The deputy collapsed before his horse stopped moving.
Garrick caught him.
May ran for bandages.
Eloin pressed cloth against the wound while Deputy Harris struggled to speak.
“Calder… knows.”
“Knows what?” Garrick demanded.
“Ledger.”
Eloin’s eyes met his.
“How?”
Harris grimaced.
“Someone at courthouse.”
Corruption.
Of course.
Calder had survived this long because he did not rely on one frightened ranch hand.
He had money in banks.
County offices.
Freight companies.
Perhaps law offices.
Maybe even judges.
“What happened to Sheriff Cole?” Garrick asked.
“Heading north… trying another route.”
“Is he alive?”
“As far as I know.”
Harris caught Garrick’s sleeve.
“Calder’s men… coming here.”
“How many?”
“Maybe twelve.”
May said, “That’s not a posse. That’s an army.”
Vain Hollow had Garrick, Eli, two older ranch hands, Tom, who had decided confession did not relieve him of responsibility, and May, who announced she could shoot better than half of them.
Silas remained tied in the storage room.
Garrick considered releasing him.
Then didn’t.
Eloin walked toward the house.
“Where are you going?”
“For the ledger.”
“We need to hide it.”
“No.”
Garrick stared.
“We send it away.”
“With whom?”
She had a point.
Every road could be watched.
Eloin returned carrying the book.
“Calder thinks this is his greatest threat.”
“It is.”
“No. Witnesses are.”
Garrick understood.
“Silas.”
“And Tom.”
She turned toward Deputy Harris.
“Could signed statements be used if something happened to them?”
“Yes.”
“Then we make copies.”
For the next hour, May wrote while Silas dictated everything.
Dates.
Orders.
Payments.
Names.
Tom added his statement.
Harris witnessed both.
Then Eloin copied key pages from the ledger.
Three sets.
Garrick watched.
“You planning to make Calder burn the whole territory?”
“I’m planning to make sure he can’t destroy the truth by destroying one book.”
Copies went into sealed envelopes.
One was hidden beneath May’s flour barrel.
One inside Nightfire’s grooming trunk.
The third went beneath a loose board in the chapel at the family cemetery.
The original remained with Eloin.
Garrick disliked that.
“You’re making yourself a target.”
“I already am.”
At sunset, riders appeared on the eastern ridge.
Eleven.
Calder rode in the center.
They approached openly.
That was worse than secrecy.
It meant Rufus believed he owned the situation.
Garrick stepped onto the porch with his rifle.
Eloin stood inside the doorway.
May was behind a window.
The ranch hands occupied the barn loft.
Calder stopped fifty yards away.
“Evening, Vain.”
“Turn around.”
“I’m here to prevent unnecessary violence.”
“You brought ten armed men.”
“Precaution.”
“What do you want?”
Calder looked toward the house.
“A stolen ledger.”
Eloin stepped outside.
“It belonged to my father.”
Calder smiled.
“Miss Hartley.”
“Mr. Calder.”
“You resemble him.”
“I hope not.”
The smile thinned.
“Your father and I were partners.”
“You were thieves.”
A ripple moved through Calder’s men.
He disliked humiliation.
“You know very little about business.”
“I know seven ranchers lost property after you manufactured financial trouble.”
“Allegations.”
“I know animals were injured to force sales.”
“Your father’s ledger says many things.”
“You admit it exists?”
Calder realized the mistake.
Too late.
Eloin smiled faintly.
“You really should let other people speak more often.”
Garrick nearly admired the insult despite the rifles.
Calder’s eyes went cold.
“Give me the book.”
“No.”
“I’ll pay you.”
“No.”
“Twenty thousand.”
“No.”
“Fifty.”
Eloin shook her head.
Calder laughed.
“Your father would be ashamed of your negotiation.”
“My father spent his final years afraid of you.”
That struck something.
Calder’s face changed.
“What did he tell you?”
“Enough.”
It was a bluff.
It worked.
Rufus pulled his revolver.
Everything exploded.
Garrick fired at the ground near Calder’s horse.
The animal reared.
Ranch hands fired from the barn.
Calder’s men scattered for cover.
The gunfight lasted less than two minutes but felt like an hour.
Garrick saw Victor Hale moving toward the stable.
“Eli!”
Too late.
Victor kicked open the stall doors.
Horses burst into the yard.
Nightfire came last.
Terrified.
Victor struck him with a whip.
The stallion screamed.
Eloin ran.
“Eloin!”
Garrick could not stop her.
Nightfire charged across the yard.
Eloin stepped into open space.
Gunfire cracked around them.
“Nightfire!”
The stallion saw her.
Changed direction.
She caught his halter as he passed and ran beside him until he slowed.
Victor appeared behind her.
He raised his revolver.
Garrick fired first.
His bullet struck Victor’s hand.
The gun dropped.
Tom tackled him.
Meanwhile Rufus’s men had taken cover near the hay ruins.
Calder shouted, “Burn the house!”
A bottle filled with kerosene flew.
May shot it in midair.
Flames exploded harmlessly across dirt.
“Not my kitchen!” she screamed.
Even Garrick laughed once.
Then Rufus retreated.
Not defeated.
Repositioning.
Eloin realized it first.
“He’s heading north.”
“To the meadow.”
“Why?”
She looked toward the spring.
Then understood.
“Water rights.”
Calder did not need the ranch house if he could destroy the physical evidence of where the spring originated.
“How?”
“Explosives.”
Garrick’s blood went cold.
Mining charges could collapse a spring channel.
Redirect water.
Destroy its natural outlet.
Calder had prepared everything.
Garrick saddled immediately.
Eloin took Nightfire.
“No.”
“He’s faster.”
“He was terrified five minutes ago.”
“He trusts me.”
“That doesn’t make this safe.”
“Nothing about tonight is safe.”
They rode.
Garrick on Red.
Eloin on Nightfire.
The black stallion stretched into a full gallop as though darkness belonged to him.
They reached the northern meadow ahead of Calder.
Barely.
Near the spring stood wooden stakes Garrick had never noticed.
Survey marks.
And beside them—
Dynamite.
Three charges had already been planted.
Eloin dismounted.
“Can you remove them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then don’t touch anything.”
Hooves approached.
Calder arrived with four men.
“You should have sold,” he said.
Garrick raised his rifle.
“You should’ve stayed away.”
Calder smiled.
“You think one ledger destroys me?”
“No,” Eloin said.
He looked at her.
“Confessions do.”
For the first time, uncertainty entered Rufus Calder’s face.
She continued.
“We copied everything.”
His smile vanished.
“How many copies?”
“Enough.”
“Where?”
“You’ll never know.”
Calder raised his revolver toward her.
Garrick moved.
The shot fired.
Nightfire reared.
Garrick felt fire across his upper arm.
Eloin screamed his name.
He stayed upright.
Then another sound came from the ridge.
Dozens of hooves.
Lanterns.
Voices.
Sheriff Cole appeared at the head of eight armed men.
Behind him rode ranchers from three neighboring properties.
Men Rufus Calder had underestimated.
Sheriff Cole shouted, “Drop your weapons!”
Calder looked around.
His men began surrendering.
One by one.
Victor was already captured at the ranch.
Silas had confessed.
Tom had confessed.
The ledger had been copied.
Calder’s world was collapsing.
So he did the only thing left.
He turned toward the dynamite.
Eloin saw the match in his hand.
“Garrick!”
Calder struck it.
The flame caught.
He reached for the fuse.
Nightfire lunged.
Not because Eloin commanded him.
Because the sudden flame frightened him.
His shoulder struck Calder.
Rufus fell into the spring.
The match vanished beneath water.
Sheriff Cole’s men seized him before he could stand.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then Eloin ran to Garrick.
Blood soaked his sleeve.
“Sit down.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been shot.”
“Grazed.”
“You are bleeding.”
“Those can happen together.”
“Sit.”
He sat.
She tore fabric from her underskirt and wrapped his arm.
Garrick watched her fingers.
“You stayed.”
She looked up.
“What?”
“When Nightfire ran.”
“I told you he trusted me.”
“I meant you.”
Eloin stopped tying the bandage.
Around them, deputies secured Calder’s men.
The spring continued flowing.
Cold.
Clear.
Untouched.
“You stayed,” Garrick repeated.
Eloin’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
He touched her cheek with his uninjured hand.
“Good.”
Then he kissed her.
Not because death was close.
Not because adrenaline had made them careless.
He kissed her because for months he had unknowingly known the shape of her thoughts through letters.
Because she had walked into danger for an animal no one else understood.
Because she had looked at his failing ranch and seen not weakness but a mystery worth solving.
Eloin kissed him back.
When they separated, Garrick rested his forehead against hers.
“So Thursday?”
She laughed through tears.
“You missed it.”
“The train?”
“By several days.”
“Terrible shame.”
“Tragic.”
Behind them, Sheriff Cole cleared his throat.
“I hate interrupting whatever this is, but Calder says he wants a lawyer.”
Garrick looked at Rufus.
“So do I.”
“What for?” Eloin asked.
He glanced across the meadow.
“To make sure that man never owns a single inch of Vain Hollow.”
Eloin smiled.
For the first time since stepping off the train, Wyoming no longer felt like somewhere she had come only to leave.
It felt dangerously close to somewhere she might choose.
But daylight would bring another problem.
Calder was defeated.
The bank note was not.
And Vain Hollow still had only nine days before foreclosure.
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