Homicide at Whiskey Gulch by Elle James

Author:Elle James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-10-07T19:59:42+00:00

* * *

LATE THAT AFTERNOON, Lily stood on the back porch, shading her eyes as she peered into the setting sun.

The men had yet to return from the hayfield, which shouldn’t have taken them all afternoon to cut. What was keeping them?

“Think one of the tractors broke down?” Rosalynn asked from behind her.

“I don’t know,” Lily said. Her heart squeezed hard in her chest. She didn’t want to say it, but she was afraid for the men. Someone had it out for the people of Whiskey Gulch Ranch. “If they don’t come home in the next five minutes, we’ll take the truck and go check on them.”

Rosalynn stepped up beside Lily and raised her hand to shade her eyes as she stared out across the pasture. “I’m ready whenever you are. I’ve already lost one member of my family. I don’t want to lose another.”

“You’re not going to.” Lily patted Mrs. Travis’s arm. “Trace has all that combat training. He knows how to take care of himself and others. He’s fine.”

“I hope so.”

“He is.”

A tractor appeared on the horizon, a dark shape growing larger as it moved closer, stirring up dust as it rolled across the land. That was one.

Lily held her breath until the other tractor appeared behind it. “There they are.”

“Good,” Rosalynn said. “I’ll put the dinner rolls in the oven.” The older woman turned and entered the house.

Lily remained on the porch until the tractors got closer. Then she hurried out to the gate.

As they neared, she noticed the tractor in the rear of the procession had the four-wheeler following too close to be safe. Only it didn’t have a rider.

Lily frowned and shaded her eyes. Someone stood behind the driver of the second tractor, holding onto the back of his seat. The second tractor didn’t have the mower behind it. Instead, a heavy-duty strap was attached to the rear of the farm machinery and the front of the mangled four-wheeler.

Matt drove the first tractor through the gate. Trace, with Irish perched behind him, entered with the other.

Her gaze on the second driver, Lily’s eyes widened, and her pulse raced.

Trace’s face had a gash and a bruise on one cheekbone and his shirt appeared to be torn and dirty. Nothing like what she would have expected for a day seated on a tractor.

As soon as they stopped the tractors, she converged on him. “What happened to you?”

Trace shot a glance toward Matt. “I fell.”

Matt rubbed his belly. “The hell he did. He got the bruise on his face when he punched me in the gut. He might not have realized I punch back.”

With a shrug, Trace nodded. “He got that right. I did punch him first and fully deserved the punch he returned.”

“Damn right he did.” Matt stepped down from his tractor.

Lily frowned. “Did he knock you down and roll you around in the dirt as well?”

Matt snorted.

Trace waited for Irish to dismount from behind his seat before he stood and brushed some of the dust from his shirt.

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