“Uh ...in the barn, on the charger.”
“Fuck.Is there a reason it’s not in your vehicle, where it’s supposed to be?”
“Yeah,” my brother sasses.“Because it’s charging in the barn.”
“No shit, dickhead.”
Wyatt tears around a corner and I swear we get air over a few bumps and a cattle grid or two on the way to the east pasture.I have to clutch the “oh shit” handle more than once.Twenty minutes later, we grab flashlights and a shotgun from Wyatt’s truck.I hold the barbed wire apart for Wyatt to climb through the fence, and then he does the same for me.A few moments later, we’re following Wade’s flashlight signals.Colt and Cash are already on scene, and as far as I can tell, there’s no one else here.Then it dawns on me, there’s supposed to be fifty head of bred heifers in this field.
“What the fuck happened?”I ask.All three men point their torches over the pasture and all I see are red, white, brown, and cream bodies lying on their sides, not breathing.
“I don’t know,” Wade says, shaking his head.“I was out clearing my head, took the ATV because the weather man said it might rain, and I drove past the herd looking like this.”
“Fuck!”
“Could be bloat,” Wade says.
“All fifty of them?”I ask.
“Could be poisoning,” Cash adds.“Alfalfa?”
“We don’t plant that shit,” I snap.
“We don’t,” Colt says.“But what if someone laid it down after dark?”
“Wouldn’t the trail cams pick it up?”Wyatt asks.
I shake my head.“We don’t have any in this field.”
There’s a long pause as we all take in the utter decimation of so many lives, then Colt says quietly, “How many men in the bunkhouse know that?”
I frown at my best friend.“You think this is an inside job?Who would be stupid enough to bite the hand that feeds?”
Colt spits.“Let’s go find out.”
“We need to call your brother first,” I grumble and glance at Cash.“Get his team out here.”
Rhett Williams is an old teammate from high school, and now, a Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) special ranger.He’s an asshole, but I think that’s why we understand one another.
“Wade, you and Cash are staying under the stars tonight.”
Wade’s head snaps in my direction.“The fuck?”
“Don’t fucking test me on this, brother.”I get up in his face.“If our cattle have been poisoned, this is a fucking crime scene.”
“I’ll stay,” Colt says.“If we cut the fence, I can back my truck in and sleep in the bed.”
“Your wife is pregnant.You’re not staying out all night.The less Mama and my sister know about this, the better.We don’t need them worrying.”
“Shouldn’t weallbe worried?”Wyatt says.
“You,” I point to Wyatt.“Drive me home so I can call Rhett.They won’t send a team ’til the morning.”
“Sooo, I guess Cash and I will just sleep on the ground, then?”Wade calls to my retreating back.
“I want you both awake and alert.Wyatt, give him your shotgun.”
“I bought my own.”
