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“Nothin’. It means nothin’.” He looked away and sighed. “Anyway, back to my original question, what are you doing over here?”
I lifted a brow and narrowed my gaze accusingly. “You don’t hate me anymore?”
“I’ll get back to you on that.” He grinned.
“I’m waiting for Cassidy since I have no idea how to get down this mountain on my own,” I answered.
“He’s gonna be awhile.”
“How do you know that?”
Keaton glanced around me as if double checking that we were alone. “I snuck over there to see what was going on.”
Grinning, I ducked my head toward him and whispered, “And what’d you see?”
“You’re not going to tell my dad or Uncle Cassidy that I followed them?”
Lifting my hand, I offered him my pinky. “Promise.”
He smiled and wrapped his own pinky around mine. “Alright, Butch rode back to Marshall, one of our ranch hands, who told my dad about the problem, and then continued on to get Cassidy. Dad found me to let me know that there was an emergency but I needed to come back to camp. Apparently, whatever it is, is a bit gross, and he didn’t want me to see it.”
“You’ve grown up here, right?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Exactly, I’ve seen it all. But this isn’t the first time he’s done something like this. My mom found out Dad let me help with a bloated steer once, and she gave him a tongue lashin’ like you wouldn’t believe.” I chuckled as this kid inhaled deeply. “Anyway, apparently this cow who wasn’t supposed to be bred this year, somehow still ended up pregnant, and the baby was stuck.”
Furrowing my brows, I tipped my head. “That’s not unusual?”
“Right? So, I thought it was no big deal to sneak over and watch. When I rode on up, I was hiding behind some trees but heard Marshall mention how the calf has two heads!” he squealed.
“Two heads? Do you know how rare that is?!” I exclaimed and shot up. “I got to see this!”
“You don’t want to,” he immediately stated, grabbing my wrist. I glanced down at the kid as he turned multiple shades of green, recollection dancing behind his eyes.
Pausing, I slid back down to the grass. “I hate to ask… But why not?”
He dry heaved and swallowed heavily. “The heads… The heads are not…attached and the mama cow is… There were parts every…everywhere and…” Suddenly, he dove to the side and hurled.
WHAT?
Placing a hand on his back, I gently rubbed, hoping to offer him some comfort, but there was missing information in his story. There had to be. How else could you explain how the heads were suddenly not attached, and how the cow—
A sharp sound cracked through the air.
Both Keaton and I whipped our heads up as a plume of birds took to the sky.
“Was that…?” I hesitantly asked, startled. My veins ran hot, adrenaline spiking.
“It sounded like a gunshot,” Keaton muttered, wiping the back of his hand across his lips.
“Keaton, why was the cow and calf…” My voice trailed off, not wanting to bring things back up if he couldn’t handle it. But all the same, something was going on.
“Torn to bits? Shredded with their guts tossed everywhere?” he filled in, then dry heaved once before leaning sideways and vomiting.
I nodded, not wanting to picture the sight in my mind as I waited for him to finish throwing up.
Clearing his throat, he shook his head. “I heard Uncle Cassidy hiss something about ‘them… bad word… coyotes,’ and then all five of the guys rode away. Off toward where the rest of the herd was hanging out is my guess,” Keaton explained.
“Are you saying that this cow got separated from the herd because she was giving birth, got torn up by some coyotes, and the guys are—”
