For one terrible second, Nora could see nothing except smoke.
Then she saw Harden.
Her father was on one knee beside an overturned chair, both hands clamped against his side.
Blood seeped between his fingers.
Garrett Vance stood ten feet away.
The barrel of his revolver still smoked.
“Papa!”
Nora ran toward Harden.
Vance swung the gun toward her.
Eli entered behind her.
“Don't.”
His Winchester was already aimed.
Vance stopped.
Samuel Beckett appeared at the side entrance with a shotgun.
Harriet followed carrying her broom handle like a cavalry saber.
Vance glanced from one weapon to another.
Then smiled.
“How touching.”
Nora dropped beside her father.
Harden stared at her as though he couldn't understand why she was there.
“You came back.”
“Don't talk.”
“He—”
“I know.”
Vance chuckled.
“Of course you do. You've apparently become quite the investigator.”
Eli took two steps forward.
“Put the gun down.”
Vance looked at him.
“You won't shoot.”
“Wouldn't gamble on that.”
“No, Hart. You won't. Because you still think this can be settled by rules.”
His eyes moved toward Nora.
“You still believe papers matter. Witnesses matter. Courts matter.”
He slowly lowered his revolver.
Not surrendering.
Calculating.
“You're wrong.”
Samuel spoke from behind him.
“Try us.”
Vance turned.
That was when a man burst through the rear door and fired.
Samuel dropped behind a crate.
Eli fired once.
The attacker disappeared back into darkness.
Chaos erupted.
Another bullet came through a window.
Harriet dragged Nora and Harden behind a stack of grain sacks.
Eli kicked over a heavy table.
“Stay down!”
Two more of Vance's men were outside.
He hadn't come alone.
Of course he hadn't.
Vance used the confusion.
He lunged through the side doorway.
Eli fired after him but deliberately aimed wide; Nora was too close to the line of fire.
Samuel shouted, “He's heading for the horses!”
Eli ran outside.
Vance was already in the saddle.
One hired man covered him from behind a wagon.
Eli ducked as a shot cracked past his head.
Samuel fired.
The hired man's rifle flew from his hands.
Vance kicked his horse hard.
Within seconds he disappeared into the prairie darkness.
The remaining men fled after him.
Eli wanted to pursue.
Then Nora screamed for help.
He turned back.
Harden was bleeding badly.
The bullet had entered his side but appeared to have missed the center of his abdomen.
“Need a doctor,” Samuel said.
“Not Mercer,” Nora replied immediately.
Samuel nodded.
“I know a man in Cimarron.”
They loaded Harden into a wagon.
The ride lasted nearly two hours.
Nora held a cloth against her father's wound the entire way.
Harden drifted in and out of consciousness.
Once, he opened his eyes.
“Why?”
Nora looked down.
“Why what?”
“Why help me?”
She almost laughed.
The question felt cruel after everything that had happened.
“I don't know.”
Harden's face tightened in pain.
“You should leave me.”
“No.”
“I deserve—”
“Don't.”
Her voice sharpened.
Harden fell silent.
Nora stared into the darkness.
“Don't make me carry that too.”
He closed his eyes.
She continued pressing the cloth against his wound.
At dawn, Doctor Amos Reed removed the bullet.
Harden survived.
Barely.
Eli waited on the porch of Reed's farmhouse while morning spread across Kansas.
Nora came outside after an hour.
“He'll live.”
“Good.”
She sat beside Eli.
For a while they watched chickens move around the yard.
Finally she said, “I thought I'd feel different.”
“How?”
“I thought if he ever became weak, I'd feel strong.”
Eli understood.
“And?”
“I just feel tired.”
“That sounds about right.”
She studied him.
“Did you hate the man who hurt your wife?”
Eli's jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
It was the question he had avoided.
Even Harriet knew only pieces.
Eli stared toward the fields.
“My wife's name was Rebecca.”
Nora waited.
“She had a brother named Thomas. Drank too much. Lost money. Blamed everyone for it. One winter he came asking us for cash.”
Eli rubbed his thumb against an old scar on his palm.
“I said no.”
“What did he do?”
“Waited until I went into town.”
Nora understood before he finished.
“He beat her?”
Eli nodded.
“Neighbor heard shouting. Rode to find me.”
His voice became quieter.
“I was thirty minutes away.”
Nora said nothing.
“When I got home, Thomas was gone. Rebecca was alive.”
Eli swallowed.
“For another hour.”
The prairie seemed very still.
“I tracked him.”
Nora looked at him.
“Did you kill him?”
“I wanted to.”
“What stopped you?”
“Rebecca.”
Nora frowned.
“She was dead.”
“Yes.”
Eli stared at his hands.
“But she'd spent ten years telling me the world didn't need another angry man solving everything with a gun.”
He gave a small, bitter smile.
“So when I found Thomas, I dragged him to the marshal instead.”
“What happened?”
“Prison.”
“Did that help?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“Nothing helps the way people promise it will. Revenge doesn't bring anyone back. Justice doesn't erase what happened. Time doesn't heal everything either.”
Nora looked down.
“That's cheerful.”
“It gets better.”
She looked at him again.
“You learn to carry it differently.”
That seemed to matter.
She leaned back against the porch post.
Inside, Harden groaned.
Nora closed her eyes.
“He made my mother sound weak after she died.”
“How?”
“Said she spoiled me. Said she'd filled my head with independence. Every time I questioned him, he'd say Mama would've been ashamed.”
She shook her head.
“But that letter…”
“She knew you.”
“Yes.”
Nora's eyes filled.
“She knew exactly what he'd do.”
By afternoon Harden was awake.
Nora entered his room alone.
Her father looked smaller beneath the white sheet.
His beard was damp with sweat.
“Nora.”
She pulled a chair beside the bed.
Neither knew where to begin.
Finally Harden said, “I'm sorry.”
She stared at him.
Two words.
So small compared with two years.
He saw it in her face.
“I know that isn't enough.”
“No.”
“I thought…”
He stopped.
“What?”
“I thought if I lost the farm, I'd lose everything your mother and I built.”
Nora's expression tightened.
“So you were willing to lose me instead?”
Harden shut his eyes.
“I told myself Vance was respectable. Rich. That marriage to him would give you security.”
“I said no.”
“I know.”
“You hit me when I said no.”
“I know.”
“You fired a gun beside me.”
Harden turned his face away.
Nora's voice shook.
“Look at me.”
Slowly, he did.
“You don't get to say you were protecting me.”
He nodded.
“I wasn't.”
It was the first honest thing he had said.
“I was protecting myself.”
Nora inhaled shakily.
Harden continued.
“Your mother warned me about Vance.”
Nora froze.
“She knew?”
“She knew enough.”
“Then why didn't you listen?”
“Because Vance had my debts.”
His voice cracked.
“And because admitting Margaret was right meant admitting I'd gambled away everything.”
Nora's hands curled into fists.
“So you chose pride.”
“Yes.”
“Over Mama.”
“Yes.”
“Over me.”
Harden's eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Nora stood.
She suddenly couldn't remain in the room.
“Nora.”
She stopped at the door.
“I don't expect forgiveness.”
“Good.”
“I'll testify.”
She turned.
Harden swallowed.
“Against Vance. Against Mercer. Everything.”
Nora stared.
“He'll come after you.”
“He already has.”
“No. I mean he'll finish it.”
Harden gave a broken smile.
“Maybe that's the first honest debt I've had in years.”
Nora hated the remark.
Not because it was wrong.
Because it sounded like surrender.
“You don't get to die and call that making things right.”
Harden blinked.
“You testify. You tell the truth. Then you live long enough to face what you've done.”
For the first time, the father looked at his daughter without authority.
Without command.
Without entitlement.
“All right.”
Outside, Eli had gathered Samuel and Harriet around Margaret's ledger.
They needed someone beyond Sheriff Mercer.
Federal marshal jurisdiction was limited, but fraud involving planned railroad interests and interstate freight could attract attention.
More importantly, Dodge City had a district judge arriving in three days for hearings.
Judge Matthew Bell.
Known for being stubborn.
Known for disliking purchased lawmen.
They needed to survive long enough to reach him.
Pike had offered to testify too.
That gave them Harden.
Pike.
The ledger.
Margaret's letters.
And Nora.
Enough evidence to create danger.
Maybe enough to create justice.
But Garrett Vance moved first.
By evening, a rider arrived carrying news from Dodge City.
Sheriff Mercer had issued arrest warrants.
For Eli Hart.
Samuel Beckett.
And Nora Whitcomb.
Charges included kidnapping, assault, attempted murder, theft, and unlawful imprisonment.
Harriet read the paper twice.
“They accused Nora of kidnapping herself?”
“Apparently,” Samuel said.
Eli wasn't surprised.
Vance had stopped trying to scare them into surrender.
Now he intended to make them fugitives.
The rider added one more thing.
Mercer had seized Eli's ranch.
The sheriff claimed the property might contain evidence connected to a criminal investigation.
Eli's expression didn't change.
Nora watched him.
“Your home.”
“House is wood.”
“It's more than that.”
“Yes.”
His gaze moved toward the horizon.
“But not more than this.”
That night, while everyone slept, Nora found Eli beside the barn.
“You could walk away.”
He looked at her.
“Could.”
“This started because of me.”
“No.”
“If you hadn't stopped—”
“Harden would've forced you into Vance's hands. Vance would've taken the land. Maybe your father would've ended up dead anyway.”
He shook his head.
“This started long before I rode past.”
Nora sat on the fence rail.
“Do you ever wish you had kept riding?”
Eli considered the question.
Then he looked at her.
“No.”
Her eyes filled unexpectedly.
She turned away.
He pretended not to notice.
After a moment she said, “If we survive this, what happens?”
“To what?”
“To me.”
“Whatever you choose.”
The simplicity of the answer struck her.
No father.
No husband.
No rich man.
No rancher deciding.
Whatever you choose.
Nora smiled faintly.
Then hoofbeats sounded again.
Both stood instantly.
A lone rider approached.
Not Vance.
Not Mercer.
A boy.
Maybe sixteen.
He nearly fell from the saddle when he reached them.
“Mr. Hart?”
“Yes.”
The boy handed him a folded paper.
“Man paid me five dollars to bring this.”
“Who?”
“Didn't give a name.”
Eli unfolded it.
Only one sentence had been written.
BRING THE LEDGER TO THE ABANDONED STOCKYARD BY MIDNIGHT OR HARRIET COLE'S BOARDING HOUSE BURNS WITH EVERY PERSON INSIDE.
Harriet read it.
Her face went white.
“My tenants.”
Three railroad workers.
An elderly schoolteacher.
A mother and two young children.
Innocent people.
Nora whispered, “He's using them against us.”
Samuel checked his watch.
Midnight was less than three hours away.
Eli folded the note.
“We're going back.”
Samuel stared.
“That's a trap.”
“I know.”
Harriet picked up her broom.
“Then we'd better not arrive empty-handed.”