Chapter 3 - The Locked Trunk
Elias moved Nia into the pantry.
He positioned himself beside the rear door.
Footsteps crossed the porch.
Slow.
Careful.
Then silence.
Elias waited.
A shadow moved beneath the door.
His finger tightened around the rifle.
Suddenly, Duke screamed from the stable.
Elias turned.
The distraction was enough.
A man burst through the rear window.
Elias struck him with the rifle stock.
The intruder fell.
Nia rushed from the pantry.
"Don't kill him!"
Elias grabbed the man's weapon.
The stranger scrambled backward and fled through the window.
Elias ran outside.
By the time he reached the yard, the man had disappeared.
Only a horse remained tied behind the barn.
Nia approached slowly.
"That's not one of theirs."
Elias looked at the horse.
"What does that mean?"
"He came alone."
"How do you know?"
"Because the others don't trust him."
Elias stared at her.
"You know these men."
Nia said nothing.
"Who are they?"
"They work for a man named Silas Vane."
Elias recognized the name.
"Land speculator?"
Nia nodded.
"Among other things."
Elias's expression hardened.
Vane had been buying ranches throughout the territory.
Cheaply.
Usually after pressure, debt, or legal disputes.
"Why would Vane care about my property?"
Nia looked toward the northern pasture.
"Because your father refused to sell."
"Everybody refuses to sell sometimes."
"Not this land."
"What makes it different?"
Nia looked at him.
"Something beneath it."
Elias remembered the locked trunk in his father's old room.
He had never been able to open it.
His father had taken the key to his grave.
Elias went inside.
He pulled the trunk from beneath the bed.
Dust covered the iron hinges.
Nia watched.
"You've never opened it?"
"No."
"Why?"
"My father told me never to."
"Then why open it now?"
Elias looked at her.
"Because he's dead."
He smashed the lock.
Inside were maps, old letters, survey documents, and a small metal box.
Elias unfolded the first map.
His blood ran cold.
The northern pasture had been marked with a circle.
Beneath it were three words.
DO NOT DIG.
Nia closed her eyes.
"You knew."
"I suspected."
Elias opened the metal box.
Inside was a photograph.
Two men stood beside a rocky canyon.
Thomas Carter.
And an Apache man Elias had never seen.
On the back, his father's handwriting read:
If Nia ever comes to you, give her the truth.
Elias slowly turned toward her.
"Nia."
Her face had gone pale.
"My father," she whispered.
"Who is he?"
Nia stared at the photograph.
"His name was Mateo."
Elias looked down again.
"And my father knew him."
"More than knew him."
Nia touched the photograph.
"They were partners."
Elias frowned.
"Partners in what?"
Nia looked toward the northern hills.
"The thing your father spent twenty-five years trying to hide."
Outside, a horse screamed.
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Then another shot sounded.
This time, it came from the northern pasture.
