but we can give control to his descendents. So you, Tell and Dalton now call the shots. Your father has officially been retired from ranching. He’ll still receive a portion of the profits, but as far as the day-to-day operations and decision makin’? You and your brothers are in charge.”


Brandt couldn’t keep his jaw from dropping. “Are you serious?”


“Completely. But we should also point out in doin’ this we couldn’t single out your father. So me’n Cal and Charlie all officially retired too. The fourth generation of McKays are now one hundred percent in charge of the McKay cattle company and the ranch.”


“So…you knew this all when my dad came to see you?”


“No. We listened to him, told him we’d hafta wait until Monday to talk to the attorney. Then Tuesday we met up and told him what we’d decided.”


“How’d he take it?”


They exchanged another look and Cal spoke. “He didn’t say a lot, Brandt, bein’s that he was dealin’


with your mother leavin’ him.”


“We couldn’t tell him where Joan’s been stayin’,” Carson said. “Caro and Kimi and Vi have spent the last few days helpin’ her…hell, I don’t know what the four of ’em have been doin’.”


A minute or so of awkward silence hung in the air.

“Do you have any questions?” Carson asked.

“About a million. But they’ll keep. Wait, there is one, since I went off her grid for a few days.” He sent Jessie an apologetic look. “Did you talk to Tell or Dalton about any of this?”


Charlie shook his head. “As a matter of fact, we haven’t told our sons about it yet. Wanted to let you know first, since it changes everything for you and your brothers.”