“You’ve heard of the Hatfields and McCoys, of course.”
“There’s a feud between the families?”
“Yes. One started by Justice Bear, my newly departed ex-father-in-law.”
“Explain it to me.”
Jordan placed his coffee on the table with a thud, glaring at Kenzie before leaving. Kenzie rolled her eyes and sat back with a huff. “They need to hire better help,” she sneered, following Jordan’s exit.
“The feud?” Logan prompted to get her talking. He wanted to be done with the woman as soon as possible.
She sighed. “Fine. I hate Chance, so telling you this will just piss him off. Far be it from me to pass on the opportunity.” She smoothed her dress down before continuing, picking at an invisible thread near the hem. She was good, he’d give her that. She never missed an opportunity to draw attention to her body. “Skylar’s father won a poker hand against Justice Bear, involving five hundred acres before shipping off to the Gulf War. Daniel James sat at the poker game hoping to make a start for him and his high school sweetheart, and everyone knew it. Sarah, Skylar’s mother, was the prettiest girl in town I’ve been told, but came from a poor family. Daniel James was also poor with a drunkard for a father. He was brought up by his grandparents, with no prospects except the military, so her parents hated him. They wanted more for her, thought her looks would land her a rich man, which was why Daniel was so desperate to win the game.
“While James was away in the Persian Gulf, Sarah’s brother became ill. Some mysterious illness that only a thousand people had ever contracted, so there was only anecdotal information and one experimental drug that might help him. Sarah’s family needed money for the medicine and Sarah was desperate to find it. Enter Justice Bear, the richest man in the county. He wasn’t a nice man, but extremely handsome, so when he heard about Sarah’s brother being ill, he saw an opportunity for revenge against Daniel James.”
“Let me guess? He swooped in and saved the day with her brother and behaved like a gentleman while doing it. When he made an offer of marriage to Sarah, she was starstruck because he’d saved her brother and agreed to marry him.”
“Partly. He knew it would take more than being charming to win her over, so he started with charming then offered her parents a million dollars if she agreed to marry him. Sarah and her brother were close. Real close. She would have done anything for him, and she did, to the bitter regret of Daniel James.”
“But it didn’t last because Skylar and her brothers exist.”
She nodded. “Funny that, some women won’t tolerate being belittled and made to feel like dirt by their own husbands. According to town gossip, she tried to take Chance with her when she left, but Justice stopped her and then kept her away from Chance for years. But Chance was raised to believe his mother left him behind to be with Daniel James, which is why he hates his siblings.”
“The courts gave him custody?”
“Sure did. My grandmother told me he lined the pockets of the local judges. Granny also said Chance never left the ranch. He had tutors and a housekeeper who took care of him. The old man did everything in his power to make sure Sarah never saw Chance again. And as far as I know, she never did. She died when he was a teenager and still under Justice’s thumb.”
“So buying their loan? I assume he did it because he’s jealous of Skylar and her brothers since he never knew his mother.”
“Jealous? Definitely. But it runs deeper than that. He hates them for no other reason than they exist. So did Justice. He used to sit on the deck and look down on their little cabin with contempt. He’d wanted to destroy Daniel James just for beating him in a poker game, but Daniel ended up having it all until Sarah died.”
Logan flashed back to the monstrous log home on the outcropping. Bear had been looking over their shoulders their whole lives, and now Chance was trying to ruin his own siblings in some misguided need for revenge. Logan’s only family had been his unit. He would have given anything to have them back, so it turned his stomach to know Skylar and her brothers were being terrorized by a man who should have been helping them. “So, he’s finishing what his father couldn’t: