Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
CASH
A fter perusing a couple of maps and deciding on where they wanted their forever home to be, Cash walked Wilder to their quarters—which he liked the sound of—and then went to fetch Billy from his room.
When he opened the door, his face shuttered.
“Let’s talk,” Cash said. “Come with me.”
He led Billy wordlessly to Lain’s office, where he waited after the talk with Wilder. Cash still hadn’t really explained what happened, and it was as much a feeling as fact. Billy had never liked Wilder, so why wouldn’t he take the opportunity to make sure he left for good?
“Take a seat,” Cash said as he himself sat in one of the chairs across from Lain, pulling the chair out a bit so it was facing Billy’s chair more than Lain’s desk.
Billy sat, looking warily between them. “What’s up?”
“Tell me why you told Clyde that you dropped Wilder off at the bus stop two nights ago, when you really dropped him off at the motel in town.”
Lain looked at Cash. “Wilder stayed at the motel two nights ago?”
“Yeah. He was thinking about leaving. He’d already changed his mind by the time I got to him—which I would have done even quicker if Clyde hadn’t wrongfully thought he was at the bus stop.”
“Clyde must’ve just gotten confused, that’s all,” Billy said coolly.
“You told him Wilder said he ‘couldn’t stand being here anymore.’ Wilder says that wasn’t true at all. He never told you that.”
“Then Wilder’s a liar!” Billy snapped. “He’s already a murderer. It can’t be that hard to believe that he’d tell a lie to make himself look better.”
Lain scowled, and Billy blanched.
“I mean—look, he said he was gonna take the bus out of here. So what if I got a little mixed up about where I dropped him off? It doesn’t matter anyway, right? He’s still here.”
“It matters because you lied. You’ve wanted him gone since the moment he arrived.”
“I don’t like him,” Billy said mulishly. “That’s no secret. I thought maybe y’all would realize he didn’t belong here anymore after his saddle accident, but even that wasn’t enough to change anything.”
“You thought…” Cash said slowly.
“Wilder has always belonged here, Billy,” Lain lectured. “He’s my brother. This is his home.”
Billy shook his head with a gusty sigh.
The wheels in Cash’s mind were still turning. “Billy, did you have something to do with Wilder’s accident?”
“What?” Billy blustered. “No!”
“I sent you away from the group,” Cash said, thinking back to that day. “I sent you to check on the horses. And then Wilder’s saddle fell off during the ride.”
“You can’t seriously think I had something to do with that,” Billy said.
“You really think?” Lain asked.
“It’s certainly a strange coincidence I hadn’t noticed before.”
Billy glanced between him and Lain, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. “I… I… Maybe Wilder just put the saddle on wrong that morning. It had been a long time since he’d ridden, y’know.”
“Wilder didn’t put the saddle on that morning,” Cash said calmly. “I did.”
Billy’s shoulders sagged, and his gaze fell.
“You loosened his saddle,” Lain said.
Billy buried his fingers in his hair. “I just wanted you to see that he shouldn’t be here.”
“That wasn’t your call,” Cash said.
“You weren’t here when he went down for murdering his dad, boss,” Billy said bitterly. “The whole town was changed by it. It was the first murder in Roselake in a hundred years. It was all anybody could talk about.”
“I was here,” Lain said slowly. “I was here when it happened. I was here while the ‘whole town’ looked at me with pity. I carried injuries from that night for weeks, and for the first time in my life, people actually saw them. They noticed the marks my dad had put on my body, where they’d once politely ignored them. This whole town let us down, and my brother was the only one who stepped up to protect me that night.”
Billy didn’t raise his gaze from the edge of the desk. After a beat of silence, he said, “I’ll collect my stuff from the bunkhouse.”
“I think that would be for the best,” Lain agreed. “Wilder is about to be part-owner of this ranch. If you have this kind of problem with him, I don’t see how you can continue working for us.”
“Just like that, huh?” Billy asked.
“Holding on to these harsh judgments hurts you more in the long run, Billy,” Cash said. “I suggest you find a way to let go of this anger.”
He could imagine, maybe, how shocking it was to hear that his sister’s boyfriend had killed someone—and not just anyone, but his own father. If the whole town had turned a blind eye to the abuse going on in the Blackwood house, maybe it truly had shaken the entire community when it all came to a bloody, violent head. And it was easier to blame the killer than to take a look at themselves and wonder why they’d refused to see the rot in their own neighborhood. And Billy, who’d been an adolescent at the time, had probably heard the adults discussing this over his head and seen his sister’s first heartbreak and internalized that Wilder was somehow the one most deserving of blame.
None of that excused what he’d done, though.
“Wilder could have been killed that day,” Cash said.
Billy sighed, pushing himself to his feet. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t mean for him to fall like that. I thought maybe the saddle would come loose right away. He’d fall down, be humiliated, maybe he’d hold us up for a few minutes tightening it back up. I’d have pointed out how badly he must’ve put the saddle on the first time around and felt smug about planting some doubt about him in your heads. I never thought he’d fall like that and get hurt.”
Cash didn’t think that was worth very much at all, actually, but Lain inclined his head politely.
“I understand,” Lain said magnanimously. “Unfortunately, Wilder’s place is here. That wasn’t ever going to change.”
“Yeah,” Billy said under his breath. “I guess I should’ve known.”
He slipped out of the room without another word, leaving Cash and Lain to stare dubiously at each other.
“I had no idea he had such complicated feelings about Wilder,” Lain finally said.
“I think this whole town has complicated feelings about Wilder, boss,” Cash replied.
Lain chuckled wearily, running a hand through his hair. “You’re probably right. Has… Has it been bad? Has he been having a hard time?”
“I think that’s probably something you should ask him. He keeps his feelings pretty close to the vest most days.”
Lain arched a brow at him, looking remarkably like his brother. “You’re saying you don’t know?”
Cash waffled. “No. I know some stuff. I don’t know how much he’d want me to tell you, though. I think it’d be better for both of you if you asked and gave him a chance to tell you himself.”
“But he has had some trouble?”
“Of course, boss.” Cash tried not to sound too exasperated. “He did eight years in the state pen for murder . People remember that. And he’s got those tattoos now, which doesn’t really help matters.”
“I’ve wanted to ask him about them so many times,” Lain said with a sigh.
“That is definitely something he’ll have to tell you himself.”
“But you know? What they mean and why he got them?”
“I do. He told me. That’s not something I’m willing to share unless he allows it.”
Lain nodded. “That’s fair. He’s entitled to his secrets and to share them when he wants.”
“I’m glad we agree.” It was an intimate moment when Wilder had shared that story, and Cash wouldn’t repeat it. Wilder didn’t trust easily, and Cash had worked too hard to earn it just to squander it so readily.
Lain stood. “I’ll have the new papers drawn up this week, and then you two can get started on your plans.” A slow smile grew into something giddy and excited. “I’m—I’m really glad you two found each other. You seem well-matched, and I couldn’t think of a better man for my brother.”
Cash shrugged one shoulder shyly. “I think I’m the lucky one, really.”
Lain clapped him on the shoulder as he rounded the desk. “That’s exactly why you’re the one for him. He deserves to feel wanted like that.”
Cash didn’t know what to say. He was certain his face was aflame.
More than anything, it was nice to finally have Lain’s blessing to be with Wilder. Everything was finally out in the open, and no one had any more secrets. He could finally love Wilder out loud like he wanted.
And he couldn’t wait to get started.