Disarming the Rancher

  Disarming The Rancher

  Barb Han

  TorJake Publishing

  Copyright © 2021 by Barb Han

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Editing: Ali Williams

  Cover Design: Jacob’s Cover Designs

  To my family for unwavering love and support. I can’t imagine doing life with anyone else. I love you guys with all my heart.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Also by Barb Han

  About the Author

  1

  Raleigh Perry couldn’t wait for a shower larger than thirty-four inches. The one in the tour bus was like showering in a casket. Sharing said shower with eight others was next to impossible, but the band decided it would be safer to stick together during the crisis. She sat staring out the window in anticipation. Seeing her nana’s house—her house since Nana’s passing two years ago—again brought a flood of good memories from a happy childhood. But even those couldn’t help her shake the dark cloud hanging over her head after the bomb threat that was sending her home in the first place. The threat had turned out to be real when an explosive was found taped underneath the stage. If it had been allowed to go off, the band, the road crew, and many of the band’s most loyal fans would have been killed. Raleigh shuddered thinking about what might have happened, grateful no one got hurt.

  She forced those memories aside, needing a break from the stress of what might have been along with the guilt of letting her fans down for dropping out of the tour. Not one time in almost fourteen years of touring had she canceled a show, let alone for the foreseeable future.

  On a sharp sigh, Raleigh gave herself a mental headshake. The anticipation of seeing those serene five acres with bluebonnet-dotted fields was building, tickling her stomach and she desperately needed to clear her head to stop churning over all the what ifs.

  The all-white siding, wooden shudders, and grass-green tin roof on the two-story farmhouse was the only home Raleigh had ever known. She’d spent countless hours in a rocker on the wrap-around porch with nothing more than a pick and a guitar to entertain herself. Nana had kept the place in pristine condition. Fresh linens on the bed, fresh flowers in the kitchen. And she had those massive ferns hanging on the porch that was on every picture of a porch in the southwest. She’d been a stickler for cleanliness and order and had provided the structure Raleigh needed after coming to live there at six-years-old.

  Looking back, Nana had never discussed the circumstances in which she’d come to raise her only granddaughter. Raleigh had been too young to remember, but she didn’t have any bad will toward her absentee parents. Her mother had died when Raleigh was a baby and her father tried for six years to work and keep her before dropping her off at Nana’s. That was as much as Raleigh knew. She’d never felt the need to find her father and he must have felt the same. She had no idea the conditions in which she lived her first six years of life and no one to tell her about them. It was strange when she thought about it in those terms. Her first six years were a blank canvas.

  Having a person like Nana had more than made up for her father’s absence.

  “We must be getting close,” she said under her breath. Granted, she hadn’t been back in two years, but she should recognize something at this point. There was more to Nana’s place than the overgrown weeds that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

  “How much longer does GPS think until we get there, Buck?” she asked her tour bus driver. Henry Buckner had been her road manager since day one. He was the closest thing to a father she’d ever known.

  “Says we’re basically here,” he said.

  “How?” She blinked as Nana’s home came into view, or at least part of it. She could barely see past the tall grass that was supposed to be cut on a regular basis. Paint on the white fence was chipped. The shudders on the home were closed, just as she’d last left them. “What the heck?”

  Raleigh palmed her cell and hit Wade’s name on her recent calls list as her blood pressure kicked up a few notches.

  “Everything okay?” The fear in his voice was a stark reminder of what they’d just been through at the last venue.

  “Yes. We’re fine. I’m fine. Everything is fine. Physically. But what happened to the house and property I inherited?” She got straight to the point since he was supposed to be keeping the place up for her while she was on the road.

  “The what?” he hedged, and she could hear something that sounded a lot like guilt in his voice.

  “Don’t play games with me.” Her voice came out a little more curt than she’d intended but this was Nana’s place and she would have had a heart attack if she’d still been alive. “You’re my business manager, Wade. You came to the funeral with me and then told me to get back on the road and sing, which I did. Because you assured me that everything would be taken care. As far as I can recall, the last time I brought this place up, you assured me again that it was being cared for. And then you told me it was in great shape. This subject has come up at every monthly financial meeting, so don’t pretend like you suddenly don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  “You’re right.” He immediately changed his tune. “All I can do is apologize at this point. I should have been taking better care of your property.”

  She didn’t correct him to say her nana’s property. She would always think of it in those terms though.

  “However,” he quickly added, “right now I’m in the middle of rescheduling your tour and working with the FBI to figure out what’s going on and stop this sonofabitch from pulling anything like this again. So, forgive me if I’m caught off guard when because someone isn’t mowing when they’re supposed to.”

  A cell phone’s ringtone sounded in the background.

  “I need to take this,” he said on a sharp sigh and she could hear the stress in his voice. “Sorry for letting you down, Raleigh. I truly am.”

  There was so much heaviness in those words, she decided to ease up on her business manager.

  “All right. I’ll figure something out here,” she said before exchanging goodbyes and ending the call. Considering Wade handled all her finances, business and personal, she was left wondering what other balls he might be dropping. His cousin Sharon had started out on this journey with Raleigh and stayed up until four years ago when she met the man of her dreams and they decided to start a family. Sharon was gold and had been a dear friend. She’d trained Wade on handling the business so as not to leave Raleigh high and dry, which had been much appreciated. Wade wasn’t Sharon though. Cracks were beginning to show in his management skills. There were times when he was late paying the road crew, which was unacceptable. And now this? She had the feeling she was going to have to be a lot more hands-on when it came to managing her band’s career and financing.

  When was there time? A little voice in the back of her mind picked that moment to speak up. It was true. She’d been touring or in the studio nonstop since she started.

  Buck pulled up alongside the house. The rocking chairs had been tipped over on their sides. There were no ferns hanging. Although, that wasn’t as unexpected. Generally speaking, the whole place looked neglected and it broke her heart.

  “This the right place?” Buck asked. He was as loyal as they came. He was incredible at his job. The man could set up and break down a stage in record time and required very little in the way of help. Too bad he didn’t know anything about business or she’d hire him to replace Wade. Buck had the kind of loyalty that didn’t come around often.

  She stood up and walked behind the driver’s seat of the bus.

  “I’m afraid so. We’ll get a spit-shine on the place in no time.” She squeezed Buck’s shoulder as he put the gearshift in park.

  Buck turned his chair around to face inside the bus as Raleigh stepped in front of the exit door. “Okay, we all know we’re going to be living here for the next two weeks. Less if they can find the guy…” She paused as she searched all seven faces starting at her, stopping on Hardy Blake’s, her full-time security guard. The reality they could be sticking around a lot longer was evident on his stone face. “We need to make the best of the hand we’ve been dealt.”

  Heads nodded, except Kenny. He stood in the back of the bus, leaning his hip against the counter, staring at the tile.

  “It’s nothing a lawn mower won’t fix,” Jake said with his usual optimism. He was the youngest on the tour and worked directly for Buck.

  “Leave it to Johnny on the Spot,” Kenny whispered and Tim rolled his eyes. Her drummer and fiddle player could be hard on the greenhorn.

  “Sorry, I didn’t hear that, Kenny. Do you want to speak a little louder so everyone can be in on the joke?” She and Kenny spent the first two years on the road as an on-again, off-again couple until she’d put her foot down. They were eith
er together, or they weren’t. His choice. But if he picked her, the other women had to go. He’d pledged his love and that had worked for about a month, until she popped into his dressing room unexpectedly before a show and caught him red-handed. Or, should she say pants down?

  That was all water under the bridge now, but had ripped her heart out of her chest at the time. Then, like now, she had to put her personal feelings aside and kept trucking.

  Recently, she’d overheard him tell Tim that she was the one who got away and now that his divorce was final, he had plans to win her back. She might be in a dating drought, but she had no desire to walk down that worn path again.

  “I think Jake was trying to say that with a little elbow grease, this place will be in shape in no time,” Buck said. Everyone respected the oldest guy on the tour.

  “Follow me.” Raleigh forced a smile, stuffing down how much her heart hurt at seeing the condition of the place she loved. She grabbed her cell and her handbag, fumbling around for the key. It was broad daylight in the middle of June, so there’d be plenty of sunshine to work with while they spruced the place up. Besides, they’d been antsy on the bus during the drive over. Everyone needed a way to work off some of the frustration and fear of being someone’s target.

  They’d been through a traumatic experience and they were tired. Heck, she was tired. She’d been daydreaming about going for a walk on pristine grounds half the drive over. Maybe sitting outside and finding the reset button after the night before last’s unsettling events.

  However, work kept the mind busy. It might not be what anyone wanted, least of all her, but it would probably be good for every last one of them.

  She led the group inside the house. After the two-cent tour, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a broom.

  Willie opened the fridge. Her back-up guitar player was always hungry. The stench elicited a chorus of groans.

  “No power,” he said.

  More groans filled the room as Raleigh opened a window.

  “Relax. Nana has a generator. That’ll get us through the night until I can get the power turned on.” Even Raleigh was beginning to lose spirit after seeing the layers of dust. A spider had built one terrific web in one corner of the room. “Trash bags should be in the laundry room. Cleaning supplies too. There, or underneath the kitchen sink. The faster we get moving, the quicker we’ll be done.”

  “That’s a sight,” Randy, her keyboard player, said.

  She shot him a warning look.

  “What is?” she asked.

  “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you with a broom in your hand before.” His face broke into a wide smile. The others laughed. He could always be counted on to break the tension in a room and lighten the mood.

  Raleigh laughed too.

  “Well, get used to it. You’ll probably see me do a whole lot more new things over the next two weeks than you have in fourteen years,” she quipped. “I can do a whole lot more than sing.”

  “Are you threatening to cook again?” Randy teased with a wink. He had a wife, two kids, and a heart of gold. He was an original band member and she looked at him like she would a brother if she’d had siblings.

  “I think we all know who caught the bus on fire one time. No use rehashing one little mistake,” she shot back before shooing everyone out of the kitchen with her broom.

  Raleigh glanced around the room. The place wasn’t huge but it was cozy. She’d had countless meals sitting at the table pushed up next to the window. Nana would crack the window so they could hear the birds sing while they ate. Nana could cook. And she didn’t stop there. She could bake the most amazing cookies, pies, and cakes.

  No, Raleigh hadn’t inherited her cooking skills, but she’d been taught how to clean up after herself. She pulled her hair off her face with the rubber band she kept at the ready on her wrist. An hour and forty-five minutes later, the kitchen was spotless and she was finishing scrubbing dust off the original hardwood floors.

  “Buck found the generator.” Kenny’s voice startled her.

  She gasped and clutched her chest. She sat back on her heels and blew a loose tendril of hair out of her eyes. “You scared the bejesus out of me, Kenny.”

  “Sorry.” He put his hands up, palms out in the surrender position. “I thought I’d come over and check to see if you needed a hand.”

  “I’m almost finished. Thanks, though,” she said, figuring she had about as much dirt on her as had once been on the floor.

  “I’m real sorry about your Nana too,” he continued. “Wish I could have been there for you.”

  “The flowers you and your wife sent were more than enough,” she said.

  “Ex-wife,” he corrected.

  Raleigh didn’t want to go down that road again with him right now. He’d been hinting they should pick up where they’d left off a hundred years ago after she’d overheard his conversation. No thanks. “You know what?”

  He cocked a brow.

  “You can help me if your offer still stands,” she said, needing to stretch her legs.

  “Name it.” His dimpled smile wouldn’t last when he heard what she was about to say.

  “Get the wash started with linens. And figure out what to do for dinner. Pizzas maybe?” She pushed up to standing and her knees creaked and groaned. When did she get this old?

  His “All right,” came after a long pause. He’d been expecting a much different answer, but then again Kenny was used to getting whatever he wanted from the opposite sex.

  “Thank you.” She pulled off the rubber gloves she’d been wearing and tossed them under the sink in the cleaning supply bucket. “Save me a slice?”

  “Where are you headed?” His expression turned sour faster than milk left sitting in the August heat.

  “Out,” she said as she freed her hair from the rubber band and then pocketed her cell phone. “Don’t worry. I know this area like the back of my hand.”

  Before she could make it out the back door, Hardy walked in the kitchen. “Mind if I join you?”

  “You can if you want but I’ll be fine going alone. I can’t say for how long though. Once word gets out we’re here, you’ll have your hands full. But tonight, no one knows I’m back. Not even my more hardcore fans know I’m from Lone Star Pass.” She didn’t want to tell the man how to do his job. Everything she’d said was true. Sharon had insisted early on they tell everyone Raleigh’s hometown was Austin. She didn’t have the same last name as Nana, so no one would track Raleigh here. “I have a small window to be on this land undetected, Hardy.”

  She pinched her thumb and forefinger together.

  “And it’s shrinking by the minute,” she warned. “So, I’m heading out that door. Come if you have to.”

  Hardy followed her. He stayed back, seeming to know it was a good idea to give her space.

  Was her old minibike still in the shed? She made a beeline toward the old building. It had seemed much bigger when she lived here. It struck her as funny how grand everything had seemed to be as a child, and how tiny it seemed now.

  In truth, the house was decent size. Though not nearly as large as she’d remembered. The land was still vast, but she was going to need a machete if she wanted to walk around. The sound of a riding lawn mower’s engine gave her an idea.

  The minibike was right where she’d left it. Albeit the tires needed air. She located the pump and filled them. Had Nana maintained it in the hopes Raleigh would visit more?

  Nana had been one of Raleigh’s best cheerleaders from the minute she declared she wanted to sing and play guitar for a living. The older woman nearly burst with pride every time they met up in another city. Guilt stabbed Raleigh for being too busy to visit Nana while she was alive. Raleigh would never forgive herself for missing holidays, birthdays, and special occasions, no matter how much Nana reassured it was no big deal. Putting her career above all else got her where she was…but recently she wondered if it was enough.