Wes raised an eyebrow at Colt but didn’t say anything. Colt picked up the last spaghetti threads of a mohair cinch strap and shoved them into the bag.
“That was a good idea.”
“Yeah,” Levi said. “We should know exactly who did this now, and then we can wrap up.”
Colt rubbed at an odd sudden tightness across his chest. If the footage captured a clear shot of the vandal in action, then there would be no question. They will have completed their job here and could move on to the next one. Whatever and wherever that would be. A week ago, heck, even a few days ago, Colt would have been kicking his heels up at the prospect of getting off this ranch and away from Mason. But now . . . having learned the truth of their past, a part of him that had been reawakened didn’t want to leave.
“We’ll check the footage together, with Mason, after he’s done with the vet,” Colt said.
His brothers were quiet for a few seconds, and then Wes said what Colt had been thinking earlier.
“It’s amazing what Mason is doing here,” Wes said. “I admire how he’s making a safe place for these horses and ensuring they can live their best lives. And did you see that hydraulic chute he has? I wouldn’t mind joining him.”
“If it weren’t that you already have a business with your brothers, right?” Levi teased.
Wes snorted and bumped shoulders with him, and then knocked Levi’s hat off his head and ruffled his hair.
“Hey!” Levi complained.
“Don’t worry,” Wes said, his tone serious. “I wouldn’t leave you two alone. You’d fall apart without me.”
“Ha!” Colt chortled.
“Well, if it’s any consolation,” Levi said, “I love it here too.”
Both Wes and Levi turned their gazes on Colt, as though they were silently asking him if they could stay. Colt turned away and checked the tack room over one more time.
“I think we got everything,” he said, redirecting them back to the job at hand. “Let’s get these put away. I need to get back to Mason.”
His brothers shared a glance that Colt ignored as he tied off the bag he had. He checked his watch.
“Meet us at the house in, say, an hour?” Colt said. That should give enough time for the vet to finish with Lancelot so Mason could join them for the viewing.
The three of them left the barn in silence. Wes and Levi took the bags of saddle guts and the investigation kit with them to store in their rooms above the dining hall until Nick arrived, and Colt walked over to the medical barn.
He spotted a new pickup truck with a fiberglass cap enclosing the box parked in front of the large, open barn doors. The vet, he guessed, and was proven right when he entered the barn and found Mason and a woman a little shorter than him tending to Lancelot. The horse was in the hydraulic chute Wes had just been waxing poetic about, calm as could be, as the vet carefully treated his eye.
Colt held back and observed as Mason rubbed Lancelot’s neck through one of the many openings in the chute. He whispered gentle words to the old mustang while the vet put drops in Lancelot’s eye.
“You’ll need to administer these eye drops a few times a day.” She handed the bottle to Mason. “The injury isn’t too bad, so seven days ought to do it.”
“Thank you, Trudy,” Mason said.
“Make sure you put a UV fly mask on him until it heals too,” she said.
“Will do.”
“How are the rescues my brother sent your way doing?” Trudy asked as she replaced items in her medical bag.
“They’re coming along really good.” Mason gestured to the stalls where the other three horses were still receiving round-the-clock care. The stalls all had small turnout paddocks, so the horses could go outside and stretch a little but weren’t yet ready for larger pastures.
Once Trudy was satisfied the rescues were all in good shape, she gave Mason and Colt a wave and then disappeared out the barn doors.
“Who is her brother?” Colt asked.
“Lance Goodrow,” Mason replied as he walked into the first aid room and dug around in a box. He pulled out a fly mask. “From the Colorado Humane Society. He usually calls me first when they seize horses from neglect and abuse cases.”
Colt nodded and followed as Mason carefully fitted the fly mask over Lancelot’s face to protect his eyes. For a mustang, Colt was amazed at how gentle he seemed with Mason.
