Page 114 of Westin

Everyone talks about justice. No one says what to do the day after.

“You told me up in the mountains that you and Diane weren’t reconciled,” he says.

My mind goes back to that conversation and how quickly I shut it down after he apologized. I’m happy to tell others that I’m sorry, but I’m not good at receiving it.

“Honestly, I didn’t know. I thought she was going to be fighting mad when she woke up. I did lie to her about us killing the Garrisons, but she forgave me for a lot, and truthfully, I wasn’t expecting it,” I say.

His throat bobs. I know he’s thinking that Keira did the same for him.

“So what’s really going on with Diane?” he says gruffly. “Turns out, I don’t know shit about what you’ve been doing.”

“Early last summer, I went to David Carter’s house and met Diane there,” I say, shrugging. “I thought she was pretty young, so I went home. But the next day, I went back and…well, all the men were gone, so we went upstairs.”

He stays as he is, both hands stacked on the saddle horn. “I remember you saying something about a girl last summer. I got confused, thinking she was someone else you used to run around with.”

“You make me sound like more of a whore than I was,” I say.

He shrugs. “Anyway, go on.”

I narrow my eyes at the burnt ranch house. “I kept going back. One day, I asked her to run off with me. She was supposed to meet me that night, on the hill over Carter Farms…but she never showed.”

His jaw twitches.

“The highway they’re putting in west of us, they need an access road through Carter Farms. The Garrisons agreed to stop it, but only if Thomas could have Diane. So, the night I was waiting for her, they picked her up and took her away.”

My chest hurts with regret at the memory.

A crease appears on Sovereign’s forehead. “I always wondered why she ended up with him. She didn’t seem happy when I saw her that day we went to Garrison Ranch.”

I clear my throat.

“She hasn’t said a word about what happened during that time,” I say. “I haven’t pushed her, but she’s different than she was before she married him.”

Sovereign’s eyes are unreadable. I know what he’s thinking. When he brought Keira here, she was timid from being with Clint. All I know is that she wasn’t physically abused.

“What does she do?” he asks.

“She fights,” I say. “She’s safe, but she still fights.”

“It’s possible it was just from living with Thomas,” he says, “but…it’s likely someone did something to her.”

It’s not what I want to hear, but I know he’s right. We stare out over the white fields for a while longer.

“I wish I could kill them again,” I say.

Sovereign nods. “I’d dig Clint up and shoot him every day if I could.”

He shifts his weight, and his horse starts moving up the hill along the property line. Rocky and I fall into step beside him. The wind whips through the mountain pass in the distance, shrieking and dying away, only to cry out again.

“I need to get her farm back and keep the access road from being built,” I say.

“They won’t build shit until spring,” he says. “I just put in an offer on Garrison Ranch. If they don’t accept, it’ll be auctioned, and I’ll buy it then. But they’ll accept.”

That doesn’t surprise me. It has been our plan all along to get ahold of the Garrison land once the family was gone.

“I’d like to make Kiera a shared partner on my portion of the ranch,” he says. “We need to talk about where that leaves you.”

“I’m thinking of liquidating,” I say. “Selling to you and putting my cash in the bank. Maybe using it for my own home.”

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