Chapter 25
I ’m doing my best to hide my smile, Wade didn’t just beat Caleb’s brother, he destroyed him, and as I watch Leonard head over and extend his hand, I feel Caleb dig his fingers into my hip.
I turn around to glare at him, he and old man Mason aren’t happy, and when more whoops and wails start up again I turn back around and realize Wade and Leonard are having a fight.
“Finn, get Maisie in the truck!” Garrett yells as he throws his fist at the Mason bunkhouse boy, that’s coming at Wade from behind, and as more men pile into the action, I wait for Caleb and Joe to get involved.
“See what I mean? Carsons have no class,” Caleb whispers in my ear as the fight turns into an outright brawl.
“Go drag your brother out of it,” Ronnie instructs him.
“I’m not getting amongst that, Joe can go get him.” Caleb shakes his head.
“This is getting out of hand,” I point out when I see that Mitch, Tate, and the River Boys are all involved.
The Mason workforce may have them in numbers, but it doesn’t seem to be making a difference as I watch Cole smash one of their faces into the metal rail.
“Someone’s gonna get hurt.” I turn back around and wait for one of the useless Mason men to step into action, and when no one does, I decide I’m gonna have to do it myself.
“Fine, I’ll do it.” I drag myself out of Caleb's grip and march over toward the chaos.
“Leia, get back here!” Caleb hisses at me, but I defy him and keep moving, heading right into the eye of the storm. I walk past the Carson bunkhouse boys that are fighting with the Mason ones, heading straight for Wade, who’s punching the guy, that seems to have put himself in front of Leonard.
“Wade!” I yell out to get his attention.
“Get outta here.” Looking over his shoulder at me costs him a fist to the jaw and it makes me feel awful.
“Stay out of this, Walker!” Leonard shoves me out of the way as he stomps toward Wade. My ass hits the ground and the rage in Wade’s eyes tells me shit’s about to get real.
He drops the guy, he’s holding up by his shirt, and runs at Leonard, ducking low and wrapping his arms around his middle to take him to the ground. My body gets dragged up off the floor by strong hands as I watch Wade climb on top of Leonard's body, his fists alternately slamming into his face.
“Get outta here! Go sit with Maisie in the truck,” Garrett yells, trying to drag me away.
But my feet are static as I watch what’s happening in front of me.
Wade looks nothing like the friend I’ve known since we came to town, he’s feral, and as he continues to lay into Leonard I wonder if he’s ever gonna stop.
“He’s gonna kill him.” I manage to get words out as I struggle in Garrett’s grip.
“Leia. Get in the truck.” His voice is stern, and when he stands his tall body in front of mine to block my view and back me up, I stretch onto my toes so I can look over his shoulder. Cole’s attempting to pull Wade away, but he’s too focused on making Leonard hurt, to let him.
“Leia.” Garrett grips the top of my arms and shakes me ‘til I’m focusing on him instead.
“I gotta go help stop him. I need you to get outta here so I can do that.” Sensing the urgency in his tone and the worry in his eyes, I nod, backing away as he heads back into the brawl and helps Cole drag Wade off Leonard.
He’s not dead, he’s moving, and all the fighting around them seems to have stopped as Cole and Garrett hold Wade by his shoulders and he stares at the mess he’s made of Leonard on the ground. His chest is lifting heavily and his hands are covered in blood.
“Come on, you proved your point, Wade. Let’s get outta here.” Garrett looks at all the men, standing around them, with a cold threat as Cole leads his brother away from Leonard. Wade keeps his focus on me as they get closer and I want so badly to reach out to him.
“Come on, let's get you inside.” Caleb steps up from behind me, wrapping his arm around my waist, and as the anger that’s still left in Wade’s eyes turns to devastation, I hold my breath and wait for him to lose it again.
“I’m sorry.” He surprises me, wiping the blood from under his nose, and looking disappointed in himself, as he walks past me.
* * *
“Stay there.” Caleb forces me onto his bed by my shoulders before he heads back downstairs to join his family.
The atmosphere down there was tense as they all piled into old man Mason's office. Even Leonard, who I’m pretty sure should be in hospital, got carried in there by two of the bunkhouse boys with his arms over their shoulders.
“Shouldn’t your brother get looked at?” I ask Caleb before he leaves.
“Dad will have his doctor see to it.” He nods his head at me before he slams the door and leaves me alone.
I take out my cell and think about texting Wade.
He looked so sad when he left, and I want to know why this stupid fight broke out in the first place.
Does Leonard know about us? If he does, I’m pretty sure the whole Mason family is about to learn too.
I put my phone away and creep toward the door, checking the hall as I sneak back down the stairs to try and hear something useful.
Lucky for me the voices are raised so I can just about make them out.
“He fuckin’ started it!” Leonard defends himself.
“But why? He won.” A voice that sounds like Joe yells back at him.
“Speak.” Old man Mason growls.
“What have you got on Walker?” Leonard answers his question with a question of his own, and in my desperation to know the answer, I step closer to the office and peer through the crack in the door
“That’s what this was all about. He wanted to know what you had on Walker, and I couldn’t tell him because I don’t know,” Leonard snarls at his father from the chair he’s in. I manage to catch the look old man Mason throws discreetly at Caleb.
“It’s history.” He shakes his head.
“Don’t look like history to me,” Joe speaks up. “Funny, ‘cause Wade was askin’ me the same thing at the auction, a few days ago.”
“He told ya, it ain’t nothin’. That asshole’s just jealous. The wedding’s only a few weeks away, and we all know he’s got the hots for Leia.” Caleb shakes his head and pours himself a drink.
“I think this goes beyond a fuckin’ crush, Caleb, he was prepared to lose that horse of his, and we all know how attached those Carsons get to their rides. They treat their fuckin’ mules like family.” Leonard ain’t buying his brother’s shit.
“Leonard’s right, what's goin’ on?” Joe looks between his brother and his father and I’m too scared to breathe in case they hear me.
“I don’t have anything on Walker.” Mason takes a seat behind his desk and shakes his head.
“I smell bullshit.” Leonard struggles onto his feet, resting his hands on the desk and looming over him.
“Sit your ass back down, son! Ain’t nothing heroic in framing up to an old man, not when you just got your ass handed to ya in front of the whole goddamn town.
” Ronnie Mason slams his palm on his desk in frustration.
“You shouldn’t have made the fuckin’ bet if you couldn’t offer the stake. What were ya thinkin’?”
“I was thinkin’ I had him beat!” Leonard yells back.
“Will you keep your voices down? The girl’s upstairs,” Caleb reminds them all.
“There’s something going on that you two ain’t telling us.” Joe stands beside Leonard. “Leia Walker has never so much as looked in Caleb’s direction and now, within a year they’re getting married. What I see here, is history repeating. If you ain’t got nothing on Walker, what have you got on her?”
“I don’t think I need to pretend to you both that Caleb and Leia aren’t in love.” Mason looks between his sons. “But this marriage is happening. And Walker needs it to happen just as much as we do.”
“This is about that land, isn’t it?” Joe mentions, causing his other brothers to look puzzled.
“What land?” Caleb doesn’t seem so cocky when he realizes he isn’t the one in the know this time.
“It’s got nothin’ to do with it.” Ronnie barks defensively.
“Still, I doubt the Carsons would be so friendly with the mayor, if they knew about how the two of you conned their grandad into selling that land,” Joe points out, and now I feel like I might be getting somewhere.
“I bought that land fair and fuckin’ square.” Ronnie stares at his eldest son.
“Not without Walker's help, ya didn’t.” Joe shrugs back at him, before helping himself to a drink.
“Explain?” Caleb crosses his arms and stares at his father.
“It ain’t nothin’.” The old man shakes his head.
“Sounds a lot like something to me.” Leonard retakes his seat and waits for the explanation.
“You know how hard I’ve worked to build this place up.
We weren’t handed all this down from our ancestors like the Carsons were.
That family practically own everything east of Fork River.
Hank Carson was a respected man, had the whole damn town treating him like some kinda God.
” He lights up a cigar and coughs his guts up after he’s taken a toke.
“He was way too fuckin’ confident. I wanted some of that power, and I realized in order to gain it, I’d have to have something over the king of fuckin’ Fork River.
Walker was young back then. I met him when I was visiting your uncle in Utah, he was working for him at the time, trying to make his way up the company.
He had a young family. Leia was only a few years old, I think the other girl was on her way. He wanted to be somebody.”
“So…” Leonard pushes his dad for more.
“So I gave him the chance to be somebody.” Ronnie sniggers. “I paid him to do some digging, and find out everything there was to know about Hank Carson, and what came out of that investigation was quite fruitful.” I hate the way he laughs.
“I don’t see how this has got anything to do with land. What land is Joe talking about?” Caleb intervenes.
“There’s a pasture, between Copper Ridge and the Indian reservation, our land borders the north of it, and the Daloways bordered the south.”