Morning came pale and cold.
Cole had always liked sunrise because it made problems visible.
That morning, visibility did not improve much.
He stood on the porch with coffee in one hand and stared across the prairie.
Ashfords.
Of all the broken wagons he could have found.
Evelyn Ashford was practically western royalty. Her late husband, Henry, had built the family fortune from three wagons and fifty head of cattle. Newspapers had printed stories about the Ashfords opening schools, grain depots, and banks. More stories had been printed about ruthless land deals, railroad negotiations, and political enemies.
Cole had never cared.
Rich families lived in one world. Men like him lived in another.
Yet now Evelyn Ashford was asleep beneath his quilt, Daniel Ashford was feeding crumbs to a chicken outside his kitchen, and Clara Ashford—widow, liar, and trouble wrapped in green eyes—was standing behind him holding a second cup of coffee.
“You look angry,” she said.
“I’m thinking.”
“Does thinking always look that dangerous?”
“Usually.”
She offered him the cup.
He took it.
For a few moments they watched Daniel.
The boy had found a scrawny hen bold enough to approach him. He tore bread into tiny pieces and whispered something to it.
“He likes animals,” Clara said.
“Animals are easy.”
“He used to have a dog.”
“Used to?”
“It vanished after his parents died.”
Cole turned.
“Parents?”
Clara’s expression shifted.
“There’s more.”
“Starting to notice.”
She leaned against the porch post.
“Daniel’s father, Jonathan Ashford, was Thomas’s older brother. Jonathan and his wife were killed in a carriage accident two years ago.”
“Accident?”
“At the time, we believed so.”
“And now?”
“I don’t believe in many accidents anymore.”
Cole drank his coffee.
“So Jonathan dies. Daniel becomes heir.”
“Yes.”
“Thomas becomes guardian?”
“Along with Evelyn.”
“And Thomas gets murdered.”
Clara nodded.
“Which leaves you, Evelyn, and a boy everyone wants control over.”
“Exactly.”
“Who is everyone?”
“One man in particular.”
Cole waited.
“Gideon Vale.”
Cole knew the name too.
Vale owned Blackwater Mercantile, several stockyards, and a freight company. He had run for territorial office twice and lost both times. Men described him as charming when he wanted something and vindictive when he didn’t get it.
“What does Vale have to do with the Ashford money?”
“He was Thomas’s business partner.”
“Partner or enemy?”
“By the end, both.”
Clara lowered her voice.
“Thomas discovered Gideon had been using Ashford companies to buy worthless land at inflated prices from businesses Gideon secretly controlled. He was stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Cole whistled softly.
“And your husband found proof.”
“Yes.”
“The documents they took when they killed him?”
“Some.”
Cole studied her.
“Some?”
Clara looked toward Daniel before answering.
“Thomas suspected someone in the house was reporting his movements. Three nights before he died, he gave me a ledger and several letters. He told me if anything happened to him, I was to get Daniel and Evelyn away from Blackwater.”
“Where’s the ledger?”
She didn’t answer.
Cole’s patience thinned.
“If someone is prepared to burn my house looking for it, I deserve to know whether it’s under my bed.”
“It isn’t.”
“Good start.”
“It’s hidden.”
“Where?”
“I won’t tell you.”
Cole stared at her.
Clara met his gaze.
“If they capture me, I can’t tell them what I don’t allow myself to say.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does to me.”
“Then apparently only one of us is smart enough for this conversation.”
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Then Daniel called from the yard.
“Mr. Maddox?”
Cole stepped down.
The boy pointed toward the ground near the fence.
A leather strap lay in the dust.
Cole picked it up.
It had been cut.
He followed the tracks toward the barn.
One of the attackers had attempted to open the corral during the night, likely hoping to drive off Cole’s horses and leave the ranch isolated.
Cole examined the ground.
Two sets of boot prints.
One man had a distinctive heel missing a corner.
Cole memorized it.
Clara watched.
“What now?”
“I ride into town.”
“No.”
Cole looked at her.
“You’re not going alone.”
“Then who’s going?”
“I am.”
“That would be the worst choice available.”
Her jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because they’re looking for you.”
“I can disguise myself.”
Cole gave her dress a deliberate glance.
“Planning to grow a mustache?”
Daniel laughed.
Clara looked scandalized.
Even Evelyn, who had come onto the porch, covered a smile.
Cole realized he liked that sound from them.
It made the ranch feel different.
Not peaceful.
Alive.
He hadn’t recognized how much he missed that.
After breakfast, he prepared to ride to Blackwater.
Evelyn approached him in the barn.
“Mr. Maddox.”
“Ma’am.”
“I owe you an apology.”
“For the fake name?”
“For bringing danger to your home.”
“You didn’t bring it. Vale did.”
“You speak as though the difference matters.”
“It does.”
She studied him.
“You remind me of my husband when he was young.”
“That a compliment?”
“Not always.”
Cole smiled.
Evelyn’s expression grew serious.
“Gideon Vale will not stop. You should understand that.”
“I do.”
“No, Mr. Maddox. You understand dangerous men. You do not understand wealthy dangerous men.”
Cole tightened the saddle cinch.
“Bullet doesn’t cost more because a rich man buys it.”
“No. But he can buy the sheriff holding the gun.”
Cole stopped.
“Sheriff?”
“We don’t know whom to trust.”
“Then why am I going to town?”
“To learn who is looking.”
Cole nodded.
“Fair enough.”
Before he mounted, Clara appeared holding a folded paper.
“What’s this?”
“Names. People who may still be loyal to Evelyn.”
“May?”
“That is the best I can give you.”
Cole tucked it inside his coat.
Clara lowered her voice.
“Please come back.”
He looked at her.
The words had escaped before she meant to say them.
Color rose faintly to her cheeks.
“I mean Daniel is beginning to trust you.”
“Daniel?”
“And Evelyn.”
“Of course.”
She looked away.
Cole mounted.
“Keep my shotgun beside you.”
“I know how to use one.”
“I suspected you might.”
She glanced back.
“Why?”
“Nothing about you suggests helpless.”
Something softened in her eyes.
He rode out before he did something foolish like keep looking.
Blackwater appeared four hours later.
The town was larger than most prairie settlements, with brick buildings clustered around a central street, two banks, a courthouse, hotels, and a railroad depot busy enough to keep freight wagons moving constantly.
Ashford influence was everywhere.
The Ashford Grain Company.
Ashford Bank.
Ashford House Hotel.
Daniel’s family name hung above half the street.
And yet the family themselves were hiding in Cole’s cabin eating beans.
Cole tied his horse behind a feed store.
He visited the blacksmith first.
Then the general store.
Then the saloon.
He asked no direct questions.
He listened.
By noon, he learned three things.
First, Gideon Vale had told half the town that Evelyn Ashford, Clara, and Daniel had been abducted by unknown criminals.
Second, Vale had offered a $5,000 reward for Daniel’s “safe return.”
Third, Sheriff Pike had personally organized search parties.
Cole didn’t like any of it.
He left the saloon and crossed toward the telegraph office.
A man stepped from an alley.
“Cole Maddox?”
Cole’s hand moved near his revolver.
The stranger was about sixty, short, neatly dressed, with silver spectacles.
“I’m Dr. Samuel Reed.”
Cole didn’t relax.
“Congratulations.”
“Mrs. Ashford sent you?”
Cole’s hand closed around the revolver.
Dr. Reed lifted both palms.
“Evelyn.”
Cole said nothing.
“She broke her left wrist falling from a carriage when she was forty-three. It aches before storms. Daniel was born with a crescent-shaped mark behind his right ear. Clara hates cinnamon but pretends otherwise because Thomas liked it.”
Cole considered.
“What do you want?”
“To help.”
“You on Clara’s list?”
“Probably.”
Cole pulled out the folded paper.
Samuel Reed was the second name.
The doctor looked relieved.
“They’re alive?”
“For now.”
“Thank God.”
“Why shouldn’t I knock you unconscious and leave?”
Dr. Reed’s eyes widened.
“Because I’m seventy pounds lighter than you and it would be unnecessary?”
“Good answer.”
They entered the doctor’s office through the rear.
Reed locked the door.
“Gideon Vale has taken control of nearly everything,” he said. “He claims he is protecting Daniel’s estate under provisions Thomas signed.”
“Did Thomas sign them?”
“I doubt it.”
“Can you prove forgery?”
“Judge Holloway could.”
“Where’s he?”
“Missing.”
Cole’s stomach tightened.
“How long?”
“Three days.”
“Any loyal law?”
“Deputy Nathan Crowe, perhaps. But he’s being watched.”
“Sheriff Pike?”
Reed’s expression answered.
Cole leaned against the desk.
“Vale’s men came to my ranch last night.”
“Then he knows.”
“Knows what?”
“Not who has them. But he knows someone is protecting them.”
“How?”
“Vale has watchers on every road. If one of his search parties found the abandoned wagon—”
“They did.”
A voice came from the doorway.
Cole spun.
His revolver cleared leather.
Deputy Nathan Crowe stood there with both hands visible.
Reed sighed.
“You could knock.”
“Then I wouldn’t learn who plans to shoot me.”
Nathan looked at Cole.
“Your ranch is twenty miles southwest?”
Cole didn’t answer.
Nathan continued.
“One of Vale’s men came in before dawn with dirt on his coat and a split lip. Claimed he fell from a horse.”
Cole’s expression remained blank.
Nathan smiled faintly.
“Must have been a stubborn horse.”
“What do you know?”
“That Sheriff Pike is being paid.”
“Proof?”
“Not enough.”
“Vale?”
“Enough to hang a poor man. Maybe not enough to hang a rich one.”
Cole disliked the phrasing because it sounded true.
Nathan lowered his voice.
“Vale has men moving south.”
“Toward my ranch?”
“By tomorrow.”
Cole turned for the door.
Reed caught his arm.
“There’s more.”
Cole faced him.
“Thomas left instructions.”
“With you?”
“Partly.”
The doctor opened a locked drawer and removed a sealed envelope.
On the front was written:
For Clara, if I am dead.
Cole stared at it.
“Why didn’t you give her this before?”
“I never had the chance.”
Cole took the letter.
Nathan stepped closer.
“Vale cannot know you met us.”
“He won’t.”
“You underestimate him.”
Cole tucked the letter inside his coat.
“You underestimate how much I dislike being followed.”
He left by the rear alley.
For the first hour out of Blackwater, no one appeared.
Then he saw dust behind him.
Two riders.
Cole turned off the road.
They followed.
He entered a ravine.
They followed.
He let them get close.
Then he disappeared around a bend, dismounted, and waited behind a limestone outcrop.
The first rider came through fast.
Cole pulled him from the saddle.
The second reached for his gun.
Cole fired at the man’s hat.
It flew off.
“Next one’s lower.”
The rider froze.
Cole recognized him.
The missing corner on his boot heel.
The ranch attacker.
“Who sent you?”
The man spat blood.
“You’re dead, Maddox.”
“Possibly. But you first.”
The second man slowly raised his hands.
“Vale.”
The captured attacker cursed him.
Cole’s jaw tightened.
“What does Vale want with Daniel?”
“You know.”
“Say it.”
“He controls the boy, he controls Ashford.”
“And Clara?”
The attacker smiled.
“Vale wants the widow alive.”
Something cold entered Cole’s chest.
“Why?”
“She knows where Thomas hid the ledger.”
Cole leaned closer.
“And after she tells him?”
The man’s smile widened.
“He won’t need her anymore.”
Cole struck him hard enough to end the smile.
Then he tied both men to a scrub tree.
“You can’t leave us here!” one yelled.
“Road’s half a mile east.”
“Our horses?”
Cole mounted his own.
“They’ll be useful.”
He took the riders’ horses with him.
When the ranch finally came into view after sunset, Daniel was sitting on the fence watching the road.
The moment he saw Cole, he jumped down and ran toward him.
Clara came from the porch behind him.
She did not run.
But relief transformed her face.
Cole dismounted.
Daniel threw his arms around his waist.
“You came back!”
Cole stood motionless, surprised by the force of it.
Then he slowly placed one hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“Told you I would.”
Clara stopped several feet away.
Her eyes dropped to the blood on Cole’s knuckles.
“What happened?”
“Long ride.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Getting used to those, aren’t you?”
Despite herself, she smiled.
Then Cole took out Thomas’s letter.
Her smile vanished.
She recognized the handwriting immediately.
Her hand began to shake.
“Where did you get that?”
“Friend of yours.”
Clara took it.
Evelyn stepped outside.
The three of them gathered beneath the porch lantern.
Clara broke the seal.
She read silently.
Then her face drained of color.
“What?”
Evelyn asked.
Clara passed her the letter.
Cole waited.
Finally Evelyn looked at him.
“Thomas knew who ordered his murder.”
“Vale?”
Evelyn shook her head slowly.
“No.”
Cole frowned.
“Then who?”
Clara looked toward the darkness beyond the ranch.
Her voice barely carried.
“My father.”