I shot Kyle a confused look. He sat back on the sofa, stunned. “What the hell were you two doing out there?” I was wondering that myself. The Lone Vale was a rundown excuse for a cabin that sat way out by the base of the mountains. It was a way station of sorts, a place for a horse and rider to stop while out breaking open watering holes for the cattle in winter. It had to be a hundred years old, but it was used on occasion and so we maintained it for emergency reasons only.
Perry’s cheeks went red. Will glowered at Perry. I was more than a little confused.
“We were there because…because Will wanted to—” Perry stammered.
“Shut your fucking face!” Will snapped, tossing off the blanket of nonchalance as he jumped up and over the coffee table, the flying tackle knocking Perry off his feet into the curio cabinet. Glass shattered as the two young males took wide swings at each other.
Mona yelped in fright. Kyle, Landon, and I shook off the shock and rushed into the melee, Landon grabbing Perry and hauling him not only off Will but across the room. Guess hockey players know a thing or two about fighting. Kyle jerked his younger brother to his feet, and I stepped in between the siblings to keep Kyle from adding to Will’s injuries. I pushed the incensed young man to the wall. Tiny bits of glass clung to his hair. His lower lip was split and his cheek already swelling. Guess young Mr. Yellow Horse also knew a thing or two about fighting even if he now had a bloody nose. I pinned Will to the wall with a hand in the middle of his heaving chest.
“What the ever-loving fuck is going on here?” Montrell shouted as Mona rushed off to find a broom and dustpan I imagined, but perhaps she was looking for her phone to call the sheriff.
“Okay everyone just settle the hell down!” I barked, my palm flat on Will’s breastbone. A terse moment or two passed, the room silent save for huffing men and the tinkle of glass shards tumbling to the floor. “Now, the first thing you both will do is apologize to Mr. Reece for using his living room as a boxing ring.”
“Sorry, sir,” Perry mumbled, blood trickling from his nose. Landon nodded and released the young man.
I glowered at Will. Kyle stepped forward, and I gave him a sharp look. He paused, but I could see the fury etched into his features.
“Your turn,” I told Will. He wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand but remained silent.
“Will, I swear I’ll—” Kyle began to say.
Will’s eyes shimmered with tears, ire, and belligerence. “You’ll what? Take a belt to me like asshole did?! Go ahead. Hit me!” Tears welled in his eyes.
Kyle stood amid the broken glass, eyes round, mouth slack. “I would never…”
Mona came rushing in with a broom and not the sheriff, thank God. We had enough going on here at the moment, things that, I sensed, were deep personal issues that did not require law enforcement. Not yet anyway…
Will jerked free of my hand, stomping over to a large window, his back to the rest of us. He sniffed a bit, his shoulders drooping for a moment then coming back up as his armor fell into place.
“Sorry, Mr. Reece,” Will said after a moment. “I didn’t steal your stupid cup though.” He turned around to face us, attitude back in place. “I don’t know what her problem with me is.” He jerked a thumb at Mona, sweeping away. Her brown eyes narrowed. “But it wasn’t me.”
“It’s your hoodie, Will,” Kyle softly replied.
I took a step, heard glass crunch, and stepped back. “Perry, tell us the truth about that night.”
Will spun around, his spine stiff, and fixed his attention on the Tetons. Perry swiped at his leaking nose with a bandana from his back pocket, smearing red all over his upper lip.
“It wasn’t him.” His sight flew to Will by the window. “We were…drinking.”
Will’s shoulders softened. I didn’t buy that lie for a damn minute, nor did Kyle by the looks of his rolling eyes, but we let it go. There was something powerful those two boys were hiding but now wasn’t the time to expose it. Things had a way of being brought into the light given time. Right now, we had a bigger issue than two hands sneaking off to get drunk, or whatever it was they were really doing at the Lone Vale cabin.
“Why would you sneak off when you’re both legal to drink?” Landon asked, dropping down beside Montrell, who was visibly shaken. Landon took then patted his husband’s hand.
Perry shuffled a foot around. “My grandfather made me promise to never touch alcohol.”
“Sensible man, your grandfather,” I stated flatly. “So our bigger problem is the fact that someone stole Will’s hoodie to frame him for this theft. Why? Will, do you have any kind of explanation?”
He glanced around the room then shook his head. “Not really. I mean…I guess I pissed off a few of the guys. Borrowed a book once.” I doubted that was all he had done, but I’d heard nothing of any problems from Perry, so I had to accept that as gospel. For now. “Look, I know you all think—”
“You have no idea what I’m thinking,” I interjected. Will tried to stare me down. He lost. “We have a thief among our workers. That is something that I will not tolerate on the Prairie Smoke. Now, the way I look at it we have a few options that we can—”
A high-pitched squealing tone filled the room followed quickly by a long static “chsushhhh” of a walkie talkie button being pushed. I stared at the mantle, happy to see one of the bright yellow long-range walkie talkies sitting in its charging base.
“Home base! Jibbery-jibbery-jibbery!!” Whoever was trying to contact us wasn’t Bishop, that much I could tell but little else. Whatever he had said was unrecognizable. Another squawking tone and more shouting came next. “Home base! Jibbery-jibbery-jibbery-jibbery! Poachers crackle-crackle-prof down! Help! Jibbery-jibbery!”
Then silence. The stunned kind of quietude as your heart drops to your stomach.
“Dear God,” I whispered then ran for the front door, boots grinding glass into the hardwood floors. Kyle, Landon, Perry, and Will followed me outside, each man racing to a pickup truck. I hit the brakes to gawk at the trucks, my mind suddenly unable to choose which one to get into.