Chapter 6 - The Road Through Black Pine Pass
The judge’s stagecoach had only one route into Copper Falls during winter.
Black Pine Pass.
Boone knew it.
So did Jasper.
“He’ll ambush them near Devil’s Turn,” Jasper said.
Sheriff Harlan studied the map.
“You sure?”
“Only place where a rifleman can cover the road without being seen.”
“You’re still injured.”
“So send someone who knows the pass better.”
Nobody answered.
Jasper reached for his coat.
Ellie blocked him.
“No.”
“Ellie.”
“No.”
“I need to go.”
“You need to heal.”
“If Boone kills that judge, Rose remains in danger and I remain wanted.”
“And if you tear that wound open again, none of it matters because you’ll be dead.”
Jasper stepped closer.
“What would you do?”
“That isn’t fair.”
“What would you do?”
She knew the answer.
Jasper saw it.
“I’ll come back.”
“You cannot promise that.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But I can promise I’ll try.”
Ellie hated those words.
Because they were exactly what she had told dying patients’ families.
Not certainty.
Hope.
She handed him clean bandages.
“Then take these.”
Jasper smiled faintly.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Harlan, Jasper, Samuel, and three deputies rode before dawn.
Hours passed.
Then more.
Ellie worked in the temporary clinic while pretending she wasn’t listening for hoofbeats.
Near sunset, she heard them.
Samuel rode into town alone.
Blood covered his coat.
Ellie ran outside.
“Where’s Jasper?”
“Pass.”
“What happened?”
“Boone had six men. Maybe seven.”
“And Jasper?”
Samuel hesitated.
“He went after Boone.”
Ellie’s heart dropped.
“Alone?”
Samuel looked ashamed.
“He wouldn’t wait.”
Ellie grabbed her coat.
Rose stopped her.
“You can’t ride into a gunfight.”
“I rode through a blizzard.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“No.”
Ellie picked up her medical bag.
“It’s worse.”
They found Harlan near Devil’s Turn.
Two deputies were wounded.
The judge was alive.
Boone had fled.
Jasper had followed.
Ellie dismounted.
“Harlan!”
The sheriff pointed toward the ravine.
“Tracks go north.”
She followed.
Rose and Samuel came behind.
Snow began falling.
They found Boone’s horse first.
Then blood.
Not much.
Enough.
At the edge of Black Pine Creek, Ellie heard voices.
Boone stood on the frozen river with a pistol.
Jasper faced him.
“You should’ve died with your father,” Boone said.
Jasper’s hands were empty.
“You’ve spent fourteen years running from a twelve-year-old girl.”
“She should have kept running.”
“You won’t touch her.”
Boone laughed.
“Or the fat nurse?”
Jasper’s expression changed.
Ellie had never seen such cold anger.
“Say whatever you want about me.”
Boone raised the pistol.
“But you don’t speak about her.”
The gun fired.
Jasper moved.
Ice cracked.
Boone fell backward.
The river opened beneath him.
For one instant, Jasper caught Boone’s wrist.
Boone stared upward.
“Pull me up!”
Jasper strained.
Ellie reached them.
“Jasper!”
The ice fractured again.
“Let go!” Samuel shouted.
If Jasper held on, both men would fall.
Boone saw it too.
Fear transformed his face.
“Please!”
Jasper could have released him.
The man who murdered his father.
The man who hunted Rose.
The man who burned Ellie’s clinic.
Instead Jasper reached with his other hand.
“Samuel!”
Together they dragged Boone onto solid ice.
Harlan arrived moments later.
He put Boone in irons.
Boone stared at Jasper.
“Why?”
Jasper breathed hard.
“Because I’m not you.”
Ellie looked at him.
And something inside her finally stopped being afraid of what she felt.
Later, while she treated Jasper’s reopened wound beside a campfire, he winced.
“You’re angry.”
“Furious.”
“I saved him.”
“You also got shot at.”
“Missed me.”
“That does not improve the situation.”
Jasper smiled.
Ellie tied the bandage harder than necessary.
“Ow.”
“Good.”
He laughed.
Then his expression softened.
“I heard what Boone called you.”
Ellie continued working.
“I’ve heard worse.”
“I wanted to kill him.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Jasper looked toward the prisoner.
“Because someday I want to deserve the way you look at me.”
Ellie froze.
“How do I look at you?”
He smiled.
“Like there might be something worth saving.”
Before she could answer, Sheriff Harlan approached carrying Boone’s saddlebag.
Inside was another ledger.
And a letter proving Boone had not acted alone.
Someone in Copper Falls had helped him for years.
May you like
Someone Ellie trusted.
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