Page 145 of The Mountain Echoes

We sit at the dining table there—Maverick, me, and the two men who now hold the tangled threads of this nightmare.

The most important conversations in a ranch house often happen in the kitchen, around the dining table, with a steaming pot of coffee. This time is no different. Though, Vera left a plate of her chocolate brownies to sweeten the hard talk, as she put it.

“Aria, again, I’m sorry for your loss.” The sheriff drops his Stetson on the table next to his cup of coffee.

“Thanks, Sheriff.”

The sheriff leans back and looks at Maverick. “How much does she know?”

“Everything I do,” he confirms, which makes me feel relieved. He’s not hiding things from me, trying to protect me because, honest to God, that would piss me off to no end.

“As you know, Wes Boone is in custody. We got him this morning. Once we told him he’s going down for Earl’s murder, he’s been singin’ like a canary.” Hugh picks up his coffee cup.

I look at the special agent. “And what’s your role in all this?”

The agent looks like he stepped out of the television showFBI. He’s handsome in that military-crew cut sort of way. “We have an interest in Mr. Boone.”

“He’s hired muscle, works for a loan shark who’s ontheirradar.” Hugh jerks a shoulder toward Agent Belushi.

“This is the first chance we have had to get something on the higher-ups in an operation,” the FBI agent adds.

“Was he…Wes, hired by Celine?” I ask.

The sheriff nods and doesn’t look happy doing it. “She convinced Tate—who by the way, is singin’ his own song—to recommend Wes to you. She knew you wouldn’t doubt him.”

“None of us would,” Maverick quips.

“To give him credit, Tate didn’t know that Wes was there to fuck things up for you. Pardon my french, Aria.” The sheriff doesn’t look sorry at all for swearing. “He thought she was helping you out of a tight spot.”

“Mr. Boone has a specialty. He sabotages, creates accidents. Usually, to benefit his boss,” the agent fills in.

“How does Celine know Wes?”

“Through Hudson,” the sheriff tells me.

I frown for a moment and then put two and two together. “Through his loan shark buddies?”

I feel sick at the thought that my sister hates me so much, that Hudson hated me so much—that they went to these lengths to get me out of the ranch.

Maybe I should’ve sold it, I think, then Earl would still be alive.

“Wes was hired to sabotage the ranch, and he’s confessed to it,” the sheriff says, looking grimly satisfied. “The cut fence line, the spiked feed, the sugaring—we’ve got him on all of it. As for the rig? He’s claiming he didn’t touch it, probably ‘cause he knows that’s what killed Earl. But his fingerprints are all over the damn thing, so he’s gonna be on the hook for that, too.”

“The bomb?” Maverick prompts.

“That was Wes, too. He says he was going to blow up the barn and scare y’all, kill a few animals.”

“Hudson?” I whisper. “How was he involved?”

“Hudson didn’t know about the sabotage or the bomb,” Sheriff Dillon says. “That was all Celine, working with Wes. From what we can tell, Hudson found out too late—he was trying to disable it when it went off. That lines up with what the bomb squad’s initial report says.”

My entire body freezes. “What?” I manage to croak.

“According to Wes, the only person he talked to was Celine.” The sheriff looks at Maverick. “She called to tell him to double up on the sabotage after you talked to her.”

I feel the tension in Maverick’s body. “She didn’t buy my story.”

The sheriff nods in agreement. “Wes says that she told him to get it all in place and get the hell out, that you suspected what was going on, and that she was involved.”