“You were watching us?” Outraged, she shook her head. “Get off this property right now and don’t you ever step another foot on the Lucky Ace again. If you do, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing, harassment and anything else I can think of.”
“Not before I give you these,” he said, shoving the papers he held into her hand. “If you’re smart, you’ll read up on Donaldson. He’s not the man you think he is. You’re sure that I’m the bad guy here, but some of the things he’s done makes me look like a saint.”
Before she could throw the papers back at him, he moved his foot and turned to jog down the steps. He got into his truck and drove away, the tires squealing.
Her hands shook as she closed and bolted the door. Her instincts had been correct about Roy Lee. He was without a doubt one of the creepiest men she’d ever had the misfortune to meet.
Walking straight into the kitchen, she started to throw the papers he’d given her into the trash can under the sink. But something caught her eye and she closed the cabinet door instead.
The papers were copies of news articles from several of the Houston newspapers. There was one article detailing the suicide of Lane’s father and his embezzlement at the financial institution where he had been employed. He had been facing years in prison for stealing his clients’ money and chose to end his life rather than spend the majority of the rest of it behind bars.
Sitting down at the table, she read on and learned that Ken Donaldson’s only son, thirteen-year-old Lane Donaldson, had found the man hanging from the rafters of their garage, just as Lane had told her. But the information in the next article was what caused her heart to stall and her stomach to feel as if she would become physically sick. The son of a disgraced financial advisor who had committed suicide had been arrested two years later for running confidence schemes and selling stolen goods to several pawn shops in the Houston area. Because he was a juvenile at the time, the newspaper was prohibited from releasing his name, but there was no doubt they were reporting on Lane. The article went on to say that the boy had pled guilty to the charges and because of extenuating circumstances had been placed into the custody of the foster care system instead of being detained in a juvenile detention facility. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind the newspaper referred to Lane.
He had mentioned being sent to a foster care home called the Last Chance Ranch, but she had assumed the ranch name was just something someone had come up with. She hadn’t believed it had a literal meaning. Apparently, she’d been wrong.
Her first instincts had been right about Lane. He must have manipulated her grandfather into wagering half of the ranch and then cheated to win the game.
Why had she let down her guard? How could she have been so gullible?
Normally, she wasn’t nearly as trusting as she had been with Lane. Nor did she take everything someone said at face value. But Lane had been so convincing when he swore he wasn’t guilty of the things she had accused him of doing. She knew now that he wasn’t just a swindler; he was a consummate liar as well.
With her heart feeling as if it had shattered into a million pieces, she went upstairs to get her laptop and spent the rest of the day searching every newspaper archive she could find that might give her additional details about Lane and his past. There wasn’t much more, other than his mother’s brief obituary and the details of the real estate and personal possessions auction that was held to recover some of the money Lane’s father had stolen from his clients.
But by the time Lane returned to the house after helping the ranch foreman with the sick cattle, Taylor was waiting for him, armed with all the information she needed. She felt like a fool. Over these last few weeks, she had convinced herself that she’d been wrong about him and that he was trustworthy after all. She’d even given herself to him and all the while, he was probably laughing himself silly at what an easy mark she had been.
“Did you set up the poker game?” she asked when he opened the back door and hung his hat on the peg beside it.
Opening the refrigerator to get a beer, he nodded. “I called Cole Sullivan and he’s agreed to let us use the VIP poker room at the End of the Rainbow Casino on Friday.” He walked over to sit at the table with her. “He said that he just heard about your grandfather and that he has something Ben left for him to give to both of us when he passed.” Lane frowned. “Do you have any idea what that could be?”
“Why would I have the slightest clue what my grandfather gave to a man I’ve never met?” she asked, unable to keep an edge from her voice.