“Hey, not me.” Wells raised his bound hands as if to protect his face.

“Yes, him,” Cheyenne said. “But he just joined them, probably after they’d done all their rustling. Though he was willing to throw in with them, so he’s guilty. But if he helps us, we might let him off with only a few years in prison instead of hanging him.”

“Hanging?” Wells’s hands dropped, his shoulders slumped, and his head bent down until his chin rested on his chest. Yes, he’d tell them everything he knew.

“Did my message make sense?” Cheyenne asked Judd. “Do you know where to go for your cattle?”

“I know the place you described, and I sent men on ahead of me. I’ll go join them.”

Cheyenne snaked out a hand and grabbed him. “Remember what I said about traitors. We think we’ve got the leaders, but watch for dry-gulchers, Judd. Watch real close.”

Her hand tightened on his wrist until he flinched. Her eyes drilled into him. “My brother is lying in bed with a bullet wound. These men are ruthless coyotes, so be on guard. Wells here is the second turncoat we’ve found among our men, and we thought we could trust them all.”

Judd nodded, his mouth a grim line.

She released him. He turned, leapt on his horse in a way so graceful Cheyenne felt like she was watching a cougar leap from the ground to a tree branch. The horse raced away, and Judd’s men went with him.

Behind him.

Cheyenne said a prayer for his safety. For the safety of everyone trying to straighten this out.

Falcon’s arm came firmly around her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Old friend?”

She looked into those hazel eyes and smiled. “He is an old friend, and a married man with, I think, three children. And I only know that because I’ve heard it around town. I haven’t seen him in years.” She leaned into that arm of his and said quietly, “I’m so glad I’m going to marry you.”

She saw the jealous flare in Falcon’s eyes calm, and he relaxed his grip.

She turned back to Wells. “If I need to beat a confession out of you”—Wells flinched and didn’t seem to have the force of will to break eye contact with her—“I’ll just think of my brother, wounded, feverish, only alive through the pure grace of God, and everyone here will need to get in line behind me. Now, tell us how long you’ve been mixed up with this crew and the name of every man on every ranch around here that’s part of it.”