“No, J.D., they didn’t,” Will said bitterly. He curled his hands into fists at his sides and leaned toward his brother. “Maybe I’ve got other things on my mind besides this goddamn ranch. Did you ever think of that? Maybe I’m sick of being tied to it. Maybe I don’t give a flying fuck what happens to it!”

Tucker shifted nervously from foot to foot. His weathered old face screwed up into a look of sick apprehension. “Now, boys, maybe this ain’t the time-”

“Maybe the time’s passed,” J.D. said, his voice a deadly whisper.

Will felt as though his mirror glasses offered him no protection at all from J.D.’s penetrating gaze. As always, his brother could see right through them, right into his own weak soul. He didn’t measure up. Never had. Never would. No point in trying. No point in staying.

He met J.D.’s hard, cold gaze unflinching, and his childhood and youth passed before his mind’s eye-him tagging after J.D., the fights, the uneasy truces, the rare moments of camaraderie. They were brothers, but J.D. had never forgiven him for being born and he never would. Half brothers. The tag made him feel like half a man. Half as good. He felt something inside him shrivel and die. Hope. What a sad, sorry feeling.

“I’ll go pack a bag,” he said softly.

Tucker swore under his breath and tried to catch up as Will started for the house. Will raised a hand to ward him off and the old man faltered to a stop, looking helpless and angry. He wheeled on J.D., sputtering.

“Damnation, if you don’t have a head harder than a new brick wall!”

“Save your breath, old man.”

J.D. turned and walked away from him, toward the corrals. He willed himself not to look at Mary Lee, but he couldn’t hold himself to it. He cut a glance at her as she stood beside her car. Her eyes were stormy, her stare direct. Displeasure curved her ripe little mouth. Guilt snapped at him. He kicked it away. To hell with Mary Lee Jennings. To hell with Will. He didn’t need either one of them.

Mari told herself to get in the car and drive away. She had enough problems of her own without adding the burden of someone else’s sibling rivalry to the load. But she couldn’t seem to make herself leave. Will, for all his flaws, was a friend. J.D., in spite of many things, was her lover. She couldn’t just stand back and watch them tear their brotherhood apart. She knew only too well how irreparable damage like that could be.

Swearing at herself under her breath, she trotted after him. “J.D.-”

“Stay out of it, Mary Lee.” He kept on walking, his long strides forcing her to jog beside him. “It’s none of your goddamn business.”

“He could have been killed in that accident.”

“It would have served him right.”

“Damn you, Rafferty, stop it!” she snapped, slugging him in the arm as hard as she could, succeeding in making him turn and face her. “Stop pretending nothing and no one matters to you except this ranch.”

“Nothing does,” he growled.

“That’s a lie and you know it! If you were such a bastard, you wouldn’t keep on hundred-year-old ranch hands and an uncle whose mind went around the bend twenty years ago.”

“That’s duty.”

“That’s caring. It’s the same thing. And you care about Will too.”

“What the hell do you know about what I feel or don’t feel?” he demanded, furious that she had managed to strike a raw nerve. “You think going to bed with me makes you an expert? Jesus, if I’d known you were gonna be this much trouble, I’d’ve kept my pants zipped.”

Scowling blackly, he started once again for the corrals, where half a dozen horses stared over the fence with their ears pricked in interest. Mari went after him, calling herself seven kinds of a fool.

“I could say the same thing, you know,” she pointed out. “You’re never going to win any prizes for charm, and I sure as hell didn’t come to Montana to get stuck in the middle of a family feud.”

“Then butt the hell out.”

“It’s too late to pretend we don’t know each other.” She wanted to say it was too late to pretend they didn’t care, but she knew that would be asking for a kick in the teeth. She’d had enough pain to last her. “All I’m saying is, Will is the only brother you’ve got, J.D. Yes, he’s screwed up, but he’s not a lost cause. He needs help. You could drop the tough-guy act for ten minutes and show a little compassion.”

“You want compassion?” he sneered. “Go see a priest. It’s not an act, Mary Lee. I’m exactly what I appear to be.” He spread his arms wide. “Nothing up my sleeves. No trick mirrors. You think I’m a hardcase and you don’t like it? Tough shit. Go find yourself another cowboy to screw. There’s plenty around for the time being. Shit, you like my brother so well, maybe you’d rather be fucking him.”

Mari blinked hard and jerked back as if he’d slapped her. He may as well have. Tears flooded her eyes. She refused to let them fall. “Jesus, you can be the most obnoxious son of a bitch!”

“If you don’t like it, leave. Nobody’s gonna stop you, city girl.”

“Fine,” she whispered, her voice trembling too badly to manage anything more. With a violently shaking hand she swept an errant chunk of hair behind her ear. “I’m out of here. And don’t bother coming down to Lucy’s place again. I don’t need you either.”

“Good. I’ve got better things to do. Call me when you decide to sell the place.”

Fighting the tears, she started for her car, a blurry white blob across the yard, but she pulled up and turned to face him again, shaking her head. “You’re so busy protecting what you own, you don’t even see that you’re losing everything that’s really important. I feel sorry for you, Rafferty. You’ll end up with this land and nothing else.”

“That’s all that matters,” J.D. said, but Mary Lee had already turned away from him and was stalking back to her car, her hiking boots scuffing on the dirt and rock as she went.

He stood there and watched her drive away. She couldn’t matter to him. He couldn’t let her. She wouldn’t stay in his life. In another week or two she would tire of the rustic life and head back to California, and he would still be here, working the ranch and fighting to preserve his way of life from extinction. He couldn’t let anything intrude on that.

As he turned back toward the corral, the word martyr rang in his head and left a bitter, metallic taste in his mouth. He spat in the dirt and climbed through the bars of the fence to catch a horse.

How she got down from the Stars and Bars without crashing into a tree was beyond her. A miracle. As if such things existed. Angry and hurt beyond all reason, Mari jumped out of the Honda and headed for the barn. Urgency pushed her to a jog, then she was sprinting into the dark interior and out the side door. Clyde raised his head from dozing and brayed at her. She kept on going to the llama pen and over the gate. She ran into the pasture until her knees threatened to give out and her lungs were on fire, then she fell down into the deep grass and lay there, sobbing.

She wasn’t even sure why she was crying. Because Rafferty had hurt her feelings? He could have made a living at that, the bone-headed clod. Because she hurt for Will, for what the two brothers were losing? Because her friend was dead? Because she wanted a cigarette so badly, she would have gotten down on her hands and knees in the gutter to scrounge for butts? All of those reasons and more.

She lay in the grass and cried until she couldn’t cry anymore, then she just lay there. The sun shone down, as warm and yellow as melted butter amid popcorn clouds. A breeze fanned the grass and brought the scents of earth and wildflowers. Opening her eyes, Mari watched them bow to the breeze-delicate violets, blue-bells just starting to open, windflowers with their thick, hairy stems and showy blooms. Their beauty calmed her, their simplicity soothed her. A bumblebee buzzed lazily from blossom to blossom, oblivious of the human world and all its self-made agonies.