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"Seems to me like you're the one who ought to be worried, Detective. Diggin' around in other people's business can be a dangerous game."
She glanced towards the two groundhogs. One of them was still moving. Suffering. The one Jeb had shot.
The creature left a trail of blood from where it was trying to drag itself to its burrow.
Jeb was watching it. He didn't put it out of its misery, but kept his hand on his pistol, and occasionally shot glances towards Ethan.
"When was the last time you saw Candace?" Rachel said.
"What are you implying?"
"She was dead on your land, sir. You saw her. You slept with her, didn't you?"
"Ya got some nerve, half-breed," he sneered, standing now and stepping closer to Rachel. She remained seated. "Think you can come onto our land and accuse us of murder? You don't know who you're messin' with."
She opened her mouth to reply, intent on keeping things calm. She'd riled him. Angry men made bad secret-keepers. This was progress.
But before she could follow up, Ethan stepped forward, scowling.
"Enough!" Ethan barked, positioning himself between his partner and the furious man. His protective stance was flattering, but completely unnecessary. Rachel frowned at the back of her partner's shirt.
Jeb stepped forward now. He'd been glancing at Ethan, and now his eyes widened in recognition. "Holy shit. It's Ethan Morgan. Hot damn. Whachoo doin' back around here, Morgan?"
Jeb faced the much taller man, but his sneer bled into his words.
Now, Rachel got to her feet.
Silas was standing on one side, with Jeb and two other ranches behind him.
Rachel and Ethan were now shoulder by shoulder, both glaring at the patriarch and his son.
More than one gun was brandished, and Rachel knew they were outnumbered.
The tension felt thick, and at any moment, Rachel half expected it to all devolve into a gunfight.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The tension caused Rachel's own hand to stray to her weapon.
And for a moment, she thought the scene on the porch of the Clark ranch would devolved into an all-out shootout.
But a few seconds passed, and Ethan stepped forward.
He remained calm, his hand hovering near his own weapon but not making any sudden moves.
"We're just here to do our job," he said evenly. "We're investigating a murder and we need your cooperation."
Jeb scoffed. "Cooperation? You come around here accusin' us of killin' some whore and expect us to just roll over and help you out? You've got another thing comin'."
Silas stepped forward now, his face twisted in anger. "And what makes you think we had anything to do with it, huh? We got no reason to kill nobody. Candace was just a passing fancy, nothing more."
Rachel studied the men's faces, looking for any signs of deception. But she didn't know these folks; she didn't know how to read them, and that was half the problem right there.
Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that they were hiding something.
Silas snorted. "You're wasting your time, rangers. We don't know anything."
Jeb nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're better off looking somewhere else. We got nothing to say to you."
