Chapter 7 - The Name Written Beside His Brother’s
“Blaine?”
Six years vanished inside one word.
Blaine saw Caleb at sixteen stealing peaches from Mrs. Walker's orchard.
Caleb at nineteen breaking his arm trying to ride a horse everyone else knew was impossible.
Caleb at twenty-three leaving for Bitterroot Crossing with a stupid grin and promising to be home before supper.
He had never come home.
Now his voice was outside.
Blaine moved toward the door.
May tightened her grip.
“Wait.”
“That is him.”
“I know.”
“You don't.”
“I heard him at Red Hollow.”
Blaine looked at her.
May lowered her voice.
“Rourke wants you emotional.”
“Good for Rourke.”
“Blaine.”
Outside, Caleb called again.
“Don't do it!”
Then came a heavy sound.
A man groaned.
Rourke laughed.
“Your brother still has opinions.”
Blaine's face changed.
May knew she had seconds.
“Listen to what Caleb said.”
“He said my name.”
“After that.”
Don't do it.
May saw understanding enter Blaine's eyes.
Caleb wasn't asking to be rescued.
He was warning him.
Rourke called, “Ledger for brother. Simple trade.”
Blaine shouted back.
“Let me see him.”
Silence.
Then footsteps.
Through the broken window, Blaine saw a figure pushed into lantern light.
Caleb.
Older.
Thinner.
A beard Blaine had never seen.
Scar near his temple.
But alive.
His hands were tied.
Their eyes met.
Neither spoke.
There are moments too large for words.
This was one.
Caleb smiled.
Small.
Crooked.
Exactly as he had when they were boys.
Blaine's vision blurred.
Caleb mouthed something.
Not the ledger.
Rourke pulled him back.
“Decision time.”
Blaine looked toward May.
Then toward Ruth.
“Packets?”
“Inside my coat,” Ruth whispered.
“Ledger?”
May tapped beneath her blanket.
Blaine nodded.
Then he picked up the fake book they had carried since the trapper hut.
May stared.
“You kept it?”
“I'm sentimental.”
Despite terror, she smiled.
Blaine called through the door.
“You get the book when Caleb reaches the porch.”
Rourke considered.
“Fine.”
Footsteps approached.
Blaine positioned himself.
May whispered, “This is too easy.”
“Yes.”
“What is he planning?”
“We'll find out.”
Caleb appeared outside the door.
Rourke stood ten yards behind.
Four men surrounded him.
Maybe more in darkness.
Blaine opened the door slightly.
“Send him.”
Rourke cut Caleb's bindings.
Caleb walked forward.
Five steps.
Four.
Three.
Rourke shouted, “Book!”
Blaine threw it.
Rourke caught it.
Caleb lunged toward the doorway.
Blaine grabbed his coat and pulled him inside.
Ruth slammed the door.
A gunshot struck the wall.
Rourke opened the fake ledger.
For one beautiful second, nothing happened.
Then his scream shook the night.
“You son of a—”
Blaine laughed.
It was the first real laugh May had heard from him.
Caleb turned.
The brothers stared at one another.
Blaine struck him.
May gasped.
Caleb staggered.
Then Blaine pulled him into an embrace.
“You idiot.”
Caleb laughed against his shoulder.
“Took you long enough.”
“You were alive.”
“Last I checked.”
“You were alive for six years.”
Caleb's smile faded.
“I know.”
Blaine stepped back.
“Why?”
“Later.”
The wall splintered.
“Definitely later,” May said.
Caleb noticed her.
His expression changed.
“You got out.”
May nodded.
“Because of you.”
“No.”
He looked toward Clara.
“Because of her.”
Clara ran to him.
Caleb hugged her.
“You made it.”
“I took the ledger.”
“You did good.”
Blaine grabbed his shoulder.
“Way out?”
Caleb pointed toward the floor.
“This cabin sits over an old drainage ditch.”
Blaine stared.
“You knew?”
“Who do you think told Rourke to bring me here?”
Everyone froze.
Blaine's eyes narrowed.
“You wanted this.”
Caleb smiled.
“I've been trying to escape for six years. Might as well do it properly.”
He pulled up two floorboards.
Cold air rushed upward.
A narrow stone channel lay beneath.
They entered one by one.
Caleb replaced the boards.
Minutes later Rourke broke through the cabin door.
Nobody was there.
The group crawled beneath the railroad embankment and emerged beside frozen reeds.
The freight whistle sounded in the distance.
May looked up.
“Train.”
They ran.
The mail car slowed at the water station.
Ruth climbed aboard long enough to hand six packets to a bewildered clerk.
“These must reach their addresses.”
The clerk saw the money she offered.
Then saw Blaine's expression.
He nodded.
The train pulled away.
May watched it disappear.
For the first time, evidence was beyond Silas Vane's immediate reach.
But the danger was not finished.
Caleb led them into the trees.
After an hour, they sheltered in an abandoned shed.
Blaine finally faced him.
“Talk.”
Caleb sat.
“What do you want first?”
“Everything.”
“That'll take six years.”
“Start with why you never came home.”
Caleb's smile disappeared.
“I saw men loading people into wagons behind the stockyard.”
Blaine listened.
“I followed.”
“You should've come for me.”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“They caught me.”
Caleb touched the scar near his temple.
“When they learned I could read and keep accounts, Silas decided I was useful.”
“You could've escaped.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you?”
Caleb looked toward Clara.
“Because every time I got a chance, somebody else needed it more.”
Blaine's anger dissolved.
Then Caleb reached inside his coat.
“I also stayed because of this.”
A folded paper.
He handed it to Blaine.
It contained a list of names.
People secretly working against Silas.
Ranchers.
Railroad workers.
Two deputies.
A doctor.
A minister.
At the bottom was one name Blaine recognized.
Their father.
Thomas Mercer.
Blaine stared.
“Our father died before you disappeared.”
Caleb shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“He was murdered.”
The room went silent.
Caleb pointed to another name written beside Thomas Mercer.
A name from the ledger.
Judge Elias Harlan.
Blaine's voice became ice.
“What did Harlan do?”
Caleb looked at him.
“Dad discovered the syndicate twelve years ago.”
He paused.
“And Harlan had him killed.”
Blaine looked toward May.
The story had started with one missing brother.
Now it reached back to the death that had broken their entire family.
And Caleb had one more revelation.
“Silas Vane didn't create the syndicate.”
Blaine frowned.
“Then who did?”
Caleb looked at the list.
“Someone in Bitterroot Crossing.”
May you like
Someone Blaine had trusted his entire life.
---
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