Page 131 of Reins

Sawyer and Mason each take an arm of Eli, pulling him face first so his shoes leave furrows in the dirt.

“You’re all gonna pay for this!” Eli yells, red faced between them.

Oliver works the massive bucket of the machine until it’s dangling a few feet from the ground.

I jump to help Ford while Wade and Dixon stand by as we loop their cuffs over the jagged ripping teeth of the excavator.

Oliver lifts it until their feet don’t quite touch and they’re hanging by the chains around their wrists.

“Let us down!” John finds his voice.

“Tell them the truth and we’ll consider it.” Wade’s demand carries over the engine noise.

“You’ll just kill us anyways.” Eli glares at him, then spits towards my feet.

This time it’s my turn. I land a fist into his stomach making him gasp. “How fast you talk determines how fast you die.” I don’t give a shit if he turns into a human pinata. “Tell them who caused the accident.”

“You did by dating my sister,” he sneers.

It takes three more hard blows before he coughs blood. “Stop. Fine.” He grimaces as he twists. “I drugged your drink and cut your brakes. But Ava wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Mason hurdles past me to land his own hit.

Again. And again.

“Mason,” Dixon growls.

“What?” Mason twists to face our much larger brother. “He took everything. My wife. Our parents. Cade.” When he looks at me, I can see the misery in his eyes. “I’m so fucking sorry, Cade.” Tears shine before cresting to fall down along his nose. “Instead of listening, I chose to hate you.”

“Mason.” Ford steps to him. “One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned is sometimes we gotta let the past go.” He raises his hand, gesturing for Oliver to get out of the cab.

When Oliver gets out, he steps down gingerly.

I know that damn grimace of pain. I wear it myself every day.

“What?” Oliver scowls at Ford and moves to join us.

“I didn’t want this to land on your shoulders, son.” Ford takes a few fast steps and reaches up towards the seat of the excavator, flipping up the lock bar.

Then he drops the bucket.

It happens so fast there’s no noise except the solid thunk of the massive amount of steel hitting the ground, crushing the two men who were dangling beneath it.

“Ford!” Mason yells. “Why?”

Ford’s lips are thin but the very edge curls. “Oops.” He shrugs, making a point of waving to Wade. “We could stand here for eternity asking those two assholes the same questions. We all know the truth. We all got fucked by them.” His nose wrinkles when he looks down at the spreading pool of blood soaking into the earth. “I’m sick of living in the past,” he mutters.

Then he kicks his boot, ripping dirt with his heel to scatter over the leg sticking out from under the heavy metal edge.

“Cade?” He looks at me with those eerie gray eyes. “Welcome back.” Turning on his heel, he unties his horse and while we all stand silent, he gallops away.

“There goes the last real cowboy,” Wade chuckles. “I need to retire before his kids get old enough to raise hell like him.”

“Want me to bury ‘em?” Oliver stares at the mash of bodies beneath his machine.

Movement has me look past him in time to see Sawyer rush behind Mason’s truck. The sound of him heaving overtakes the crickets chiming in the grass.

“Might as well.” Mason shakes his head and backs away from the mess.