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“I’m not playing anything. I don’t know what you think I did and got away with, but I can assure you, you were never on the receiving end of any of my antics.”
Cow tipping. Setting off fireworks in empty fields. I’ve even stolen a few tractors in my time.
Bill sat forward and pointed his finger in my direction.
“I know it was you and your low-life family that burned my family barn down all those years ago. Every one of my animals, gone. The money I invested and the time I’d spent building—gone. Sure, insurance covered it, but it didn’t bring it all back.”
I sat upright, tilting my head as I thought back to the headline in the newspaper.
It was twenty years ago, Bill’s family barn had burned down. From what I knew, that dairy farm had been in his family for generations and brought in an insane amount of wealth from the hard work of his predecessors.
The barn burning was the talk of Lucky Lake for years. No one knew how it started, but the fire marshal hinted at arson.
“Bill, that had nothing to do with me.”
He looked out to the distance, his posture rigid.
“I don’t believe you. You won’t convince me otherwise. No one else in our town would have the lack of integrity like the Stones. I’d do anything in my power to knock you down a few pegs. I don’t know what Winnie saw in you.”
His last sentence caught me off guard, but I was able to keep my face schooled into a calm expression.
Him mentioning my family, or referring to them the way he had wasn’t what sent my blood boiling, because he wasn’t wrong.
It was Winnie.
I didn’t think about Mrs. Roller often anymore—in fact, I tried my very best to block her from my mind because it brought up emotions I didn’t want to deal with or handle.
Since she passed a couple of years ago, I’d locked every memory of her in a box so deep in the corner of my mind that hearing the mention of her name brought me to a place I never thought I’d go again.
Winnie Roller took a chance on me long ago. I was a kid who had been brought up surrounded by anger and hatred. It wasn’t until my late teens that I met her, and finally, I felt like I mattered to someone.
She’s the reason I made Stone Ranch what it was, a place for people who deserved second chances. Without her, without her hearing my idea and making the choice to back me completely, who knows where I’d be today.
It took time to take Stone Ranch from an idea to a reality. While we did, I worked at one of her horse breeding farms and dedicated all my free time to planning.
“You are going to believe what you want because it fits your agenda, it makes all you’ve done worth it. But I’ll tell you once again, that had nothing to do with me.”
His plan to tear me down came from decades of built-up vengeance, and since I am the only Stone with something to lose, he came after me.
“It’s all making sense now,” I said. “You pushed for me to bring on Marcus, hoping that he would mess up and bring me down with him. You planted him like your little fucking minion to destroy everything.”
Bill’s jaw ticked, his cheeks growing red with fury.
“When your plan didn’t go the way you intended, you decided to bribe and cheat to bring everything down. I don’t know what the motive was, but frankly, I don’t care anymore.” A devious smile spread across my lips, and a pathetic laugh bubbled from my chest. “Because you look stupid. Do you feel it, too?”
I expected him to put up more of a fight, throw some more insults my way but he didn’t.
Instead, with a low growl, he snatched up the pen and slammed the tip to the paper, signing his name with short, angry strokes.
No words. No fight. Just resignation.
I watched as he lifted the pen, tossed it aside, and stood abruptly, buttoning his jacket with sharp, jerky movements.
“Leaving so soon?” I asked, arching a brow.
He glanced down at me, his eyes dark with barely restrained fury.
“Go to hell, Colton Stone.”
