Chapter 5 - THE EMPTY BEDS
Cora reached Seth’s room first.
Empty.
Blankets on the floor.
Blood on the pillow.
Old blood from his wound.
No new blood.
Thank God.
“Caleb!”
Nothing.
Wyatt tore through the downstairs rooms.
“Jonas!”
The foreman groaned.
Wyatt dropped beside him.
“What happened?”
“Three men.”
Jonas tried to sit.
“Came through the back.”
“The boys?”
“Caleb fought.”
Wyatt’s face went white.
“They took them?”
Jonas nodded.
Cora felt the room tilt.
Seth had been operated on less than two days earlier.
He could barely stand.
“Did they leave anything?”
Jonas pointed toward the table.
A folded paper.
Wyatt opened it.
BRING THE SURVEY AND THE SCHOOL LEDGER TO DEVIL’S PASS.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
COME ALONE.
OR DIG TWO SMALL GRAVES.
Cora stopped breathing.
Wyatt crushed the note.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
He turned on her.
“Do not.”
“Do not what?”
“Teacher me.”
Cora stepped closer.
“This isn’t arithmetic.”
“My sons—”
“Are exactly why you cannot ride into a trap alone.”
His face changed.
Cora continued.
“They want you frightened.”
“I am frightened.”
“Good.”
He stared.
“Good?”
“Yes. Because frightened men who pretend they aren’t frightened make stupid decisions.”
Jonas coughed.
“She’s got you there.”
Wyatt ignored him.
Cora took the note.
“Devil’s Pass has three approaches.”
He frowned.
“How do you know?”
“I taught geography.”
“That is not geography.”
“I taught children whose fathers trapped, logged, mined, ran cattle, and talked constantly.”
She pointed to the words.
“They say come alone because they expect you to use the main trail.”
Wyatt’s breathing slowed.
He was listening.
“Old logging road?”
“East ridge.”
“Blocked.”
“In summer.”
Jonas nodded.
“Snow might cover the fallen timber enough to cross above.”
Wyatt looked at Cora.
“You stay here.”
She almost laughed.
“No.”
“Cora.”
“They took my boys.”
The words stopped him.
Not your boys.
My boys.
Cora’s own eyes widened slightly.
But she did not take them back.
Wyatt looked at her for a long time.
Then nodded once.
“Our boys.”
Her throat tightened.
There was no time to examine the feeling.
They spent the next twelve hours preparing.
Sheriff Dalton agreed to help but warned that Rusk owned men in town.
They trusted only three deputies.
Jonas insisted on coming despite the bruise on his skull.
Elias could not ride.
Henry Vale, terrified after one night in jail, finally broke.
“Rusk keeps an old dynamite camp at Devil’s Pass.”
Wyatt leaned toward the bars.
“How many men?”
“Six. Maybe eight.”
“The boys?”
“Probably there.”
“Probably?”
Henry swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
Wyatt gripped the bars.
Cora touched his arm.
Henry rushed on.
“Rusk has been moving blasting powder north for weeks.”
“Why?”
“To collapse part of the upper creek.”
Cora understood.
“If he destroys the creek…”
“He can claim the Thornton water course changed naturally.”
Wyatt’s jaw tightened.
“And then?”
“He files an emergency diversion.”
Benton intended not only to steal the water.
He planned to manufacture the geography.
Cora almost admired the scale of the corruption.
Almost.
They rode before sunset.
Cora wore trousers beneath her skirt for warmth and one of Wyatt’s old coats.
He gave her a revolver.
She looked at it.
“I’ve never fired one.”
“Then tonight would be a bad time to begin.”
“Helpful.”
He took her behind the barn first.
Three lessons.
How to grip.
How to aim.
How not to close both eyes.
Her first shot missed a fence post by six feet.
Wyatt looked at the sky.
“What?”
“Checking whether God flinched.”
Her second hit wood.
Her third struck the post.
Cora smiled.
Wyatt looked worried.
“What?”
“You enjoy improvement too much.”
“I’m a teacher.”
At dusk, they entered Devil’s Pass from the east ridge.
Snow had deepened.
The logging trail was nearly invisible.
Below them, orange light marked the camp.
Cora counted.
“One.”
Wyatt nodded.
“Two.”
“Three near the shed.”
“Four.”
A fifth man moved behind the horses.
Then Cora saw the cabin.
One small window.
A shadow passed.
Caleb.
Her heart jumped.
She touched Wyatt’s arm.
“There.”
He saw.
Then Seth appeared behind his brother.
Alive.
Wyatt shut his eyes for one second.
Only one.
Cora whispered, “We get them first.”
He nodded.
Sheriff Dalton and the deputies would circle west.
Jonas waited with the horses.
Wyatt and Cora moved down the ridge.
They reached the cabin wall.
Voices inside.
Caleb.
“You said you’d get a doctor!”
A man laughed.
“Your brother ain’t dying.”
“He’s bleeding.”
Cora’s hands tightened.
Wyatt’s face became stone.
Another voice.
Benton.
“He’ll survive until midnight.”
Cora felt Wyatt move.
She caught him.
Wait.
Inside, Seth whispered something.
Caleb answered, “No.”
Then Benton said, “Your father will come.”
Caleb’s voice hardened.
“He’ll kill you.”
Benton laughed.
“Your father is a rancher who inherited more land than sense.”
Cora looked at Wyatt.
His expression remained unreadable.
Good.
Then Benton continued.
“And that woman he married? She’ll leave the second winter gets hard.”
Cora stopped breathing.
Caleb answered instantly.
“No, she won’t.”
Silence.
Even Wyatt looked surprised.
Benton said, “She married for food.”
“So?”
Cora felt tears sting her eyes.
Caleb continued.
“Pa married her because we needed somebody.”
“Exactly.”
“But she stayed when Seth got shot.”
Cora covered her mouth.
“She ran outside with no shoes.”
Seth’s weak voice joined.
“She makes bad bread.”
Caleb whispered, “Shut up.”
Seth giggled, then groaned.
Cora nearly laughed and cried at once.
Benton said, “Children believe anything.”
Caleb answered quietly.
“I believe her.”
Cora closed her eyes.
Three weeks earlier, he had looked at her with hatred.
Now a kidnapped ten-year-old was defending her.
Wyatt’s hand found hers in the dark.
Not romance.
Not comfort.
A promise.
Then Sheriff Dalton fired from the west ridge.
“Sheriff’s office!”
Chaos erupted.
Wyatt kicked the cabin door.
The guard turned.
Wyatt struck him before he could fire.
Cora ran to the boys.
“Cora!”
Seth began crying.
Caleb did not.
Not until she grabbed him.
Then his entire body shook.
“You came.”
“Of course I came.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
“That has never stopped me before.”
Gunfire cracked outside.
Wyatt turned toward the door.
Benton appeared behind the far shed.
He fired.
Wyatt ducked.
“Get them out!”
Cora lifted Seth.
He screamed.
His wound had reopened.
Caleb grabbed her coat.
“Back window.”
They moved.
Outside, the night exploded with horses, gunfire, and shouting.
Then Benton reached the powder shed.
Cora saw him holding a burning torch.
Wyatt saw it too.
“Rusk!”
Benton smiled across the snow.
“You want your land?”
He threw the torch.
Wyatt ran.
The powder shed ignited.
Cora screamed.
“Wyatt!”
He tackled Benton behind a stone embankment.
The explosion tore Devil’s Pass apart.
Snow.
Wood.
Fire.
Rock.
Cora fell over Seth.
Caleb covered his head.
For several seconds she heard nothing.
Then ringing.
Smoke.
Shouts.
She lifted her head.
“Wyatt?”
No answer.
“Wyatt!”
Caleb looked terrified.
Cora handed Seth to him.
“Stay.”
She ran toward the blast.
A crater smoked where the shed had stood.
Benton lay near the embankment, unconscious.
Wyatt was nowhere.
Then a hand moved beneath broken timber.
Cora dropped.
“Wyatt!”
She dragged debris away.
His face appeared.
Blood at his temple.
Eyes closed.
“Wyatt.”
Nothing.
Her chest collapsed.
“No.”
She grabbed his coat.
“No. You do not get to bring me into this family and then leave me with all of them.”
His eyes opened slightly.
Cora froze.
“Cora?”
She laughed and sobbed.
“You idiot.”
“That seems…”
He winced.
“Unkind.”
She kissed him.
She did not think.
She simply did it.
One desperate kiss against cold lips and blood and smoke.
When she pulled back, Wyatt stared at her.
Even half-conscious, he looked shocked.
Cora stared too.
“Well.”
Wyatt managed, “Is that part of the marriage agreement?”
“Shut up.”
Then the mountain above them cracked.
Everyone looked up.
The explosion had loosened the snow shelf.
A white wall began moving down the pass.
May you like
Avalanche.
And Caleb was still standing in its path with Seth in his arms.
