Free Jace: The Pride of the Double Deuce by Kathi S. Barton Page A

and sat down. “I mean it, Darin. I’m in no mood to fuck around. I have to get this milker fixed today.”
    “The parts came in just now.” The box was tossed at him, and Jace pulled out his pocket knife and cut the tape. He was installing the new part onto the old hose line when Darin spoke again. “She’s your mate now. You know that, don’t you?”
    “I know a great many things. Like whether or not I have a mate is my business. And not yours or Mason’s.” Darin laughed, and Jace looked at him over the wrench he was currently holding. “What did you hear from him? I’m sure he just enjoyed the fuck out of telling everyone that she and I bonded.”
    “All he said was you were in a shitty mood, too shitty of a mood to have just gotten laid.” Jace wanted to get up and pound his brother’s head in, but they really needed to get this fixed today. Milkers could not go long without having their teats milked. “I wanted to talk to you about something else anyway. What do you know about an outstanding bill to Stellar and Stellar?”
    “Who?” Jace was about half paying attention to Darin when he asked him who. Really, he didn’t care right now. When the suction started to make the right sounds, he sat back on his ass and looked at his older brother. “I don’t think I’ve heard of them. Unless they’re one of those subsidiaries from somewhere else we use. How much they saying we owe them?”
    “Total?” Jace nodded. “Fifty-seven thousand and some change. It seems all the failing farms owe them a good deal of money. Holly said that she found that the Carters owe them nearly ninety thousand, and the Mitchells owe about that much too.”
    “I think I’d remember a lot more about a company that we owe that much too.” Darin tossed him several sheets of paper. All of them had a name on them…Jason Douglas. “This isn’t me. You know that. Yeah, Jace is short for Jason, but I’m not a Jason. Mom did that on purpose.”
    “Yeah, I know.” Darin leaned against the wall as he studied the floor in front of him. Jace loved Darin. He supposed if asked, he would admit that Darin was the one he was closest to as well. “This woman you’re mated to, what do you know about her?”
    “Nothing.” He flushed when he remembered how he’d treated her after having sex with her. He’d been crude and nasty to her, and he was hating himself for it more by the hour. “I don’t even know her name—middle anyway—or a thing about what she does all day.”
    Darin nodded before speaking. “She’s smart, I’ll tell you that. I’ve been looking over the records that she’s asked me to and I’m finding all kinds of things that I hadn’t noticed before.” He asked him like what. “Double billing at the vets. And then there is the outstanding bill we have at the tavern.”
    “We don’t drink.” Darin looked at him, and Jace could see the anger there boiling just under the surface of his skin. “You think we’re being had for some reason? That the town is out to get us?”
    “Not the town, but the banker. Did you know about the land deal that the county has with him? And the back taxes?” Jace shook his head. Fuck, this was bigger than they’d thought if the entire town was in on it. “I found out through a friend of mine that the banker, Rogers—not the bank—holds the note on seven other farms. Ours was bought up by the Snows, as were the Carter’s and Mitchell’s. The rest of them have…they’ve been moving out faster than we can keep up with them. And the houses and barns are sitting there empty. You know why?”
    “I’m assuming that someone wants it all and that Rogers is buying cheap and selling high.” Darin said bingo. “So we’re all fucked unless we can figure out how to stop him. Do you suppose he’s got something on the rest of the places, like the mill and the grocery?”
    “Rogers has the note on Bill’s Tavern and Brew. Also there is rumor that he’s got the deed all