Salacious Sale Page 9

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  She gave him two days. Just like the last time she’d upset him, Olivia figured two days would be enough to help Cody settle down. And hopefully, like the last time, he’d be just as pleasurably receptive to her dinner invitation. He wasn’t a man to hold a grudge.

  But when she went to the Double O, Cody O’Neal was gone.

  Chapter Twelve

  “You should be here—with her.”

  Tightening his grip on his phone, Cody closed his eyes at his grandfather’s admonishment. On one hand, he was ridiculously excited by the fact that Eugene’s voice was much clearer than it had been, even with the distortion of the speakers. On the other hand, however, he didn’t want to discuss Olivia Raines. It hurt too much.

  “Grandpa, you need to let it go, okay? It’s been almost a month since—”

  “Why aren’t you here with her?”

  “Why should I be?”

  “Gol-dern, you’re as stubborn as my Aunt Opal! You listen to me, boy. This family has a real bad habit of pushing things away until they’re just about lost for good. You like that girl. I saw your face every time you were in here talking about her, and I see hers every time your name is mentioned.”

  “Oh, really?” Cody couldn’t help himself. “Do dollar signs light up in her irises like a cartoon character’s?”

  “What the hell are you talking about, boy? Only thing in her eyes is tears. She’s done cried herself dry over you.”

  “She’s got you fooled, Grandpa. She was only interested in the Double O.”

  “That ain’t true.”

  “Yes, it is. I promise.” Rubbing his breastbone, he distantly wondered why the doctors at the school he lived and worked at hadn’t been able to find any cause for the dull ache beneath it when he’d made them examine him. The school’s psychologist had had the nerve to suggest it might be psychosomatic. Obviously, that wasn’t right. Cody closed his eyes and gritted his teeth until the pain in his chest eased enough to allow words. “Olivia Raines flat out told me she was only interested in the land, not me, and I really, really don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  Eugene’s voice whispered through the phone’s speakers, “The two families are tied together. The future of both stems from the same damned place! Stop being so stubborn. You should be with her.”

  “Well, she doesn’t want me.” It was galling to have to admit it out loud. Again, his chest gave a twinge.

  “The two of you had a connection.”

  “A property border, you mean.” Cody snorted, hurt and anger rising inside him, souring his throat until the words that left his mouth sounded as bitter as they tasted. “Do you have any idea what it feels like to know a woman only wants you for the land you can bring to her business? No feelings in there beside monetary gain, the idea that you’re a willing dupe, a fucking pawn in her plan to stand firm against the town’s mayor?”

  “Watch your mouth, Cody. Olivia is a sweet girl—”

  “Because she wanted something from you, Grandpa!” Cody paced, driving one hand through his hair and clutching the phone with the other. “She took care of you because she needed a place to escape. She was nice because she wanted the back acreage for her hunting parties, because she wanted the damned mulberries for pies and preserves and she wanted to ensure her ranch would always have adequate access to the water running through it. That’s it. No sentimental feelings, so don’t get yourself all wrapped up in—”

  “You’re speaking nonsense, boy.” A slight blurring of consonants developed in Eugene’s voice and Cody winced, knowing he’d upset his grandfather. But, like the listing of the ranch with the real estate agent, Eugene was better off knowing the truth.

  “Grandpa, I understand that you’re upset. I work in a place where manipulation is a daily test. These boys will wiggle under your skin, make you care and sometimes that doesn’t pan out. They can’t be saved. Olivia is like that. She’s been manipulating us.”

  “You’re wrong,” Eugene snapped. “I’ve known that little girl her whole life. She cares about you.”

  “I was only in town for a week. Whether or not you know her, she doesn’t know me.”

  “And you didn’t have enough time to learn how to read her very well, apparently.”

  Cody pursed his lips. “Long enough to realize she had no problem using me to try to achieve her own goals.”

  “Olivia Raines is not the type of woman to cry over anything. She never shed a tear when her father died, not when she was working her hands to the bone to build what she’s got and not when Wiggins set out on a full-scale attack to take it from her. She’s a tough cookie, never an ounce of quit in her, made of steel. But she cries over you, Cody. You broke her heart.”

  He rubbed his chest. “Impossible.”

  Eugene made a garbled sound that rang with exasperation. “Love is a family tradition. Pushing it away is another family tradition. Don’t let that happen to you.”

  “One week.” Cody let his own irritation free. “You don’t fall in love in one week.”

  “Shut your mouth and listen up, boy! That’s how this family works. We haven’t been blessed with much that we ain’t had to bleed for, but we’ve been given love and we’ve all nearly lost it before we came to our senses. Don’t let that be you.”

  “I don’t love—”

  “You’re stewing in your own anger, boy. She told me what happened. Hell, I had to ask, with the way she was moping around this hospital, tears clogging up her eyes. Couldn’t even say your name without her turning pale and she ain’t got no appetite at all. Good God, I had to ask if she was pregnant.”

  The world wobbled. Cody quickly found a seat and planted his rear end on it. His head swam and he pressed the phone to his ear. “Is she?”

  “She says no, but I hear the hope in your voice.” Eugene chuckled. “You’re still thinking about her.”

  Cody felt as if his lungs had turned inside out—maybe his entire chest. The pain was raw and nagging. His pride was bloody. Hope had gone out the window the moment Olivia had used his body for her own gain. Sure, it had been a pleasurable interlude, but that wasn’t a good enough salve and Cody wasn’t happy how things had turned out.

  He didn’t like the elusive sensation of having been used, lied to and led on or the idea that Olivia had felt nothing for him, though he’d spent a few days falling under her charming spell. He didn’t appreciate being manipulated, and he certainly disliked that he’d put more into their…association than she obviously had.

  “Uncle Samuel fell in love with Aunt Opal the minute he met her,” Eugene mused softly. “She said her father did the same with her mother, and that it didn’t take Offer O’Neal more than a minute to fall in love with Hyacinth. But they all tried to fool themselves into thinking otherwise. Even me with your grandmother—and ask your father about his courtship with your mother someday.”

  “This is different.”

  “No, it’s exactly the same,” Eugene argued. “A failure to see from the other point of view is all. Like I said, we have a long history of acting foolish.”

  Cody certainly felt like a fool.

  It took a minute to find his voice again then he said, “I don’t love Olivia, I hardly know her, and even if I were madly head-over-heels, this is all beside the point. She came to me, made me think…” He paused, panting. “She only wanted the land, Grandpa. That’s the truth.”

  “Really? Then why is she so upset over you? She’s not thinking about her business now, boy, and that’s where her head needs to be. Hell, the judge isn’t going to care who she’s mooning over or why she can’t seem to stop crying. He’ll still hold her in contempt for disrupting the court.”

  “What are you talking about?” Cody slowly sat up in his chair. “What judge?”

  “Wiggins slapped her with a subpoena just before you left town. Didn’t she tell you?”

  “No, she didn’t.”

  The last time he’d seen Olivia, she’d been standi
ng on his porch holding her boots, her big eyes nearly neon as they dampened under a flood of pretend regret. Cody’s dick had still tingled, his nerves had been on fire and his heart had squeezed up into his throat. The pain of her cold return to business had taken his breath. He’d closed the door so he didn’t have to bear witness to her manipulations another second.

  “The town’s trying to take her land. Eminent domain.” Eugene’s voice turned dark. “Of course, it doesn’t look good that you’re trying to sell our family out to the oil companies. Wiggins has apparently built his whole legal argument on the fact that Great Gas & Petrol will poison the land, leaving all of Creek Bend without any kind of adequate water supply if they don’t take Olivia’s stream before you sell.”

  “That’s ridiculous!”

  “It’s to the town’s benefit. Rumor through the hospital halls is that Wiggins is likely to get what he wants, especially because the judge has ruled against the oil companies many times before.” Eugene hummed, the sound blasting through the speakers to whip Cody’s conscience raw—but not as much as the old man’s next words. “But that’s not your problem, is it, Cody?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “The Raines family has refused to negotiate. We ask that you consider allowing this case to proceed through the court system, Your Honor.”

  Olivia looked at the judge. He remained impassive, though his friendship with Creek Bend’s mayor made her suspicious of the man’s intentions. Still, this was only the first official hearing—the one that would decide whether or not the county would take up the township’s fight and push it all the way to the state courts. Though it wasn’t much comfort, Olivia reminded herself that she still had time to appeal, if the worst came to pass.

  “Let’s hear the arguments, then,” the judge mumbled.

  Mayor Wiggins himself stood before the bench, putting his law degree to good use, appearing sober and thoughtful, more than concerned for both his constituents and the environment. Olivia tried to breathe through the illness rising inside her, working its way north, burning her throat. The heat reached all the way up to her tear ducts and scorched them until she couldn’t even cry to relieve the pressure.

  Considering that she was sitting in a courtroom listening to Wiggins’ discourse on the evils of the local oil industry, she figured not breaking down into tears was a good thing—no matter how few people were present at the hearing. Besides, she’d already cried a river over the past month. Too bad Creek Bend couldn’t use her misery as their new water source.

  “They come with their rigs and tear up the land!” the mayor extolled dramatically. “Pipes burst. The water would be poisoned…”

  In all honesty, Olivia couldn’t have agreed with the man more. She had many concerns about the integrity of the environment in the immediate vicinity. And nature was her bread and butter, the biggest draw the Raines Ranch had for its guests. The last thing she’d want—in the normal course of events—was a series of exploratory wells on land adjacent to hers. The eyesore alone would certainly hurt her business, but the wildcatters were far preferable to shutting down completely.

  Of course, that point would be moot if Wiggins won his case.

  “We know the land will be left to Cody O’Neal. We also know that Eugene is at a point in his life where the burden of such a large property is entirely beyond his ability to manage.”

  “Objection, your honor.” Olivia’s attorney got to his feet. “Mayor Wiggins can’t possibly know that Eugene O’Neal is, as he posits, at a point in his life where the ability to manage his own property is an unbearable burden. Mayor Wiggins is not a doctor, nor has he spoken to Eugene O’Neal since before his hospitalization. He has no way of knowing Mr. O’Neal’s medical state.”

  Wiggins scowled. “The man had a stroke! The gossip in this town—”

  “Hearsay is inadmissible,” Olivia’s attorney interjected. “The law prevents Mr. O’Neal’s doctors from discussing their patient’s medical progress with the mayor of the town.”

  “Let me rephrase,” Wiggins suggested acidly. “Eugene will have a very difficult time of just getting around on his own after his medical emergency, which may or may not be life-altering in a way that would suggest the man had a stroke.”

  “How could—?”

  “I come to this conclusion on my own, simply on the basis that the man is still in the hospital’s rehabilitation center two months after said emergency.” Wiggin’s nostrils flared with the force of his inhalation. “Of course, his grandson, Cody, the only relative left in the country to take over at the Double O, will pick up the reins. Unfortunately, Cody has already met with three oil companies. They’ve all made offers.”

  Wiggins droned on, but Olivia hardly paid attention. She tried to, but she was beyond exhausted. Quite frankly, just hearing his name was painful, and the mayor tossed it around as if the sound of the syllables didn’t draw blood in the deepest part of her chest.

  “The O’Neals have made it abundantly clear, Your Honor, that they fully intend to…”

  Once again, Olivia let the swirl of legal jargon and Wiggins’ postulations fly past her. After all, everyone knew what the arguments were. Everyone in town had been keeping up on the gossip—about Eugene, the Double O, the Raines Ranch, and how everything tied in to their own wellbeing. Some people had been genuinely supportive of Olivia’s resistance to eminent domain seizure, while others had told her to her face that she was being selfish for fighting back.

  It had been a hard month. A very hard month.

  “The law”—Wiggins paused dramatically, tearing Olivia’s attention away from her own wretched thoughts—“says eminent domain can be employed for the benefit of the public. As I have laid out, Your Honor, the O’Neals are selling their land to an oil company. The company will destroy the resource we have such a need for, which is the exact opposite of the public’s benefit.”

  Olivia’s attorney shook his head. “Judge, the Raines Ranch, and even the property adjacent, belonging to the O’Neal family, simply doesn’t have enough water to sustain an entire town. To think otherwise is completely unreasonable. What passes through that stream amounts to little more than a trickle, only adequate enough to keep the cows alive.”

  “Cows and two ranches!” Wiggins argued. “Even during the Thirties, when the drought severely impacted this area, that stream still ran with clear, clean water.”

  “If it was enough for the whole town’s use, Creek Bend would have seized it then, when it was so desperately needed for survival.” Olivia’s lawyer stepped toward the bench, obviously attempting to foster a sense of camaraderie with the judge—a man who spent a great deal of social time in the mayor’s company. “Your Honor, the townspeople would go through the small amount of water there in less than a month, with no way for the spring to replenish itself in a timely fashion. It’s not a spigot. We must wait for nature to take its course.”

  Wiggins would not be deterred. “Considering what else is on offer around these parts, that stream is a major tributary. And even if, by some stretch of the imagination, we came to the conclusion that Creek Bend would not be able to actually use the water, we still need to protect it from the encroachment of Big Oil. The town has no choice but to create a safety zone to keep the water from being polluted and running down into the river. The water treatment facility would never be able to handle those sorts of contaminants.”

  “Yes, I’ve read your reports.” The judge heaved a sigh and sat up from his slouch against the thick, leather cushions of his chair. He adjusted his glasses and shifted a few papers around. “As a resident of this community, I am also alarmed by the idea that our drinking water might be rendered poisonous sometime in the foreseeable future. However, I still have no evidence that the O’Neal family is selling their land.”

  “So far,” Olivia’s attorney said, “there isn’t any. I’ve spoken directly with Eugene O’Neal, and he has yet to transfer ownership rights to his grandson. His signature would be required fo
r any sale or lease of the Double O’s acreage and, to date, that has not been given.”

  The judge sighed again and pulled a very serious face at Olivia. Then he glanced back at her lawyer. “Has anyone been in contact with Cody O’Neal?”

  “No, sir, but I have left him messages and sent him the information regarding this hearing—both email and snail mail.”

  “But he’s not here?”

  “Uh, it appears not, Your Honor.”

  The judge stared at Olivia. “You haven’t heard from him, Miss Raines?”

  Willing her inability to manufacture tears to hold out a little longer, Olivia shook her head. It took two tries to put her actions into words. “No, sir.”

  “Have you even spoken to Mr. O’Neal on the subject?”

  Pressure grew behind her eyes. “Yes, I have. He was concerned with securing a future for his grandfather, to make him comfortable.”

  “Did he mention that he was selling the Double O?”

  Olivia’s lawyer answered before she could. “Whether or not they discussed the sale of the Double O can’t be taken into account, when there has been no sale of the Double O.”

  “And there won’t be.”

  Olivia’s stomach squeezed into a tight little ball at the familiar voice. Her eyes suddenly awash in the tears she’d so recently denied, she turned toward the rear entrance of the courtroom. Cody stood next to a man in an expensive suit and a bold power tie.

  The unknown man lifted a packet of papers and raised his voice so that it rang out in the room. “I represent the O’Neal family, on behalf of the Great Gas & Petrol Company. I have the agreement for land usage drawn up between those two parties. There is a clearly marked buffer zone between the region the company is interested in drilling and the stream. In fact, the Double O’s house stands between them, and there are laws governing how much land must be dedicated to the rig, anyway.”