Chapter 15 - Four Men and Three Packets
Caden wanted to charge.
Mara stopped him.
“Too open.”
“They’ll find the packets.”
“Maybe.”
Bell leaned weakly against his saddle.
“The driver hid registered mail.”
Silas pointed.
“Cutter knows.”
Cutter cut open one sack.
Letters scattered across dust.
Mercer searched another.
Vale held the stage driver at gunpoint.
Pike watched the road.
Caden’s anger grew.
Mara whispered, “Patience.”
“I am running out.”
“You started with little.”
Cutter found the registered bag.
He smiled.
Caden raised his revolver.
Mara lowered it.
“Wait.”
Cutter opened the bag.
Pulled out three sealed packets.
Held them up.
Then—
The stage driver kicked Vale in the knee.
Chaos.
Caden fired at the ground near Pike’s horse.
Mara shot Cutter’s revolver from his hand.
Bell and Silas charged from the flank.
Mercer fired.
Missed.
Pike rode after Silas.
Caden intercepted.
Their horses collided shoulder-to-shoulder.
Pike swung his rifle.
Caden ducked and struck him with the revolver grip.
Pike fell.
Silas stopped.
“Alive?”
Pike groaned.
“Unfortunately,” Caden said.
Cutter grabbed the packets and ran toward his horse.
Mara cut him off.
He drew a knife.
So did she.
Cutter laughed.
“Thought Apache women used bows.”
Mara’s expression did not change.
“Thought hired killers were smarter.”
He lunged.
She stepped aside.
Caught his wrist.
Twisted.
Knife fell.
Cutter swung with the other hand.
Mara blocked and shoved him backward.
He reached for the rifle on his saddle.
Caden aimed.
“Don’t.”
Cutter froze.
Caden looked at the packets.
“Drop them.”
Cutter smiled.
“Gault will kill you anyway.”
“Probably.”
“And her.”
Caden’s voice changed.
“Drop them.”
Cutter saw something in his face and obeyed.
Bell’s badge helped convince the stage driver to continue.
Even wounded and disgraced, Bell still represented enough law to matter.
Pike was tied to the rear of the stage.
Cutter and Mercer escaped west during the confusion.
Vale fled north.
But the packets remained intact.
Before the stage left, the driver asked Caden, “What’s worth all this?”
Caden looked at the registered bag.
“Water.”
The driver frowned.
“Water?”
“And who gets to say it belongs to them.”
The coach left.
Bell almost collapsed.
They needed a doctor.
Florence lay closer than Maricopa Wells.
They rode south.
At dusk they reached the town under cover.
Bell was treated privately by a physician sympathetic to Judge Avery.
The bullet had passed through muscle.
He would live.
Caden sat outside the doctor’s room.
Silas joined him.
“You almost killed Cutter.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Mara had him.”
“That never stopped you before.”
Caden looked at his brother.
“Maybe I’m improving.”
Silas smiled.
“Do not become unbearable.”
A deputy arrived after midnight.
Samuel Holt.
Tall.
Gray-eyed.
Bell’s professional rival.
Miles stood behind him.
Alive.
Again.
Caden laughed.
“You are difficult to kill.”
Miles nodded.
“Bookkeeping.”
Holt looked at Caden.
“I have read enough to believe you were framed.”
“Comforting.”
“It does not clear you yet.”
“Less comforting.”
Holt showed them an order signed by Judge Avery.
Temporary detention of Horace Gault pending hearing.
Freeze on disputed land transfers.
Railroad closing postponed seventy-two hours.
Silas exhaled.
“We did it.”
Holt shook his head.
“No.”
They looked at him.
“Gault disappeared from Maricopa Wells two hours ago.”
Caden stood.
“With who?”
“Cutter, Mercer and Vale.”
“Pike?”
“In custody.”
“Where would Gault go?”
Silas answered immediately.
“Roark Springs.”
Mara entered from the hallway.
“Why?”
Silas looked at her.
“Because the original trust draft may still be there.”
Caden frowned.
“What original?”
“Father hid papers in an old pump house.”
“You knew?”
“I knew there was a document case. Not what was inside.”
“You enjoy saying that.”
Silas ignored him.
“If the trust draft shows Caleb intended to transfer control to Nantan and others, it destroys Gault’s claim that Roark Springs Holdings was a legitimate private company.”
Mara’s face hardened.
“And Gault knows.”
“Yes.”
Caden reached for his hat.
Holt stopped him.
“You’re still technically wanted.”
“Then arrest me while riding.”
Holt looked at Bell’s room.
Then at the evidence copies.
Finally he said, “I never heard that.”
Caden smiled.
Mara brought the painted mare.
Silas saddled another horse.
Miles stayed with Bell.
At dawn, Caden, Mara, Silas and Holt rode north.
Toward the springs.
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Toward Horace Gault.
And toward the final document Caleb Roark had hidden before he died.
