"A will?" Jarrod holds up the document in his now freed hands and turns toward Buddy who is pacing off to the side allowing his newly armed sidekicks to keep his hostages in place. "I don't understand. You're doing all of this just to steal our money, our investments?" Jarrod questions, his voice dripping with contempt.

Shaking his head, he looks over toward his family, all lined up and kneeling, apparently waiting for their slaughter. He can see the tears pouring down Audra's cheeks and the stoic resolve his mother is keeping, giving her outward appearance a visage of calm. Nick is holding his head high with his eyes burrowing into Jarrod's full of intent. He can tell his younger brother is determined to remain seemingly unphased by the danger Buddy represents to all of them, while Gene's fear shines through his eyes.

"Well, I do have to get paid," Buddy responds walking over to stand behind the group and at the head of the still unmoving Heath. "My services aren't free and my client is specifically interested in aspects of your wealth."

"This Woolf Trust," Jarrod surmises, "is that your client?"

"It is," Buddy answers squatting down staring at Heath. He leans forward and hovers over the boy's ear. "I would gladly put you out of your misery but I promised you to your aunt," he whispers but gets no reaction.

"Leave him alone," Nick growls, turning slightly to see what Buddy is doing, an action that causes the hired killer to smile and then slowly pull his knife from its sheath. Waving the bowie knife in front of Nick's eyes, he gradually places the sharp blade along the side of Heath's neck drawing a thin line of blood, taunting Nick.

"And just who is Woolf Trust?" Jarrod yells, interrupting Buddy's fun. "And why do they want our land?" he asks, flipping through the document once more, trying to get the attention away from his family.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Buddy's eyes never leave Nick's as he slowly pulls the blade away from the boy's neck and expertly slips it back into his sheath and unholsters his gun as a sadistic smile spreads across his face. Without warning, he roughly pushes Heath onto his injured back, causing him to cry out and arch his back in pain. Laughing, he fails to notice as Nick, hands tied, lunges himself onto the would be killer pushing him back onto the ground with such force, Buddy's colt flies from his hand. Seeing their opportunity, Jarrod goes to move forward only to have Clay wrap his arm around his neck and shove the barrel of his gun hard against his temple. Gene jumps up and in one swoop tackles the confused Matt, knocking his gun to the ground as the drunken, wounded man puts up no resistance. Seeing her chance, Victoria goes to rise but is pulled up short as the harrowing sound of a single bullet is heard piercing the air and the unmistakable sound of someone falling hard on the ground follows.

Looking up, Victoria frantically searches for the faces of her children only to choke back tears as her eyes fall upon her only daughter. Speckled in hues of red, Audra stares almost catatonic at the figure lying lifeless at her knees. Lee, their loyal hand, a man whom over the years had proven his worth time and time again, had given his life to protect her youngest child.

In front of her daughter stands the glaring figure of Martha Simmons, drool dripping down her smiling chin and a smoking gun nestled in her hand pointed directly toward Audra's forehead.

"He saved me," Audra cries, unable to pull her gaze away from the dead man. "She..she was going to shoot me and...and he jumped right in front of me." She cries harder, looking up towards her mother, fresh tears pouring out of her eyes causing red streaks to run down her cheeks.

"Why would he do that?" She leans over and drops her head to her mother's shoulder releasing her guilt.

Her own armor shattered by the dejected look in her daughter's eye, Victoria fights desperately against her restraints wanting nothing more than to wrap her arms around her child.

"Because he was a good man," Victoria chokes out allowing her own emotions to show, "an honorable man."

She turns toward Martha, who slightly cowers at the strength shining through the matriarch's eyes. A strength that says they will pay for what they have done here.

The sound of the gunshot has a paralyzing effect on all those surrounding the grievous scene, as each brother pauses to search for family, giving their attackers a chance to take back the upper hand. Clay, who already has the advantage over Jarrod, simply tightens his grip, snarling in the unimpressed lawyer's ear. Buddy makes quick work of the distracted Nick, sending a boot barreling into the unsuspecting man's chest causing him to fly backward onto his bound hands. With the weight removed from on top of him, Buddy quickly jumps up and grabs hold of his colt pointing it at the dark-haired rancher. Only Gene was left untouched, as Matt continues to whimper pathetically about his injured shoulder leaving the young Barkley unsure of what to do next. He doesn't dare make a move that can jeopardize his family.

"ENOUGH!" Buddy yells as he starts to walk around to the other side of Nick, in between him and Gene. Angrily he begins waving his gun absently around at each of his intended victims before settling his aim at the still whimpering Matt Simmons. "You useless garbage!" he screams before releasing a lethal shot into the pitiful man. He glances over at Martha who is standing frozen in place, wide-eyed, staring at her now deceased husband.

"You got a problem with that?" he asks her, motioning with his hand to the dead man while raising his gun to point directly at the woman who is now vehemently shaking her head no.

"Good," he finishes before stepping over to Nick who is rising onto his knees. Smiling down at the larger man, he condescendingly pats him on the cheek. "I forgot just how tough you are," he says before grabbing the man under the arm and pushing him toward Jarrod, causing Nick to face plant into the ground. "Come on now, get on over there with your brother," he yells, kicking the rancher twice in the side. "We ain't got all day."

Clawing into the earth as he tries to regulate his breathing, Heath turns his head toward the commotion just as his uncle falls lifeless to the ground. He watches him fall with a look of surprise forever plastered on his drunken face and it sends a wave of sadness through him. He has hated that man for most of his life. Between the name calling and the beatings, his uncle was a constant tormentor in his formative years, and yet, as he falls, another piece of Heath's life is gone. Whether good or bad, his life in Strawberry, before the Barkleys, will soon be fully gone.

Tearing his eyes away from his uncle's dead face, he sees Gene looking around confused as to what to do and can hear Audra's cries as she lays her forehead on her mother's shoulder taking in the soothing words that hardly replace the tight embrace the girl craves. He certainly doesn't miss the sneering look in the haunting eyes of his aunt as Buddy turns his head away from her and he sends a silent prayer to the heavens that she does something stupid to help put an end to all of this. He then dares to take another look toward the man who took him into his home and gave him the first sense of what a father should be like and imagines him breathing.

Sinking back into the ground, Heath looks up towards the blue sky and watches as the white clouds pass overhead. He wishes, for just a moment, he could be carried away by them. That he could join his family and finally be free of the pain that has shaped his life for as far back as he can remember. Closing his eyes, trying to focus on anything but the constant pain each movement brings, he tries to picture his mother, her hair, her eyes, her smile. He tries to recreate her laugh, her voice, all of the things that brought him comfort in the most trying of times. He tries desperately to get lost in the memories of before and to let the darkness take him until he hears Buddy's heckling of Nick, which oddly, but instantly ignites an intense fury that crawls into his limbs. Reaching out with his left arm, looking for leverage to push himself up, his fingers brush against a familiar form.

"Here's the deal," Buddy starts as he walks around the kneeling Jarrod and Nick before heading over to Gene and roughly dragging him over beside his brothers. He nods to Clay who is standing firmly behind the three with his gun pointed at the lawyer's head. "If you want your mother and sister to be able to leave this place, agree to assume new identities and most importantly be allowed to live out the rest of their lives, then all of you must sign this document."

He walks over to Jarrod and pulls out a pen from his pocket. "Starting with you, Jarrod"

"You honestly think that this won't be questioned?" Jarrod asks, looking at Buddy doubtfully. "There are others who know you are responsible for all of this. They will stop you."

Buddy walks over and stands in front of Jarrod, turning slightly so that that lawyer's gaze can fall upon Victoria and Audra, who are huddled together as best as they can be. "Right now, I would be more worried about them than about how I plan to pull this off. I don't think those oblivious to what has happened here would really question the mighty Barkleys leaving their possessions to someone they considered a relative."

"YOU REALLY ARE CLUELESS!" Nick roars getting the exact reaction he desires out of Buddy, who steps over and backhands the bound man.

"YOU'RE REALLY WILL…," he starts to say, turning toward the women, but instead finds himself looking into brightly burning azure eyes that are dead set on revenge.

With the rifle Audra had placed on the ground nestled in his arms, Heath doesn't hesitate to aim and fire sending one deadly projectile square into the forehead of the cocky killer who needed only to be removed from this earth. The force of the kickback into his recently relocated right shoulder sends the blonde to his knees as he tries to bring the rifle back up and protect this family from Clay and his aunt. He had known this was a risky move when he had felt the familiar feel of the metal barrel beside him, but it was a risk he was willing to take if it gave his stepmother and siblings a small chance of survival.

Fighting through the pain and the blessed darkness threatening to take him, he awkwardly tries to swing the rifle back into position just as he sees his aunt aim her colt at him. A popping sound is the last thing he hears as he loses the battle and falls to the ground. His last conscious thought as his eyes close is that he hopes the Barkleys are able to get away and that he can't wait to see his mother.