“I have visitors inside—my Mexican brothers. I’ve told you about them. Until tonight I wasn’t even sure they were alive. But they just showed up. They know Bull, and they’re hoping he’ll take them in. I—don’t know what to do about them.”
“It’s all right. I’m here.” He took her hand and walked with her to the trailer. She stopped him just outside.
“There’s more, Tanner. They say they were forced to work for the cartel and that they’ve run away. I haven’t told them that I’m hiding from the cartel, too, or about the man I killed. Bull doesn’t know about that, either.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t mention it.”
“I’m scared, Tanner. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Rose, I’m here for you. Take me in and introduce me to your visitors.”
His presence reassured Rose, for now at least. She ushered him into the trailer’s crowded sitting room and made the introductions. Joaquin and Raul spoke fair English, so they had little trouble communicating.
“Rose tells me that you already know Bull,” Tanner said, making conversation. “There must be a story behind that.”
“There is,” Joaquin said. “Our father worked as a cook on the Rimrock. Some bad men murdered him for his beautiful old car.”
“Where is that car, Rose?” Raul asked. “They said you took it when you left Río Seco.”
“Sadly, I had to sell it,” Rose said. “I suppose it was really yours. I’m sorry.”
“Que lástima.” Raul shrugged. “Too bad.”
“I remember that car,” Tanner said. “It was beautiful. But I want to hear the rest of the story.”
“Before he died, my father asked for his body to go back to Río Seco to bury next to our mother,” Raul said. “Bull drove him back. Joaquin and I, we were living with his brother, Don Ramón. We had to find the men who killed our father and make them pay. So Bull took us back to Texas and gave us jobs.”
“And did you find the men?”
“Sí, we did. It was easy because they had the car. Our father saw them before he died, so he could tell Bull what they looked like.”
“And you made them pay?” Tanner asked.
“They died in a very bad way, and we took the car back to Mexico,” Joaquin said. “So you see, Bull is a good friend. He will help us for sure.”
“In that case,” Tanner said, “why don’t we go see him now? Come on. You can ride in the back of my truck. Rose, do you want to come?”
“I think I’d better. I just hope we don’t wake everybody up.”
Raul and Joaquin grabbed the backpacks they’d left by the chicken coop and climbed into the bed of Tanner’s pickup. Tanner opened the passenger door for Rose, then went around to the driver’s seat.
“Thank you.” She laid a hand on his knee as he started the engine. “I just hope this ends happily.”
“Well, there’s no room for them to sleep in your trailer,” Tanner said. “Besides, I still have plans to get you all to myself tonight.”
“I love you, Tanner.” Rose hadn’t meant to say it—especially since she’d never said those words to any man. But somehow it seemed to fit the moment.
He touched her hand. “You know what? I love you, too, Rose.” He laughed. “I’m glad we got that settled.”
* * *
As was his habit, Bull stepped outside before bedtime to get a breath of fresh air and calm his mind. The sky was clear, the moon bright enough to cast long shadows across the yard. Two nighthawks, with white-tipped wings, zigzagged through the darkness, their gaping beaks catching insects in midair. A single light glowed in the upstairs window of the bunkhouse—that would be young Fred Bushman, who kept a stack of books by his bed and dreamed of traveling the world with his earnings as a cowhand.
Everything was peaceful, Bull assured himself. So how to explain the tension in his gut—the baseless sense that something was about to happen—something apt to turn out badly?
He was about to forget his premonition and go back inside when a pair of truck headlights, coming from the direction of Rose’s place, swung into the yard. At first he thought maybe Rose had decided to stay in the duplex after all. But the truck wasn’t Rose’s. As it pulled up to the house, he recognized Tanner McCade at the wheel.
And Tanner wasn’t alone. Rose opened the passenger door, jumped to the ground, and came racing up the porch steps. Now Bull could see two more men in the back of the truck. They appeared to be Mexicans, but even though they looked familiar, he couldn’t place them.