“I was speaking at an OPEC meeting. Are you saying I should have turned down that chance?”
Tyler waved off the defense. “I’ll give you that one. But if it hadn’t been OPEC, it would have been something else. What exactly are you afraid will happen if you take some time off? Do you think the rest of us are going to steal the company out from under you?”
He peered at Michael intently. “You do realize what a joke that is, don’t you? Trish wants no part of the business. She’s happy as a clam running her bookstore and devoting her spare time to her husband and daughter. Dylan is perfectly content playing Dick Tracy across the state. Jeb is doing in-house security and wallowing in family life.”
“That still leaves you,” Michael pointed out, aware that he was grasping at straws.
Tyler laughed. “You know perfectly well that I’m trying my best to convince Dad to let me stay out in the field, exploring for oil. I’m heading back out onto one of our rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in another couple of weeks. I miss it. I miss Baton Rouge.”
Michael studied him. “Who’s in Baton Rouge, little brother?”
“I didn’t say anything about a person. I mentioned an oil rig and a city.”
“But I know you. There has to be a woman involved.”
Tyler scowled. “We were talking about me competing for your job. It’s not going to happen, Michael. Not only do I love what I do, it keeps me out from under Dad’s thumb. Face it, none of your siblings wants a desk job here, thank you very much. It’s all yours, big brother. There is no competition. This office in the executive suite is yours for life—if you want it.”
Michael inwardly admitted that everything Tyler had just said was true. But that knowledge didn’t keep him from working compulsively. “I love what I do, so shoot me,” he muttered.
“You need a life,” Tyler retorted. “You might think it’s enough to be at the top of the list of Houston’s most eligible bachelors, but you’re going to look mighty funny if you’re still there when you hit ninety.”
“Why worry about my social life? A minute ago you claimed I’m destined to die of a heart attack before I turn forty. If that’s the case, there’s no point in leaving behind a wealthy widow.”
Tyler waved off the attempt to divert him. “You’re missing my point.”
“Which is?”
“You need some balance in your life, Michael. Believe it or not, I actually recall a time when you were fun to be around, when you talked about something besides mergers and the price of crude oil.”
Michael uttered a resigned sigh. Clearly, his brother was on a mission. Tyler was usually a live-and-let-live kind of a guy, but periodically he turned into a nag. This kind of persistence could only mean that he’d been put up to it by the rest of the family. The one way to shut him up was to make a few well-intentioned promises.
“Okay, okay, I’ll try to get a break in my schedule,” Michael promised.
Tyler looked skeptical. “Not good enough. When?”
“Soon.”
He shook his head, obviously not pacified by such a vague response. “Trish says her guest room is ready now,” he said. “You can see your niece. You can see Dylan and his family. I’ll even ride over with you on the company jet. We’ll have ourselves an old-fashioned reunion.”
Michael wasn’t fooled for a minute. Tyler wasn’t going on this proposed jaunt out of any great desire to hold a family barbecue. He’d been assigned to deliver his big brother into the protective arms of their baby sister.
Michael shuddered at the memory of the last time they’d all ganged up on him like this. He’d wound up in a deserted cabin in the woods for a solid week with no car and no phone. Instead of relaxing him, the forced solitude had almost driven him up a wall. He hadn’t been able to convince his siblings that they hadn’t done him any favors. A two-day visit with Trish’s family would be heaven by comparison. He was smart enough to accept it while he still had a choice in the matter. His family wasn’t above kidnapping him, and he doubted a court in the land would convict them for it once they made a convincing case that they’d done it for his own good.
“Set it up,” he said, resigned to the inevitable. “Just let me know the details.”
“We’re leaving in fifteen minutes,” Tyler announced, his expression instantly triumphant.
“But I can’t—”
“Of course, you can,” Tyler said, cutting off the protest. “Hop in the shower, get into your clothes and let’s go. I have your suitcase at the airport and the pilot’s on standby. Your secretary’s canceled all your appointments for the next week.”
“A week?” Michael protested. “I agreed to a couple of days.”
“Your secretary must have misunderstood me,” Tyler said with no evidence of remorse. “You know how she is.”
“She’s incredibly efficient, and I thought she was loyal to me.”
“She is. That’s why she wiped the slate clean for the next week. So you’ll be able to take a long overdue break. You’re free and clear, bro.”
Michael frowned at Tyler. “Awfully damned sure of yourself, weren’t you?”
“What can I say? I’m a born negotiator. It runs in the family. Now, hop to it.”
Not until twenty-four hours later did Michael realize the full extent of his brother’s treachery, when he found himself shut away on Trish’s ranch, abandoned by his sister, her husband and the very niece he’d supposedly come to see.
Tyler had long since departed, claiming urgent business elsewhere. Probably a woman. That one he’d denied existed over in Baton Rouge. With Ty, it was always about a woman.
At any rate, one minute Michael had been sitting at Trish’s kitchen table surrounded by family, the next he’d been all alone and cursing the fact that he hadn’t been an only child.
“It’s Hardy’s family,” Trish had explained apologetically as she sashayed past him with little more than a perfunctory kiss on his cheek. “An emergency. We absolutely have to go. We shouldn’t be gone more than a day or two.”
Since the phone hadn’t rung, he had to assume this crisis had occurred before his arrival. Naturally no one had thought for a second to simply call him and tell him to stay home.
“I hate doing this to you,” his sister claimed, though she looked suspiciously cheerful. “The cattle shouldn’t be any problem. Hardy’s got that covered. You don’t mind staying here and keeping an eye on the horses, though, do you? Somebody will be by to see that they’re fed and let out into the corral, but you might want to exercise them.”
Already reeling, at that point Michael had stared at his baby sister as if she’d lost her mind. “Trish, unless it has four wheels, I don’t ride it.”
“Of course you do.”
“I was on a pony once when I was six. I fell off. All advice to the contrary, I did not get back on.”
“Well, you’re a Texan, aren’t you? You’ll get the knack of it while you’re here,” she’d said blithely. “We’ll get back as soon as we can. Whatever you do, don’t leave. I won’t have your vacation ruined because of us. This is a great place to relax. Lots of peace and quiet. Make yourself right at home, okay? Love you.”
And then she was gone. Michael felt as if he’d been caught up in a tornado and dropped down again, dazed and totally lost. He knew he should have protested, told his sister that he’d