Elias nodded.
“Fair.”
Mara walked outside.
He followed after a minute.
She stood beside the abandoned ore cart looking over the valley.
“You followed me.”
“Yes.”
“I wanted to be alone.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because I'm bad at instructions.”
She almost smiled.
Not quite.
Elias leaned against the wall.
“Mara.”
“What?”
“I am sorry.”
“For which thing?”
“Not telling you.”
“Good beginning.”
“I've spent years assuming information is safest when nobody else has it.”
She looked at him.
“That sounds familiar.”
“Maybe that's why we annoy each other.”
“You annoy me because you smile when you're bleeding.”
“Medical condition.”
She shook her head.
Elias continued.
“After my brother died, I stopped trusting people who offered to help.”
Mara looked toward the mountains.
“I stopped offering.”
Silence.
He stepped closer.
Not touching.
“Your brother's alive.”
“Yes.”
“You look angry about it.”
“I am.”
“You can be both.”
She glanced at him.
“Both what?”
“Happy and furious.”
“That seems exhausting.”
“It does.”
Mara looked at his side.
“You're bleeding again.”
“Romantic.”
“Idiot.”
She moved closer.
Pulled open the edge of his coat.
Elias watched her hands.
Her fingers touched the bandage.
“Need changing.”
“Mara.”
“What?”
“Earlier.”
“At the cabin.”
“You told me I was going to bed with you.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Do not.”
“I’m merely observing that circumstances have improved.”
“Your brother is alive, people are hunting us, and you may have reopened your wound.”
“Still an improvement.”
She tried not to smile.
Failed.
Elias stared.
Mara noticed.
“What?”
“First real smile I've seen.”
“Enjoy it.”
“I am.”
Her hand remained against his ribs longer than necessary.
Elias looked down at it.
Mara removed it.
Too quickly.
He said softly:
“If I weren't injured—”
“You are.”
“Convenient.”
“For you.”
“How?”
“Because it keeps me from deciding whether that mouth of yours needs kissing or hitting.”
Elias's expression changed.
Mara immediately regretted saying it.
Not because she didn't mean it.
Because she did.
Elias stepped closer.
“Those aren't mutually exclusive.”
Her eyes locked on his.
“Careful.”
“With which one?”
“All of it.”
He stopped.
The distance between them remained one breath.
Mara could have closed it.
He did not.
That mattered.
Finally she stepped back.
“Bandage first.”
Elias smiled.
“Cruel woman.”
“You're learning.”
The plan was simple enough to sound impossible.
Get the ledger to Territorial Judge Matthias Cole in Red Hollow.
Deliver copies to Franklin Hale's newspaper in Cheyenne.
Send duplicate evidence by stage east.
Make the truth too widespread to erase.
Reddick's power depended on controlling individual witnesses.
Samuel's mistake years earlier had been keeping proof concentrated.
Elias’s theft changed that.
Mara improved the plan.
“Three copies aren't enough.”
Samuel frowned.
“How many?”
“Ten.”
“Ten?”
“Churches.”
“Banks.”
“Two newspapers.”
“Judge.”
“Federal land office.”
“County clerk outside Reddick's district.”
Elias smiled.
Samuel looked at him.
“What?”
“She thinks like a criminal.”
Mara stared.
“I think like someone who has survived criminals.”
Better.
They spent the day copying entries.
At dusk, one rider arrived.
Not Reddick.
A boy of sixteen named Henry Cobb.
He had ridden from town.
“Reddick knows Silver Creek.”
Samuel cursed.
“How?”
“Deputy Mercer changed sides.”
Franklin Hale grabbed the papers.
“We move now.”
Samuel looked toward Mara.
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“You take Kane west.”
“I'm staying.”
“Mara.”
“No.”
Samuel stepped closer.
“I lost twelve years.”
“Don't make me lose you again.”
She stared.
“You do not get to disappear for twelve years, return for one day, and start issuing orders like my older brother.”
Samuel's jaw tightened.
Elias quietly backed away.
This was not his battlefield.
Samuel said:
“Reddick will kill you.”
“He's been trying since I was eighteen.”
“He didn't know where you were.”
“He does now.”
“Exactly.”
Mara stepped closer.
“And that's why I am done hiding.”
Samuel stared.
Something in her voice ended the argument.
He nodded.
“Then we all go.”
Reddick reached them first.
The confrontation happened not at Silver Creek but on the road to Red Hollow.
Six riders blocked the canyon.
August Reddick sat at the center.
Sixty.
White beard trimmed neatly.
Black coat.
Expensive horse.
He looked like the kind of man who believed good tailoring could make theft respectable.
Elias recognized Caleb Rourke beside him.
The man who had shot him.
Mara saw Reddick for the first time in twelve years.
He smiled.
“Miss Voss.”
“Mara Reed now?” he added mockingly.
She frowned.
“Not yet.”
Elias glanced toward her.
Reddick noticed.
“Ah.”
He smiled wider.
“Perhaps soon.”
Mara's hand moved near her rifle.
Elias whispered:
“Don't give him what he wants.”
She looked at him.
He meant anger.
Reddick continued.
“Samuel.”
“Still difficult to kill.”
Samuel answered:
“Still difficult to impress.”
The riders shifted.
Reddick looked toward Elias.
“You have something of mine.”
Elias smiled.
“A book?”
“My property.”
“Interesting word.”
“Give it back.”
“No.”
Reddick sighed.
Then looked at Mara.
“You know your father begged before the auction?”
Her face went still.
Elias saw what he was doing.
Trying to fracture her.
Reddick continued.
“He offered everything.”
“House.”
“Horses.”
“Your mother's jewelry.”
“Still couldn't cover the note.”
Mara said:
“You bribed the judge.”
Reddick smiled.
“Can you prove that?”
“Yes.”
The smile weakened.
Mara lifted a folded copy.
“Page forty-seven.”
Silence.
Reddick looked toward Elias.
“You let her see it?”
“I let everybody see it.”
Reddick's face changed.
“What?”
Franklin Hale spoke from behind Samuel.
“Copies went out at dawn.”
Reddick stared.
“You're lying.”
Mara smiled.
“That's the problem with men who think evidence belongs to whoever holds the original.”
Reddick's eyes hardened.
Caleb reached toward his gun.
From above the canyon—
A voice.
“Don't.”
Judge Matthias Cole's deputy stood on the ridge.
Six armed county men behind him.
Not Reddick's county.
Neighboring jurisdiction.
Franklin had sent a rider ahead.
Reddick looked around.