Lou stopped.
“What?”
“Not all his cattle were his.”
The wind moved through sage.
Emmett continued.
“He bought distressed herds cheap. Sometimes legitimately.”
“Sometimes?”
“Sometimes cattle crossed property lines and came back wearing Circle P marks.”
Lou stared.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“Did you help?”
“Once.”
The answer hurt more than she expected.
Emmett did not soften it.
“One night. Thirty head. I was twenty-nine and tired of being broke.”
Lou folded her arms.
“What changed?”
“One calf still had half the original mark beneath the fresh iron.”
His voice dropped.
“I knew the family it belonged to.”
“What did you do?”
“Put them back.”
“All thirty?”
“Twenty-seven. Three had already shipped.”
“And Ash?”
“Found out.”
Lou understood.
“That’s why you left.”
“He offered money first.”
“Like now.”
Emmett looked at her.
“Yes.”
“And when you refused?”
“He suggested accidents happen in remote country.”
Lou breathed slowly.
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because every time I came close, I thought you’d hear the first part before the rest.”
“That you helped him.”
“Yes.”
Lou turned away.
She hated that she understood.
Understanding did not erase anger.
“You let me trust you without knowing.”
“I know.”
“Do I know everything now?”
Emmett’s silence lasted half a second too long.
Lou turned.
“What else?”
He removed something from his saddlebag.
A folded paper.
Ash’s job offer.
Forty-five dollars.
Foreman’s house.
Winter guarantee.
Signed.
Lou stared.
“I told him no.”
“But kept this.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because on the back he wrote something he shouldn’t have.”
Lou unfolded it.
A note.
Short.
Take my offer before Tarrant reaches Sage Hen. There will be no water behind us.
Lou’s blood chilled.
“He planned this before the message.”
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“Not until he offered.”
“When?”
“Five days ago.”
Lou stared.
“You knew five days.”
“I knew he planned to run the wells hard. I didn’t know he’d leave early.”
“That distinction doesn’t help.”
“I know.”
“Why keep it from me?”
“Because I wanted proof.”
“Proof for whom?”
“Anyone we need.”
Lou laughed bitterly.
“And while you gathered proof, I planned a drive through a trap.”
“I was planning around it.”
“You.”
“Yes.”
“Not we.”
Emmett closed his eyes briefly.
The word hit both of them.
Lou handed back the paper.
“For someone tired of leaving, you make staying difficult.”
Then she walked toward camp.
He did not follow.
Not immediately.
That hurt too.
They barely spoke the next day.
The herd sensed tension better than people did.
Lou rode point.
Emmett remained rear.
At noon Tomás approached her.
“You two fight?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Because if that is you not fighting, I would hate to see fighting.”
Lou almost smiled.
Almost.
By evening the herd reached Dry Knife Basin.
Ash’s trail was fresh.
Too fresh.
They had gained.