Chapter 6 - BLACK RIDGE
They found Black Ridge four days later.
Not because Voss expected them.
Because Ben knew the forgotten mining trail.
Sheriff Dalton brought twelve men.
Two federal marshals arrived from Helena before dawn.
Caleb did not want Josie there.
Josie did not care.
They compromised.
She remained with Reverend Hale and Anna at a staging cabin two miles south while Caleb, Ben and the lawmen approached the camp.
“I hate compromise,” Caleb said.
Josie adjusted his scarf.
“You’re improving.”
“If I’m not back by dark—”
“No.”
He stopped.
“No?”
“You don’t give me instructions beginning with if I’m not back.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired of imagining funerals.”
He looked at her.
Fair.
“I’ll be back.”
“That’s better.”
He leaned toward her.
Stopped.
Josie saw.
Three weeks ago, she would have been grateful for the distance.
Now she closed it.
She kissed his cheek.
Caleb went completely still.
“Come back.”
He swallowed.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Black Ridge looked abandoned from below.
Then Ben pointed.
“Smoke.”
Caleb saw it.
Thin.
Behind the old ore building.
They split into three groups.
The marshals approached the east side.
Dalton took the stable.
Caleb and Ben circled the ridge.
They found the first prisoner behind a locked door.
A man named Isaiah Cole.
Thirty.
Railroad laborer.
His employer claimed he owed transportation fees.
Voss bought the debt.
Isaiah had worked six months without pay.
Then they found three more.
Then women.
Seven.
Two from Chicago.
One from St. Louis.
A mother with an infant.
Caleb felt sick.
Ben opened cages without speaking.
One woman recognized him.
“You.”
Ben stopped.
She slapped him.
Hard.
He accepted it.
“You guarded us.”
“Yes.”
“You’re helping now?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ben looked toward the floor.
“Too late.”
She stared.
Then stepped aside.
“Open the next door.”
Gunfire erupted outside.
Caleb moved.
“Stay here.”
Voss’s men had spotted Dalton.
Shots echoed between rock walls.
Caleb reached the upper yard.
Saw Voss near the office.
Ezekiel Voss looked almost amused.
“Hayes!”
Caleb raised the rifle.
“Done running?”
“I never ran.”
Voss fired.
Caleb dropped behind a water trough.
The bullet hit wood.
Dalton shouted from below.
Voss had eight men.
Maybe ten.
More than expected.
Then one of the ore sheds exploded.
Not dynamite.
Steam pressure.
Enough noise to scatter horses.
Ben appeared.
“Back tunnel!”
“What?”
“Voss has a tunnel north!”
Caleb understood.
Escape route.
He ran.
Voss was already moving toward it.
Caleb followed through narrow rock.
Dark.
Wet.
One lantern ahead.
“Voss!”
The man stopped.
Turned.
Gun raised.
Caleb fired first.
The bullet struck Voss’s thigh.
He fell.
His pistol slid.
Caleb kicked it away.
Voss looked up.
“Kill me.”
Caleb stared.
“Why?”
“So you can pretend you’re different.”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
Voss smiled through pain.
“You’re a mountain man with blood on your hands. Same as me.”
“No.”
“You shot men.”
“Yes.”
“You’ll shoot again.”
“If I have to.”
“Then what makes you better?”
Caleb thought of Josie.
Wedding night.
Not until you decide.
Choice.
That was the difference.
“You take choices from people.”
Voss’s smile vanished.
Caleb continued.
“You call debt permission. Fear agreement. Violence business.”
He stepped back.
“I don’t.”
Voss lunged for a hidden knife.
Caleb kicked his wrist.
Bone cracked.
The knife dropped.
Sheriff Dalton arrived.
“Done?”
Caleb nodded.
“Done.”
Voss laughed.
“Not even close.”
Dalton cuffed him.
Voss looked at Caleb.
“Kessler owns people in three cities.”
Caleb stopped.
“What?”
“You think I built this?”
Voss coughed.
“Kessler sends names. Other men send names. Railroads move them.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You found one camp.”
Dalton’s face darkened.
“How many?”
Voss smiled.
“Enough.”
That answer followed Caleb back to the staging cabin.
Josie saw his face immediately.
“What happened?”
He looked at Anna.
Reverend Hale.
The marshals.
Then Josie.
“We got them out.”
Relief moved through her.
“How many?”
“Eleven alive.”
Anna began crying.
Josie closed her eyes.
“Voss?”
“Captured.”
Her eyes opened.
“And?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Kessler’s bigger than we thought.”
Josie went still.
“He’s not just one mill.”
“No.”
One marshal stepped in.
“We need witnesses willing to go east.”
Josie’s face changed.
“To Chicago.”
“Yes.”
Caleb turned toward him.
“She doesn’t have to.”
Josie looked at Caleb.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Decide for me.”
He stopped.
She softened.
“I know you’re trying to protect me.”
“Yes.”
“I also know what happens if nobody names Kessler.”
Caleb looked down.
“You could testify in Helena.”
“About Voss.”
“Yes.”
“Not about the mill.”
“No.”
Josie breathed slowly.
Then said the thing Caleb feared.
“I need to go back.”
His chest tightened.
“To Chicago.”
“Yes.”
He shook his head once.
“Not alone.”
“I wasn’t asking permission.”
“I know.”
That surprised her.
Caleb continued.
“I’m saying if you go…”
His jaw tightened.
“…I go.”
She stared.
“Caleb, you hate cities.”
“Yes.”
“You hate trains.”
“Yes.”
“You told me once ten houses together was too many.”
“Still true.”
A smile broke through her fear.
“You’d go to Chicago?”
“I married a Chicago woman.”
“Under protest.”
“Constant protest.”
She stepped closer.
“Why?”
Caleb looked at her.
Because somewhere between the wedding bed he refused to claim and the burning cabin she refused to abandon, Josie had become the place he wanted to return to.
“Because you shouldn’t have to walk back into that place alone.”
Her eyes filled.
“You really mean that.”
“Yes.”
She took his hand.
May you like
For once, nobody around them looked away.
And Caleb Hayes, who had spent years believing love was something the mountains had already taken from him, realized he was holding it again.
