Page 38 of Bernadette
“Yes.” He passed the glasses to Wilson, and he did the same thing.
“From the looks of it,” Wilson said quietly into the wind, but it was hard to hear because it was beginning to blow harder. “I’d say someone shot out the front leg with buckshot, there’s about fifty holes in the front left leg, at the angle it’s laying, I’d say the shot knocked the leg out from beneath him, he stumbled, breaking the other. If you look closely, there a hole in its forehead.”
“Shit,” DJ said. “Do you think Uncle Wyatt shot it?”
“If I had to guess,” Dillon looked at his son. “I’d say it was Aunt Morgan that did.”
“That’s going to go over like a ton of bricks,” Alex said. “Morgan loves animals.”
“But would she understand that she was putting it out of its misery? There would be no way a horse can come back from two broken legs. He’d never be the same again. One, maybe, it would depend on where the break was, and how bad, but again, they still wouldn’t be the same as before. With this being a working ranch, it would be like feeding someone that wouldn’t pull their own weight.”
“It might take some time, but I think so,” Alfie said. They all ducked when a series of shots went off, then from two different directions several screams rent the air. Bernie, Dillon, and Wyatt reached out to grab the brothers, and shook their heads.
“Male voices,” Wilson said, trying to convey the fact that the women weren’t hurt. They all froze when a light started blinking, and Bernie looked at the others and grinned. Dillon nodded along with her.
“All clear,” Bernie said, and climbed on the back of Wilson’s ATV as Dillon led the way down and over to where Morgan and Wyatt were.
CHAPTER15
Morgan lookedup and broke out into a sob when she saw her brothers, along with Dillon enter her and Wyatt’s safe area. The first thing she did was hug her siblings, then looked at Dillon.
“I’m sorry, but I had to do it.”
“If you’re talking about the horse, don’t worry about it. It’s all part of living on a ranch.” He hugged her back, then pointed to his brother. “What’s wrong with Wyatt?”
“I don’t know, I never heard the shot until after the horse stumbled. We were going at a trot, then all of a sudden, the horse’s front legs bucked, Wyatt flew through the air, and he’s been unconscious ever since.”
“What about you?” Bernie asked her as she stood behind Wilson, who had just entered the area, as he checked Wyatt over.
“I’m fine,” Morgan insisted.
“Sis,” Justin said as he gently took her chin in his hand and swiped his thumb over a spot near one of her temples, he brought it down and showed her the blood. “I’m not good at wounds, but I’d say a bullet grazed you, or a very sharp rock.”
Bernie went to her, gripped her chin, and moved her head in different direction. “Bullet,” she said matter of factly, and nodded once.
“He’s unconscious,” Wilson said, then smirked at Morgan’s expression. “I know you know that, but I said it for the benefits of the others. I’d say that both his shoulder and collarbone are broken. He’s going to be out of commission for a while. You did good with the horse. From what I saw, both front legs were broken.”
“He was shot with buckshot, I think it’s sixteen gauge.”
“What time did this happen?” Dillon asked and everyone looked at their watches, and saw it was after ten o’clock at night. They hadn’t left the compound until almost seven, or shortly there after.
“Three this afternoon. It wasn’t until we were getting ready to leave this morning that I told Wyatt about telling Lucas where we were.”
“You made good time, but I’m sorry you were holed up for almost seven hours.”
When Morgan didn’t say anything, Bernie studied the other woman, and scowled. “Out with it,” she didn’t mean to bark the words, but that was the way they came out.
Morgan stiffened, then sighed heavily. “It took an hour and a half for me to get Wyatt in this little canyon here. I had to keep stopping and throw myself on top of him when the shots were fired.”
“Someone was fucking with you, then.” Bernie nodded, and looked up as the other women entered the area. Six women all shoved three men in front of them. Bernie didn’t know if she should yell, or laugh at the fact that the men had their hands tied behind their backs, and what looked like dirty socks sticking out of their mouths. She looked down and saw that each man only wore one shoe, while the other foot was bare of both sock and boot. She walked closer and saw they held their other shoe in their cuffed hands. Without saying a word, and behind the backs of the men, she grinned at the women. She turned back in time to see Dillon pull an arm back, ready to hit one, if not all, of the men cuffed.
She had to jump out of the way when the Stuart men lurched forward to stop him. “Stop,” Justin said. “You don’t want them to get away with what they’ve done. If they say they were attacked while cuffed, their case could be thrown out of court.”
Dillon looked at Justin in horror, and jerked away from him. Dillon’s breath pumped out of him like a freight train trying to make a steep hill, and he only glared at the three men. His look made the blood in Bernie’s veins freeze, his words were worse.
“We know who you work for. He’s not coming to save you.” Then, he turned on his heel and walked away, but not before turning back, and saying to the women. “Get them out of here. Take them over to sit next to the dead horse. Let them think about what’s going to happen to them when they end up behind bars. If their boss can get to someone behind bars in a different state, he can get to them here.” As soon as he said it, everyone looked down in shock as they watched the three men piss themselves at Dillon’s words. That was when Bernie realized they could get a lot of information from these men before the police arrived. It would be at least two, possibly three hours before help arrived, and Dillon didn’t mention any names. He only referred to the person as their boss. She hurried as fast as she could to follow Dillon out, and the others must have realized what she was thinking, because she saw Astrid gather some items from the pack on the back of one of the ATVs.
“Dillon, wait up,” Bernie called after him.
