He frowned. Too large for a man? He peered around the tree in time to see several moose that had been spooked out of their beds. He glanced in the direction they’d come from, knowing that was where he would find T.D.
Chapter Seventeen
Wyatt couldn’t stop shaking. The ride down the mountain had been at breakneck speed. He’d practically killed his horse and himself. But all he’d been able to think of was getting to Patty. He didn’t want anyone else telling her what had happened.
He’d heard the helicopters but had stayed in the trees hoping no one saw him. Not that it would make any difference. There was always the chance that the sheriff could tell which rifle had fired the shot. That was why the only stop he’d made was to drop his rifle into an old mill shaft at the edge of the mountain. He’d thrown in a bunch of rocks to cover it, before getting back on his horse and riding the rest of the way to the corral where he kept his horse.
Wyatt knew there was no way to cover the fact that he’d been up on that mountain. Too many people knew he’d been there. Even if he said that he’d left before they’d gone up to Jinx’s camp, there was one person in particular who knew better. The person who’d seen him after he’d fired the first rifle shot. T.D. T.D. knew that he’d shot him. T.D. probably even knew that he’d fired a second shot, trying to finish him off.
That thought rattled him clear to the toes of his boots. He told himself it had been an accident. That he’d been trying to kill Jinx. Or had he, at the last minute, lifted the rifle just a little? Had he seen T.D. in the crosshairs of his scope? Had he realized Patty would never be free as long as T. D. Sharp was alive? Is that what made him take the shot? Or had it really been an accident, his arms fatigued from holding the rifle up for so long, his finger on the trigger jittery at even the thought of what he was about to do?
It was a short walk from the corral to Patty’s. He stumbled up to her door after leaving his horse at a ranch on the edge of town. As he tried to catch his breath and still the trembling inside him, he knocked, then knocked louder. He couldn’t help looking around as if any minute he expected to hear sirens and turn to find a SWAT team with their weapons trained on him.
The door finally opened. “I shot them.” Wyatt pushed his way into her apartment, practically falling in, his legs were so weak.
“Them?” Patty said.
He realized he hadn’t meant to say that. But he had. “I shot Jinx. And T.D.”
“You what?” Patty cried. “Is T.D....dead?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. I swear. I was doing what you asked me to. T.D. had Jinx by the throat. She was struggling...”
“Is Jinx dead?”
“I don’t know. It all happened so fast.” He rushed into the living room and dropped onto the couch. “She was on the ground. There was so much blood. And then I saw T.D. He was holding his chest and there was blood everywhere. That’s when I hightailed it off that mountain. It was horrible.”
Wyatt dropped his face into his hands and broke down in tears.
“Tell me what happened,” Patty said, her voice cracking. When he didn’t respond, she came over to the couch and sat down beside him to shake his shoulder. “Tell me what happened.”
He took a gulp of air and tried to still his sobs. This was not the way he’d wanted Patty to see him. But he couldn’t help himself. He was terrified of what he’d done and the price he would be forced to pay.
“Wyatt,” she said as if talking to a child. “Pull yourself together and tell me what happened.”
He nodded. After a moment he stopped crying, wiped his face with his sleeve and swallowed as he saw that all the color had left her face. She now stared at him as if in shock.
Wyatt cleared his voice and began. “T.D. said we were going to stampede the cattle, but they were waiting for us. They’d set up these booby traps and I heard Travis get caught in one. I think Cash and Royce did, too.” His voice cracked. “I think they might be dead.” He started to put his face back into his hands, but Patty grabbed one hand and, shaking her head, said, “Tell me how T.D. got shot.”
“He never planned to go with the others,” Wyatt said. “He sent them in the way he figured Jinx would be expecting the attack. He and I went in the back way. T.D. double-crossed the men with him. He had no intention of stampeding the cattle. He was only after Jinx. Patty, he would never have stopped going after her. Never.”
PATTY STARED AT the man, wanting to scream at him, but her throat had gone dust dry. She was shaking inside, afraid she knew what the fool had done. Her worst fears had been realized. What had she been thinking asking Wyatt, of all people, to take care of this for her?
“You fired the shot?” she asked, trying hard to keep her voice level.
“I told you. It was an accident. I was trying to hit Jinx.”
“You did hit her, right?” He nodded, looking down as if unable to meet her gaze. “And T.D.? You wouldn’t have meant to shoot him. He’s your best friend.”
His head came up, his eyes full of tears and he nodded quickly. “T.D. had Jinx in a headlock with his pistol to her head. They must have moved when I fired.”
“But you don’t know how badly either of them was hit, right?”
He shook his head. “I panicked. I just
