Page 128 of The Mountain Echoes

“How far have you gotten with the Longhorn investigation?” I demand without preamble as soon as he picks up.

“Well, hello to you, too, Mav,” Hugh jeers as I take the turnoff for Longhorn, my tires chewing gravel. “I got other priorities, yeah?”

“Whatever! Did you look into Wes Boone?”

“Just the usual. Didn’t have time for more than that.”

“What the fuck, Hugh!”

I hear him growl. “Hey, we had that fifteen-truck pileup on I-70—derailed the whole damn week. But I’ve got a contact in Austin digging into old employment records. Something’s off about your boy.”

“He’s not my boy,” I growl. “He’s in Aria’s Goddamn crew, and dirty as hell.”

“Yeah, well, if he is, he’s been careful,” Hugh mutters. “Nothing obvious. No priors.”

“I’m telling you—he was planted,” I say, and then explain how I came to that conclusion.

“I’ll talk to Tate. In the meantime, keep your cards close, don’t spook the son of a bitch.”

“I can’t let him hurt Aria more than he has. Won’t let Celine?—”

“Hey, I wanna get them, too, which means you protect Aria without lettin’ the world know what the fuck’s goin’ on, otherwise I can’t get evidence, got it?”

“Hurry the fuck up, Hugh, ‘cause if he pulls another stunt, I’m going to beat down the motherfucker.”

“Christ! Mav. What’s gotten into you?”

“He’s fuckin’ with my woman, Hugh.”

“Oh shit! You’ve done gone fallen for Aria Delgado.”

“Just get to work, yeah?”

“Try not to do anything illegal,” he retorts.

“Not gonna promise a damn thing to you,” I mutter, ending the call.

I pull through the Longhorn gates and park beside the house.

Earl’s already coming down from the bunkhouse, face grim, coffee thermos in one hand and a rifle slung across his shoulder.

“He’s gone,” he says before I even reach him.

I stop cold. “You sure?”

Earl nods once. “I just checked, and his duffle is gone, and so is our ATV. He took off, the motherfucker. Left the damngate unlatched.”

“Son of a bitch,” I mutter, dragging a hand through my hair.

I thought I got here in time…but…fuckin’ hell.

“It’s like he knew that you were on to him.”

It did seem that way.

Maybe Celine didn’t buy my act, perhaps she saw through it and asked Wes to leave. Or, she bought it and told Wes to skedaddle ‘cause he didn’t need to sabotage anything anymore. I was on it.

Either way, Wes Boone has bolted, and now I have to break the bad news to Aria. She’s going to blame herself for trusting him.