Love on the Range (Brothers in Arms #3)(7)
“Bender? One of my cowpokes is in on this?”
“Yep, he was in on it. They’re forming a jury, and he’ll hang. We listened in on a plot to kill you, Hanson, Hawkins, and those of us on the RHR. We think there are more traitors on every ranch, because they couldn’t have hoped loyal cowhands would stand by while their boss was killed and someone else took over. So ride careful.”
That’s when she realized Judd was still holding her hand, and she quickly pulled it free. Judd looked between her and Falcon, then flashed a blinding white smile.
Then his smile faded as he really looked at Falcon. “You’re the image of Clovis Hunt. I was unlucky enough to meet him a couple of times.” He turned back to Cheyenne. “We’ve heard how he stole your father’s land from you, Cheyenne. And now here you stand with the son of the man who stole from you?”
Cheyenne felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over her. She just wasn’t up to a long explanation. “Falcon and Kevin are the brothers who were cut in. They’re both decent men and are doing their best not to profit off of the legal thievery in Clovis’s will. Falcon’s a fine man and a better tracker than I am.”
Judd arched both brows and looked longer at Falcon. “Is that so?”
“We’re getting married, and I believe that gets me a goodly chunk of my ranch back. Now, do you want a thousand more details, or do you want to find your stolen cattle?”
“Your father was of my people, as you are, Cheyenne. I’d come to your aid if you needed it. That’s true today and for all time.”
“Clovis’s will led to Falcon coming out west. That led to the outlaws being exposed. Falcon had no part in Clovis’s thieving.”
Sheriff Corly had taken the time to shackle Wells’s hands.
Judd noticed. “And this is one of the cow thieves?” Judd glared at him in a way that would make a stronger man than Wells confess to any crime he’d ever thought of committing.
“Hey, not me.” Wells raised his bound hands as if to protect his face.
“Yes, him,” Cheyenne said. “But he just joined them, probably after they’d done all their rustling. Though he was willing to throw in with them, so he’s guilty. But if he helps us, we might let him off with only a few years in prison instead of hanging him.”
“Hanging?” Wells’s hands dropped, his shoulders slumped, and his head bent down until his chin rested on his chest. Yes, he’d tell them everything he knew.
“Did my message make sense?” Cheyenne asked Judd. “Do you know where to go for your cattle?”
“I know the place you described, and I sent men on ahead of me. I’ll go join them.”
Cheyenne snaked out a hand and grabbed him. “Remember what I said about traitors. We think we’ve got the leaders, but watch for dry-gulchers, Judd. Watch real close.”
Her hand tightened on his wrist until he flinched. Her eyes drilled into him. “My brother is lying in bed with a bullet wound. These men are ruthless coyotes, so be on guard. Wells here is the second turncoat we’ve found among our men, and we thought we could trust them all.”
Judd nodded, his mouth a grim line.
She released him. He turned, leapt on his horse in a way so graceful Cheyenne felt like she was watching a cougar leap from the ground to a tree branch. The horse raced away, and Judd’s men went with him.
Behind him.
Cheyenne said a prayer for his safety. For the safety of everyone trying to straighten this out.
Falcon’s arm came firmly around her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Old friend?”
She looked into those hazel eyes and smiled. “He is an old friend, and a married man with, I think, three children. And I only know that because I’ve heard it around town. I haven’t seen him in years.” She leaned into that arm of his and said quietly, “I’m so glad I’m going to marry you.”
She saw the jealous flare in Falcon’s eyes calm, and he relaxed his grip.
She turned back to Wells. “If I need to beat a confession out of you”—Wells flinched and didn’t seem to have the force of will to break eye contact with her—“I’ll just think of my brother, wounded, feverish, only alive through the pure grace of God, and everyone here will need to get in line behind me. Now, tell us how long you’ve been mixed up with this crew and the name of every man on every ranch around here that’s part of it.”
“What did my father do to make Amelia Bishop, who is by all accounts a well-to-do, adventurous young woman with a powerful father, marry a poor choice like Percy Ralston and live in hiding for months?” Winona curled up in Kevin’s arms.
He couldn’t believe how nice it was to have such a fine woman as his wife. “I don’t like your pa, what little I know of him. Add in the things you’ve told me of him and how fiercely you refused to live with him, and I can believe he did something so terrible Amelia thought she had to run and stay hidden.”
Kevin felt bad that he and his beautiful new wife believed her father was capable of doing something awful. Kevin’s father, Clovis Hunt, had done something awful, so he knew just how she felt.
“Cheyenne said Ralston lied to Amelia,” Win said. “Convinced her she was still in danger. And seeing as he was a rustler, and he was stealing from my father, his motives were very personal.”