Chapter 13 - May Walked Back Into the Place She Escaped
May read the partnership agreement twice.
The signatures were real.
Silas Vane.
Thomas Mercer.
Dated twenty-one years earlier.
For one terrible moment she wondered if everything Blaine believed about his father was a lie.
Then she found the second page.
Winter House had originally been founded as a timber lodge.
Thomas Mercer owned thirty percent.
Silas provided freight connections.
Amos Bell arranged transportation.
Nothing illegal.
Not at first.
A third page showed Thomas withdrawing from the partnership two years later.
Reason:
Unlawful transport and sale of stolen property.
Attached was a handwritten warning.
Silas—
I will not participate in what you and Amos are becoming. If you continue, I will report everything.
Thomas.
May understood.
This was where the conflict began.
Thomas hadn't been part of the later syndicate.
He had discovered it from inside its earliest legitimate partnership.
May gathered every page.
Then the office door opened.
Silas Vane stood there.
No one behind him.
No weapon visible.
He smiled.
“You always were curious.”
May's blood went cold.
Outside, shouting continued.
Inside, the world narrowed.
Silas closed the door.
“You came a long way to steal paper.”
May held the documents behind her.
“They're not yours.”
“Everything in this house is mine.”
“No.”
She surprised herself.
“This house isn't yours either.”
Silas's smile vanished.
May lifted the deed.
“Thomas Mercer.”
Something flickered in his eyes.
“You think Blaine wants to learn his father once did business with me?”
“He'll want the truth.”
“Men always say that until truth embarrasses the dead.”
May kept breathing.
Silas stepped closer.
“You've changed.”
“Yes.”
“Mountain air?”
“Freedom.”
His jaw tightened.
“Freedom is a story poor people tell themselves.”
“No.”
May looked directly at him.
“Ownership is the story you told yourself.”
Silas moved closer.
May didn't retreat.
“You branded people because you needed them to believe they were less human than you.”
“Careful.”
“You locked doors because you were afraid of what would happen if they opened.”
“Enough.”
“You bought lawmen because you were afraid of honest ones.”
His composure cracked.
That was what May wanted.
“You built your entire life around fear.”
“Your fear.”
“No.”
She smiled faintly.
“Yours.”
Silas grabbed for the papers.
May moved.
The door burst open.
Blaine entered.
Silas stopped.
The two men faced each other.
“So,” Silas said. “Thomas Mercer's boy.”
“Which one?”
Caleb appeared behind him.
Silas's face changed.
For the first time, true uncertainty.
Blaine looked toward May.
“You all right?”
“Yes.”
He saw the documents.
“What are those?”
“Your father's.”
Silas lunged toward another door.
Caleb blocked it.
Outside, Rourke's men were surrendering or fleeing.
The prisoners had escaped.
The train could not leave because Caleb had disabled the coupling.
Silas had lost.
Yet he smiled.
“You think you've won?”
Blaine said nothing.
“Ledger goes to Helena. Fine. Half those men will deny everything.”
May held up the documents.
“And these?”
Silas's smile faded.
“Contracts. Property transfers. Letters.”
She looked at him.
“With signatures.”
Silas stared.
“You should've burned this place.”
“Yes.”
The answer shocked everyone.
Silas laughed once.
“I suppose I should have.”
Then came horses.
Many.
Blaine looked through the window.
Riders approached.
Bell?
No.
These were uniformed railroad guards.
Behind them came townspeople.
Dozens.
News of the failed Grayson Cut robbery had spread.
The railroad superintendent himself had arrived.
Silas suddenly understood.
His isolation was gone.
There were too many witnesses.
Too much evidence.
Too many people no longer afraid one at a time.
Rourke entered from the rear.
Blood on his sleeve but standing.
“Silas.”
Vane turned.
“We need to leave.”
“Where?”
“North.”
“The train—”
“Horse.”
Rourke looked at Blaine.
For a second everyone held still.
Then Rourke shoved Silas toward the rear door.
Blaine followed.
The two fugitives mounted horses.
Caleb started after them.
Blaine stopped him.
“Let them go.”
Caleb stared.
“What?”
“Temporarily.”
Silas disappeared into trees.
May understood.
“Where can he go?”
Blaine looked north.
“Border.”
Caleb shook his head.
“Not in this weather.”
“Exactly.”
A storm was building.
Silas had spent years believing money could buy roads.
Now the mountain would decide what roads remained.
Railroad guards secured Winter House.
Ruth arrived with Clara and the rescued prisoners.
For hours, names were recorded.
Statements taken.
Documents copied.
May sat on the lodge steps.
Blaine joined her.
“You went into the office alone.”
“Yes.”
“That was stupid.”
“Yes.”
“You're agreeing?”
“I almost got caught.”
“You did get caught.”
“True.”
He sighed.
May looked at him.
“You were scared.”
“For you?”
“Yes.”
“Extremely.”
She smiled.
“Good.”
Blaine stared.
“You're becoming difficult.”
“I learned from you.”
He almost laughed.
Then May handed him Thomas's documents.
Blaine read.
When finished, his eyes were wet.
“He tried to stop it.”
“Yes.”
“I spent years wondering if Dad died because of something I failed to notice.”
“You were his son.”
“I was twenty-six.”
“You were still his son.”
Blaine folded the papers.
May asked, “Will you open his letter now?”
He looked toward the mountains.
“Soon.”
Night came.
The storm intensified.
A rider arrived from Bitterroot Crossing.
Federal officials had received one of the packets.
A territorial marshal was already traveling west.
Silas's network began breaking within hours.
Judge Harlan had attempted to flee.
Banker Mellor disappeared.
Two deputies confessed.
For the first time, May allowed herself to imagine a future.
Then the rider added something.
Silas had been seen heading toward Red Hollow.
Not the border.
Caleb stiffened.
“Why go back?”
May knew.
“There is something there.”
“What?”
Silas had told her once that every empire needed insurance.
She had assumed he meant money.
Now she remembered a locked underground room beneath his office.
A room even Rourke never entered.
May looked at Blaine.
“Whatever Silas truly fears losing is at Red Hollow.”
Blaine stood.
The final secret of the syndicate was waiting where Caleb had spent six years trapped.
May you like
And Silas Vane was riding there first.
---
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