Page 119 of Brands

That makes me proud that the only decent thing I did in this life was make you cross paths.

Take care of my little girl. I’m not going to live long enough to see my grandbabies, so make sure you give them the best life.

Or I’ll haunt your ass.

Clay

She crawls into the hospital bed with me, nestling into my good shoulder, and cries.

We both fall into an exhausted nap when Wade shows up.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but wanted to fill you in.” His dark eyes are sunken as he twists his hat in his hands.

“What does that bastard have to say for themselves?” Anger rages through me at how close they were to hurting my wife.

“She.” Wade pauses. “It’s a woman.”

“A woman rigged a charge to blow up a storage tank? Poisoned cows and killed others? What the fuck is wrong with her?” My fist bounces against my forehead in frustration.

He shakes his head hard enough one of his russet curls falls over his forehead. “I think there’s a bigger figure in the background pulling the strings. She didn’t know about the shit with Black Gulch, she was just hired to deliver packages.”

“Like you believe her?” I hiss, struggling not to wake up Libby.

She’ll find all of this out later, but for now, she, and our baby, need whatever rest they can get.

But when he nods, it pisses me off.

“How can you be so fucking sure that the person who could have killed my wife and child wasn’t behind this?” If I could stand, I’d be pacing.

Wade’s brows lift as he glances at Libby’s sleeping form. “Well, congrats on the rugrat. But I just know, okay?”

Anger is hard to control when it’s this volatile. This fuckingintimateto everything that’s important to me.

“Give me one good reason why I should believe you?” I’d be tempted to pin him to the wall by his collar if I could.

He lets out a long, painful sigh. “I owe her to find the truth. It’s the least I can do. She’s being blackmailed, and I need to find out who it is.”

I force my breathing to even as my palm covers my eyes. “Wade. I’m going to ask you one more time. Why in thefuckaren’t you throwing the book at her? It’s on camera.”

His shoulders shake with a ragged inhale. “Remember about twelve years ago?” he asks quietly.

My mind races, struggling to get past the chaotic events of yesterday.

But the moment slowly dawns.

A midnight meeting.

Me and Ford with shovels in a distant patch of ground at Black Rock.

Digging for hours to bury the truth.

“Yea. I remember.” There are a lot of skeletons buried on that ranch.

That was one of them.

“It’s her, Blue.” Wade’s walnut colored eyes darken. “I killed her father. That’s why I owe her.”

Epilogue

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