Chapter 20: Bella Donna
The ranch didn’t sleep that night.It transformed. Quietly, efficiently, like a well-rehearsed drill. Beth, standing with Dove in the main house’s security room—a tucked-away space with monitors glowing like idiot eyes—watched the feeds as Uncle Clyde and three of the hands, men she’d known since they were boys, moved through the darkness.They didn’t carry obvious rifles. They carried long, canvas-wrapped tools to anyone who might glance.But Beth knew the shape of a scoped barrel under burlap.
Her phone had buzzed incessantly, then gone silent.Her assistant in New York, bewildered. Her CFO, concerned.She’d sent a single, definitive text: Family emergency.Indefinite hiatus. Execute contingency plan Alpha.The world of Bethany Montgomery Inc. would now run on autopilot, steered by deputies who believed she was tending to a sick relative. The lie was clean, simple, and brittle.
“Perimeter sensors are all live,” Dove muttered, tapping a screen that showed a topographic map of the ranch.Red dots glowed at every entry point. “Motion-triggered lights on the west paddock. Earl’s in the blind by the front gate with the night vision scope. He sees a rabbit fart, we’ll know.”
Beth nodded, her arms crossed tightly over a simple black sweater. She’d changed again, back into her own clothes, but they felt like a costume now.The real armor was the plan forming in her mind. “He’ll call.Vega.He’s impulsive, but he’s not stupid. He knows we saw his scouts.He knows we’re not running. So he’ll try to talk first. To size me up.”
“And you’re gonna let him?” Dove asked, finally looking away from the screens.
“I’m going to make him.” Beth’s smile was thin and sharp.“He needs to believe the person he’s dealing with is the weak link. A city woman playing rancher.A daughter, not the heir.”
Dove snorted. “Good luck with that. Your ‘city woman’ voice still sounds like you’re about to have someone fired into the sun.”
“I’ll manage.”
The call came not an hour later, as a pale sun began to wash the security room in a sickly gray light. A number she didn’t recognize, with a Los Angeles area code. Beth took a deep, steadying breath, let it out slowly, and answered on the fourth ring.She put it on speaker.
“Miss Montgomery.” The voice was smoother than she’d expected.Cultivated.A little tired. It held a rounded, Californian cadence that didn’t match the brutal reputation. “I understand you’ve had some uninvited guests on your property.”
“Mr. Vega,” Beth replied, her tone cool, deliberately polite.The voice she used for junior analysts who’d fucked up a minor spreadsheet. “I’m afraid we have.We get hunters sometimes, trespassing. It’s a nuisance.”
A low chuckle came through the speaker.“Hunters.Yes. I suppose we’re all hunting something.How is Mr.Rojas? I heard he left Texas quite suddenly.”
Beth let a beat of silence hang, heavy with implication.“I couldn’t say. My family runs a cattle ranch, Mr.Vega. We’re not really in touch with the travel schedules of… associates of yours.”
“A cattle ranch.” Vega drew the words out. “With such sophisticated security.Motion sensors.Patrols. It must be very valuable livestock.”
“It’s a family legacy.” Beth kept her voice even, letting a touch of defensive pride seep in. The proud daughter, guarding daddy’s land. “We protect what’s ours.”
“And you are the one protecting it now?Where is your father, Miss Montgomery?”
“Passed. Some years ago.”
“Ah.My condolences.So it’s just you. And your… sister, is it?”
Beth’s eyes flicked to Dove, who stood frozen, her face a mask of cold fury.“I am the primary heir and manager of the Montgomery holdings. My sister handles the day-to-day operations.I’m based in New York, primarily. I’m only here because of this… nuisance.”
Another pause. She could practically hear him thinking, reassessing.A woman.An absentee owner.A potential soft spot.
“A woman in charge,” Vega said, and his voice warmed, taking on a patronizing, almost flirtatious note. “I admire that.It’s a modern world. But this is an old-world problem, Miss Montgomery.You have something that belongs to me. Or rather, you interfered with someone who owed me a great deal. That creates a debt.”
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to.And we don’t have debts here.We have contracts.With feed suppliers. With veterinarians.”
“Don’t play naive.It doesn’t suit you. I can hear the intelligence in your voice.You took Rojas.You broke a pipeline that cost me millions. You did this on behalf of a rival of mine. A man who hides behind lawyers and women.”
Beth felt a spike of anger, hot and clean. She let a sliver of it into her voice, sharpening the polite tone into something harder. “I acted on behalf of my family’s interests and our long-standing agreements.Whoever you have a dispute with is not my concern. Your dispute is now with me.”
The shift in her tone must have registered. The flirtation bled from Vega’s voice, replaced by a wary curiosity.“Is that so? You’re claiming the debt?”
“I’m stating a fact.You sent men onto my land. That was your opening move.I’m waiting for your next one.But I should warn you, Mr. Vega, we’re not easily intimidated. And we have a very long memory for slights.”
For the first time, Vega sounded genuinely surprised, and… amused.“My God.You’re serious. You’re not a proxy. You’re the principle.” He gave a soft, appreciative sigh.“A woman who could kill me and look beautiful while she does it. This is a revelation. You could have been one hell of a Donna, had you been on the right side.”
The archaic term, the sexist admiration, rolled over her.Donna. A woman of power in the underworld, but always framed as an exception, a consort, a dangerous novelty. Beth’s knuckles were white where she gripped the table.Dove mouthed a silent, furious curse.
“I’m on my side,” Beth said, her voice dropping low, losing all pretense of corporate nicety. It was pure Bell Montgomery now, the grit and the chill of the ranch in every syllable.“And you’re wasting my time.You want to negotiate? You come here.Alone.You look me in the eye and you make your case. Or you send your next wave of hunters. And we’ll see how many of them get lost on the way back.”
The line was so quiet she thought he’d hung up. Then his voice returned, all business now, the faux-charm gone.“Tomorrow.Sunset.At your home. I come alone, you receive me alone.No tricks, Miss Montgomery.”
“No tricks, Mr. Vega,” she agreed, and ended the call.The room was engulfed in a thick, charged silence. Dove was staring at her as if seeing a stranger. “Holy shit, Bethy.”
Beth’s hand was trembling slightly.She pressed it flat against the cool tabletop. “He’s coming.”
“He’s walking into a trap he thinks he’s setting,” Dove said, a fierce grin splitting her face. “He thinks he’s dealing with a scared rich girl playing dress-up.”
“Good,” Beth said.She looked at the screens, at the red dots guarding their world. The calm was gone, burned away by the adrenaline of the call. In its place was a razor-sharp clarity.Vega saw a woman, a weakness to be manipulated or a curiosity to be collected. He didn’t see the generations of quiet power in her blood. He didn’t see the swamp waiting.“Let’s get ready,” she said, turning to her sister. The last trace of Bethany Montgomery, the mogul, had vanished from her eyes. “We have a guest to prepare for.”