Chapter 8 - Forty Miles Through a Frozen Wilderness
The name was not written on the paper.
Caleb refused to say it immediately.
Blaine's patience vanished.
“Who?”
“We need to move.”
“Who, Caleb?”
“Someone who may still be useful if he doesn't know we've identified him.”
Blaine grabbed his brother's coat.
May stepped between them.
“Blaine.”
He looked at her.
“Not now.”
“Yes. Now.”
Caleb remained calm.
“If Silas catches us because we're fighting, Dad died for nothing.”
That ended it.
Blaine released him.
They traveled north because Silas expected them south.
The plan was to reach a ranch belonging to one of Caleb's secret allies, then return toward Bitterroot Crossing after evidence reached Helena.
But winter decided otherwise.
A storm rolled down from the peaks with terrifying speed.
By noon visibility had dropped to fifty yards.
By evening, ten.
Caleb knew an old forestry cabin somewhere near Granite Pass.
They searched blindly.
May's fever returned.
Blaine noticed when she nearly fell from the horse.
He dismounted and lifted her down.
“I can ride.”
“No.”
“Blaine.”
“You're shaking.”
“It's cold.”
“You're burning up.”
May tried to argue.
Then the mountain tilted beneath her.
Blaine caught her.
When she woke, she was inside the forestry cabin.
Firelight.
Blankets.
Blaine beside her.
For a moment she thought she had returned to the first night.
Then she saw Caleb and Clara near the stove.
Ruth was asleep.
“You carried me again,” May whispered.
Blaine looked at her.
“Bad habit.”
“How long?”
“Three hours.”
“You should've left me.”
“No.”
“You could lose everything because of me.”
“I already lost everything.”
The words sounded harsh.
May turned away.
Blaine sighed.
“That came out wrong.”
“No. It didn't.”
He moved closer.
“My cabin is gone.”
“Yes.”
“My old life is gone.”
“Yes.”
He waited until she looked at him.
“I didn't say that was a bad thing.”
May stared.
Blaine's voice softened.
“Before you arrived, I had a cabin and silence.”
“Sounds peaceful.”
“It wasn't.”
“What was it?”
“Waiting.”
“For Caleb?”
“For something.”
He looked toward his brother sleeping on the opposite side.
“I didn't know what.”
May understood.
She had survived by running toward freedom.
Blaine had survived by running away from life.
Maybe they had met somewhere between.
Her eyes closed.
“Sleep,” he said.
“You'll still be here?”
The question escaped before she could stop it.
Blaine paused.
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
His answer came quietly.
“Yes.”
May slept.
Morning brought clear skies.
They resumed the journey.
Forty miles separated them from Bitterroot Crossing by the route Caleb chose.
It took three days.
Along the way, Caleb told pieces of his story.
He had spent his first year at Red Hollow as a prisoner.
Later Silas discovered his education and moved him into bookkeeping.
Caleb learned codes.
Routes.
Names.
Then he began changing records.
A worker marked dead might actually be given a horse and directions north.
A woman supposedly sold east could disappear with a wagon headed west.
Small rebellions.
Never enough to attract attention.
Until May stole the ledger.
“I knew Silas would move everyone,” Caleb said.
“You expected this?” she asked.
“I hoped you'd wait.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“Fair.”
“Clara thought you were dead.”
“Also fair.”
May shook her head.
“You Mercer men are exhausting.”
Blaine looked offended.
Caleb smiled.
“Wait until you meet cousins.”
The laughter helped.
Even Ruth joined.
For a few miles they were not fugitives.
Just travelers.
Then they reached Carter's Ranch.
The house had burned.
Smoke still rose.
Blaine dismounted.
Caleb's expression collapsed.
“No.”
They searched.
No bodies.
That was something.
But carved into the barn door was the Vane symbol.
Below it:
EVERY FRIEND COSTS YOU.
Ruth whispered, “Silas is ahead of us.”
“No,” Caleb said.
“He doesn't know everyone.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because the only person with the full list is me.”
Blaine looked at him.
“Unless somebody on the list is talking.”
Caleb's face hardened.
That possibility was worse.
They continued toward Bitterroot Crossing.
At dusk on the fourth day, town lights appeared.
Blaine had not entered Bitterroot Crossing in nearly six years.
Nothing looked different.
Same church steeple.
Same hotel.
Same main street.
Same courthouse.
Yet everything felt changed.
“Where do we go?” May asked.
Caleb pointed toward a small house behind the medical office.
“Dr. Samuel Reed.”
Blaine knew him.
Reed had delivered both Mercer brothers.
If anyone could be trusted, surely—
Then Blaine remembered Caleb's warning.
The syndicate had been started by someone he trusted.
They reached Reed's house through an alley.
Caleb knocked three times.
Pause.
Twice.
The door opened.
Dr. Reed stared at them.
He was seventy now.
Hair white.
Shoulders stooped.
His eyes filled when he saw Caleb.
“My God.”
Caleb embraced him.
“Good to see you, Doc.”
Reed brought them inside.
His wife gave May clean clothes.
Food appeared.
Hot water.
For the first time in days, they felt almost safe.
Then Blaine noticed a photograph on Reed's shelf.
Five men standing outside the courthouse twenty years earlier.
His father.
Judge Harlan.
Sheriff Bell's father.
Dr. Reed.
And Silas Vane.
Blaine stared.
Reed saw him.
The old doctor's face changed.
“You should sit down.”
Blaine turned.
“You knew Silas.”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
Reed closed the curtains.
“Better than I wish I had.”
“Did you know my father was investigating him?”
“Yes.”
Blaine's hand tightened.
“Did you know Harlan had him killed?”
Reed looked toward Caleb.
Then back.
“Yes.”
Blaine stepped forward.
May immediately stood.
Reed raised one hand.
“I tried to warn Thomas.”
“But you didn't tell us.”
“I was afraid.”
“For twelve years?”
“Yes.”
Reed's voice broke.
“For twelve years.”
Blaine looked disgusted.
Then the doctor said something that stopped everyone.
“Elias Harlan did order your father's death.”
He swallowed.
“But Harlan wasn't the man your father discovered at the top of the organization.”
Blaine remembered Caleb's warning.
Someone trusted.
Someone still useful.
“Who?”
Dr. Reed looked toward the courthouse visible through the curtains.
“The founder was Sheriff Amos Bell.”
Blaine frowned.
“That isn't possible.”
Bell had helped search for Caleb.
Bell had comforted Blaine's mother.
Bell had stood beside Thomas Mercer's coffin.
Dr. Reed's next words were worse.
“And he knows you're in town.”
A bell suddenly rang outside.
Not the church.
The sheriff's alarm.
Men began running through the street.
Reed extinguished the lamp.
“They found you.”
Blaine looked toward May.
The forty-mile journey had brought them exactly where Silas wanted.
May you like
Into a town controlled by the men who had destroyed the Mercer family.
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