Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Creed:
Jesus Christ. But no, sorry, you can’t take a moose down with a twenty-two. At least not without it suffering.
Me:
Dang. Foiled on all fronts.
Creed:
What would you do with it even if you did?
Me:
Use that winch on the front of the truck that you forced me to get. I’d drag it right up to Hux’s front door. Do you think he’d process it for me?
Creed:
I’m sure that he would think about it.
I barked out a laugh at that.
I wasn’t sure what to think about Huxley Hosea.
He was there, but he wasn’t.
On one hand, he was everywhere. But when he was present, he didn’t talk. He didn’t say hi, didn’t smile, didn’t even seem like he wanted to be there.
I couldn’t tell you how many times over the last three months that he’d stomped out of the side door of his butcher shop into the shared warehouse space and looked steaming mad as he made his way toward me and took over whatever hard job Vera had handed me that day.
When I’d say “thank you” he’d ignore me, get it done, then stomp back inside his cave.
I both appreciated and was intimidated by him all at once.
The fact that I was leaving this job and therefore would no longer get to see him as much really did something to my heart.
At least I got to still have him as a neighbor.
But the way the Hubers were going, I wouldn’t keep doing that, either.
I was one “wow you have such pretty hair, can I touch it?” away from buying a mobile home and depositing it in the middle of nowhere.
The only thing keeping me from doing that was the fact that I liked living in town.
But seeing Lanny, Patrick, and Kurt Huber in town when they didn’t have the invisible barrier that my brother and Hux had laid down meant they tried things they wouldn’t normally try.
I was scared that one day they might say Creed and Hux weren’t that scary and try to touch me.
It wasn’t like I could fight them off, either.
I was too damn weak.
Creed:
Is it a bull or a cow?
I took another video and sent it to him, this one a much closer view than the original one I’d sent minutes earlier.
Creed:
Holy fucking shit. That’s the biggest one I’ve seen.
He went into detail about the spread, asked about specifics that I couldn’t give, then said, “Go tell Hux.”
I was actually kind of excited about walking into his domain and actually trying to convince him to leave early, so I did just that. And this would be just the excuse that I needed.
I made sure the door was locked, then went through the back to the warehouse, then to the door that went into Hux’s butcher shop.
I knocked softly, hesitant as always to interrupt him.
He opened it almost before I could finish knocking.
He didn’t say hi, just stood there and waited for me to tell him why I was there.
“I was showing my brother a moose,” I said softly. “In the middle of the road. And he said to tell you about it. He said something about it being ‘679.’”
Hux’s brows rose, and he turned around, dropped his knife, his gloves, and his apron on the counter behind him before jerking his head for me to step aside.
I did, then followed him back through the warehouse, into The Mercantile, and to the front door.
Hux stood at the front door and stared out the windows for long moments.
“What’s the significance of 679?”
He was silent for so long that I thought he wasn’t going to answer.
But then he turned around, leaving the bull standing there, and started talking.
Seeing as he was speaking to me, I had no other option but to follow him.
“The bull out there, 679, is tagged,” he said quietly.
“I saw it was tagged, but I have no clue how you’d know it was 679.”
“Coloring, spread, and the tag on the ear,” he answered. “That is the moose that killed Birdee’s sister.”
I gasped as he came to a stop next to his sink, washed his hands, then got his apron on again.
“Holy shit.”
“Most wanted bull in the county,” he drawled.
“Infamous,” I supplied.
“Definitely infamous.”
Cody, Birdee’s stepsister, had been illegally poaching animals. She’d been out doing just that, likely targeting the moose in question, when she was trampled by said moose.
She’d died due to her injuries, and Cody’s stepfather and mother had gone crazy because of it.
Poor Birdee.
I shifted from foot to foot, my gaze going to the table as I looked at all the meat spread out on it.
“Do you need any help?”
Hux looked over at me from where he was at the table cutting up meat.
There were huge piles of meat ready to be inserted into bags, and I was, after all, bored out of my damn mind.
Having a brother was fun.