Chapter 7 Weston
Weston
Today was not a good day. Not a good day at all.
“Fuck!” Beau roared next to another dead cow, his voice booming through the air like thunder.
We’d already lost two others throughout the morning, and another dozen were sick.
The vet confirmed they had ingested something toxic, so the ranch hands were rounding up the sick ones to take them to the barn for treatment, while moving the others to different pastures.
“This had to be the Hollises,” I said quietly, glancing around the property. But I didn’t understand how they did it. How did they manage to make the whole herd sick?
My gaze bounced from each water trough spread throughout the property. They were filled by an irrigation system that drew water from the well. My stomach sank as I uttered the words, “You think they’d be sick enough to poison the water?”
Beau’s head fell back to the sky, and his eyes drifted shut as a heavy, angered breath left him. “I’m gonna kill ‘em with my bare hands.”
And he said I had a problem with keeping a lid on my anger.
Hooves beating against the dirt approached from behind, and I turned to find Claire dismounting her horse before it even came to a full stop. She raced to Beau, looking wide-eyed and grief-stricken at the ailing herd. “What happened?”
“Those Hollis fuckers poisoned my cattle is what happened,” he said through gritted teeth. “I know it was them, Claire. I know it.”
A flash of anger swept across her face before she pushed it aside. “Okay,” she said softly, running her hands along his arms to soothe him. “Just take a deep breath, babe. We’ll figure it out.”
I turned away, not wanting to encroach on their private moment.
Naturally, I looked over at the Hayes house like I did every time I was outside these days, now that Savannah was back.
Claire and Emmett’s trucks were there, but Savannah’s out-of-place Mercedes was nowhere to be seen.
But that wasn’t anything new. I just wish I knew what she was up to apart from avoiding me like the plague.
She hadn’t spoken to me since that night at Anna’s, and I’d only seen passing glances of her since. But just because she was avoiding me didn’t mean I didn’t see her in that white dress she wore every time I closed my eyes.
I knew she’d been busy all week with the woodpecker ordeal, but that was pretty much wrapped up now.
It had turned into more of a goose chase than she had anticipated, though.
Or that’s what she said in the massive group text we were all in.
Turned out the whole thing was bogus, just like she said it’d be.
Sterling had paid off a biologist to submit a false claim, but there wasn’t a paper trail to serve as proof, so it was his word against Sterling’s.
But just as she finished cleaning up that mess, this one appeared.
This one, though, this one felt personal. This one crossed a line that couldn’t be undone.
“Hey, Sling King,” Colt called out from a few yards away, walking towards us.
I rolled my eyes at my new nickname that I’d gotten after making fun of his mustache one too many times.
“Hey,” I grumbled, adjusting my annoying as hell sling. I had my first physical therapy appointment in a few days, and I was hoping to every god there was that they’d tell me I could stop wearing it. It was emasculating and itchy.
He stopped next to me, his hand resting on his holster. “What the hell happened out here?”
“We think they spiked the water.”
“Who?”
“The Hollises,” Beau growled. “I’m gonna go over there and blow a hole through their fuckin’ oil tanks and see how they like having their livelihoods fucked with.”
“We need to press charges,” Claire said with the same fury in her eyes as Beau, but enough sense not to go and get us in deep shit. I personally would be useless with a shotgun right now, so I was team Claire on this one. But if I weren’t Sling King, it’d be a different story.
“You got proof it was them? You know for sure it’s the water, and not something in the field or a dead animal or something?” Colt asked.
“Look, guys, we’ve got our own Nancy Drew.” I grinned, unable to help myself. Colt rolled his eyes.
Beau pinched the bridge of his nose. “Weston,” he sighed, “not now.”
“No, we don’t know what it could be,” Claire replied. “But you know it was them, Colt. Who else would do this to us?”
“I know as Colt McLeod it was them, but as the sheriff, I’ve got no clue who did it. And without proof, nothing can be done. Just like the woodpecker thing.”
“This is utter bullshit,” Beau said, pacing away. “I got a field full of sick cattle! Is that not proof enough?”
“You got someone coming to test the water?” Colt asked, clearly in sheriff mode. “You get the water tested, find out what they spiked it with, see if a purchase can be traced to them, and then you have a solid case.”
“He’s right, we need proof.” I looked at Claire. “You need to call Savannah.”
She froze, looking at me like I was having a stroke or something. “What?”
“Call Savannah. Maybe she has some ideas on how to get around not having proof.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of that,” she said as she took out her phone and put it to her ear. Probably because, unlike her, my mind’s default state was thinking about Savannah Hayes.
I couldn’t make out Savannah’s words when she answered, just the soft pitch of her voice, but it was enough to have me leaning in a little closer.
“Hey. Where are you?” Claire said to her sister, her eyes locked with mine as Savannah spoke.
“Okay, well, Beau and I are coming over there. We need to talk to you.” Another pause.
“It’s a long story. I’ll just tell you when we get there. Okay, bye.”
Claire looked at Beau. “Let’s go. She’s at Wild Creek Law.”
Something hot and furious burned in the pit of my stomach. “What the hell is she doing there?”
Claire shrugged. “She said Levi offered her office space to use last week when she met him at the courthouse.”
“Are you kidding me?” She just blinked at me, oblivious to how catastrophic that could be. “He’s Preston’s brother, Claire. You don’t think it’s a little strange he offered to keep her close?”
“It’s not like she’s working with him.”
“She might as well be!” She could’ve been doing all kinds of things with him in that tiny shoebox office. My stomach cramped as flashes of Levi and Savannah ran through my mind. I had no right to jump to that conclusion or be enraged by it, but I couldn’t help it.
“He’s also our cousin, Weston,” Beau said as if that even mattered. “He’s not like Sterling and Preston.”
I whirled. “We don’t know that. We don’t know the guy. When was the last time you saw him? Spoke to him?” Colt opened his mouth. “That had nothing to do with work,” I said with a pointed finger. His mouth snapped shut. “That’s what I thought.”
“I guess he has a point,” Colt said, looking at Claire and Beau. “He could be feeding them information he gets from her.” Just the thought had my fist curling at my side.
Claire went back to her horse, her foot in one of the stirrups. “Good thing we’re going over there then,” she said and mounted the horse. “I’m already going after two Hollises, what’s a third if he decides to act up?”
“I’m coming with you,” I announced, refusing to take no for an answer. I needed to see for myself that Savannah wasn’t at risk. I knew she could take care of herself, but that didn’t mean I didn’t worry.
“Someone needs to stay to keep an eye on the cattle in case they take a turn,” Beau said.
“Well, pick someone else, ‘cause it’s not gonna be me,” I replied.
“I’ll stay, since I’m off duty,” Colt offered.
“Fine.” Claire gave Beau a quick kiss before going over to her horse. “Come pick me up,” she told him and bolted off back to Golden Bridle’s barn.
He watched her go with a lovesick gleam in his eyes that was hard to look at. Savannah used to look at me the same exact way. Now she could barely tolerate being in the same room as me, but was more than happy to buddy up with Levi fucking Hollis.
“Let’s go,” I ground out, walking past Beau to the truck, ready to see just how close they were.
Wild Creek Law was a small, white brick building with a neatly kept flower bed out front. It looked perfectly innocent, one of those mom-and-pop type places, but I still didn’t trust it when the name Hollis was on the front door.
Once we were inside, Levi came strolling down the hall, stopping short when he saw us. “Beau,” he said, surprised. “Hey, man, how are you?”
Beau and Levi clapped each other on the back, and I wanted to wipe that pretentious smile off his face. He looked like some preppy Clark Kent with his glasses and pristine helmet of hair.
He glanced at Claire and me. “Claire, Wes, nice to see you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and his expensive suit. “It’s Weston,” I said, voice low. Nobody called me Wes. Not ever. Only Savannah.
“We’re not great, actually,” Beau said, ignoring me. “Is Savannah here? We kinda have a situation we need her help with.”
Levi’s brows furrowed as if he had no idea what was going on. I wasn’t falling for it. “Yeah, she’s back here. Come with me.”
Levi was thirty, like Colt and me, so we were all in the same class.
Except when Colt and I graduated and went straight to work at Circle M, he went to Harvard for law school.
After he graduated, he came back to Wild Creek and took over the law firm, and based on the BMW I’d seen him driving around town, he seemed to be doing pretty damn well for himself.
And here I was with a busted arm, a screwy head, and potentially no job.
Savannah had more in common with a guy like him than she ever would with me.
It didn’t matter the kind of history we had, or the connection I knew in my bones was still there.
I couldn’t offer her the kind of mental stimulation he could, and while I had money now, I didn’t have the same kind of lifestyle she’d taken up, or want it for that matter.