Chapter 14 - The Shot Gault Could Not Buy
Cutter fired again.
Caden shoved Mara behind the station wall.
Bell returned fire.
Silas pulled the pack horses into cover.
Gault’s men spread across the ridge.
“They’re closing the south exit!” Bell shouted.
Mara checked the north.
“Rock cut.”
Caden remembered it.
The same narrow passage she had used to save him days earlier.
“Can horses fit?”
“One at a time.”
They moved.
Bell covered.
Silas led the first pack horse.
Mara the second.
Caden stayed last.
A bullet struck his coat.
No injury.
He looked back.
Gault remained mounted.
Watching.
Not firing.
For the first time Caden understood how Horace survived.
He paid others to carry the danger.
Caden aimed his revolver.
Gault’s eyes met his across the distance.
Caden could shoot.
Maybe hit.
Maybe miss.
Maybe start a final personal duel.
Instead he fired at Gault’s horse tack.
The shot cut a leather strap.
The saddle shifted.
Gault had to dismount.
Caden smiled.
“Walk.”
Then disappeared into the cut.
The narrow canyon slowed pursuit.
Mara guided the horses through.
They emerged in the hidden wash.
Bell arrived moments later.
Silas counted.
“We have everything?”
“Most.”
“Seal?”
Mara held it up.
“Field notes?”
“Two boxes.”
“Forged envelope?”
Caden touched his coat.
“Yes.”
Bell smiled.
“For the first time, Gault owns less evidence than we do.”
Then a rifle shot echoed.
Bell stumbled.
Caden caught him.
Blood appeared high on Bell’s left shoulder.
Not fatal-looking.
But serious.
Mara pulled him behind stone.
“Through?”
Bell checked.
“Seems.”
“Can you ride?”
“Have to.”
Caden looked back.
Cutter appeared high above.
Mara raised her rifle.
Cutter ducked.
She did not waste the shot.
They mounted.
Bell rode awkwardly.
For six miles, nobody spoke.
At an abandoned well, they stopped.
Mara treated Bell.
Caden sat nearby.
Bell looked pale.
“You should leave me.”
“No.”
“You barely like me.”
“Correct.”
“Then practical.”
“Also no.”
Bell smiled.
“Caleb would’ve left me.”
Caden’s eyes hardened.
“I’m not Caleb.”
“No.”
Bell closed his eyes.
“That is becoming clear.”
Silas watched the horizon.
“What now?”
“Judge Avery,” Bell said.
“Can we reach him?”
“Florence tomorrow.”
Mara shook her head.
“Gault will block the road.”
Caden thought.
“Then we send evidence without us.”
“How?”
The railroad stage line.
A mail coach passed through a crossing eight miles west at dawn.
If they could send copies in multiple directions—
Bell understood.
“San Francisco. Washington. Judge Avery.”
Silas said, “Three packets.”
Mara added, “Four.”
“To who?”
“Dasoda.”
Caden looked at her.
She explained.
“If law fails, people should still know what law refused to see.”
He nodded.
All night they copied critical documents by lantern.
Silas wrote until his hand cramped.
Bell dictated names.
Mara compared seals.
Caden prepared the chronology.
At dawn, they stopped the mail stage.
The driver recognized Caden from the wanted poster.
His hand moved toward a shotgun.
Bell showed his badge.
Then laughed.
“Not sure that helps.”
Caden handed the driver three sealed packets and fifty dollars.
“To San Francisco land office, Washington General Land Office and Judge Avery in Florence.”
The driver stared.
“Why should I risk carrying these?”
Mara answered.
“Because men already killed one horse trying to stop them.”
The driver looked at the packets.
Then at Caden’s scarred shirt.
“Fair.”
He hid the packets beneath registered mail.
The stage rolled away.
Caden watched.
For the first time, the truth no longer depended on one envelope.
Gault could catch them.
Kill them.
Burn what they carried.
And still fail.
Silas smiled faintly.
“Mother would approve.”
Caden nodded.
Then a distant gunshot sounded.
The mail stage stopped.
Everyone turned.
Riders emerged from behind a hill.
Gault’s men.
Cutter led them.
Caden mounted immediately.
“They know.”
Bell struggled onto his horse.
Mara loaded the rifle.
The riders surrounded the stage.
Cutter pulled the driver down.
Caden counted.
Four men.
The original four again.
Mercer and Pike must have escaped or been freed from the station.
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)
Cutter opened the mail compartment.
And one by one, he began throwing sacks onto the road.
