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The nextSky stepped outside to a leaden dawn For a moment he stood on the porch of the brick duplex he shared with Jasper, gazing southeast, toward the hundred acres Bull had left him in his will The land wasn’t part of the Ri the ranch’s eastern border, like the heel of a boot Bull had bought the prihbor for what acy for the blood son he’d never acknowledged in life

Sky had ridden across the land in the past, ad-fed creek, never drea of the will he had yet to revisit the place He was still coift Bull Tyler had left him

Except for Jasper, no one else, not even Will and Beau, knew about the land At first Sky had questioned whether he deserved it Now he found hiood price, return the ation to the father who’d been too ashamed to claim him as his own He had his pride, after all

But the decision would have to wait This reed to ride out with Beau to look at the place where Jasper had been shot It was ti

He alking out to get the horses when Will hailed hiot to see what’s on the news!”

Spurred by the urgency in his voice, Sky sprinted across the yard to the house Will was already headed back inside “Hurry,” he said “The TV’s on in the den”

The co when Sky walked in

Beau, still rue of the couch, drinking coffee and staring at the television screen Will, freshly showered and dressed, handed Sky a stea cup

“Back to our breaking news story” The Amarillo newscaster was a fiftyish man with a bad toupee “For trial for murder, assault, and conspiracy, was found dead inside his cell thisThe cause of death has yet to be detern of foul play For o to Mindi Thacker outside the Blanco County Jail”

The curvy blonde looked as if she’d done her hair andpad behind her Her porcelain sht “The story’s still unfolding here, Bill A guard, , found Axelrod lying on the floor of his cell Paramedics were called, but the former sheriff was unresponsive He was declared dead at 4:43 a the medical examiner’s report, is that death was due to natural causes”

“Natural causes!” Beau sla his coffee “That’s a joke! Soot to the bastard before he could make a plea deal and talk”

“In his cell? That would take so,” Will said

“That doesn’t e is a likely candidate for high blood pressure or diabetes A switch in hisin his food, even some kind of injection if they could incapacitate hihhands”

Sky’s gaze rieve over Axelrod’s death—least of all Beau, who’d nearly gone to prison when the sheriff tried to fra Slade Haskell, Natalie’s abusive husband

“You know this isn’t over,” Beau said “Hoyt Axelrod died for the same reason Slade died, the same reason Lute and that poor little waitress died He knew too uts to save himself from the death penalty That’s why he had to be silenced”