“What are you going to do, Al?” Fred snarled. “Choose your almighty boss over your own family? Has he promised you a share if you side with him?”
Cole looked anxiously toward Al. He knew a couple of Fred’s buddies were circling around trying to get position on him. The last thing he wa nted was his foreman to get killed. “What are you planning, Fred? We can make a deal.”
“I had a deal with your old man. He double-crossed us. He sat there in his stinking office surrounded by enough money for a hundred men, but he was so damned greedy. He laughed at me, laughed at all of us. He dared us to go to the police.”
“So you put a bullet in his brain.”
“You should have seen his face when I pulled the trigger. He was good at killing, but he didn’t want to die. I should know, I did enough of it for him.”
“But you did it too soon, didn’t you, Fred? You didn’t know he’d moved the shipment.”
Fred shrugged, glanced up toward Al, obviously waiting for his men to pick off his brother-in-law. He scowled, angry they were taking so long and Al still had the rifle rock steady on him. “I thought I’d have time to find it, but you fired us all.”
Cole smiled at him. “Smart of me, wasn’t it? How long were you killing and running drugs for the old man? You the one who killed Jase’s mother?”
“She kept trying to take the kid. He wasn’t going to let her do that. She should have known better.”
“So you arranged the accident? How’d you manage all this time to get away with it?” Cole made a small movement toward the snowmobile.
Fred brought his gun up. “Don’t be stupid, Steele.”
“Don’t you be stupid, Fred,” Al said.
“I’ve been getting away with things a long time. You just need a few key people in your pocket,” Fred bragged. “Put the rifle down, Al, or my sister is going to be a widow. Do it now.”
“You’re under arrest. All of you. Put your guns down,” Cole said. “Right now you’re surrounded by federal marksmen with rifles trained on every one of you. Drop your weapons now.” Cole sent Fred a grim smile. “I’m with drug enforcement.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Fred whipped his head around wildly looking for his crew. He caught a glimpse of several of his men down on the ground, others clothed in all white standing over them and holding rifles to the backs of their necks. “You’ve been in jail. What are you, a snitch?”
Cole walked across the scant feet of snow separating them and removed the gun from Fred’s hand. “You bought a cover story, Fred.” He pushed the man toward one of the officers. Flakes of snow were already drifting from the skies.
Al stood up slowly, rifle at his side. “This is going to kill my wife. I’m sorry, Mr. Steele. I had no idea what he was up to.”
“He wanted you to think I drove that horse into the fence. It was to get you and Jase off the ranch so he could search it.”
“I figured that out. He was watching you all the time. I didn’t ever consider drugs might be a part of it. I just thought he was mad over losing his job.”
“Thanks for coming after me.”
*
Jase sat white-faced at the table as Cole told him about the drug shipment, the murder of the pilot and the boy’s mother. The teenager went very still, tension and anger radiating from him. Abruptly he rose and without a word, ran out of the kitchen into the mudroom. They could hear him stamping into his boots.
Cole sighed and stood up. “I’d better follow him.”
He looked tired and strained. Maia went to him, put her arms around him. “At least you both know what really happened to Brett. You don’t have to wonder about it anymore. And neither of you has to worry about the other’s having been involved in that violent act.”
His hand slipped over her silky hair, but Cole didn’t answer. There was no way to tell her how deep rage could go. How it could consume one and eat away every good thing until there was only nightmares and demons left in the world. Jase had to fight it the same way he did.
Maia watched him go before sinking down into the chair Jase had vacated, hands over her face, weeping for both of them. She cried for a long while, and, when they didn’t return, she washed her face and went after them. It was instinct more than anything else that led her in the right direction. Before she reached the barn she could hear the rhythmic pounding of flesh against something solid.
“Jase!” Maia stopped in the doorway of the barn staring at him with horror. “What are you doing to yourself?”
Jase slammed his bloodied hands into the heavy bag repeatedly. “I hate him. He’s taken everything from me. Everything!”
“Jase.” There was a wealth of warning in Cole’s voice.