Page 213 of Unleashed
"I feel like I'm being watched," I say.
"You are," he says quietly.
The car sits for three more minutes. Then pulls away into the heat haze.
"I'll send the plates to Romeo."
I nod. But the feeling doesn't leave.
Around noon, we walk to the cottonwood tree on the eastern boundary.
Me, Jett, Colten, Xander, and three hands who knew him best. The stone is already there. Hunter had it made.
Paulie Vance.Sterling Ranch. Lawson Ranch.This land was his life.
He died on Sterling soil because men with no right to be here put a knife in an old cowboy who never raised a hand against anyone.
Securing this ranch was strategy. But this memorial under this tree, on land we ripped from the men who killed him, this is the real reason. Plant our dead in the earth and dare anyone to cross it again.
Jett places his hat over his heart. We all do.
"You were the best of us, Paulie," Colten says.
I crouch and press my hand against the warm granite. "We got 'em. Just like I said I would."
It's been nine weeks since Harper left. I won the rodeo, and the first person I wanted to call was her. Heartbreak is boring; nobody tells you that. The drama fades. The rage burns out. And what's left is long days bleeding into long nights with a stone in your chest you've learned to carry.
I miss her. I just miss her. I miss Paulie, too.
I put my hat back on and stand.
Hunter's truck rolls up the drive at four.
Colten and I are on the porch of the main house. Jett's inside, walking the rooms, planning renovations. Making this place his.Tate is going to take over full control of the original Lawson ranch while Jett moves in here.
Hunter parks, gets out, walks around to the back, and drops the tailgate.
Two of our men drag Carson out of the truck bed.
He's in bad shape. Hands bound. His face is so swollen you’d hardly recognize him. I think we’ve all taken our anger and grief out on him. He's been in a room somewhere on Sterling property for a few weeks now while we got the paperwork sorted for the sale.
Hunter grabs him by the collar and walks him into the yard. Plants him on his knees in the dirt, in front of the new Lawson Ranch sign.
Colten and I come down from the porch. Jett steps out of the house. We form a half circle around the man who gave his ranch to our enemy to take us out.
"Do you know where you are, Carson?" Hunter asks.
Carson spits blood into the dirt. "My ranch."
"Not anymore."
Hunter crouches and gets level with him.
"You took their money. You let them onto your land. You let them study us: our fences, our routes, our operations. You let armed men sleep two valleys from where my son lives." He pauses. "And when Paulie rode the fence line like he did every morning for thirty years, your guests put a blade in him."
Carson's face drains. Whatever defiance he had left dies in his eyes.
"I didn't know they'd?—"
