The darkness gave Mara an advantage.
It also gave Elias a problem.
He could no longer see her.
“Mara?”
“Here.”
Her voice came from beside the hearth.
Another bullet tore through the wall.
Elias dropped below the window.
Outside, one of Wickham's men shouted, “Shoot the windows!”
Glass shattered.
Cold night air rushed inside.
Elias crawled toward Mara.
“You planned that?”
“You taught me not to stand where somebody expects me to stand.”
Even now.
Even with armed men outside.
She remembered.
Elias almost smiled.
Instead he whispered, “Back room. Floor.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“If they enter through the front while you're watching the window, who watches the rear?”
He hated the logic.
“You stay behind me.”
“Fine.”
It was the closest thing to obedience he was going to get.
Elias moved toward the broken window.
Moonlight revealed the outline of a rider near the fence.
He waited.
The man raised his pistol.
Elias fired once.
The rider fell backward from the saddle.
A horse screamed and bolted.
Gunfire erupted from near the barn.
Mara fired toward the muzzle flash.
A man cursed.
“Good shot,” Elias said.
“I missed him.”
“You changed his plans.”
Footsteps pounded behind the cabin.
Elias turned.
“Rear door!”
Mara was already moving.
A shadow appeared.
She leveled the shotgun.
The man froze outside.
“Don't,” she warned.
He fired.
Mara fired almost simultaneously.
The intruder dropped behind the woodpile.
Elias rushed to her.
“You hit?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes!”
Outside, Wickham shouted.
“This is what you wanted, Mercer?”
Elias moved toward the front.
“No, Silas. This is what you chose.”
“You put my brother in prison!”
“Your brother killed three men.”
“He was family!”
“That doesn't make murder disappear.”
Silence.
Then Wickham laughed.
“You think that woman is family?”
Elias looked at Mara.
She looked back.
Wickham continued.
“She isn't one of yours.”
Something changed in Elias.
Not rage.
Clarity.
He stepped closer to the shattered window.
“She is with me.”
Mara's eyes widened slightly.
Outside, Wickham laughed again.
“Then she dies with you.”
A bottle with burning cloth sailed through the broken window.
“Down!”
Elias struck it with his rifle before it hit the floor.
The bottle shattered against the wall.
Flames climbed the curtain.
Mara grabbed a blanket.
Together they smothered the fire.
Smoke filled the room.
Another bottle crashed against the porch.
Flames spread across dry wood.
“They're burning us out,” Elias said.
Mara coughed.
“Water barrel.”
“Outside.”
“The kitchen bucket.”
“Not enough.”
The porch fire grew.
Elias glanced toward the rear.
“We leave.”
“Where?”
“Creek bed.”
“They'll see us.”
“Not if they're watching the fire.”
Elias took cartridges, his revolver, and a canteen.
Mara grabbed a coat.
Smoke thickened.
They crawled through the rear window.
Behind them, the porch crackled.
A man shouted.
Elias and Mara ran low toward the creek.
Gunfire snapped through brush.
“Down!”
They hit the ground.
Mara crawled beside him.
“They know.”
“No. They're guessing.”
“That bullet was close.”
“Good guess.”
Despite everything, Mara nearly laughed.
They reached the dry creek bed.
Elias pulled her behind the embankment.
“Follow this south.”
“What about you?”
“I circle north.”
“No.”
“Mara—”
“You are not leaving me alone so you can go prove how fearless you are.”
“This isn't about proving anything.”
“Then we stay together.”
Elias heard riders moving.
No time.
“Fine.”
They moved through the creek.
Behind them, Elias's porch burned.
He looked back once.
The sight struck harder than expected.
That cabin had been a lonely place.
But Mara had changed it.
Now men were trying to destroy the first place Elias had begun thinking of as home.
Mara touched his arm.
“Don't look.”
He turned.
“It's only wood,” she said.
He knew what she meant.
Home was not the building.
Not anymore.
They continued south.
The creek bent around a ridge.
Elias stopped.
“Horses.”
Mara listened.
Approaching from ahead.
Wickham had anticipated their escape route.
Elias pulled Mara into a narrow cut between two rocks.
A rider passed above.
Then another.
Only two.
“Silas?” Mara whispered.
“Maybe.”
One rider stopped.
Elias held his breath.
The horse shifted.
A man said, “Tracks end here.”
Wickham's voice answered.
“They're close.”
Mara looked at Elias.
His hand moved toward his revolver.
She touched his wrist.
Wait.
He looked at her.
She pointed upward.
Loose rock.
Elias understood.
Mara picked up a stone and threw it hard toward the opposite side of the creek.
It struck brush.
One rider turned.
“There!”
Both moved toward the sound.
Elias and Mara slipped silently the other direction.
They reached an old cattle trail leading toward town.
But Elias stopped.
“What?”
“Mara, listen.”
Far behind them came more gunfire.
Then shouting.
Caleb.
The sheriff's deputies had finally arrived.
Elias changed direction.
Mara grabbed him.
“What are you doing?”
“Caleb walked into an ambush.”
“And if we go back?”
“He may die.”
Mara held his gaze.
He expected her to argue.
Instead she checked the shotgun.
“Then we go.”
Elias stared.
“You don't have to.”
She gave him the faintest smile.
“You are wasting time.”
They returned through the rocks.
Gunfire flashed near the cabin.
Two deputies had taken cover behind a wagon.
Caleb crouched near a horse trough.
Wickham and his remaining men fired from the barn.
The porch was burning fiercely now.
Elias whispered, “Stay here.”
Mara narrowed her eyes.
“I mean it.”
“I heard you.”
He moved around the ridge.
For once, she remained.
Elias approached the barn from behind.
One of Wickham's men stood near the corner, focused on the deputies.
Elias stepped from the shadows.
“Drop it.”
The man spun.
Elias fired.
The pistol fell from his hand.
The man collapsed, wounded.
“Don't move.”
Elias kicked the weapon away.
Wickham heard.
“Mercer!”
Elias moved.
A shot struck the barn wall.
Caleb shouted from across the yard.
“Silas! It's over!”
Wickham fired toward him.
Elias circled.
Then Mara screamed.
“Elias!”
He turned.
One man had found her.
A thickset rider held her from behind, revolver pressed beneath her jaw.
Everything stopped.
Wickham emerged from beside the barn.
A grin spread across his face.
“There she is.”
Elias aimed his rifle.
Wickham leveled his own weapon at Mara.
“Drop it.”
Elias did not move.
The man holding Mara tightened his arm.
“Do it!”
Elias lowered the rifle.
Wickham laughed.
“I wondered when the great Elias Mercer would finally find something he was afraid to lose.”
The rifle touched the ground.
“Let her go.”
“That simple?”
“You want me.”
“I wanted you to suffer.”
Wickham stepped closer.
“And now I understand how.”
Mara looked at Elias.
He could see the warning in her eyes.
Do not surrender.
But Elias saw the revolver beneath her chin.
He had never felt fear like this.
Wickham said, “Kick the rifle away.”
Elias obeyed.
Caleb remained behind the trough, unable to shoot cleanly.
Wickham approached.
“On your knees.”
Elias stared at him.
“Do it.”
Slowly, Elias knelt.
Mara's face changed.
“No.”
Wickham smiled.
“Look at that. Mercer finally kneels.”
Elias kept his eyes on Mara.
Not Wickham.
Mara understood something.
His gaze moved briefly toward the man holding her.
Then to the man's right foot.
Then back.
Mara moved without warning.
She drove her heel down hard onto the man's boot and threw her head backward.
His nose broke with a sickening crunch.
The revolver shifted.
Elias lunged.
Caleb fired.
The night erupted.
Wickham spun and shot.
Mara dropped.
Elias hit Wickham hard enough to send both men into the dirt.
They fought viciously.
No elegance.
No clean punches.
Wickham clawed for his pistol.
Elias struck his wrist.
Wickham drove a knee into Elias's ribs.
“You took my brother!”
“Your brother made his choice!”
“So did you!”
Wickham pulled a knife.
Elias caught his arm.
Steel hovered inches above his chest.
Wickham snarled.
“You think that widow changed you?”
Elias forced the blade aside.
“No.”
He slammed Wickham's wrist against the ground.
“She reminded me I wasn't dead.”
The knife fell.
Elias struck once.
Wickham went still.
Caleb arrived moments later.
“Alive?”
Elias checked.
“Yes.”
“Barely.”
“Good.”
Caleb stared.
“You could've killed him.”
“I know.”
“Why didn't you?”
Elias looked toward Mara.
She stood several yards away, shaken but unharmed.
“Because I'm tired of living like killing is the only ending I know.”
Caleb arrested Wickham.
One accomplice was dead.
Two were wounded.
Another escaped into the hills.
The cabin porch had burned badly, but the house survived.
By dawn, smoke drifted into a pale sky.
Mara stood beside Elias.
He looked at the damage.
“My shutters.”
Mara glanced at him.
“Those were terrible shutters.”
He laughed.
Then winced from his ribs.
Mara gave him a look.
“Sit.”
“There it is again.”
“What?”
“That word.”
“Sit.”
Elias obeyed.
She cleaned a cut along his forehead.
He watched her.
“You almost got killed.”
“So did you.”
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
He took her hand.
“Mara.”
She stopped.
“The answer is yes.”
Her eyes searched his.
“To what?”
“Yesterday morning.”
She remembered.
If last night meant something, I will not be your secret.
Elias swallowed.
“It meant something.”
Mara's expression softened.
He continued.
“I don't know what comes next.”
“Neither do I.”
“But I don't want you hidden.”
She looked toward the damaged cabin.
“You almost lost your house.”
Elias looked at her.
“No.”
The answer came easily this time.
“I didn't.”
For a moment, everything felt possible.
Then Caleb approached.
His expression erased the peace.
“Elias.”
“What?”
“The man who escaped.”
Elias stood.
“Who?”
Caleb removed his hat.
“Jasper Cole.”
Elias knew the name.
A gunman.
A thief.
And worse, a man who worked for powerful rancher Nathaniel Crowley.
Mara's expression changed.
Crowley.
The same family whose cattle had repeatedly crossed her property.
Caleb lowered his voice.
“This wasn't only Wickham's revenge.”
Elias stared.
“What are you saying?”
“I found something in one man's saddlebag.”
He handed Elias a folded paper.
It was a map.
Mara's land had been circled.
And across the bottom were three words:
CLEAR HER OUT.
---