Chapter 6 - Return to the Burned Ranch
Elias had spent twelve years avoiding the Ward property.
Now he rode toward it faster than he had ever ridden anywhere.
Nara insisted on coming.
“No.”
“You said that before.”
“And I meant it.”
“So did I.”
Eventually Elias stopped arguing.
Rourke came too.
So did a federal marshal named Samuel Hayes, who had arrived after Caldwell's telegram.
They approached carefully.
The ranch ruins emerged beneath moonlight.
Most of the original buildings were gone.
Only the stone chimney remained.
Elias stopped breathing for a moment.
He was twenty-seven again.
Smoke.
Heat.
His mother's voice existing only in memory.
His father's hands.
Samuel laughing.
Gone.
Nara touched his arm.
Not to pull him.
Just to remind him where he was.
Now.
Not then.
They found Aayoka inside the remains of the old barn.
Bell stood nearby with two men.
He had expected Elias alone.
Instead, Marshal Hayes stepped from the darkness.
“Amos Bell. Drop the weapon.”
Bell laughed.
“You think this changes anything?”
“It changes your evening considerably.”
One of Bell's men surrendered immediately.
The other ran.
Rourke intercepted him.
Bell grabbed Aayoka.
Elias froze.
“Let her go.”
“The ledger.”
“Already copied.”
Bell's expression changed.
“Copies are in Tucson.”
“You're lying.”
“Try me.”
For the first time, Bell looked afraid.
Aayoka remained astonishingly calm.
Then she drove her heel down onto Bell's boot.
His grip loosened.
She twisted away.
Hayes moved.
Bell's gun hit the dirt.
Seconds later, the sheriff was in irons.
No grand duel.
No heroic killing.
Just a frightened corrupt man suddenly discovering that a badge could not protect him forever.
As Hayes led Bell away, Elias remained among the ruins.
Aayoka approached.
“You came.”
“You knew I would.”
“I hoped.”
He looked around.
“I haven't been here since the fire.”
She understood immediately.
“You don't have to stay.”
Elias almost laughed.
That sentence.
Stay.
Leave.
His entire life reduced to those choices.
“I think I do.”
Aayoka stayed beside him until sunrise.
Elias walked through every ruin.
He found the old well.
The remains of the kitchen foundation.
A horseshoe Samuel had once nailed above the barn.
He cried once.
Quietly.
He did not apologize.
Aayoka did not pretend not to notice.
When they finally mounted their horses, Elias looked back.
For twelve years, he had believed this place was where his life ended.
Now he understood something.
It was simply where one life had ended.
Another had continued.
May you like
And two women in a damaged cabin had somehow made him want to discover what came next.
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