Cowgirl Up and Ride (Rough Riders #3)(112)

“Do you want me to hide in the barn until Colby leaves?”


“Fuck that. I’m sick of this hidin’ shit. I think it’s time we told everyone the truth about us—”


“Cord!”


They turned to see Colby running toward them.


A sick feeling churned in AJ’s stomach. Colby. Running.


“You gotta come. Dag had an accident.”


“Dag? What the hell happened?”


“We ain’t sure.”


“He okay?”


Colby shook his head. “He’s dead.”


Shock hung in the air.


AJ said, “Go on, Cord. Be with your family. I’ll take care of the horses.”


Neither he nor Colby said another word as they climbed into Colby’s truck and roared off.


Chapter Twenty-nine


Four days later…


Cord sat next to his brother Carter in the church basement after Dag’s funeral service. Everyone was somber, still in a state of shock over Dag’s death.


Sometimes a tragedy will pull a family apart. But it had the opposite effect with the Wests and McKays, by putting an end to the rift between them. Carson and Cal and Charlie McKay and all of Dag’s male McKay cousins—less Cam who was in Iraq—were pallbearers right alongside the eight West cousins.


The church had been packed with family, members of the community and lots of young rodeo cowboys. They’d all been holding up fairly well until Dag’s buddy Trevor Glanzer brought the traditional riderless horse to the funeral procession of cars headed to the graveyard.


In the last four days, Dag’s father, Harland, aged twenty years. He refused to let his daughter, Chassie, out of his sight. Cord’s mother shooed Chassie away to give her a much needed break from her father’s overwhelming grief, and Carolyn stayed beside her grieving brother. The only other time Cord had seen his mother so distraught was two years ago when Colby nearly died from a rodeo injury.


Cord’s gaze swept the table. Carter and Macie. Colby and Channing. Keely. Kane and Kade. Chase McKay and his older brothers Quinn and Bennett. Cash Big Crow.


Trevor. But Trevor went to comfort Chassie and they disappeared outside. Cord imagined it wouldn’t be much longer before he’d be hearing another set of wedding bells. Better that than the somber tones of a funeral dirge.


Colt was conspicuously absent. He’d been at the service and the burial, but no one knew where he’d gone afterward. No one said it, but everyone knew his brother was drinking someplace. And of all the stupid f*cking things to do…drinking was what’d gotten Dag killed.


Dag had still been half-drunk from a hard night of partying when he’d started chores Saturday morning. The assumption was Dag passed out on the tractor, drifted into the ditch where the tractor flipped on top of him and crushed him. Luckily Trevor discovered Dag that afternoon, not Harland. God knows that would’ve killed his uncle and they’d be having a double funeral.


Ranching was a dangerous life. Fatal accidents happened all the time. Not in their family in recent years. And not because of a bad decision that could’ve easily been avoided.


A f*cking senseless waste of a life.


Jesus. He couldn’t believe Dag was dead. None of them could.


Voices murmured. Cord loosened his tie and Keely caught him looking at his watch.


“What time do you have to leave?”