After a moment, I barked in laughter and sloshed a good portion of my beer over the floor. With a stealthy glance to the side, I spotted my mark flinching, and looking straight ahead with a thousand-yard stare, a straight line where his lips used to be.

As I inspected the paddock, I could immediately tell a few things.

“Twenty head. Prime heifers. Gone without a trace,” he explained. Jeb had a way with words.

The Sheriff, deputy, and I kept our faces forward as we slowly trudged to where we knew Blackhawk would be waiting for us.

As we followed the rocks, they began to get larger and larger, until the land stacked together and formed solid enough to bring us to the side of a large plateau.