Chapter 9 - The Night Red Mesa Chose a Side
Harlan waited inside the abandoned stockyard.
Mara entered through the open gate.
“You came.”
“You knew I would.”
Harlan smiled.
“You always were predictable.”
“Where are the papers?”
“With Mr. Creed.”
“Then why am I here?”
“To sign.”
He placed a deed on a barrel.
Mara looked at it.
Her property.
Her spring.
Everything Thomas had left.
“Sign it and this ends.”
“No.”
Harlan's smile disappeared.
“You haven't even heard the offer.”
“I've heard it for eighteen months.”
He stepped closer.
Mara's body remembered before her mind did.
Her shoulders tightened.
Her breathing changed.
Harlan noticed.
He enjoyed noticing.
“You're still afraid of me.”
Mara forced herself to meet his eyes.
“Yes.”
That surprised him.
She continued.
“Courage isn't the absence of fear.”
“Spare me.”
“I am afraid of you.”
She took one step forward.
“And I'm still saying no.”
Harlan grabbed her wrist.
A voice came from the darkness.
“Let her go.”
Harlan spun.
Not Elias.
Samuel Pike.
The shopkeeper stood at the gate.
Behind him was Nathan Cole.
Then Abigail.
Then the stable owner.
Then three ranchers.
Then Ben Pike's mother.
Harlan stared.
“What is this?”
Samuel stepped forward.
“You burned my store.”
“You can't prove that.”
“No.”
Samuel looked around.
“But I'm done pretending I didn't see everything else.”
Harlan released Mara.
More lanterns appeared.
Red Mesa had followed her.
Not all of it.
Enough.
Harlan backed toward the fence.
“You people have lost your minds.”
Nathan shook his head.
“No. Think we're getting them back.”
Then hoofbeats thundered outside.
Elias rode through the gate with two federal surveyors.
Mara's knees almost gave way from relief.
He dismounted.
“You all right?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Harlan.
“Looks like I missed something.”
Mara almost laughed.
One surveyor introduced himself as Charles Avery, federal land agent.
“We've sent a rider to the territorial marshal.”
Harlan went pale.
Avery continued.
“Until he arrives, I suggest nobody goes anywhere.”
Harlan ran.
Nathan moved to chase him.
Elias stopped him.
“Let him.”
Mara stared.
“Why?”
“Because he'll go to Creed.”
“And?”
Elias looked toward the dark hills.
“And scared men make mistakes.”
Harlan made one before midnight.
He rode directly to Creed's hidden cattle canyon.
Nathan followed from a distance.
There he found stolen cattle.
Altered brands.
And a locked shed.
Inside the shed was something nobody expected.
Caleb Morris.
Alive.
Thin.
Bearded.
Chained to a wall.
The rancher who had supposedly fled Red Mesa looked at Nathan through hollow eyes.
“Get me out.”
Nathan broke the lock.
Caleb stumbled into the moonlight.
“Creed can't know I'm alive.”
Nathan supported him.
“Why?”
May you like
Caleb looked toward the canyon entrance.
“Because I saw who killed Thomas Grey Hawk.”
