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"Scheme is a little harsh," Ben said

Colt whirled on him "What about Quinn? Does he know?"

"There’s nothin’ to know Just so that Tell, Dalton and I discussed"

"Since you’ve been squawking about wanting an equal say in the operation, this is the type of thing that oughta be discussed by all of us," Colt said

Pissed off, Ben shot back, "Like the acquisition of the Foster place was discussed by all of us? Or how about the acquisition of the Hackerly place? Or the acquisition of the Borden place? Or how about the separate section up north that Kade ran for a year? Were we part of that discussion, or did Carson and Cal decide to do that on their own? Oh, right, they didn’t even fuckin’ ask us" His gesture included Tell, Dalton, and Brandt "Any of us"

"Not the same and you know it, Ben"

"Bullshit Alls I know is that it’s perfectly fine for your families to add to your sections whenever the fuck you feel like it and run it as a separate operation But anna do that? It’s like we’re tryin’ to short shrift the entire ranch" Ben forced a slow breath, trying to drop his blood pressure fro point

Kane said, "I know it probably don’t ree with you And if you can get the Wetzler place, or part of it, and be fair to Rielle, then do it Me’n Kade won’t begrudge you"

"Well, it’s a moot point because Rielle has already sold it," Colt said

"What?" Ben, Dalton and Tell said at the same time

"When did you hear this?"

"Just this mornin’ from Cord and Colby We heard last week from someone at the bank Rielle was behind on payments and about to be foreclosed on So we stopped by to talk to her Pissed her off I’ve never seen Rielle like that Woun pointed at us Said she was tired of the McKay vultures pickin’ at her bones before she was even dead So we took that to mean you all knew about her situation, and h"

"Yes it was!" Dalton protested "We were just waitin’ for her to give us the go-ahead"

Colt shook his head "She said she’d hadn’t seenin on her So she sold it to soer on Ben "What the hell did you do? You assured us you had it handled with Rielle"

Ben threw up his hands "I did"

"Did you let her knoere serious? Or did you just ?" Tell demanded

"I told her we’d make the payments to catch her up and then we’d discuss division of property She said she needed tiave it to her"

Dalton stepped forward and poked Ben in the chest "It’s been three goddao What the hell have you been doin’ with your time? Goin’ to that bar in Gillette?"

He knocked Dalton’s hand away "Back off I didn’t have as et a loan for my portion and that took time" Jesus, he hated to adnature loan We’ve been dealin’ with Settler’s First for years" Tell’s eyes turned accusatory "Or are you in hock for soive you the money?"

His cheeks burned, not froo to Settler’s First because it’s pretty fuckin’ obvious that our cousins have so theuaran-da for a loan for some land that would be comin’ up for sale soon?" He jerked his thumb toward Colt "They would’ve known about it and acted on it So I had to go to the new bank And like I said, that took ti we didn’t have You should’ve coiven Rielle a down payivin’ her tiht outta that chunk of land Jesus I don’t fuckin’ believe this"

"Me neither," Tell said "This is your fault"

No one disputed Tell’s statement

Colt and Kane wandered to their trucks

"So you really ain’t gonna tell us where he is?" Brandt shouted

Colt faced Brandt, Tell and Dalton "Casper will contact you when he’s ready Let hi until Colt’s pickup was a black speck in the plu the hell outta here," Ben said

"Maybe you oughta call Quinn on your way horee with my brothers, Ben You should’ve handled this better and noe’re all payin’ for it"

Rage and regret formed a toxic cocktail and Ben knew if he stayed here another minute, he’d lose his mind This wasn’t solely his fault And fuck them all if they expected him to shoulder all the blame

But he knew he’d never hear the end of it

"These two are gonna tellthey kept from me while we clean up the shit piles in Dad’s house since he ain’t here for awhile"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>