Tyson had left the Morgan’s and Eric had no idea where to find him. One minute he’d found out he had a cousin he’d never met and now to find out that man was his brother was a little too much to take in. What the hell else could happen in the day that would trump that?
Eric was emotionally spent. The mother he loved and had thought he’d known was now a complete stranger. Who was Tyson’s father and why had she been with him? And how had she ended up with his father? Having lived with Glenda his entire life, he couldn’t imagine his father choosing his mother—if she was of the character that Elias had made her out to be.
Eric didn’t want to believe that either. The woman he remembered—or at least seemed to have concocted in his mind—was a saint. He’d keep her that way. It gave him comfort.
A headache began to form behind his eyes. His cheek hurt from the punch Tyson had landed there, for the second time in a week, and his thumb throbbed. He needed to get the bandage off. He needed a stiff drink, some Motrin, and about ten minutes alone to figure out how he was going to approach Susan about being at the Morgan’s house.
Anger still pumped through his veins when he thought of Elias Morgan’s grin when he said, “Well, then I can assume her being here is my business .”
She had no business with those people. He didn’t want her to have anything to do with Tyson and especially Elias. She was his and he wasn’t going to share her too, he thought as he pulled up in front of his house and slammed on the brakes.
The thought seemed to be sticking in his head too strong. Perhaps that was the ploy. Wasn’t it convenient that Susan arrived in his life when his grandfather died and Elias began his descent on the Walkers?
His mouth went dry.
She’d been there the morning before Whiskey River died. She’d been at the barn before he got there.
His palms were wet and his breath came in pants.
What was Susan doing with the Morgan’s? Was she part of the plan to destroy him? How convenient to have been there when his grandfather died and to be there as each part of his life unfolded.
Eric ripped the bandage off his thumb and cursed as he brushed the stitches.
How could he have been so stupid? Oh, and he’d put Bethany right in the middle of things too. Just how much information were they trying to get?
Eric pushed open the door on his truck and jumped down. He kicked the earth at his feet and looked up at the house he loved so much. Why the hell should he stay there now? Didn’t it seem as if every single person in his life was against him—including his mother?
The sound of tires kicking up dirt behind him had him turning around. A brand new blue pickup came racing toward him.
Eric quickly moved in front of his truck as the other truck skidded to a stop beside him. It shouldn’t have surprised him when Tyson hurried out of his truck and right for him.
Obviously they were going to beat the crap out of each other again, so Eric had his one good fist ready to go.
“You didn’t know about all that?” Tyson said with venom in his voice as he stared toward Eric with a hurried walk.
Eric simply stared at the man who’s fury was red hot on his cheeks. “About what? My mother?”
“Our mother,” Tyson said with a wince. “If that is, in fact, true.”
“Did it seem as if I knew about it? Jesus, I didn’t even know you existed until the other day when you began punching me.”
“I think you came at me.”
Had he actually smiled and had Eric returned it? He let down his defensive stance—slightly.
“I didn’t know shit. None of this makes sense. Why wouldn’t someone have told us that if it were true? Why now? Why when we’re grown men?”
Tyson narrowed his eyes. “Look at us. I’d think we were brothers if I didn’t know better.” He ran his hands over his head. “And when I called my mother she broke into hysterics and couldn’t even speak to me,” he admitted. “She hung up on me. Actually hung up.”
“I guess we don’t understand our families as well as we thought we did.”
Tyson nodded. “Never did feel like I belonged. Maybe this is why.”
Eric felt the throb in his thumb and tried to bend the stiffness from it. “Want a drink?”
Tyson looked at his watch. “Yeah. Maybe we can decide who’s killing our cattle. I’m going to take a leap and assume, in a brotherly trust, we’re not doing that to each other.”
“You can take that leap. I didn’t kill your animals.”
“I didn’t kill yours either,” Tyson said as they walked up the front steps and into the house. “My grandpa,” he let out a groan. “Our grandpa is up to something. I’m beginning to think it has something to do with your land and the issue with our animals.”
Eric walked to the kitchen, opened the cupboard, and took out a bottle of Jack and two shot glasses. “Then we need to find out what and stop it. And so help me if I can keep him from moving my mother I’ll still do it. Visit if you want, and he can too, she still belongs here.”
He poured the whiskey into the glasses and handed one to Tyson.
Tyson threw the drink back and swallowed hard. “I don’t blame you for wanting to keep her. I’d want the same.”
Eric lifted his glass and swallowed down the liquid, which burned as it slid down his throat. “I don’t suppose he even cared that she was gone.”
“You’d be wrong. He talked about her all the time. He celebrates her birthday every year. This year would have been her sixtieth.”
“I know that.” He didn’t quite know what to do with Tyson’s knowledge of it, however.
It still hurt to think that if Elias Morgan loved and missed his daughter so much he’d have wanted to know his grandson.
Tyson set his glass on the counter. “I’m going to head to town and find a place to stay. It’s time to find a place away from him to live. I thought I’d been there all my life to take over what belonged to me.”
“It does. Just as part of this belongs to me.”
“Just doesn’t feel right at this moment.”
Eric nodded. He certainly understood that.
“What was Susan doing there?” The urge to ask had taken over.
Tyler shrugged. “I don’t know. Honestly, she has something going on with my grandfather and my sister.”
His answer wasn’t satisfying Eric’s curiosity as to what she was involved with. Eric was feeling betrayed, as he knew Tyson was.
“Hey, I’m sorry for punching you,” Eric said quietly.
“Me too. Years of built up frustration.”
That did, in fact, sum it up.
“Let me know if you learn anything.”
“I’ll do that.”
Tyson let himself out the door and Eric listened as he drove away. If they weren’t responsible for killing each other’s herds and horses who was then?
No one suffers.
He thought of his father’s words. Didn’t it seem like everyone was suffering, including the Morgans?
There was more, he knew. Why were his father and uncle at the Morgan’s the other day? Why was Susan?
He looked at his watch. It was almost time for dinner. Maybe it was time to see what they were all plotting. How convenient to have his father and his lover all in the same room.