Bede shrugged, took out another fold of bills, and began fanning himself with it, one fold of bills in each hand. Perhaps this was done in an effort to be amusing, or to distract Galen from what was laid before him now. Three plastic bins of drug money that he was being told was for his own use. And the very handsome, dusty man whose eyes and smile were asking Galen to be pleased about it.
Galen stood up, swiped his hair back from his face, and swallowed just to get some spit in his mouth. There was a breeze from somewhere beyond the open tent flap, but it failed to soothe him.
“I can’t take this money,” he said, hoping his tone made it quite plain how impossible this all was. “It’s drug money. It’sbloodmoney. I can’t take it.”
“What do you mean you can’t?” Bede stood up as well and shook the bills in Galen’s direction, like he thought seeing the money up close would persuade Galen to take it.
“It’sillegalmoney.” Galen’s voice rose, becoming tight as he ground out each word.
“Well, what do you suggest I do with it, then?” asked Bede. He spread his hands wide in a what-the-hell-do-you-mean gesture, and meanwhile, several bills, twenty and tens, it looked like, fluttered to the wooden floor of the tent.
“I went all the way to Denver to get this so you wouldn’t lose the farm,” said Bede. “That’s the important thing, right?” When Galen didn’t respond, Bede repeated, “Right?”
Galen was on the verge of saying,Take it back, take it right back, so they could act like this never happened, even though he could never unsee it. Bags of money, drug money,bloodmoney, in a circle on the floor of his tent, and Bede smiling like it was normal. When it was not and never could be. What had he been thinking to get mixed up with a drug dealer?
But before Galen could bend down and start shoving the money back in the plastic bin, a shout came from outside the tent. Galen went to pull back the tent flap and saw Marston standing there, looking sweaty and hassled, which was quite unlike him.
“Horses got out,” said Marston. “The wire on the pasture was loose somehow, and now they’re across the river. Get dressed and come help.”
“You got it,” said Galen, stepping back into the tent as Marston dashed off.
The interior of the tent looked all shadowy, with Bede only an outline, and the pile of money only a suggestion.
“What do you expect me to do?” asked Bede, his voice rising to a shout. “Turn it over? I’d be cited for breaking my parole. I’d need to hire an attorney with money I don’t have, and it’d take months for an appeal. Either way, I’d be sent back to jail.”
Galen briefly thought of Alice Marie Brenner, Leland Tate’s attorney on retainer, but dismissed that as she wouldn’t want to represent Bede. Or would she?
But that was beside the point. Bede was currently on one side of the law, and Galen was on the other. Their worlds were too different. Their hopes and dreams and futures were wide apart and could never meet. He’d been a fool to fall in love.
And hehadfallen in love. Hard. With Bede’s strong arms and steadiness, with the laughter they’d shared, dips in the lake. Oh, how quickly their minds had met and how quickly their hearts had entwined. And now he’d have to give it all up.
There were more sounds outside, heavy footsteps on the path to the paddock. They’d need to saddle up whatever horses hadn’t gotten loose and cross through the river below where the rocks created natural low waterfalls.
“Get dressed,” said Galen, shoving his legs into blue jeans. “I must have left some wire too slack.”
“This isn’t your fault,” said Bede.
“Yes, it is,” said Galen. His face felt numb. “All of it is.”
“What are you going to do with the money?”
“It stays here,” said Galen with a small snap, looking at Bede’s blue eyes and the worry there. “You gave it to me, so it’s mine. Help me shove it under the bed.” He sighed as he tugged on a t-shirt and then grunted as he pushed the first bin neatly under his cot. “No sense making it worse than it is when someone comes by and sees all this.”
Bede leaped to do his bidding, shoving the other two bins into hiding, then draping the sheet from the cot over the edge so everything looked tidy and neat. Innocent.
Galen felt the sweat on the back of his neck as he finished dressing, then grabbed his hat and stomped out of the tent. Bede was close behind him.
Bede wasn’t wearing cowboy boots, so he would be one of the men helping to guide the horses back into the paddock, or making sure they didn’t shoot off into the trees or, heaven forbid, follow the Yellow Wolf River all the way up the canyon to Aungaupi Valley. Then they’d never get the horses back.
The work of rounding up the horses would settle him, as work always did. But as he strode to the paddock and grabbed the first horse he saw, and saddled and bridled it, the back of his mind churned. Bede had meant well, but they were too different for the relationship between them to continue, and that was, quite simply, that.
Still, Bede had come into his life. Bede mattered to him, made him feel good, in all kinds of ways, in ways he’d not felt for a long, long time.
He had no idea what he was going to do, but he was going to do his best to keep Bede out of it.
Chapter 36
Bede
