The bullet missed Anna by less than a foot.
It struck the sheriff’s office sign and sent splinters into the street.
Cole tackled Anna behind a watering trough while Barrett’s deputies scattered for cover.
A second shot came from the saloon.
Then another.
“Jeb!” Barrett shouted. “Federal officers! Drop your weapon!”
Jeb answered with gunfire.
Victor Hale sprinted toward the alley.
Cole saw him.
So did Anna.
“Hale!”
Cole started after him.
Anna grabbed his coat.
“Don’t.”
“He’s escaping.”
“There!”
Barrett had already sent two deputies around the building.
Cole stayed.
That choice nearly saved his life.
A shotgun blast ripped through the air where he would have been standing.
The heavyset miner appeared in a doorway.
Cole returned fire, hitting the frame beside him.
The miner vanished.
Then something unexpected happened.
The bartender stepped into view holding a rifle.
Cole recognized him immediately.
He aimed toward the saloon.
“Jeb!”
Gunfire stopped.
The bartender’s voice shook.
“I’m done watching you turn this town into hell.”
Faces appeared along windows.
One by one, armed townsmen emerged.
Not all pointed their guns at the marshals.
Several pointed toward Jeb’s position.
Sheriff Tobias shouted, “Get back inside!”
Nobody listened.
The bartender spat into the mud.
“You watched Robinson drag that woman through my place.”
Tobias flushed.
“She was under contract.”
“You knew what Hale was doing.”
“That’s a lie.”
Another voice came from the crowd.
“No, it ain’t.”
An elderly shopkeeper stepped forward.
Then a blacksmith.
Then two miners.
Stories began surfacing.
Missing women.
Fraudulent debts.
Bribes.
Threats.
Businesses forced to pay Tobias for protection.
Something had changed.
People had been afraid separately.
Now they realized they were afraid together.
Hale had built his operation on isolation.
The ledger destroyed that.
Jeb fired again from the saloon.
The bartender answered.
Glass shattered.
Barrett shouted, “Nobody enter! We take him alive if possible.”
Cole looked at Anna.
“You hurt?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Her face was white.
But she was standing.
That mattered.
A deputy dragged Sheriff Tobias away in irons.
Two others returned from the alley.
“No Hale.”
Barrett cursed.
Cole studied the alley.
“Horse?”
“Gone.”
Anna’s expression hardened.
“Where would he go?”
Nobody knew.
Then Anna did.
“The mine.”
Cole turned.
“What mine?”
“Hale used to talk about an abandoned silver claim west of town. He once told Jeb it was where he stored things nobody needed to find.”
Barrett immediately sent three deputies.
Cole started after them.
Anna followed.
“No.”
She stopped.
“Cole.”
“No.”
“You don’t give me orders.”
“This one I do.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Try again.”
Despite gunfire echoing from the saloon, Barrett almost smiled.
Cole lowered his voice.
“Hale wants you dead.”
“He wants the ledger destroyed.”
“He may want both.”
“And I know where the mine is.”
Cole stared at her.
Anna stared back.
Finally he muttered, “You stay behind me.”
“That sounded suspiciously like another order.”
“It was a request spoken angrily.”
“Better.”
They rode west.
Snow thickened.
The abandoned claim lay several miles outside town, cut into a dark hillside surrounded by dead pines.
Hale’s horse stood outside.
Cole dismounted.
“So much for subtlety.”
Barrett posted deputies around the entrance.
“Hale!” he shouted. “Come out!”
Nothing.
They waited.
Then a voice echoed from inside.
“Anna?”
She stiffened.
Cole moved closer.
“Don’t answer.”
Hale laughed inside the mine.
“The mountain man still deciding everything for you?”
Anna’s jaw tightened.
Cole whispered, “He wants you angry.”
“I know.”
Hale called again.
“I saved your mother.”
Anna flinched.
Cole saw it.
“You didn’t save anyone!” she shouted.
“I paid for doctors when nobody else would.”
“You bought a dying woman’s daughter.”
“I offered opportunity.”
“You offered chains.”
Silence.
Then Hale said softly, “And yet here you are.”
Anna looked toward the darkness.
“You think this ends with me?”
“It ends when people stop caring.”
Anna glanced around.
Barrett.
Cole.
Deputies.
The town behind them.
For years she believed nobody would care.
Hale had built his world around that belief.
She almost smiled.
“That’s your problem, Victor.”
“What?”
“Somebody cared.”
A shot came from the mine.
Stone chipped beside Cole.
He dragged Anna behind a boulder.
Barrett’s deputies fired toward the entrance.
Then smoke appeared.
“Hale’s starting a fire!” someone shouted.
Dry timber supports near the entrance caught quickly.
Cole understood.
Hale intended to collapse the mine.
“Back!”
A blast shook the hillside.
Snow fell from the trees.
The entrance partially caved.
Barrett cursed.
“He’ll bury himself.”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“There’s another exit.”
“How do you know?” Cole asked.
“Jeb mentioned it. Creek side.”
They ran.
The secondary opening emerged near a frozen stream.
Hale stumbled from the tunnel moments before they reached it.
He carried a leather satchel.
Cole tackled him.
They rolled through the snow.
Hale drew a small pistol.
Cole struck his wrist.
The gun flew.
Hale was quick.
Cole was stronger.
Within seconds Cole had him pinned.
Hale laughed breathlessly.
“Go ahead.”
Cole’s fist tightened.
“Kill me.”
Anna approached.
“Cole.”
Hale smiled through blood.
“He wants to.”
Cole did.
More than he wanted to admit.
Hale had hurt Anna.
Had turned grief into debt.
Had reduced human beings to numbers in a ledger.
One movement could end him.
Anna touched Cole’s shoulder.
“Don’t let him choose what kind of man you are.”
Cole slowly opened his fist.
He stood.
Barrett placed Hale in irons.
The satchel contained money, false contracts, and letters from officials across several territories.
Enough evidence to expand the investigation far beyond Oakhaven.
When they returned to town, Jeb Robinson was lying wounded near the saloon bar.
He had surrendered after being shot through the leg.
The same bar where he had sold Anna.
Jeb looked up when she entered.
Hatred filled his face.
“This is your fault.”
Anna stopped.
Months earlier those words would have crushed her.
Now they felt small.
“No,” she said.
Jeb blinked.
“This is yours.”
She walked past him.
By morning Hale, Jeb, Tobias, and two accomplices were locked in wagons under federal guard.
Oakhaven woke beneath clean snow.
Barrett approached Anna outside the saloon.
“You’ll need to testify.”
“When?”
“Trial could be months.”
She looked at Cole.
He said nothing.
Barrett continued.
“You don’t have to remain in Denver. We’ll send word.”
Anna nodded.
“What about the other women?”
“We’re locating them.”
“Will the contracts be canceled?”
“They were never lawful to begin with.”
“But will they know that?”
Barrett understood.
“We’ll make sure they do.”
Anna breathed out.
For the first time since her mother fell ill, there was no contract chasing her.
No owner.
No debt.
No Jeb.
No Hale.
Nothing.
Freedom felt strangely frightening.
That evening she stood outside town.
Cole joined her.
“You all right?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s fair.”
“What happens tomorrow?”
“We leave.”
“For where?”
He looked toward the northern mountains.
“You tell me.”
Anna smiled faintly.
“You really mean that?”
“Yes.”
“What if I say California?”
Cole grimaced.
“What?”
“I hate deserts.”
“California isn’t all desert.”
“Still suspicious.”
“What if I say Denver?”
“Too many people.”
“Martha’s ranch?”
“Good pie.”
Anna laughed.
Then she became serious.
“What if I say home?”
Cole looked at her.
“Which home?”
“The cabin beyond the river.”
His throat tightened.
“You sure?”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“But I want to find out.”
Cole nodded.
“That’s enough.”
Anna looked up at him.
“Cole?”
“Yes?”
“You paid twenty dollars for me.”
“I really wish people would stop saying that.”
“You did.”
“I paid twenty dollars to shut Jeb up.”
“And three silver dollars.”
“Those were for whiskey.”
She smiled.
“Terrible investment.”
“Worst I ever made.”
Anna moved closer.
“Still regret it?”
Cole looked at the woman who had arrived at his cabin carrying nothing.
The woman who had stood before Victor Hale and reclaimed her own name.
“No.”
She rose onto her toes and kissed his cheek.
Cole became absolutely still.
Anna stepped back.
“That all right?”
“Yes.”
“You look terrified.”
“I am.”
She laughed.
This time Cole laughed with her.