Chapter 12 - The Road to TucsonThey could not try Harlan Creed in Mercy Ridge.
Too many officials owed him favors.
Too many records had disappeared.
Nora proposed Tucson.
The territorial federal court maintained offices there.
A United States marshal could receive evidence.
Bell objected.
“Creed knows every road.”
Silas smiled.
“So do we.”
Three hundred riders became an escort.
Not all rode together.
That would look like invasion.
Groups of twenty spread across parallel routes.
Cole rode with Lily, Nora, Caleb, Bell and Silas.
Gideon followed later under physician care.
Martin Shaw traveled under guard.
The letters were divided into six packets.
No single attack could destroy everything.
Nora sent copies ahead by two stage lines.
“If Creed stops both?” Cole asked.
“Third copy goes by rail from Benson.”
Silas looked impressed.
“Newspapers taught you war.”
“My father taught me paranoia.”
The first day passed quietly.
Too quietly.
At camp, Lily sat apart from Silas.
Cole joined her.
“You should talk to him.”
She looked at him.
“Why?”
“I didn’t say forgive him.”
“You think he deserves answers?”
“No. You do.”
Lily stared at the fire.
“I spent sixteen years thinking my father died.”
Cole nodded.
“He spent sixteen thinking you were somewhere he couldn’t safely reach.”
“He killed people.”
“Yes.”
“You’re defending him.”
“No.”
Cole thought of Jacob.
“You can understand why someone did something and still refuse to call it right.”
Lily looked at him.
“You learned that quickly.”
“My family gave me practice.”
She almost smiled.
Across camp Caleb studied his banking records.
Cole joined him next.
“What happens to you?”
“If we reach Tucson?”
“Yes.”
“I confess.”
“To the bank fraud?”
“Yes.”
Cole was surprised.
“Creed could still bury it.”
“I don’t want him to.”
“Prison?”
“Maybe.”
Cole looked at his brother.
“What changed?”
Caleb stared toward the saddlebag.
“Father.”
“What about him?”
“I spent six months telling myself I was hiding my crime to protect Anna.”
Cole waited.
“But Father told himself he forged deeds to save Mother.”
Caleb swallowed.
“Same sentence. Different amount.”
Cole nodded.
“Anna?”
“I sent her a telegram.”
“What did you say?”
“Truth.”
“That must’ve been long.”
Caleb laughed.
“Cost me nearly a dollar.”
The next morning they found the first roadblock.
A territorial deputy stood with twelve men.
“Cole Harper?”
Cole stopped.
“Yes.”
The deputy unfolded a warrant.
“For theft, unlawful escape and conspiracy with wanted outlaw Silas Rourke.”
Bell rode forward.
“Who signed it?”
The deputy hesitated.
“Harlan Creed.”
Nora laughed.
“He’s retired.”
“Special authority.”
“From whom?”
The deputy did not answer.
Silas’s riders appeared on distant ridges.
Not threatening.
Visible.
The deputy looked around.
Cole said:
“We are carrying evidence to a United States marshal.”
“You’re under arrest.”
Bell removed his old sheriff’s badge.
“I’ll take custody.”
“You’re suspended.”
“By who?”
“Harlan Creed.”
Bell smiled.
“Again, retired.”
The absurdity became visible even to the deputy.
He lowered the warrant.
Then a rider behind him shouted:
“Orders are orders.”
He drew.
Cole fired first.
Not at the man.
At his revolver hand.
The bullet struck the weapon, knocking it away.
Chaos erupted.
Silas shouted:
“NO KILLING!”
That command mattered.
They disarmed the roadblock without deaths.
One man suffered a broken arm.
Another was thrown from a horse.
Then they continued.
Lily looked at Silas.
“You could’ve killed them.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t.”
Silas met her eyes.
“I’m trying to stop being the man they wrote on the poster.”
Lily looked away.
Not forgiveness.
But she had heard him.
That afternoon a telegram rider caught them.
Message for Nora.
She read it and went pale.
“What?”
“The Tucson newspaper refused my story.”
Cole frowned.
“Why?”
“Legal threat.”
“From Creed?”
“No.”
She handed him the telegram.
NOTICE RECEIVED FROM VALE CONSOLIDATED COUNSEL. PUBLICATION OF UNSUBSTANTIATED RED MESA CLAIMS WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE ACTION.
Cole stared.
“Gideon.”
Silas swore.
Lily looked furious.
“He was helping us.”
Nora folded the paper.
“Or helping himself.”
Cole remembered Gideon turning over the letters.
Why then threaten newspapers?
Caleb said:
“Maybe not Gideon.”
“Who else controls Vale Consolidated?” Cole asked.
Caleb looked at him.
“His board.”
Nora’s eyes narrowed.
“Who chairs it?”
Caleb knew.
“Judge Harlan Creed.”
Everyone went silent.
Even after retirement, Creed remained inside the Vale empire.
Gideon had inherited wealth.
Creed had inherited control.
May you like
![92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Father’s Arrival Exposed a Secret Powerful People Had Buried for Years]](https://cdn.treeiq.biz/site_590/2026/11/clone-0-0915d882-53d7-4d17-b43a-a010ca1a1068.webp)
And the closer they came to Tucson, the more they realized they were not leaving Creed’s territory.
They were riding deeper into it.
