Silas as far as Zeke was concerned. Still…I didn’t condone Zeke buyin’ that land from Griffen. If he wanted to invest in land so badly, he should’ve helped me.” He glanced across the paddock. “Times have been lean. Even twenty acres could’ve made a difference in my yearly yields. He chose revenge over family.”
Hearing West phrase it like that…Silas needed to temper his response. “Silas did the same thing at the rodeo. Entering the sheep competition because he wanted to prove his superior ranching skills.”
“Well, I gotta say, Silas did have those.”
Don’t preen.
“It appears that, like Zeke, you didn’t follow the path our families were set on that day in Denver.”
This wasn’t the first time this question had been asked, nor would it be the last. “I worked the cattle drive for six years, so it ain’t like I’m a greenhorn. When I signed on as a bounty hunter, I wanted the experience and skills. At age nineteen it’d been easy to overlook more years of sleepin’ on the ground, racin’ hell for leather to the next town on a moment’s notice because the thrill of the chase was worth it.” He paused. “Until it wasn’t. I did that for four years. I was ready to have a more settled life and stayin’ in one place appealed to me. I came here because my brother had put down ‘McKay’ on land for me, but none of it ever felt like mine because he had his own vision for it. He never listened to a damn thing I said or suggested.”
Zachariah grunted his understanding.
“That’s why I took the deputy job. But as much as Crook County needed a law presence in Labelle, I didn’t have any real power there. Only so much breakin’ up bar fights and settlin’ neighbor’s disputes. Until Labelle incorporates, it would’ve continued like the situation with Silas and the land: a part of it, yet not. I’d talked to Sheriff Eccleston about workin’ in Sundance as a deputy, and I might’ve done that had my brother not made me look like ten kinds of fool.” He swigged from the bottle. “How was I ever supposed to hold my head up in law enforcement around these parts? I’d always be the deputy who let his murdering brother get away—no matter how that ain’t even close to the truth.”
“You two fought? At the jail?”
“Like two wet cats in a burlap sack.”
“Why didn’t you send someone to the sheriff’s office in Sundance right after the shooting happened?”
“Who? I thought you oughta be told first. The one guy I relied on to get word to you fucked that up.” Jonas had sent Robbie to the trainyard to get word to Zachariah. Those idiots had put Robbie on a train to Gillette to tell West in person. Robbie had gotten lost so nearly twenty-four hours passed before Zachariah returned to Labelle. “I didn’t have anyone else to send to Sundance. And Silas was my brother. I never imagined he’d act so cornered.”
“I didn’t take the news well that he’d gotten away.”
“I never blamed you for that. I’m plenty pissed off at Silas for the chickenshit way he run off. For what he did to Dinah. To me. He even took my fuckin’ horse. Maybe your brother had a point about Silas not bein’ who he said he was.” He shifted his stance and sighed. “As family, we couldn’t see the flaws cause we’re too close to ’em and that’d force us to look deeper into our own.”
“Christ. Amen to that. Even Mary keeps yapping on about a blood feud. Especially after I got the letter with the money yesterday.”
Silas’s head snapped around. “What letter? What money?”
From inside his pocket, Zachariah pulled out an envelope and handed it over. The postmark on it read Cheyenne. Inside was a folded piece of parchment paper with the word SORRY printed in big black letters across the center. Silas passed his thumb over the bills. “How much is here?”
“One hundred dollars.”
“No shit.”
“I’m assuming it’s from Silas,” West said.
It wasn’t. Silas doubted Jonas had sent it either. Outlaws didn’t do things like that, lest they wouldn’t be outlaws for long.
Then his belly did a flip and he felt the whiskey rise up his throat.
Dinah.
She’d sent this to Zachariah. Out of guilt.
“You didn’t know about this.”
A statement. “No. I ain’t been in Cheyenne since I got snowed in back in February at a lawman’s conference.” He looked up as he passed the envelope back to Zachariah. “Are you