Calvin Hernandez had never been so viscerally aware of someone before in his life. The ranch was now crawling with officials. A full contingent of livestock inspectors was on-site taking blood samples from the dead stock. The vet was there with his three assistants and had eventually called in a colleague to look at the results in order to make a final decision on the poisoning. There were official vehicles everywhere, and every one of Cal’s ranch hands had mounted up to begin the laborious and depressing task of dragging livestock out of the woods to be examined.
Jesse was still there helping out. She had continued to ride Mora even though the high-strung mare had nearly dumped Jesse half a dozen times during the process of dragging dead livestock. The mare was young. Cal had broken her himself, but she wasn’t necessarily a good fit for ranch work. Jesse had been determined to prove him wrong, of course. And Jesse was patient and had a gentle hand with a horse. It was one of the things that Cal had admired about the woman from the time she was a young girl.
“I think we’ve got everyone but Brutus out of there,” Jesse said as she rode up and reined Mora to a halt right beside Cal. “You going to mount up and give us a hand with that bull?”
Cal slapped his cowboy hat against his thigh. He couldn’t speak. When it came to the death of Brutus, he was too depressed to even consider what had happened to the old bull. Cal could only shake his head and rail bitterly against what was, apparently, a casualty of his family’s war with the Flying W.
“Cal?” Jesse’s voice was soft. She sat quiet in her saddle and sighed. “I’m sorry about your bull. I know Brutus was one of your favorites. I get that. But we need to get his body out of there before it becomes cougar bait.”
“I know.” Cal couldn’t help it. His words came out grumpy. That was just how he was feeling right now. “I’m just sick and tired of this crap! I’m tired of Captain Paul Weatherby getting away with murder just because he’s a cop!”
Deputy Ortiz and Deputy Perkins were standing nearby with their heads together. Cal wondered what they were talking about. He’d called them back out to the ranch when it had become apparent that the stock had been poisoned. But there was no telling how they would classify this mess. And it was most certainly a mess.
With a deep sigh of frustration, Cal mounted his horse and followed Jesse back into the trees. There were already two cowboys dallying ropes around Brutus’s horns. Cal watched Jesse drop a loop in her rope. Her face was set in concentration. He knew that roping was not her strong suit, but she’d been practicing and trying like hell to be proficient enough to be useful on a ranch for years now.
When that loop settled neatly around Brutus hind legs, Cal felt an immediate sense of pride in her work. She played it down, but he could see the big smile she was trying to hide.
“You going to help?” Jesse teased. “Or are you just going to sit there being surprised that I can do this stuff?”
“I’m not surprised.” Cal dropped a rope over Brutus’s front feet. “You’re the most competent woman I know.”
“Oh, woman!” Jesse shot a glance at the other two cowboys. They were already laughing and pointing at Cal. “Did you hear that, guys? Cal says I’m pretty good for a girl!”
The four of them dallied the ropes tight around their saddle horns and angled their horses to pull. It was tough to get the bull’s enormous bulk moving. But once they did, it was possible to head back toward the spot where the vet had set up shop.
“Of course, Cal doesn’t know many girls,” Jesse told the cowboys. “Or maybe he just said that because he didn’t want the two of you to quit and leave him here to haul this bull carcass around on his own.”
They were all three laughing and joking together now. Cal didn’t join in. He felt saddened by the task they were doing, but more than that, he was disgusted by everything that was going on right here on the Hernandez ranch right now. And when they finally got Brutus to the veterinarian and his assistant, Cal decided he’d had enough.
Dropping his rope, he spurred his gelding away from all the drama and headed for the top of the hill. Once there, he finally felt as though he could draw a deep breath. He’d been sitting up there letting his horse lip the grass when he heard hoofbeats behind him.
“The vet agrees that it was nitrate poisoning,” Jesse said quietly as she halted Mora right next to his gelding. “They’ve got samples of every animal we could find. Without a list or some kind of inventory, it’s impossible to know if there are more out there.”
“Fortunately, it isn’t catching,” Cal said bitterly. He turned to look at Jesse. Her blue eyes were troubled. He had to stop and appreciate the fact that she realized what was at stake here. “The brands had been changed. Did you see that?”
“I did.” She stared off into the distance. There were still low-hanging clouds over the mountains. Soon it would start raining again. The sun had already been covered in clouds, and the temperature was dropping again. “That means it’s a good thing they took Brutus. Surely they didn’t actually mean to provide you with an animal that would absolutely corroborate your story that these were your stock to begin with.”
“The other mistake is in poisoning them.” Cal pulled a toothpick from his T-shirt breast pocket and put it between his lips. He needed something to do to keep his mind from going off the deep end. “You can hide an animal once it’s been slaughtered. When you flip it over, you can see what brand was on there first.”
“Maybe it’s time to start freeze branding,” Jesse mused. “It’s more expensive, but if this is what’s going to happen with standard old-fashioned branding, then why bother?”
“Good point,” Cal murmured. “I suppose we could look into it. There’s no harm in looking into it.”
“What’s really bugging you?” She sighed and reached over to flick the brim of his hat.
He reared back to keep her from knocking his hat right off his head. It was a bit of an obnoxious move, but it was also a reminder of when they’d been younger. Cal knew she was trying to get a smile out of him. He appreciated the gesture even if it was a bit of a miss.
“This is all wrong,” Cal growled. He looked over at her and then swept his hand out to encompass the whole ranch. “That ass has us running scared on our own ranches. He’s murdering our stock, stealing whatever he wants, and basically making us look like idiots.”
“What are you suggesting?” She gave a laugh. “That we should go on the offensive?”
“Why not?” Cal burst out. He grabbed hold of his reins so tightly that his horse half reared. “Why not run over to the Flying W and open up all of their stock pens, chase their horses up to the peak, and then laugh while we watch them scramble to hold it together.”
“But that isn’t us,” she argued. Her brow was furrowed and she looked frustrated. “Believe me. I’m as sick and tired of this crap as you are! I’ve been listed in this region as a suspect for livestock theft for months now. Every single time I sell a horse, no matter whom it’s going to, I have to establish with a notary and a livestock inspector that the animal is mine to sell. It makes me look like a crook. And Aria Callahan is going through the same thing at Clouds End Farm! She sells horses to buyers all over the country. She lost a sale in Texas last week because the guy heard a mysterious rumor that the horse was stolen.”
“So, why are we letting him set the pace?” Cal snapped. He spun his horse around and pointed down the hill to where Brutus was now lying there with half a dozen people in scrubs poking at him. “Weatherby and the Flying W are screwing with us. I say we screw with them back.”
She rubbed her hands down her face. Her mare had finally settled down, and now even Mora was looking at Cal as though he were crazy. Finally, Jesse threw up her hands. “What would you suggest?” she demanded. “Come on! Tell me what you think we should do. Is there a plan or a thought in your head about what this potential offensive looks like?”
“Yeah.” Cal’s brain was spinning like a top. He could not believe he was suggesting this. He felt like a teenager on Halloween. “We can go over there and screw things up for them the same way they do for us.”
“Whoa!” She shook her head emphatically. “I’m not hurting any animals, and shame on you for suggesting it!”
“I didn’t”—he realized that he sort of had suggested that—“That wasn’t what I was getting at. I don’t mean we go poison their stock. I’m saying that we need to think of something to keep their asses so busy that they don’t have time to bother us.”
“Oh.” She sat back in her saddle, and her expression turned distinctly curious. “Well, now. That could be fun. Although I’m not toilet papering the ranch house. That’s just wasteful!”
Cal actually laughed in spite of the tension he was feeling in his gut. “I don’t remember you thinking that when you were in high school.”
“Yeah, that’s because I didn’t actually have to buy the toilet paper back then,” she retorted. “That totally changes your opinion, you know?”
She started to say something else, but they both heard the hum of a four-wheeler approaching. It was Deputy Perkins. The ATV stopped a respectful distance from the horses, and Perkins sat for a moment as though he was trying to collect himself.
“Nitrate poisoning,” Cal offered flatly. “That’s what you’re going to say. Right?”
“Yeah.” Perkins looked uncomfortable. “The wildlife guys are going to have to go after the cougar.”
Jesse looked incensed. “Why? Nitrate poisoning isn’t contagious like that.”
“The vet isn’t one hundred percent sure about what it is when ingested.” Perkins sighed. “Although I don’t know what they think they’re going to do. I believe it’s more of a concern about what happens when a cougar gets a taste of domestic beef.”
“Crap.” Jesse groaned. “That poor cat. It’s not like they can give it fluids to flush its system or something. I just hope they relocate it instead of killing it.”
“That’s the plan, to my knowledge.” Perkins paused for a moment. Obviously, this was not his actual reason for coming up here. “We looked at the brands. You’re right. These were most definitely your cattle. They’ve been branded over with the Flying W. I’m not exactly sure how to handle this.”
“Because Weatherby is a cop,” Cal grumbled. “Yeah. We’re getting a bit tired of that.”
“What about internal affairs?” Jesse suggested something. “I know it’s kind of a television thing, but can’t you call some kind of internal investigative branch from the state governor’s office or something? This is getting ridiculous. The man is making it nearly impossible for anyone but him to do business on the front range!”
Perkins actually looked a bit confused. “You know, we could file a complaint from our sheriff’s office. The Flying W is technically in our jurisdiction. Weatherby doesn’t have jurisdiction on his land. He’s always been given some leeway because that’s what cops do for each other in the law enforcement community, but this situation right here kind of blows that out of the water.”
“So, do something,” Jesse moaned. “Please?”
“Just so you know.” Perkins was busy reshaping his hat in his hands. Obviously, he wasn’t looking forward to this next bit. “The local Denver-based livestock inspector is getting tired of this bullshit between the ranches. He’s about ready to slap fines on all of you and be done with it.”
Cal nodded. “I had a feeling they would start questioning whether or not they needed to go outside the region for the livestock contract.”
“But that’s millions of dollars they’d be paying to some outsider!” Jesse protested. “Is the board really going to do that just because one rancher is acting childish?”
Perkins and Cal were both nodding now. Perkins cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, yes. It’s time to end this. All of it. The Hernandez Land & Cattle Company, the Collins Ranch, Clouds End Farm, the Flying W, and even the Farrell Ranch need to get their acts together and learn to get along.”
“Maybe it’s time to have a direct discussion with Weatherby himself,” Cal mused.
He had never really considered that option. At this point, it was about the only one left open to him. He could go talk to Weatherby without his father’s mouth and big boasts getting in the way. Joe Hernandez was still in the hospital. Maybe it was time for his sons to take this opportunity and settle some things once and for all while the grumpy old grizzly bear was out of the way.
“Thanks for your help, Perkins,” Jesse told the man with a smile. “I know it must suck to get stuck out here trying to investigate crimes that don’t make sense.”
“Speaking of that crime.” Perkins replaced his hat on his head. He gestured to Cal. “What can you remember about last night when that stock got dropped off?”
“The smell,” Cal murmured. He began to nod. “It had to be silage in the bottom of that trailer. Maybe they coated the whole trailer in nitrate-heavy feed. That stock would eat, even if it wasn’t much. The smell was bad enough that the stuff had to be loaded with rot.”
“Did the trucker look like he realized what was going on?” Perkins wanted to know. There was still something in his expression that suggested he really wanted to go after that trucker.
Cal was heavily aware that the poor guy in the driver’s seat was too far under Weatherby’s thumb to be of any use to them. “I don’t think the driver knew squat. If he had, he would have been trying to get that stock off his trailer before they keeled over right there. I thought they’d just been up there without water for too long. They were walking like they were drunk. Staggering a bit, falling down, that sort of thing.”
“So, they were already dead when they walked back onto your property,” Perkins muttered. “I’m sorry for that, Cal. Nobody likes to see their stock misused and thrown away like that. It just burns, especially when it’s a good bull.”
“Weatherby couldn’t have known they took Brutus,” Cal decided suddenly. “He would realize that it might tip our hand against him.”
“Then, maybe I’ll focus on that,” Perkins said thoughtfully. Then he tipped his hat to them both. “I’ll be in touch.”
Jesse and Cal both nodded as he headed out. Then once the ATV was far enough away that they could hear each other think, she pointed at Cal. “You’re going to go try to talk to him. Aren’t you?”
“I think I have to.” He couldn’t imagine any next step that did not include that as a major part of it.
She got that mulish expression on her face once again. “Then, I’m coming with you.”
“Fine by me.” He winked at Jesse. Everything in life was better with her there by his side anyway. He certainly wasn’t going to turn her down now.