Honest Horseman (River's End Ranch Book 5)

by Cindy Caldwell

  She’d called Hank’s phone at least a dozen times, leaving the same message. “Call me immediately, Hank,” she said.

  Hours later, she stared at the phone. The thought that he might be hurt and unable to answer flashed through her mind but she fought it away. He’d always landed on his feet, and there was no reason for that to stop now.

  She glanced at the clock—almost two—and she knew she couldn’t wait any longer. Wyatt must have gotten hung up at the stables and forgotten about lunch. It didn’t matter, anymore. She’d wanted to present him with more evidence, but she couldn’t wait. After all they’d been through the first time, and the recent thaw between them, she wasn’t willing to take the chance of anything going wrong. She’d tell him what she knew, and they could go from there.

  Her hand was on the knob when she heard a knock. She took a deep breath, ready to lay everything on the table for him. She could explain about the knife, the fact that Hank was AWOL from Arizona and maybe they could come up with a plan.

  She open the door and Wyatt pushed past her, his face grim. He set a big, white bag from the cafe on the counter and headed over to the window that overlooked the west ridge. He paced for a moment as she opened the bag and took out the sandwiches.

  “Would you like one?” she said, holding out a wrapped sandwich in Wyatt’s direction. He was clearly upset, but she’d known him long enough to know that she needed to wait to find out. Even if just for a bit. Last she’d seen him, he was fine and happy. Maybe there was something wrong on the Ranch.

  “No, thank you. I’ve lost my appetite,” he said as he stopped and looked out the window.

  “All right,” she said as she set both sandwiches back down on the counter and sat on one of the stools. “I’ll wait, too.”

  She leaned elbows on the counter, her chin in her hands and did just that. Waited.

  After a moment, he turned, his ice blue eyes flashing in her direction. “Belinda, is there something you’d like to tell me?”

  She gulped and stood. He knew.

  “As a matter of fact, Wyatt, there is. I was just on my way to see you,” she said as she crossed the living room to the window and stood beside him. She took in a sharp breath as he recoiled, stepping away from her and holding up his palms.

  “Good. Go,” he said as he shoved his hands in his pockets and began to pace the living room. “Start with the part about you finding Hank’s knife and not telling me about it. That would be good.”

  Belinda sat on the sofa and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “I was going to tell you right now, Wyatt. I was on my way.”

  “Uh-huh,” he scoffed as he turned away. “Sure.”

  She stood and folded her arms across her chest. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him fume quite like this, and she supposed she deserved it.

  “You had plenty of opportunity, Belinda. You could have mentioned it right when you saw it. You actually turned white as a sheet but I couldn’t figure out why. I figured it was your hand. Stupid me.”

  “I wanted to tell you, Wyatt, I really did. But I couldn’t figure out why the knife was there. It could have been there for a long time, and I wanted to get more answers before I brought it up.”

  Wyatt ripped off his hat and flung it on the chair. He crossed his arms over his chest and braced his feet. “Why? So you could let him off the hook again?”

  She flinched at his words, as if he’d actually slapped her.

  “That’s not fair, Wyatt. You know I did what I thought was right at the time. He still to this day says he didn’t do it.” She’d explained she’d made the best decision she could at the time. He obviously couldn’t forgive her for that, and downright expected her to do it again.

  “And you still believe him, don’t you?” he said as he shifted his weight from one boot to the other.

  “Well, family is important, Wyatt. It takes a lot to give up on people, see them for who they really are, don’t you think?”

  He started pacing again and she sat back down on the sofa. This wasn’t how she’d thought this would go at all. If only she’d told him when she first saw it, this wouldn’t be happening. And if he was this angry about the knife, she couldn’t imagine what he’d say when he learned that Hank was actually in Idaho.

  She mustered up all her courage as she fought back her tears. “There’s more,” she said softly.

  He stopped short and turned toward her, his hands on his hips. “More?” he said. “Good grief, what more could there be?”

  “Why don’t you sit down, Wyatt, and we can talk about this calmly.”

  “Calmly?” he said through gritted teeth. “We’re way past that, Belinda. Just spit it out.”

  She coughed and rubbed her hands on her thighs as they’d begun to sweat, even through the bandage on her injured hand.

  “He’s here. In Idaho.”

  His eyebrows rose and he jaw fell open. “Hank? He’s here?”

  She let out a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Yes.”

  Wyatt let out a laugh and ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t believe this. How long have you known?”

  That was certainly not a question she wanted to answer, especially after all this. But she knew she had to. The possibility of making things right with Wyatt was slipping through her hands by the second, and if her brother was anywhere in grabbing range, she’d like to poke him in the eye. But she couldn’t. She needed to take it on the chin for both of them.

  “Well, that’s kind of a long story—” she started.

  “Make it quick, Belinda. I’ve about run out of patience.”

  “I heard this morning first thing from my Aunt Meg that he was here. She thought I knew. He’d been gone a couple of weeks and told her that I invited him. I was going to tell you that, too.”

  He held his palms up to her and shook his head, taking a step backward. “You were going to tell me. When?”

  “Well, now.”

  “And you knew this when you came to see me in the stables? And we made a lunch date?”

  She hung her head and tugged at her ponytail. This just couldn’t possibly get any worse.

  “Yes,” she said quietly.

  “Excuse me? I didn’t hear you,” he said, his voice rising.

  “I said yes. Yes, I knew. But I didn’t want to say anything yet, because—”

  “Don’t tell me,” he interrupted. “You wanted to wait for a better time. You wanted to wait to talk to Hank. You wanted to wait until hell froze over or Niagara Falls dried up. Or you wanted to wait until you could talk to him, buy his story and defend him yet again against the things he’s done and what he’s likely still doing.”

  “Now, Wyatt, we’re not sure...”

  He stared at her, blinking. “Are you going to sit there and tell me that you still believe he might not be doing this? His knife was up on the ridge, he’s here. I know that’s not damning evidence, but I’d wager Belle that there’s more.”

  “Wyatt, he’s my brother.”

  “You’re right. And turning a blind eye to the truth is best, then nothing can hurt you...unless it hits you like a Mack truck and then you have to sit up and listen.”

  He reached for his hat and pulled it on. He took a long look at Belinda and shook his head slowly.

  “I thought you were made of better stuff than that, Belinda. I see nothing has changed, no matter how much I’d wanted it to.”

  He turned toward the door and she followed, tugging at his elbow. “Wyatt, I can explain if you’ll just listen to me.”

  He pulled his arm out of her hand. He turned and met her gaze and she flinched at the look in his eye. His blue eyes clouded and he couldn’t hide the hurt in them. They pierced heart, and she took a step back.

  “Belinda, I can’t do this. The first time almost killed me. You’ve got to make your choices and I have to make mine. Good luck on your investigation, but I’m going to hand it off to somebody else. I just can’t do it. Not again.”

  He sla
mmed the door behind him and she leaned her forehead against it, unable to hold back her tears any longer.

  Chapter 18

  It was late afternoon by the time Belinda managed to get off the sofa. Her head throbbed along with her hand, and a pile of used tissue sat on the coffee table.

  She’d stared at the phone for hours, willing it to ring but it never did. Hank, Wyatt, nobody. The beautiful Copper Cottage was now like a prison—a big, empty drafty one—and she was lonely to her bones. Completely alone.

  Her hopes with Wyatt had been dashed in one fell swoop, once again by her brother. And he wasn’t even there to do it. She’d done a fine job of it on her own, on his behalf.

  She could kick herself. Why hadn’t she trusted Wyatt? They’d spent some very special moments together. Certainly he would have helped her figure this out.

  She had no doubt he would have, if she’d only been honest with him. Trusted him. Followed her gut and had him hear it all from her.

  Instead, she’d retreated, like she always did. Run. Hidden. Tried to solve everything on her own. Maybe that was the real problem...she didn’t really trust anybody but herself.

  Either way, it was too late now. Wyatt was done with her, for good this time. Whatever second chance she might have had was gone. Vanished into thin air. And she had nobody to blame, really, but herself. Again.

  She threw her phone on the kitchen island. She rubbed her eyes and fought off the urge to cry, to feel sorry for herself. That wouldn’t do any good, anyway.

  She hadn’t even updated her boss. She should at least do that before everyone on the planet lost faith in her, including herself.

  Her phone rang just as she reached for it and she gasped at the name on the display. Hank.

  “Where are you?” she said, without even a greeting.

  “Belinda? It’s me, Dani.”

  Belinda frowned for a few seconds, confused, before she responded. All the breath had rushed out of her lungs when she’d seen her brother’s name, and she fought to recover.

  “Dani? Are you back at the Ranch? How’d you get Hank’s phone? Where is he?” she said, all in a rush as she tried to catch her breath.

  “Calm down. He dialed and handed the phone to me. I thought I should talk to you first.”

  “Okay. Should I sit down? Is he all right?” she said out of instinct. She’d been responsible for him for years, and even though he’d been in Arizona for a few a long time, old habits died hard.

  Dani chuckled on the other end. “Yeah, maybe. To the sitting down part.”

  Belinda plopped down on a stool by the counter and leaned on her elbows, bracing herself for whatever would come.

  “Done,” she said.

  “I’m going to let you talk to your brother, but I wanted to let you know that there was a mudslide up where we were training. Fortunately for these poor saps who caused it with their gunfire, we were close enough to see. And pull them out.”

  She gasped and her hand flew to her chest. “You mean Hank was in the mudslide? He was up there shooting?”

  “Yes, it appears that way.”

  Belinda’s head dropped into her hand and she closed her eyes. “Is he all right?”

  “He appears to be, but we’ve got the Riston Hospital on alert. Our medic says it’s nothing too serious. His friends got it a bit worse than he did.”

  She pushed back the stool and started to pace. “Okay, so he’s fine. You sure he was poaching? Responsible for the shooting?”

  Dani lowered her voice. “Positive. I’ve been collecting some evidence while they’ve been tending to these three, but I know I’ll get more when we can get through a bit of this mud. Which I will do,” she said.

  “All right. I’ll call my boss and have him meet me at the hospital. What’s your ETA?”

  “Nobody’s critical, so we’ll be another half hour or so, at least. Things are a little unstable with the mud, and their jeep’s covered. Need to do a little cleanup. It won’t hurt them to cool their heels for a bit anyway,” she said, and Belinda could imagine her glaring at the men on the gurneys. Dani had never had had much patience or sympathy for people who did stupid things. It was one of the things she loved about Dani, and she wished she had a little bit more of that herself.

  “Okay. Including the flight, that should put you there in forty-five to sixty,” Belinda said. “I’ll be there.”

  “Great. See you there. Oh, and your brother wants to talk to you. I stepped away and he didn’t hear anything we talked about,” Dani said before the line went silent.

  Belinda took several deep breaths, preparing herself for her conversation with her little brother—the one who’d caused her such heartache.

  “Belinda?” he said, and her heart tugged as he sounded small and frightened, just like he had when he was a little boy. But that was long ago, and he’d turned into a wholly different kind of man.

  “Hank, are you all right?” she said softly, not able to quiet her care-taking instinct completely.

  “Well, they’ve been a little rough with us, to be honest.”

  “Rough? They saved your hides, didn’t they?” she said as she frowned.

  “I suppose,” he said and she rolled her eyes.

  “Hank, what were you doing up there? It’s dangerous. There’s been a lot of gunfire that way lately.”

  “Yeah, we’ve heard it but we had nothing to do with it. I swear, Belinda. Nothing at all.”

  She rubbed the back of her neck as she shook her head. She shouldn’t be surprised—apparently he wasn’t capable of telling the truth. Between the knife she found and what Dani had told her, she was certain this time that he was lying.

  “Hank, you’re not even supposed to be in Idaho at all without telling me.”

  “Aw, sis, I’m a grown-up. I can go wherever I want. No harm, no foul. They got this all wrong. You’ve gotta believe me,” he said as he added a slightly whiny pitch to his voice that had tugged at her heart long ago. The one he’d always used when he was cornered.

  “It’s a good thing you’re not hurt,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d tell Aunt Meg if something happened to you.”

  “Aw, she’s an old bat and you know it. Couldn’t wait to get away from her. Planning to come live with you again and was going to let you know as soon as this camping trip was over. You’ll come and get me?”

  Her heart sunk at his words. He really didn’t understand that he’d been found out, and he fully expected her to get him out of it. Again. And she knew her parents probably would have wanted her to. He was their darling little boy, after all.

  “All right, Hank. I’ll meet you at the hospital. Dani says you should be there in an hour and I’ll be there, too.”

  “An hour? I can’t wait that long,” he said before Dani ended the call.

  She walked to the hallway to grab her hat and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She cocked her head as her eyes were drawn to the Fish and Game emblem on her hat. She looked herself in the eye and said, “You may have lost Wyatt, Belinda Archer, but you still have a chance to save your self-respect.”

  She reached for her coat and her badge, clipping it on the waist of her blue jeans. She reached for her service revolver and stuck it in the back of her waistband, grabbed her keys, pulled her hat down over her forehead and headed out the door.

  Chapter 19

  Dani drug sleeve over her forehead, dried mud plopping on her boots. “It’s Hank, Wyatt. No doubt about it. They got stuck in the mud from the landslide. Their jeep is completely buried. Set it off with their gunfire. Idiots.”

  Wyatt unclenched his fists as he crossed the room to Dani. “Is he all right?”

  Dani clapped her hands together, more mud dropping at her feet. She was covered in it, and knowing her like he did, she’d done her best to get even Hank out of danger.

  She shook her head at her older brother. “I think you’re the only man I know who would ask that about someone who’s caused you so much heartache. Yea
h. He’ll be fine. But man, he caused a big ruckus. He and his friends shouldn’t be anywhere near guns—or mountains, for that matter.”

  Wyatt took a deep breath. “Does Belinda know about this?”

  “She does now. I just told her. She’s on her way to the hospital in Riston. The chopper went back to pick them up. I asked them to bring me here so I could tell you in person.”

  “Thanks, Dani,” Wyatt said. “Did she already know he was up there?” he said, his heart thudding at the thought that there may have been more she knew and didn’t tell him. His heart ached and he felt empty without her, and this would just be icing on the cake.

  “No, of course not. What are you talking about? She was as surprised to hear it as I was to find him, I’m sure of it.”

  He quickly filled her in about the knife, and Belinda withholding the information that her brother was, in fact, in Idaho.

  “Ah, I see. That’s why you thought she knew he was up there poaching.”

  “Well, it wouldn’t be too surprising, given the other information.”

  Dani stomped her feet and tried to brush the dried mud from her camouflage pants. “I suppose that would make sense, if you didn’t know Belinda.”

  Wyatt leaned against the wall of the stable and tipped his head back. “What do you mean?”

  Dani rolled her eyes at her brother. “For somebody so smart, you’re sure—well, dumb sometimes.”

  “Hey,” he said. “It wouldn’t be the first time she’s done something like that. As you well know.”

  “Oh, Wyatt, get over yourself. You know better than that.”

  He frowned and pushed himself from the wall, walking toward her. He pulled some clumps of mud from her spiky hair and dropped them on the ground.

  She batted his hands away and sat on a barrel in the corner of the stable.

  “All I know is she knew and didn’t tell me,” Wyatt said as he paced the stable floor.

  “She may have known it was his knife and he was in Idaho, but I can guarantee you she didn’t know he was here. I mean here, here,” she said as she pointed toward the west ridge.