Page 28 of Reckoning with the Cowboy
“If you leave now, you should be able to get here by dark. I wouldn’t dally if I were you.”
The man didn’t know how close they were to the turnoff to the homestead. Nor would Grimes know about what had been found up the road if the coroner had already taken the body into town. They already knew that it wouldn’t be much of a crime scene given how long ago it had happened. The cops also already had a pretty good idea of whose remains they’d found—and who’d buried their mother there.
“I need to hear Josie’s and Goldie’s voices to make sure they are all right,” Max said as he waved off his brother’s demand to know what was going on.
“Don’t trust me, huh? Hold on.”
Max listened as a door opened. Moments later, Goldie came on the line. She got out a few high-pitched words before Grimes gave Josie the phone.
“We’re fine,” Josie said, almost making him laugh. He knew better than anyone that they were far from fine.
Grimes came back on the line. “Satisfied?”
“We’re on our way.” He started to tell Grimes not to hurt either of the women. He started to threaten him. Instead, he saved his breath and disconnected without another word and turned to his brother.
“Grimes has both women at the homestead.” His brother started to ask how that was possible since he should have been in jail. He quickly explained, seeing how scared Cordell was for Josie, before he tried to soften the blow. “He apparently doesn’t know about the remains found past the homestead. Nor does he know that we are already down here in Wyoming. We have the element of surprise since he isn’t expecting us until dark.”
Cordell didn’t look all that relieved. “I swore I would never set foot on that homestead ever again.”
“Look, if you—”
“I came back from Florida because I knew this had to end.” He let out a bitter laugh. “I guess I also knew where it would end.”
* * *
Max wished hehadn’T brought his brother down here, but he knew in his heart that the only way he could have left him behind was locked up in one of the cells. Nor, as hard as it was to admit it, he didn’t think he could stop Grimes on his own. The hardened criminal had both women. Max was well aware of what the man was capable of doing to them.
As he drove toward the turnoff to the homestead, Max also admitted that he was guilty of still thinking of Cordell as a kid. His brother’s antics growing up had made him think that Cordell would never grow up. A part of him still felt that way, right or wrong. Cordell had driven almost straight through from Florida to Dry Gulch to warn him, making him wonder what he’d been thinking.
“You know you should have just called to tell me about Grimes.”
“Seriously?” his brother said now. “Do you really think I wouldn’t come back, knowing you were in danger and needed me?”
Knowing that Cordell was risking his life for him upset Max. “What were you doing in Florida anyway?”
“The weather? The Gulf? The lifestyle? I had a job working for a private detective doing stakeouts. It was a good-paying gig.”
“So, you wouldn’t have ever come back if you hadn’t seen Grimes on TV?”
He felt Cordell shoot him a look. “Are you trying to pick a fight?”
Max cursed because he had been. “I just feel like I don’t know you anymore.”
“I haven’t changed, if that’s what you’re thinking. But if you’re worried about me not being able to back you up—”
“I’m worried about getting you killed,” he snapped. “We could be walking into an ambush. Hell, even if we’re not, this won’t be easy.”
“You said he doesn’t know we’re already down here,” his brother pointed out. “We’ll have the upper hand. This is good news.” Cordell had always been like this, seeing the best outcome in every situation, every person he stumbled across.
“It’s Cordell’s superpower,” their landlady, Iris, always said. “He’s determined to enjoy life believing the worst is over.” She’d looked at him over the top of the glasses perched on her nose. “It’s not a bad attitude.”
What she’d meant was that Max could be a little more like that. Instead, he realized that he’d been waiting his whole life for the other shoe to drop, for things to get worse, knowing it was just a matter of time. And he’d been right. The shoe had dropped. He’d always feared that what he’d done that night with his brother’s help was going to come back on him. Now it had.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cordell stared out the window as his brother drove the narrow highway, terrified of what they would find once they reached the homestead. They hadn’t passed a town in hours or seen a house in fifty miles. The terrain outside the pickup windows had flattened and become barren. The wind howled, pelting the truck with dirt as the high desert stretched out endlessly ahead of them, filled with nothing but sagebrush in this desolate part of Wyoming.
With each mile, he felt revulsion at the thought of returning to the place where they had grown up. His only good memories were after they’d moved to Dry Gulch. Still, it had taken him a while to shake off the past. His nightmares had always been about Roger coming back to life.
