LITMIR.BIZ

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Running Bear nodded. “You must ask your ancestors what the right answer is.”

      “The right answer to what?”

      “Your path. What you are meant to do.”

      “I say we burn them out. From burned ground comes new growth.”

      “It would take many men to do it.”

      That was also true. He’d had lots of military training. Teamwork wasn’t unknown to him. “It would be expensive to bring in that much personnel.”

      “Yes. But it can’t be done alone.”

      “Explosives. I can think of a hundred ways to collapse tunnels.”

      His grandfather opened his eyes to look at him. “You’d be put in jail. You can’t set fires and blow up land without breaking the law.”

      “There has to be a way.” Galen just couldn’t think of one. But it made his blood hot with anger that the enemy was gaining on them by doing whatever they wanted, while he was confined by the law. “Some way I haven’t thought of yet.”

      “Buy the land,” Running Bear advised. “Tell Storm you will.”

      “By myself? Or you mean the family as a conglomerate?”

      “You buy the land. Tell your cousins you need to use the resources of Rancho Diablo as collateral. Jonas Callahan will know what you need.”

      The treasure of Rancho Diablo. Galen knew about it. There were a couple working oil wells, the fabled silver mine, the buried silver and gold, as well as the land and its holdings. But the black Diablo mustangs were the real wealth. They held the spirit of the land, kept it alive. “What does Wolf think he wants with Rancho Diablo?”

      “The wealth. The riches.” Running Bear rose. “What my son does not understand is that he cannot have any of those things. They will never be his.”

      Galen rose with his grandfather. “How is that?”

      “Because evil never overcomes good. This ranch was built for good. The fight will be long. It will be difficult and costly. But it will not be lost. Think on what I have said, Galen.” His grandfather looked at him. “Tell Fiona the terms of the ranch raffle must change, if she’s going to get the last of you boys, and even Ash, to the altar.”

      “Change how? And I don’t want to get married,” Galen said. “I’ve been alone too long. I like my life the way it is.”

      “The shepherd must eventually have a flock.” Running Bear walked toward the gorges twisting through rocks carved by eons of wind and rain.

      “I don’t need a flock,” Galen muttered. “And I don’t need a twenty-thousand acre ranch.” He sighed as he got in the jeep. “I don’t want the land. I want to burn them out,” he called after his grandfather. “Let the rest of them divide up the ranch over there.”

      Silence met his words. Which meant the old chief had said all he planned to say on the matter.

      Running Bear knew what had to happen.

      Galen went back to Rancho Diablo to think.

      * * *

      SOMER STEVENS MET HIM as he drove up to the ranch house, a big smile on her face. “Just the man I was hoping to see.”

      He parked the jeep, appreciating her dark beauty. And yet somehow she just didn’t ring his bell the way Rose did. “Why is that?”

      “Wondered if you want to go riding. I’m fixing to take out Gray.”

      “I’m afraid I can’t join you today,” Galen said, and wondered why she rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe because she was a shade too friendly.

      “Next time, perhaps.” She disappeared into the barn, and Galen stared after her. He hoped she planned to exercise Gray in the corralled area of the ranch, where it was safest. What if it were Rose riding? Would she stay near the house, or stray off on an adventure?

      Definitely stray off, for any reason.

      Somer wasn’t his problem. She was Sloan and Kendall’s problem. She’d been hired to take Sawyer’s place guarding their twins. Occasionally she would switch and guard Tighe and River’s triplets. If she had an afternoon off, it wasn’t his business.

      He went inside the house, his mind full of his grandfather’s advice.

      “Hello!” Fiona grinned at him. “Why is your smile turned upside down, nephew?”

      He sat at the kitchen counter, nodding gratefully when she pushed a mug of coffee and a slice of apple pie his way. “Thank you. Running Bear wants me to buy the ranch across the canyons,” he said, and bit into the deep, flaky pastry. Cinnamon and allspice and warm buttery piecrust melted in his mouth.

      “You?” Fiona looked at him curiously.

      He shrugged.

      “Why?”

      He couldn’t tell her everything. That was Running Bear’s job. Those two had been thick as thieves forever. “He’s got some plan working. But he said you needed better bait to get the rest of us married off. The ranch land plan isn’t going to work. I might remind you I don’t see myself as exactly marriage bound. Nor does Jace. Ashlyn is a wild card. I wouldn’t put too much of your pin money on that horse.”

      He’d paraphrased Running Bear’s words, but it would indeed take more than land to get him to the altar.

      Unless Rose was available. Maybe I’d consider it then.

      “That was my best lure!” Fiona exclaimed. “How do I come up with a better prize than a ranch, I ask you?” His tiny aunt looked ruffled and annoyed. “Running Bear has some nerve, changing horses midstream.” She sat down in a huff on the stool next to Galen’s.

      “No one really understands the workings of the chief’s mind, do they?” He took another bite of pie, giving a sigh of appreciation. “Your apple pie is the best, Aunt Fiona.”

      She made an impatient noise. “Don’t butter me up, nephew. You do realize the fly in your grandfather’s horse pucky ointment?”

      “There’s usually a lot of flies involved in what either of you do. I keep a flyswatter handy.”

      “Your siblings will resent you, dare I say even want to string you up, if you buy the ranch land and put them out of the raffle.” Fiona’s face wore a studious, concerned frown. “You’re a strong man, but not strong enough to be scorned and ostracized by the family you raised.”

      His aunt spoke the unvarnished truth. “What can I do?”

      “I don’t know. Your grandfather is leaving me holding the proverbial bag, too. What am I going to tell your siblings? I set all of you up for marriage and families, and now you get nada?” Fiona looked as if she might cry. “I think there’s some law against bait-and-switch tactics like the ones your grandfather is proposing. Where is he, anyway? I want to give him a piece of my mind. No more chocolate chip cookies for him!”

      Galen shrugged. “I guess I’ll head to the bank and start working up funding. First I’ll need to talk to Storm and make certain he understands I’m not going to pay a king’s ransom for land he just bought and never worked. Not to mention that the only livable dwelling just burned to the ground.”

      “Oh, that termite pile should have been razed a long time ago,” Fiona said, sounding crankier than he’d ever heard her. “The land itself is the only thing of value there.”

      Land with a maze of tunnels dug by dangerous smugglers running under it. “It’s not just me my sibs are going to be annoyed with. They love their families, but they’re going to think you planned this all along.”

      She gasped. “I did no such thing! Running Bear is off his rocker! I can’t be responsible for your grandfather’s deviations. I’m just

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