"You didn't care." Hunter stands. "That's worse. You sold yourself out to men who kidnap women and kids. Let your men stay here and help them. You put the people I love at risk, and for that, I can’t forgive."
He nods to Colten. Colten walks to the truck and comes back with a rope. The kind you use for heavy rigging. The kind that doesn't break.
Carson starts shaking. "Hunter. Hunter, please. I'll give you anything. I'll leave the state. You'll never see me?—"
"You're right. I won't."
My brother's voice is calm.
Colten throws the rope over the crossbeam of the gate, the one that now reads LAWSON RANCH in black iron letters. Carson stares up at it, and the sound that comes out of him is something between a moan and a prayer.
"This is for Paulie," Hunter says. "And this is what happens when someone betrays this family on our land."
I don't look away. None of us does.
Hunter gives the nod.
They string him up beneath the Lawson Ranch sign, and we watch until it's done. Until the kicking stops. Until the rope creaks in the wind and the only sound left is the cottonwood tree rustling behind us, where Paulie's stone sits warm in the afternoon sun.
Nobody speaks.
Hunter pulls his hat lower and walks to his truck. He turns back once.
"Bury him on the property line. No marker."
He drives off. Jett stares at the gate. At his name in iron. At the body hanging beneath it.
"Welcome to Lawson Ranch," he says quietly.
Colten claps his shoulder. I tip my hat to Paulie's stone.
And then we do what he would have wanted, we get to work.
The sun drops. The men dig. And somewhere on the south service road, I swear I see the glint of a dark sedan parked in the distance.
But when I look again, it's gone.
My phone buzzes.
Hunter: Romeo's running the plates. Just be careful, go straight home.
I pocket the phone and mount Seven. Ride the fence line one more time in the fading light. Sterling land to the west. Lawson land to the east. Paulie's stone behind me. The mountains ahead.
Someone is watching.
And whoever it is, better pray they're gone when Romeo gives me a name.
CHAPTER SEVENTY
Harper
Song- Until We Go Down, Ruelle
One Week Later…
"I'm so happy I could cry, Harper," Audrey gushes, placing her hand on my stomach.
I suck in a breath, faking my smile. We told them last week, and now I’m back here for lunch to keep up the lie.
