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Both drunk and belligerent, they hollered and yelled curses at us, but we were too tired to bother with them.

“Night boys. See y’all in the morning.”

I turned out the lights and locked them up.

“That was fun,” said Harlan. “Don’t mind a good dustup and I never got to lock anybody up before. Always was the other way around—cops locking me up.”

I chuckled.

Hubbard Residence. Conrad.

We drove north to the Dry Run and picked up Billy and Tammy, then we took a quick run down to Conrad to the Hubbard trailer.

“This won’t take long. I just want to make sure I’m not missing the blue pickup coming back home.”

“Yeah, we don’t want to miss that,” said Billy. “Tammy and I will be starting our surveillance shift in the morning.”

There was one light on inside the trailer and I could see that the front window was still broken where Amanda Hubbard had shot it out.

“No vehicle. Okay. The boys haven’t come home to roost. We’ll call it a night.”

“I’m tired,” said Tammy.

“Wussy,” said Harlan.

Tammy giggled.

Chapter Thirteen

Sunday, May 1st.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

“You look beat, Billy. A night at the roadhouse too much for you?”

“As if. I wanted to strangle the twins. They are such pushy bitches. I should have broken it off with Brenda long before I did. My bad.”

“I never should’ve bought Glenda as many drinks as I did. Now she’s fuckin stalking me like I’m her sugar daddy or something.”

“We’ve got to get rid of both of them permanently,” said Billy.

“Got a plan in place to do that?” asked Harlan as he spooned sugar into his coffee.

“Not yet, but I’m going to come up with one. Have to find the right guys to sic the twins on.”

Tammy giggled. “Pick somebody you don’t like, Billy.”

“Yeah, let me give that some thought. Who do I owe payback to?” Billy laughed. “I’ll introduce him to Brenda.”

After breakfast Tammy and Harlan headed for the barn to do their chores while Travis cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for work. She fed her horse and while Bonnie Grace was munching on her oats, Tammy began mucking out the stall and filling the wheelbarrow.

“You’re gonna think I’m stupid,” said Harlan, “but I forget how much oats I’m supposed to give the horses.”

“I’ll show you, and I don’t think you’re stupid. When I first got my horse, Mama wrote it on a piece of paper for me and I kept it in the pocket of my jeans.”

“Is she your real Mom?”

“No. I don’t have a real mom, but Annie is my real stepmom. She was married to my dad when I was little. His name was Jackson Traynor and I have his picture.”