Caleb looked at him.
“Explain.”
Wyatt backed away.
“That isn’t mine.”
One cowboy laughed in disbelief.
“Hell it ain’t.”
Wyatt turned.
Caleb said, “Don’t.”
Wyatt ran.
He made three steps.
Two cowboys tackled him into the dust.
The yard exploded.
Wyatt kicked.
Swore.
Tried to rise.
Caleb reached them and hauled him upright.
“Why?”
Wyatt spat dust.
“Go to hell.”
Caleb hit him.
One punch.
Hard.
Wyatt staggered.
Abigail stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Caleb looked at her.
She shook her head.
“Truth first.”
Caleb breathed heavily.
Then nodded.
They tied Wyatt’s wrists.
Someone sent a rider for the county deputy.
By full dark, the story came apart.
Not all at once.
Piece by piece.
Wyatt had stolen the goats from Red Hollow with help from a former ranch hand named Lyle Mercer.
Not because they needed food.
Because they needed Caldwell Ranch blamed for rustling.
That could create exactly the kind of legal trouble a desperate ranch did not need while its owner begged for financing.
But Wyatt’s involvement went deeper.
The goat theft was not the beginning.
It was one part of a larger effort to push Caldwell Ranch into collapse.
Someone wanted Harrison Caldwell unable to renew his bank note.
Someone who expected to buy the ranch cheaply afterward.
That someone was Silas Crane.
Owner of Red Hollow.
The same man whose goats had supposedly been stolen.
The brand tag planted in Abigail’s kitchen had been deliberately cut from one of Crane’s own animals.
The theft report was staged.
The goats never disappeared from Red Hollow’s books because they had never officially existed there.
They were unregistered stock used to create evidence.
Wyatt had been promised two hundred dollars and a foreman position after Crane acquired Caldwell land.
Abigail stood beneath the cookhouse lantern while the deputy questioned him.
Every answer made her angrier.
Not because Wyatt hated her.
That was almost irrelevant now.
He had selected her because she was useful.
New.
Untrusted.
Different.
Easy to blame.
Her body.
Her gender.
Her cheap goat purchase.
All of it made a convenient story.
Caleb stood beside her.
Not close enough to touch.
Close enough that she knew he was there.
Wyatt finally looked at Abigail.
“You think you won?”
She stared at him.
He smiled through split lips.
“This ranch is still broke.”
Caleb stepped forward.
Abigail touched his arm.
He stopped.
Wyatt saw.
Smiled wider.
Abigail said, “Maybe.”
Then she looked toward the pot of stew.
“But at least I know what I’m serving tomorrow.”
Several cowboys laughed.
The sound broke the tension.
Wyatt was taken away.
The deputy promised to return after speaking with Red Hollow.
The men remained.
Nobody knew what to do.
Abigail looked at the stew.
Cold now.
Ruined in texture.
Not safety.
She could reheat it.
But the moment was gone.
Amos approached.