To Claim a Wilde

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Nor did she address the issue of her being unfair to a family that was never heartless to anyone. At least they never had been before. Now, well...she just didn’t know. She’d been away so long, she had no idea.

Naomi inhaled deeply, a fortifying breath. She could do this. She had no choice. Her family had no choice.

Naomi wondered even now how long her family would have kept their situation from her? How long before one of her parents would have told her the family ranch was in jeopardy?

She sighed, thankful she’d kept in contact with her sorority sister and friend Althea, or who knows how long it would have been before she’d be made aware of their dire situation. Had it not been for Althea, it might have been too late to do anything about it. She smiled thinking of her friend Althea Hudson.

She mentally shook her head, correcting herself, as she’d just learned of her friend’s marriage to a man from another set of Wildes, men ranchers living on their land just outside Landers, Wyoming.

She and Althea still needed to talk about that, Naomi thought. She’d been so out of the loop working at the pediatric center she hadn’t known of her friend’s marriage. Yet as soon as she’d said the last name Wilde, Naomi wondered about the connections between Althea’s Wilde and her Wildes, not realizing the possessive and personal way she’d characterized the Wildes of her acquaintance.

But there was no time for investigating that now. Naomi had other pressing things to take care of.

Again, she shouldered her bag higher and closed the door of her Jeep with the curve of her hip.

“Robbing Peter to pay Paul, and Mary wants her money, too.”

A sad smile lifted the corners of her mouth, thinking of what her mother said last night as Naomi was going over the family accounts and correspondences with Rolling Hills once again.

Naomi had sighed and pushed her small oval wire-framed glasses farther up her nose as she went over her parents’ financial statement.

“I brought you some tea, baby,” her mother had murmured, and Naomi had glanced up to see her mother in the doorway.

With a tired smile, she’d pushed the papers away and shoved away from the desk. Walking over to her mother, she had wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

“We’ll figure it all out, Mom. Don’t worry. I won’t let them take the ranch,” she’d promised, and as her mother hugged her, the seed of dread grew even more in Naomi’s gut.

She had to figure out a way to help her parents and save their livelihood. There was no time for nerves or fear to get in her way.

Brought back to the here and now, she glanced at the mansion in front of her, preparing herself for her conversation with Tiber Wilde.

Again, she thanked God that Althea had reached out, contacted her, worried about Naomi’s parents and their family ranch. Althea had learned of Naomi’s parents’ inability to pay the back taxes on their small ranch.

Unfortunately the taxes weren’t the only issue the McBrides were facing, Althea had told her, knowing more about what was going on with Naomi’s family than she did.

Rolling Hills Corporation, the same mega conglomeration that had attempted to threaten Althea’s Wildes with a takeover, among other dubious business attacks, had been buying up small ranches in and around the area. The fact that it had its eyes on the McBrides’ property was a fact that most in the area knew.

A little more digging between Althea and her had unearthed more troubling information. Naomi had learned that unless her family came up with the money to pay the taxes, the ranch would go up for auction and Rolling Hills would have its greedy hands out, ready to snatch up her family’s livelihood.

The final piece of information had uncovered a link between Wilde Oil Enterprises and Rolling Hills Corporation, and that’s when Naomi’s heart had sunk.

Not only were her parents behind on the taxes, but also recently, someone had purchased the tax lien certificate for their small ranch. Which meant, in essence, on top of the back taxes, her family would be obligated to pay an interest fee on top of the money they already owed.

Naomi had put the mountain of paperwork away late last night, before she’d unearthed who’d bought the tax lien, so she could sleep. She needed to be fresh today for her meeting with Tiber Wilde. However, she had her suspicions about who had bought the tax lien: Rolling Hills.

At the end of the day, her family’s situation was dire. Nerves already stretched taut as the strings on an out-of-tune guitar nearly snapped when she realized her best bet would be to contact the Wildes.

For her parents, Naomi would do everything in her power to help them.