1. Booker

Chapter 1

Booker

" M aybe we can use this as the murder weapon," Henley said after handing me the pliers.

I shook my head, maneuvering the pliers around where I'd tied the barbed wire together. "You think killing the guy will get you out of this?" Out of all of us, Henley had the least amount of brain cells, and it showed. Between his gambling addiction and his special ability to constantly get himself in a bind that only Austin or I could get him out of, I was damn close to kicking him off this damn ranch for good. But Austin, Henley, and I were friends, brothers by choice, so I had to stick by him regardless of whether I agreed with his decisions or not. It'd been that way between the three of us since elementary school, and we'd been glued together since.

In the silver shadow cast by the moon high in the sky, he shrugged. "If he's dead, we'd get the deed back."

Using the pliers, I tightened the knot. After finishing up fixing the break in the fence, I stood, holding the tool out to his chest. "Not betting the fucking deed to my ranch in the first place would've kept it in our goddamn hands to begin with."

Austin chuckled from where he was perched on his horse behind us. "Oh, come on, Booker. We all knew Henley was due for a little shit stirring."

"It's our ranch," Henley corrected, taking the pliers from me. He wasn't wrong—all three of us technically owned the five-hundred-acre property together, but that didn't give him free rein to bet our home in a childish game of pool.

"And it's your problem. Fix it." Brushing by him with a swipe of my shoulder, I grabbed the horn of the saddle, stuck a boot in the stirrup, and mounted my horse, Onyx. He was nearly nineteen hundred pounds of pure muscle, always up for whatever demanding task we had on the ranch, so when I'd tacked him up at one a.m. after a neighbor stopped by to tell us our cows were on the road, he hadn't protested one bit.

"He cheated," Henley stated, getting on his own horse.

I grunted in response as Austin snorted.

"He did," Henley defended, trotting up next to us.

"Got proof?" I asked, mentally kicking myself for entertaining this. It wasn't the first time Henley had tried to get us to help him get out of a bind. This time, it just involved the roof over our fucking heads. No biggie.

"Well, no, but?—"

"Here we go again," Austin muttered.

"But," Henley continued, sending a glare Austin's way. "He's cheated before, I know it. So if we just scare him a bit, maybe it'll make him give it back."

I felt bad for him. I did. And I'd have his back through this, like we always did. But why not bet a fucking cow or something? "Why the fuck did you even bring the deed with you to begin with?"

Henley shrugged, head downcast on his horse's mane. "Had nothing else to bet."

"So ask me for a twenty or something," Austin said, his tone a bit softer now.

"Don't bet in the first place," I grumbled.

Henley shook his head. "It's more high stakes than that."

"Maybe stop getting yourself involved in that shit, then?" I offered, like that wasn't an obvious fucking option. It wasn't his fault, though, really. He got the habit from his dad and couldn't kick it. The piece of shit brought him along to some of the most dangerous situations, so Henley got a taste for it young. He loathed his father for it, but liked the thrill. The what if I win pounding in his brain with every gamble.

He ignored my comment, like I knew he would. "He's got this girlfriend—she works at Marv's Diner."

Even under Austin's cowboy hat, I saw his brows raise in Henley's direction. "What do you suggest we do with this girlfriend of his, Henley? Rough her up? We don't mess with girls. Not like that."

"No!" Henley said hurriedly. "No. We're not going to hurt her. But maybe he visits the diner she works at. We could corner him there, scare him a bit."

"You're suggesting we use her as bait?" It wasn't the worst idea, so long as we didn't involve the girl. Either way, we had to get the deed back. I wasn't giving up this ranch over a fucking game of pool .

"Not bait. More like a lure," Henley said.

Austin chuckled again. "Same fucking thing, dipshit."

We didn't typically give Henley this much shit, but between him coming home at five in the afternoon plastered beyond comprehension, his dropped bomb of betting the deed away, and being woken up in the middle of the night for cows on the road, we were both a bit irritated—to put it lightly.

Henley let out a sigh. "Fine. Whatever you want to call it. We stake out the diner, wait until he shows up, and take care of it then."

"And if he doesn't show up?" Austin asked.

I waited for Henley to respond, and when he didn't, I glanced his way.

"We find him instead," he finally answered.

There was no telling what I'd do to protect Austin, Henley, and this ranch. I'd find this asshole, put him in his place, and make sure Henley stayed far the fuck away from any more gambling opportunities. Once the deed was in my hands, I'd make sure none of the guys could find it, lest Henley get any more brilliant ideas.

Leaning down to open the gate, I said, "I'll head over there tomorrow."

"I can come with," Henley offered.

I swung it wide as Onyx side-stepped to let Austin and him pass. "Not a chance."

Henley angled his horse toward me as I shut the gate. "Why not?"

Once the latch was back in place, I straightened, heading in the direction of the barn. "You think he's not going to be suspicious if he sees you there?"

"I doubt he remembers me," Henley said.

We stopped in front of the lit up barn, the light illuminating the surrounding area. Everything else was nearly nonexistent with the faint hue from the moon. Austin dismounted, getting to work on his latigo. "Hen, if I had to guess, you were the plastered one, not him. He knew exactly what he was doing, taking advantage of you."

Henley and I followed suit. I just wanted to go the fuck back to bed, not be standing out here talking about Henley's bad decisions. That was a conversation for after coffee, not before.

I glanced over Onyx's back at Henley. The mopey look on his face wasn't sitting right with me. "What happened?"

He looked up. "What do you mean?"

"Why'd you do it?" Henley had made some stupid decisions in the past, but this beat all of them by a long shot.

He shrugged, taking his sweet time on the latigo. "Aubree and I ended things, and I just… I drank too much and wasn't thinking. Thought if I lost her, I had nothing else to lose."

Austin and I paused, leaving the cinches dangling from our saddles.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Austin asked. We always went to each other with anything, regardless of what it was.

Henley took his hat off, setting it on the horn of his saddle. "I don't know. I wasn't thinking. Stopped by here to clear my head and thought ‘fuck it' and ended up at the pool hall with the deed. Lost it to some asshole cheat named Chase."

All three of us stood there a moment, letting it sink in, the only sound the crickets chirping in the fields. It was chilly being the middle of fall here in Whiskey Ridge, but no extreme temperature drops yet. One look at the grand farmhouse sitting a mere thirty yards from the barn sent a shiver down my spine, despite the layers I had on. We couldn't lose the property. It was our livelihood, and without it, we'd be lost. Three men with no place to call home.

"We'll get it back," I told him, hefting the saddle off.

"You guys really don't need to get involved. I can do it myself," Henley said, shame coating his words.

Austin shook his head, setting a hand on Henley's shoulder. "We're in it together, Hen. We'll figure it out."

With a nod, we finished up, untacking the horses and putting them away before heading inside to get some rest. We all sure as fuck needed it with the unknown of what was to come tomorrow.