Chapter II:

She replied his name is Roarke Morris and he he is the CEO of Market Equities."

Kody asked, "Do you know where he lives?"

Beth replied, "He owns the Ranch next to ours."

Kody nodded as he said, "Let's go Rip; we're goin' to have a come to Jesus meetin' with this Roarke guy."

They both embraced Beth and left. They got Kayce and left. Angela Blue Thunder wondered aloud, "Where are they going?"

Monica said, "I've learned in this family sometimes the best thing to do is not ask questions."

Both Chairman Rainwater and Angela Blue Thunder nodded and left.

Once they were in Chairman Rainwater's SUV Angela asked, "What can you tell me about Kody Dutton?"

Chairman Rainwater was quiet for several minutes he said, "He was a Navy SEAL with his twin brother Kayce. When he got home he became a thorn in my side. He's been a Livestock Agent first under his father and now under Kayce. Why the sudden interest?"

Angela replied, "I'm just curious; he sems like he could be dangerous."

Rainwater's driver spoke up, "He's very dangerous. I remember 3 ½ years ago when his oldest brother Lee was killed during one of our skirmishes he snuck onto the Res and killed 6 men all with a blade and what's worse is that he scalped them."

Angela was impressed as Chairman Rainwater continued where his driver had left off, "He is utterly ruthless and deadly. And now that his family was attacked I don't know what..."

As he trailed off Angela said, "What he's capable of. I like him based on what little I've seen."

Chairman Rainwater just shook his head.

They were almost to Roarke Morris's ranch when Rip's phone rang. He grabbed it and said, "Yea."

Lloyd screamed, "They're hitting the ranch; they got Jimmy Mia and Laramie as well."

Rip asked, "Anybody else hit?"

Lloyd replied, "Not that I know of. Just hurry."

Rip told him We're hurrying and then disconnected the call. He looked over at Kody. Kody grinned recklessly, "Let's take it off road."

Kayce glanced at Rip and quipped, "Oh shit he's smiling that's never good."

Rip concurred as they sped fast as possible to the ranch.

When they got to the ranch both Kayce and Rip pulled out their pistols and began firing at the invaders. They saw the three dead bodies that Lloyd had mentioned. Kody parked and jumped out with rifle in hand and together with Rip and Kayce flanking him ran to join the others in the bunkhouse. Kayce asked, "What the hell happened?"

Lloyd replied, "They just swept in here about 45 minutes ago. They took out Jimmy and the girls right away. They had just returned from rodeoing. The rest of us holed up in the bunkhouse."

Walker asked, "What's the plan?"

Kody replied as he leapt to his feet with a reckless devuk may care grin plastered upon his lips, "Let's kill em all."

Lloyd quipped, "Aw hell he's smiling."

Jay said, "Yep he's smiling. This shit is gonna get bloody and he's going to do something crazy as hell."

Rip asked, "Are you two done?"

They nodded as Kody said before he threw the door open and lunged outside, "Let's play."

Both Kayce and Rip spat, "Aw hell."

And led the hands after Kody.

Kody threw his rifle to his shoulder and downed three of the invaders by the time he reached the water trough. He was reloading his rifle when Rip, Kayce and the others joined him. Kody spied a saddled horse huddled in the corner of the corral. He called, "Y'all cover me."

They all nodded as and opened fire as Kody leapt to his feet and ran in a zig zag pattern to the corral; he vaulted over the fence, caught up the steel dust stallion, swung into the saddle. Then he wheeled the steel dust around, took the reins in his teeth pulled out his 686 and urged the horse forward. They cleared the corral fence in one mighty jump. As soon as the steel dust touched ground Kody was shooting; his rifle in his left hand and revolver in his right. He cut a bloody swath as the steel dust swerved and weaved through the invaders. Kody felt a bullet slam into his side and another ricocheted off the saddle horn and struck him just below the left eye. He turned in the saddle and blew the gunman away with a round from his rifle; then he saw a cluster of gunmen right in front of him. He released the reins and ducked low under the steel dust's neck on the left side and killed all of the gunmen. He was just straightening up when a sledgehammer like blow blew him out of the saddle. His weapons went flying as he slammed into the ground.

Kayce, Rip and others watched Kody fall and they feared the worst for the fearless Livestock Agent. Rip saw that the remaining 4 gunmen were converging on him. Kayce and Rip aimed and killed two of the gunmen. They were about to kill the other two when sudden two shots rang out and the last two gunman dropped to the ground. They looked around for the shooter and saw Monica's father Felix come loping out of the trees. Kayce was the first to reach him and asked after he thanked him, "How did you know we were under attack?"

Felix replied, "Monica called and said there were white men all around and you would need help. I was just about to start picking off targets when Kody did his True Grit impression. He was doing damned good until he was blown out of the saddle."

They were interrupted as Kody groaned and tried to get to his feet but thanks to a bullet that had cut a deep bloody furrow across his left thigh he fell back to the ground. He cursed, "Aw hell."

Then he looked at the three men as he asked, Little help here."

The three men chuckled as the rest of the hands rushed over to them. Rip and Kayce helped him to his feet as Colby and Teeter reloaded his weapons and returned them to him. Jay and Lloyd took care of the steel dust. Kody thanked all of them and was about to say more when he passed out.

When he woke up, he was in a hospital bed he looked around and saw Kayce, Monica, Rip ad much to his surprise and delight Beth. He asked in a husky voice, "What in the blue hell happened."

Beth replied, "You passed out due to blood loss."

At his questioning gaze Kayce said, "You took six bullets. three to your side, a bad graze to your right thigh, a bad ricochet right below your left eye and the middle of your chest but thankfully your vest stopped it. None of us even knew you were wearing it. It cracked your sternum and your ribs are broken. They were using AP rounds"

Kody was astonished. He thought he only been hit three times. He chuckled then winced in pain as he said, "That really fuckin' hurts. How's dad?"

Beth replied, "He came through surgery alright."

Kody breathed a sigh of relief and went to get out of bed much to the protests of everyone there. Rip asked, "What the fuck are you doing?"

Kody replied, "There's killin' to be done and I aim to be the one doin' it

Monica said, "Not until you get better."

He was still struggling when he heard John's voice from the doorway, "Stop Kody."

Immediately he sank back down as John was wheeled further into the room. He was pushed right up to the bed. John looked down at his fiercely independent son; he marveled at how out of all his children Beth, Kayce and Kody were so much like him. They were the first to protect the family. He locked eyes with his bedridden son as he said, "I heard how you saved Kayce and helped save the ranch and while I am immensely proud of you, I also want you to know how incredibly stupid and reckless those stunts were."

When Kody tried to defend himself John said, "I'm not finished"

Then he addressed the whole room, "The wolves are at the door and we have been attacked on many different fronts and we have to defend what's ours. Now I don't know where Jamies stands and frankly I don't care. As far as I see it he turned his back on the family when he tried to unilaterally tried to sell our land. But be that as it may I'm counting on all of you to help defend our ranch."

The he locked eyes on Kody as he concluded, "No more stupid reckless stunts I want your word."

Kody held his gaze as he replied, "You have it Dad."

The others more or less uttered the same words as Kody. John nodded as he said, "Now let's begin planning our revenge."