Chapter 22 Late Night Stroll
LATE NIGHT STROLL
Wyatt
Two beers deep and Oliver walked in looking mad as hell. My brothers and I had come over to have some beers and hang out, play catch-up, since Rowan had been kicked out of his house so Aspen could have a girls’ night.
“What’s going on with you? You should’ve been back an hour ago,” Rowan stated.
“The fuckers next door! I know they’re fuckin’ cuttin’ my god damn fence down near the gully.
I need to get it on video to send to the cops before I take it into my own fuckin’ hands!
” Oliver bellowed, making me glad Mom had Hudson tonight.
Oliver never lost his cool in front of his son, so this was a rarely seen side of my big brother.
“Woah. Sit down, have a beer, and tell us what you’re talking about,” I said calmly as I handed him the beer I just opened.
Oliver plopped down in his recliner and snatched the beer from my hand, drinking half of it in one take, his eyes staring off into the distance at nothing.
“Okay, so is this the Dunagan Ranch again?” Rowan asked.
Oliver nodded slowly, his eyes still staring off at nothing.
I looked around the room and realized, for once, it was me not in the know of it all. “What do you mean?”
Rowan sighed. “The ranch next door is owned by the Dunagans. Dad used to have some issues with them back in the day, but that was with the brother who, I guess, is gone now?” He shrugged.
“But the last few months, the fence that keeps our cattle in keeps getting cut down on the west side. We’ve repaired it three times now, and Oliver wanted to put a camera down there so we can see who the fuck is doing it, because it’s always the same spot, whether cattle is out there or not, and we always get them back, so it isn’t like they’re hauling off our boys. ”
I swallowed down the comment that it was Ember’s family. She’d changed her last name for a reason, and I didn’t believe it was because she and the family were all that close. I’d told Mom about her connection to them, but my mother was a vault of secrets for us when needed.
“Well… let’s go get it fixed,” Theo said as he stood up and smiled. “We’re not doing anything else, right?”
Oliver cracked a half smile, which was normally as good as you got with him. “True.”
We all finished our beers—probably not the most responsible move—and gathered new wire, gloves, and clippers to go out and fix the fence. I even grabbed a small camera to put in a tree or something for Oliver. Whatever we could do to fix this issue for my big brother.
As we walked out—deciding in our state that it was better than hopping on a horse or driving—Rowan smirked when he saw the camera.
“What? Do you just carry an array of stalking equipment with you whenever you’re out and about?” he asked quietly.
I rolled my eyes and nodded. “Never know when you’ll need one. Especially when my brother is you.”
He chuckled. “Very secret agent of you.”
“Shut up.”
We walked in silence as Oliver stewed, Theo was giddy to have something fun to do, and Rowan and I were just along for the ride. Ten minutes of walking and the fresh night air at least sobered us up quite a bit.
As we walked down the small hill, I flipped my flashlight on and stared at the ruined section of fencing.
Oliver had been right. It was definitely cut with wire cutters and nothing else.
It wasn’t as if this had been a bull getting feisty and throwing himself into the fence.
The wire had been cleanly sliced and tucked towards the opposite side.
Oliver sighed. “Fuck people piss me off.”
He and Rowan set to work, Theo throwing in a helping gloved hand as needed, and I held a flashlight on it while using another to look around for a good spot for this camera.
“Oliver, you said it’s this same section every time, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” he grunted as he started unwrapping the old wire and setting it to the side.
“Theo, come hold this,” I muttered.
As he took the flashlight from me, I walked up the hill a way and found the perfect spot for it. Suddenly thankful I spent so much time climbing trees as I hefted my ass up on a low-hanging branch to navigate where I could safely nail this thing into the side of the trunk.
“Did you bring your mini tool kit, bro?” Rowan asked with a laugh.
Pulling out the kit that was the size of my hand from my back pocket, I smirked. “Yes I did. Mini hammer and all.”
They all laughed, but within three minutes, my mini hammer had that camera mounted, and I checked my phone to ensure it was active and in a good spot—night vision and all. Fuckers could laugh all they wanted.
Rowan and Oliver finished with the fence pretty quickly after that, and we gathered up the old wire and wrapped it up tight so Oliver could dispose of it.
We were about to head back up the hill when the sound of crunching leaves stopped us in our tracks.
Turning off the lights, we looked around and listened as the steps came closer to the fence, but it wasn’t until the soft mumbled fuck, sounded that I clicked on the flashlight and held it to the spot of the fence we’d just fixed.
A tall kid with red hair stood wide-eyed, staring at us. His hair was cut short, and he was in baggy jeans and a black t-shirt. I didn’t need to ask to know who he was.
“Elliot Dunagan.”
His eyes turned to me, and he squinted as the light hit him directly in the eyes. I guess he didn’t get the brains of the family.
Elliot didn’t get a chance to speak as Oliver took a step closer to the fence.
“Get the fuck off my property or the next time you see me, it’ll be while you’re handcuffed and unconscious.
” Everything about Oliver’s tone screamed just how serious he was, and still Elliot said nothing.
He nodded shallowly and turned back towards the Dunagan Ranch.
Oliver turned back to me, an arched brow. “How’d you know his name?”
I cleared my throat. “Case I’m working on.”
Rowan’s eyes widened. “More like chick he’s stalking.”
“Would she have anything to—” Oliver began, but I cut him off with the wave of a hand.
“Not even close dude, not even close. I do, however, want to find out if he’s connected with his father at all.
” It could all be nothing, but with his father actively stealing from Ember, and her brother out in the woods being a sketchy little fuck, I’d be an idiot not to wonder if it was connected.
Oliver nodded and let out another sigh.
“Well, that was fun. I vote we go get drunk now,” Theo said with a boisterous laugh.
“I second that!” Rowan added as he threw his arm over my shoulder, and we started walking back to Oliver’s house.