Mason jumped right up into Gentry’s face before he could finish. Gentry’s eyes widened, the move clearly as unexpected to him as it was to Colt.
“Finish that sentence and I will level you right here,” Mason bit out, his voice dangerously low and deceptively calm. “I am in no mood for your shit today, so back the fuck off.”
Gentry tipped his chin up. “Or what?”
Shit. Colt jumped between them just as Nick came out of his office and spotted them.
“Knock it off, Gentry.” Gus put a hand across his son’s chest and pushed him back.
“What’s going on here?” Nick demanded as he strode toward them from the sheriff’s station.
Gus turned a large, fake smile Nick’s way.
“Nothing at all, Sheriff.” There was a saccharine pleasantness to Gus’s voice that made bile rise in the back of Colt’s throat. “We were just discussing a business matter.”
Colt felt the intensity of Nick’s gaze as he took in the scene, even though his eyes were hidden behind his aviator sunglasses. Nick put his hands on his hips, which drew attention to the sidearm on his belt. “Looks pretty heated.”
“Not at all.” Gus turned and glared at his boys and then smiled at Mason. “We’ll talk later.”
“No. We won’t,” Mason shot back as Gus turned and herded his sons in the other direction.
Gentry glared over his shoulder and sneered. Colt knew without a doubt that man was a hothead, and involved or not, they needed to take a deeper look at him. All the Bristows, for that matter.
The Bristows climbed into their truck with Gus at the wheel. Gentry glared at them as they drove past and headed out of town. Nick turned to Colt and Mason with a raised eyebrow, clearly waiting for an explanation. Now that Gus and his sons were gone, all Colt could do was stare at this new Mason. A Mason he didn’t know. The Mason he knew all those years ago would never have stood up to the rancher and his sons like that, and he definitely wouldn’t have gotten up in their faces. Mason was the same boy he’d left but at the same time was this new, strong and confident man he’d never met before. One thing he was certain of was that he wanted to know more about the man Mason had become.
“What’s going on?” Nick repeated.
“Just more shit.” Mason sighed. “Gus’s been trying to buy a seven-thousand-acre section of my property but seems to have a problem understanding what the word ‘no’ means.”
“Have you dug up anything on Gus and his boys yet?” Colt turned his focus back to his job. “I have a feeling they wouldn’t be above dirty tactics to get Mason’s land.”
“We’re on it,” Nick said and offered nothing more.
“Fair enough.” Colt couldn’t force Nick to do more than he was, and Wes could only go so far, so he had to be patient, as hard as that was becoming. He had an uneasy feeling in his gut that time was running out.
They parted ways with handshakes, and then Colt and Mason climbed back into his truck.
“This fucking day,” Mason lamented as he slammed the door closed.
“Yup.” Colt couldn’t agree more.
Mason locked his seat belt into place and kept his mouth shut for fear he’d tempt fate if he questioned aloud how this day could get any worse. Even thinking it made him shiver. He looked out the window as Colt pulled onto the street. Old brick and wood buildings gave way to small homes, which then gave way to the rugged wilderness of northern Colorado, but it was all a blur to him. Fortunately, Colt was intuitive enough to read his mood and didn’t try to start a conversation.
When they returned to the ranch, Colt had barely shifted the truck into Park before Mason was out the door. He needed some peace time with the wild ones.
The driver’s-side door slammed shut a couple of seconds later, and then Colt’s voice boomed across the yard.
“Mason.”
Mason stopped, closed his eyes, and inhaled a deep breath of fresh air before turning around. He was too tired, too wrung out, to get into anything with Colt right now.
“To check on the horses,” he said with effort. He didn’t have any more fight in him today. “Follow or don’t. I don’t care.”
It was a lie. He did care, but Colt didn’t need to know that.
Without waiting for an answer, he spun on his bootheel and headed toward the hay shed, where the Gators were parked in front. He hopped on one after checking that it had a full bucket of treats behind the seat and fired up the engine. The farm vehicle rocked with the weight of Colt climbing in with him.
Colt said nothing, just looked straight ahead, which was fine by Mason.
