Page 34 of A Bride for Brodie

“What? That’s not possible. I would have seen her when I came home if she’d fallen or was injured.” His stomach did a flip as fear gripped him.

Gwen stood and extended an envelope. “Maybe this will explain things. A man left it and said it was from Mr. Flannery.”

Brodie felt the blood drain from his face. “Let me have it.” He tore open the envelope, letting it fall to the floor as he read the note.

Brodie,

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Lottie is my guest. She’s a lovely woman. Vowed to escape from me so I had to put her some place with no windows. Regardless, she will remain here until you pay me what you owe. Bring it to the saloon. You remember where that is, right? You have six days left…the clock is ticking.

Jake

Brodie crushed the note in his fist. “Ross, I need to speak to you.” He looked around the room. “Privately.”

Ross, his arms crossed over his chest, nodded. “We’ll talk in the office. Follow me.” He uncrossed his arms and led the way to the room across from his and Fiona’s bedroom. He entered and then turned toward Brodie.

Brodie closed and locked the door.

“So, what is the problem?” Ross sat behind the large mahogany desk that dominated the room.

“Jake Flannery has Lottie.” Brodie paced, his stomach roiling so much he thought he would vomit. “This is all my fault. I’ve been gambling for some time. And I lost nine hundred dollars. Then we all got married, and I didn’t pay it because I was afraid of what you and the rest of our brothers would think of me.

“Because I didn’t pay it when it was due, Flannery said I owe him two thousand dollars. Ross, I need that money. He won’t release Lottie until I pay him. I wanted to have a nest egg. Something I could use to start my family. You and the other brothers all have something special you do, like Frank whispers to the horses, Tucker delivers the babies, Clay breaks the horses after Frank works his magic and you, well, you run everything else. What do I do? What am I good at?”

“Brodie—”

“I’m not good at anything special. I don’t have anything that helps this ranch. I just wanted a way to make some money to start my family.”

Ross pushed to his feet. “This isn’t entirely your fault, but we can level plenty of the blame on you.”

“What do you mean, it isn’t entirely my fault? Of course, it is. I’m the one who lost the money to Jake. I’m the one who let him take my IOUs with no plan to pay them back.”

Ross let out a long breath and then paced behind the desk. “We can lay plenty of the blame at your feet. There is no mistake about that, but Jake has had it in for me for years. He was in love with Sally, but for whatever reason, she chose me. He’s blamed me all this time for her death. Like I haven’t.”

Confused, Brodie started forward. “You weren’t responsible for Sally’s death. She’s the one who wanted to go with Mom and Dad. It was her choice. I just thank God you didn’t all go.”

Ross stood and paced.

That this was a personal vendetta worried Brodie even more, and he knew it put Lottie in greater danger.

“I’ll give you the money. It is yours, after all, so we can get Lottie back. But we also have to stop Flannery from doing this to anyone else. He’s run the town and terrorized people for long enough.”

“What can we do? He’s not breaking the law. You know the sheriff, Mike Knoll, would be right there to arrest him, if he was. He doesn’t have Mike in his pocket and we can be thankful for that.”

“Not true this time. He’s kidnapped Lottie, and we have the proof, so don’t throw that note away. We need to talk to Mike and see if he already has a plan. I’m sure he’s been watching and building a case against Flannery. But Jake has been very careful…until now. We can help Mike if he has a plan to put in place. If he doesn’t, we’ll help him come up with one.”

“Okay.” He leaned on the desk. “But we get Lottie back first.” Brodie stood and ran a hand behind his neck. “I can’t lose her, Ross. I feel like I just found her. Things are really coming together for us.”

Ross came around the desk and placed a hand on Brodie’s shoulder. “I know, little brother. I know exactly what you mean, so our priority is Lottie.”

“I need the whole two-thousand to get her back. Lottie was going to give me the first thousand, but she can’t now.”

Ross walked over to a painting of their parents. He moved the painting and revealed a safe. They all knew the combination to the safe, but they had an agreement that Ross would be the one to handle the money from the safe.

He took out four packets of bills and then shut the safe. He handed the money to Brodie. “Where are you to deliver it?”

“The saloon.”

“Let’s make a plan to take Jake down.”