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The white van pulled up alongside the pickup. The engine rumbled to a stop and Logan stepped out of the driver’s side, wearing a down-filled leather jacket over the tan of his uniform. He adjusted the set of his hat, the sunlight briefly gleaming on the blue-black ends of his hair.
“Ty. Chase.” He nodded to both of them and approached the steps where they waited. “I didn’t expect to catch both of you home.”
Something in Logan’s tone of voice and the way he held himself aloof had Chase lifting his head, sharply alert. “Why do I have the feeling this isn’t a social call?”
Logan dipped his head, then raised it again, a pair of dark sunglasses shielding his eyes from view. “You’re right. It isn’t.”
“What’s wrong?” Ty asked in quick demand. “Cat and Quint are all right, aren’t they?”
“They’re fine,” Logan assured them. “No, I’m here on another matter. I started to call, then decided to come out myself. I have some news that I understand you aren’t going to like, Chase.”
“What’s that?”
“Buck Haskell was released from prison this week.”
Of all the things Logan might have said, that was the last one Chase expected to hear. Shock and surprise ripped through him, opening up the past and making fury and outrage as fresh as yesterday.
Chase’s voice trembled with the force of it. “I was supposed to be notified before he was released.”
“There must have been an oversight somewhere,” was Logan’s only explanation. “One of the deputies saw Haskell in Blue Moon yesterday. I overheard him telling someone else. When your name was mentioned, I asked some questions. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known it was your late wife he attempted to kill.”
“I never expected this day to come.” Chase looked away, feeling older and, somehow, less in control.
The front door to The Homestead opened, and Tara emerged, her booted feet tap-tap-tapping across the porch’s wood flooring as she walked swiftly to the steps.
“There you are, Ty. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t have time to tell you goodbye before we left.” She glided down the steps to his side, an ermine jacket slung about her shoulders, the white fur contrasting with the shining darkness of her hair. “Why, Logan, I didn’t know you were here. Did Cat come with you?”
“No, she’s at home,” Logan replied.
“What a shame. I would have loved to see her, even for a few minutes.” Belatedly Tara became conscious of the heavy tension in the air. Her glance made a quick and probing sweep of the trio. “My, but you are a solemn group. Is something wrong?”
“Nothing,” Ty lied, trapped by his own memories of that long-ago day when he had climbed in the saddle, his head still pounding from the blow Buck had delivered to it. He could still hear his mother’s voice, shouting at him to ride for help. He remembered the fear and indecision he had felt gripping him once again.
“Here comes somebody else.” Tara’s remark drew the attention of all three men to the pickup traveling up the lane. “This is your morning for company, Ty.”
“It seems like it,” he agreed and watched the vehicle as it made a swing toward The Homestead. With a growing uneasiness, he spared a glance at his father. “I don’t recognize the pickup. Do you?”
“No.” But like Ty, Chase watched it, every muscle in his body tightening up.
The pickup slowly rolled to a stop fifteen feet from them. For a long moment, its sole occupant remained behind the wheel while the truck’s rapidly cooling engine made its noises in the morning stillness. No one said a word when Buck Haskell stepped out of the vehicle.
Chase had eyes only for the man who had once been as close as a brother to him. Age had changed Buck. His short-cropped hair had retained its curl, but its once blond color was now snow-white. His blue eyes had an old and hard look to them, minus their cocky sparkle. Gone was the big grin that once came so easily to Buck, and his skin had a prison pallor to it instead of a burned-deep range tan. There seemed to be more muscle and heft to his wiry frame than before, and his clothes were plainer than the ones he had once favored.
But his voice, when he spoke, was exactly the same. “I didn’t figure you’d be surprised to see me, but I wasn’t expecting this kind of reception.”
“You aren’t welcome here.” Chase’s words were hard and flat, intolerant of any argument.
“I know that,” Buck acknowledged, unconcerned. “I also know that you’d be well within your rights to have your son-in-law here arrest me for trespassing. But I’ll ask you not to do that.”
“Why?” Chase challenged.
“Don’t worry.” Buck’s mouth curved with a ghost of its former grin. “You already gave me a second chance once. I’m not here to ask for another.”
“What do you want?”
“I served my time, Chase. Every single day of it. I’m a free man now, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ve rented me a place in town, and I’ve come here to visit my mother’s grave and fetch my father.”
“That is Vern’s decision to make. Not yours,” Chase stated curtly. “He has a place on the Triple C as long as he wants it. He knows that.”
