30
W e slam into the Wolfingtons’ trailer so hard we leave the screen door hanging by a hinge. I’m on edge and ready to destroy whoever is fucking stupid enough to put their hands on Ruby. I haven’t slept since she’s been hurt.
Her attack sent me into a dark, deep tailspin, questioning why I couldn’t protect her. My daily nightmare come to life. I’ve barely been able to entertain the what-ifs of what could have happened that night.
What if she was hurt? What if she was taken from me?
Never. I’ll never allow anything to happen to her.
Lionel Wolfington’s in the living room, sitting in his recliner, wearing only his underwear. The cigarette drops from his mouth as we come in blazing.
Clyde bolts for the kitchen.
“Aw, man, don’t be rude.” Whip-quick, ready to go immediate Old West on these morons, Wyatt grabs the back of Clyde’s neck and slams him up against the wood-paneled wall. “You’re leaving when we just got here.”
I scan my eyes around the trailer where they grow their shitty shotgun weed. It reeks of piss and cigarette smoke. Beer cans litter the linoleum. There’s a fridge in the living room.
Adrenaline hammering in my veins, I step in front of Lionel. Davis slides in next to me. Ford hangs back, arms crossed. Our typical MO ever since we were kids fighting in the cornfields.
“What the fuck, Charlie?” Lionel snarls, picking up the cigarette he dropped. “Don’t you got enough problems on that ranch of yours?”
Clyde laughs, looks at Ford. “Talking about you, man.”
Ford flips him the middle finger.
I kick the footrest of Lionel’s recliner, snapping him into a sitting position. Adrenaline, rage hammer in my veins. Davis gives me a look to cool it, but I ignore him. This is Ruby we’re talking about, our brother. Fuck letting this go.
“I got problems, now you got problems,” I assure Lionel grimly. I lean in, resting my hands on the armrests, trying to keep a lid on my anger. “You wanna tell me where you were three nights ago when my brother got the shit kicked out of him and my girl was attacked?”
Lionel chuckles. “Someone got the jump on Wyatt’s ass?” He settles back in the recliner, a smug look on his face. “Good for them.”
Wyatt, still pinning Clyde to the wall, glares. “Man, fuck you. You ain’t gonna be laughing when Charlie puts your ass through the window.” Then he glares at Davis. “Told you. They’re too stupid to get the jump on us.”
“Man, is this an interrogation or what?” Clyde moans, his voice muffled from Wyatt’s face plant against the wall. “I’ve already been to the slammer this year. I can’t have another delinquency on my record.”
“Talk,” I demand of Lionel. “Because you’re this close to getting the beating of your life. Where were you?”
To my surprise, Lionel’s face colors and he averts his gaze.
“Spill it,” Davis orders. “Charlie isn’t feeling so nice right now. His girl got hurt, and I’m half tempted to let him kick the shit out of you for answers.”
A long silence, then ...
“We were in Billings. At the craft show.”
The edges of Wyatt’s lips twitch. We all stare at Lionel as if he’s just admitted to first-degree murder.
Ford makes a sound of disgust. “We’re gonna believe him?”
“Why would he admit that?” Wyatt argues.
Lionel shifts in his recliner. “Why would we attack Wyatt? We got beef at the bar, nowhere else.”
“Even with Sheena going around saying that bullshit about Wyatt?” Ford asks.
Lionel lets out a cackle of laughter. “Man, that is water under the bridge. We knew the next day that Wyatt didn’t touch our crazy cousin.”
Wyatt’s confused eyes flick to mine.
“Then who the fuck cut her hair?” Davis asks impatiently.
“She did it herself.”
“Christ,” Ford says at the revelation.
Lionel ashes his cigarette on the carpet, twists in his chair to look at Wyatt.
“You wouldn’t fuck her, right? That’s Sheena.
When she doesn’t get what she wants, she destroys.
” His face clouds. “She flushed our sea monkeys down the drain when we were kids because hers died and ours didn’t.
” A shrug. “She thought she’d fuck you over. Make you squirm.”
“How do you know that?” I snap.
“She fessed up.”
Ford steps forward and stares at Lionel. “Why?”
“Fallon,” Clyde says, and Wyatt looks as surprised as I’ve ever seen him. “She cornered Sheena at the House of Hair. Waved some shears around, shredded every chair in her shop, broke every mirror, and told her to tell the truth. Set things straight in Resurrection or else.”
Lionel laughs. “I thought Sheena had fangs, but Fallon, that woman’s as mean as a snake.”
Wyatt, sucks in a breath, stiffens. “Watch your fucking mouth,” he snarls, smashing Clyde into the wall like he’s a ball of putty.
“So, nah, man,” Lionel says with a smirk. “We may want to put Wyatt in a headlock more often than not, but we wouldn’t hurt your girl.”
“You better be telling me the truth.” My hands ball into fists. “If I find out you’re lying, I will put you in a fucking grave. Do you understand me?”
This time, real fear flickers in his eyes. Good. This motherfucker better get it through his head that I’d kill him, plain and simple.
Lionel, suddenly looking tired, runs a hand over his buzzed head.
“Look, we got shit going around our ranch, too. Someone broke into our barn and let out all our livestock. It took us three days to round up our cows. I heard DVLs been creeping on the south side. Coming into town late at night. Wrecking shit.” Lionel gives a dry laugh.
The thin mustache on his upper lip twitches.
“So, you better lock up what you still wanna own, because these cowbozos from the suburbs are shaking down anyone they can.”
“Those bastards are trying to run us off our own damn land,” Ford says, anger shining in his eyes.
“It’ll get worse,” Clyde says, suddenly sounding like the smartest guy in town.
An image of Ruby crumpled on the floor of her cottage flashes in my mind, and a chill goes through me.
“They’re right,” Davis says. “I talked to Sheriff Richter and other ranches in the area. Billy Mayson found rattlesnakes in his barn. Vendors are collecting early because DVLs putting the pressure on them.”
“Truce then,” I say, crossing my arms. My gaze pinballs between Wyatt and Lionel. “Until we get this shit handled with DVL, no more pranks.”
“You’re the last sons of bitches I’d expect to partner with, but ...” Lionel stamps his smoke in the ashtray, gives me a nod. “Truce.”
“We have the same goal,” I say. “Protect our ranches, our animals, our people.”
“And tell us where our goddamn horse is—”
“Jesus Christ, Wyatt,” Davis and Ford shout in unison.
I turn to my brothers. “C’mon. Let’s get out of here.” I want to get back to Ruby, not stick around here and bullshit with these idiots.
With a flip of his middle finger, Wyatt snatches a beer from the fridge by the door. “See ya, assholes.”
Lionel’s voice stops us at the door. “You wanna know where the horse is? Fine, I’ll tell you, so I don’t have to kick your ass every weekend at Nowhere.
” Wyatt snorts. Lionel continues. “We took her. It was a joke. We meant to give her back, but ...” Something dark flickers in Lionel’s eyes and he looks down at his lap.
“Our ma sold her, okay? We needed groceries that month and ...well, we didn’t know what else to do. ”
A stunned silence coats the room.
Wyatt clears his throat. “Well, fuck.”
I look at Lionel, sitting there in his recliner, looking embarrassed as hell. And I get it. I don’t like the guy, but I understand. Desperate people do desperate things, because when I look at Ruby, I feel the same way.
“Now get the hell outta here,” Lionel snaps, suddenly looking like the asshole we’ve always known.
We climb back into the truck, Davis at the wheel, Ford and Wyatt in the backseat. “That was a bust,” Ford drawls cheerfully.
“Tell me about it.” Wyatt rolls down the window, lifts his beer in the air. “Least I got a party favor.”
Davis shakes his head. “If it’s not the Wolfingtons, it’s DVL.”
A muscle clenches in my jaw, and I inhale trying to keep my anger at bay.
We should have seen this in the first place.
The bones found on the ranch, the vendor shakedowns, the attack on Ruby and Wyatt.
That was all DVL. They want to scare us away from the ranch, bully us into selling. Take over Resurrection for good.
Over my dead body.
As my brothers pick apart what just happened, my phone rings. I grab it up when I see Ruby’s name on the screen.
“Charlie?” The tremble in her voice has me white-knuckling the phone.
“Ruby, you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just ...” She exhales a breathy sigh. “Look. You can’t kill anyone.”
I growl, not liking where this is going. “Out with it, Sunflower.”
“It’s Colton. He’s the one who attacked me.”
Her revelation’s like a shock of cold air in my lungs. Then, after I digest her words, I frown down at the phone.
“And how do you know that?” My right eye’s beginning to tic.
She hesitates. “I asked him.”
I inhale deep down into my lungs to force away the rising panic. “Baby, tell me you’re not in the same room with the guy.”
“Okay,” she says in a small voice. “I won’t.”
“Ruby, get the fuck away from him,” I growl. “We’re on our way.”
“Charlie—”
“Baby. Go. Now.”
Davis rips the truck out of the gravel drive.
“We’re in the barn,” she chirps like it’s nothing, like my heart isn’t hanging on by its last thread, then ends the call.
“ Fuck .” I tear a hand through my hair and look at Davis. “We got a problem.”