King's Treasure (Oil Kings Book 3) by Marie Johnston (great novels .TXT) 📗

“I won’t believe it until I see it.” He crossed to Rina and threw his arm around her. She playfully scowled at him but cuddled into his side.

Xander chuckled. “You’ll see it in several installations that are scheduled to start posting next week.”

The launch of his new business, and we weren’t going to be in the States for it. Xander and I had worked hard the last few months, him taking pictures of Dawson and the land, and me getting the nonprofit going from our apartment outside of Billings while our new home was being built. With the trust, we had enough money to use all the best environmentally-friendly methods for building.

I oversaw construction and prepared to open the doors of Savvy Energy Solutions, a nonprofit that provided education on energy consumption and offered scholarships and grants for small companies that worked within the environment. Small companies like Hector’s, who’d agreed to let us make him the first recipient. There’d be an application process for the rest, but this benefitted my business and Hector’s, and gave us an excellent excuse to fly and visit.

I even had a client ready to work with me once this vacation was over. Gentry had reached out to Savvy Energy, insisting that he could not find anyone to fit the new position and he’d gladly work with the company until he did.

I’d told him it was nepotism. He’d claimed that Brady had refused to move back to the States since he’d gone into partnership with Hector and Eris and I hadn’t given him another contact.

My father-in-law was a slick oil man.

Xander crossed to me and hooked his hand through mine. His camera was over his shoulder. He never went anywhere without it anymore. Half his SD card was filled with photos of me. I had a notebook in my backpack for ideas for future content. His passion was my hobby, and a nice distraction from launching a nonprofit.

I pointed at Brady. Rina’s hand rested on his abdomen, a familiar move that Brady seemed more than content with. “I didn’t believe that until I saw it.” They’d started dating before Christmas and it was probably the hardest Brady had ever worked for a girl. That he put out any effort at all meant he was serious.

“She made me work for it,” Brady drawled. “I might’ve bought into this business, but she thinks she’s still in charge.”

“You got discounted shares because of me.” Rina lifted a dark brow. “City boy.”

We all laughed and piled inside. It was almost exactly a year since I’d arrived the first time. Xander and I were no longer the broke married couple we’d been when I’d first landed on their doorstep, but we’d only parceled out some of the money for us, for the property near Billings we’d bought, for the travel adventures we’d decided to take once a year—and for our future children. With no stipulations on the trust.

Eris waved us to the table, where she had set out homemade pastries and steaming cups of what everyone had started calling Hector’s Tar. “So, tell us all about what’s happened this last year.”

“Xander refused to divorce me.” I didn’t gloss over a thing. Then Xander pulled out his camera and showed everyone the photos we were using for our first series on ranching and the environment. Then we switched to the nonprofit.

“I picked the name and convinced Savvy to use it,” Xander said.

I hadn’t needed much convincing. Savvy Energy was both a play on words and an excellent way to describe what the company was all about.

“Wait.” Brady leaned in to look at the header on the website. “Are you the spokesmodel?”

“Yep,” I said. Not only would the company sport my name, but the picture Xander had taken of me framing the sky the afternoon we’d spent together in the pasture was plastered across the website. The about page on my website was open and honest about who Xander and I were and where we came from.

We’d most likely get pushback, having grown up wealthy. We’d get doubted. We’d get questioned about what seemed like a conflict of interest working with King Oil, but I wasn’t worried. I hooked my fingers through Xander’s and exchanged a smile with him.

We’d proved ourselves already.

Epilogue

Dawson

“I can’t believe you showed your smug face here.”

I tucked a hand into the pocket of my black jeans. My good ones, the pair that I wore to church and get-togethers where dirt on my boots wasn’t allowed. I shouldn’t have worn them here.

Danny Cartwright didn’t deserve my best, even at his funeral. Technically, this was a viewing or a memorial, not a funeral. He’d died and was being laid to rest within days. I’d almost missed the announcement.

I faced Bristol so she could see that I wasn’t smug. I was relieved, dammit. Danny Cartwright had been a raging alcoholic who’d made rash, uneducated decisions that had gotten people hurt and made his cattle sick.

Bristol’s pale-green eyes flashed. No one had eyes like her. I didn’t have to travel around the world like my globe-trotting brother to know. She looked at me like she was calling my bullshit each time—and she probably was. Polite and demure were not qualities given to her by her piece-of-shit father. God knew her mother hadn’t stuck around long enough to impart anything but grief.

Bristol was brash, insensitive, and blunt as fuck. She was a thorn in my side and now she controlled her ranch and land—and might prove more ruthless than her dad.

“Paying my respects, Bristol Jane.”

Another spark of fire in those rare gems. She hated when I added her middle name. I used to do it as a kid. Mama used to call her that and I’d continued to do it afterward. Once I realized it irritated her, I never let up.

Bristol put her hands on her trim hips. She wasn’t dressed up any more than I was. Well-worn blue jeans that