Chapter 56 Part 56
Asher
“Does Charlie know where he went?” Blair asked, as they entered the tree line.
“She was pretty sure he wouldn’t have taken them to the location of his own vision quest,” Asher said.
“Sacred ground,” Colt said, nodding his head.
“Charlie’s house is two miles west of the feed store. If Bear Claw went from his house to the woods, he would have entered the tree line where the old mill used to be. That’s about ten miles from here. We need to head in that direction, try and see if we can find some sign of their movements,” Asher said.
“Yes, Sir,” Colt said, chuckling.
“We eat and drink as we go. It’ll get darker sooner in the woods. Don’t rely on the actual time. If we need to make camp without finding them, then this turns from missing teens to recovering bodies,” Asher said.
“Your optimism is downright spurring us on,” Blair said.
Asher didn’t reply. He simply clicked his tongue and steered Comet deeper into the woods. They were quiet for about ten minutes when Asher slowed his horse as Blair came up alongside him.
“I want to ask you a question, and I want you to answer me honestly,” Asher said.
“About what?” Blair’s look was challenging, and Asher didn’t like it. Not one bit.
“Are you in love with Maggie?”
Colt started coughing and laughing at the same time, and when Asher turned to look at him, he was bent over his horse, his face red. Asher gritted his teeth. Colt’s reaction told him everything he needed to know.
“You ask me this now? Out here in the snow?”
Asher glared at Blair. “Just admit it. I see the way you look at her when you think nobody’s watching.”
Blair closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them up again, Asher could see the change in his brother. “Yeah, I’m in love with her. So what? She said yes to you, didn’t she?”
“Is that what that date was all about? You take Maggie out on the town, and then she falls for you while I’m away? Was that your plan?”
“Let it go, Asher. Nothing happened, and nothing will ever happen. She chose you. I’m not the kind of man to steal another man’s woman,” Blair said.
“I can’t let it go, Blair. I’m going to marry that woman, and you’re my brother!”
“Hold on a minute. If Blair loves Maggie, and you didn’t kill Malcolm, Asher…did you kill him, Blair?” Colt’s eyes had widened, as he spoke.
“Blair didn’t kill him,” Asher said.
“How do you know?” Colt asked.
“I was at the ranch house! You were there, too, Colt!” Blair’s anger was now focused on Colt, the younger Fitzgerald brother.
“I don’t know what you did or where you went after we all went to bed,” Colt said.
“I could say the same thing about you,” Blair said, in a challenge.
“I know who killed Malcolm Walters!” Asher said loudly. “It wasn’t one of us.”
“Who killed him?”
Asher shook his head. “I’m not telling you.”
“Fine, so back to Blair loving Maggie.” Colt chuckled again, as Blair’s eyes shot daggers at him.
“I like her. A lot. It doesn’t mean I love her,” Blair said, looking at Asher. “It’s not something I’d ever pursue.”
“Find yourself a woman, and fall in love with her,” Asher said.
“Aye, aye, Captain, Sir,” Blair said, sarcastically.
“He was a Major, dumbass,” Colt said.
“Does she know?” Blair asked Asher.
“No.”
After another stretch of silence, Colt cleared his throat. “So, aren’t you going to ask me if I’m in love with her?”
Blair started laughing, and shook his head. “You have no clue what love is.”
“And you do?”
“Love is Asher buying that crib and painting it. It’s him fixing up her whole damn house, and being in a tizzy because of her past,” Blair said.
They had come to a point in the woods where they could either turn left, to go west, and find where the boys had entered the tree line, or turn right, and see if they could find the way the boys had ventured deeper into the trees.
Asher pulled on the reins, and Comet stopped walking. He got off his horse, walking a few feet to the other side of the trees.
“What is it, Asher?”
“Footsteps. It hasn’t snowed in a few days. It shows them heading out, not in,” Asher said.
Colt and Blair had gotten off their horses, as well. “I guess they went home.”
“No. Those are two sets of footprints going out. Someone was left behind,” Asher said.
“You think they left him because he’s dead?” Blair asked.
“This would go much faster if I had Dakota with me,” Asher said.
“Let’s get going then. We already wasted a few hours by heading west in the first place,” Colt said.
“We might not have found the footprints if we’d headed north,” Blair said.
“We don’t have time to waste!” Asher said, mounting Comet.
They headed northeast, and Asher could make out the broken foliage, and disturbed snow, showing the careless manner in which they had left, or perhaps a hasty manner.
He could almost see what had happened. The two sets of footprints leading out of the woods belonged to the two white boys. Bear Claw was still in the woods, and that meant he was hurt, or worse; dead Asher didn’t want to think about Bear Claw being dead. He’d barely begun to live.
He kept at it until there were no more footsteps, and he dismounted his horse again. He took the leading rope in his hand and started walking, studying the ground where the snow was sparse under the thick foliage of the trees.
He circled the area, but he didn’t find anything. There was no trace of Bear Claw. The boy knew the woods, and knew how to get himself food and shelter. He had to trust that he was safe.
“It’s getting darker, Asher,” Colt said. He didn’t want to give up, but he knew that to keep looking in the dark would place them in danger as well.