Chapter 4 - The Sheriff Who Knew Too Much
Elias wanted to ride for town immediately.
Aayoka stopped him with one question.
“What happens when you show a corrupt sheriff evidence that he is corrupt?”
Elias stood beside Copper with one foot nearly in the stirrup.
He slowly lowered it.
Nara, sitting on the porch with her ankle wrapped, said, “He destroys the evidence.”
“Or us,” Aayoka replied.
Elias hated that they were right.
They needed someone outside Bell's control.
A territorial marshal.
A judge.
A newspaper.
Someone.
Rourke arrived the following morning with three riders.
Aayoka stiffened when she saw him.
Elias stepped outside.
Rourke dismounted.
“Voss is gone.”
“Since when?”
“Yesterday.”
“He was here.”
“I figured.”
Elias showed him the ledger.
Rourke's face changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“Near the shed.”
Rourke examined the entries.
“This could bury Bell.”
“If we live long enough to show somebody.”
Rourke nodded.
“There is a federal land agent in Tucson. Henry Caldwell. Your father trusted him.”
“Still alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then we take it to Caldwell.”
Aayoka stepped forward.
“No.”
Elias turned.
“No?”
“Bell watches the roads.”
“So?”
“So the obvious messenger will never reach Tucson.”
She looked at Elias.
“You.”
He knew she was right again.
Rourke suggested sending several riders as decoys while the real evidence traveled another route.
Nara surprised everyone.
“I'll carry it.”
Elias immediately said, “Absolutely not.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“You are not my husband.”
The sentence landed strangely.
Rourke coughed to hide a laugh.
Elias glared at him.
Nara continued.
“Bell's men expect armed riders. They don't expect two women traveling to visit relatives.”
“Your ankle—”
“Is improving.”
“No.”
Aayoka looked at her sister.
Then at Elias.
“She has a point.”
Elias stared at both of them.
“You're impossible.”
Nara smiled.
“So we've been told.”
Eventually they formed a plan.
Aayoka and Nara would travel south with an older couple from the settlement.
The ledger would be hidden inside the lining of a flour sack.
Elias and Rourke's men would ride west openly.
It almost worked.
At noon, gunfire echoed from the southern road.
Elias turned Copper so hard the horse nearly slipped.
He rode toward the sound.
He found the wagon stopped in a narrow pass.
Two armed riders blocked the road.
A third had grabbed the reins.
Elias fired into the dirt near them.
“Move away!”
The men scattered.
One recognized him.
“Ward!”
“That's right.”
A shot cracked.
Elias ducked.
Rourke's riders arrived behind him.
Outnumbered, Bell's men fled.
Elias jumped down.
“Aayoka?”
She appeared from behind the wagon.
“We're fine.”
Nara leaned out.
“Your plan was excellent.”
“My plan?”
“You agreed eventually.”
Elias almost laughed despite himself.
They changed routes.
By nightfall they reached an abandoned mission where they planned to rest.
Aayoka found Elias outside beneath the stars.
“You came quickly.”
“I heard gunfire.”
“You were supposed to continue west.”
“I changed my mind.”
“You do that often lately.”
He looked at her.
Moonlight softened her face.
“I thought something happened to you.”
“To us.”
“Yes.”
Aayoka noticed the correction.
She said nothing.
Elias looked away.
For years, attachment had seemed like a trap.
Now something stranger was happening.
He was beginning to understand that caring about someone did create fear.
But it also created direction.
For the first time in twelve years, Elias knew exactly where he wanted to be.
Where they were.
Aayoka sat beside him.
“My husband was named Tahoma.”
Elias listened.
“He was kind. Too serious. He believed every broken thing could be repaired.”
Elias smiled faintly.
“Sounds exhausting.”
“He would have liked you.”
Elias's smile disappeared.
“I don't know what to say to that.”
“You don't need to say anything.”
She looked toward the mission.
“Nara's husband was killed in the same raid.”
“I know.”
“We stopped imagining the future afterward.”
Elias understood.
“Future gets dangerous when you've lost one.”
“Yes.”
Their eyes met.
Neither looked away.
Then a horse whinnied violently.
Elias stood.
A figure moved beside the mission wall.
“Inside!”
A rifle fired.
Stone exploded near Elias.
He pushed Aayoka behind cover.
More riders emerged from the darkness.
Bell had found them.
And this time he had not sent three men.
May you like
He had sent ten.
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