Chapter 7 - San Mateo
They reached San Mateo after midnight.
The settlement consisted of a mission church, six adobe buildings, a stable, and a trading post built around an old well.
No saloon.
Cade considered that suspicious.
Nalin considered it peaceful.
Father Esteban Ruiz lived behind the church.
He opened the door holding a lantern and an ancient shotgun.
Nalin spoke first.
“Taza.”
The priest’s face changed.
He lowered the weapon.
“You are his sister.”
“Yes.”
“I remember you as a child.”
“I remember your oranges.”
Father Ruiz smiled sadly.
“You stole four.”
“Three.”
“Four.”
Nalin almost smiled.
Then she showed him the brass token.
The priest’s warmth disappeared.
“Come inside.”
Cade remained near the door.
Ruiz looked at him.
“You are Cade Thorn.”
“Yes.”
The priest crossed himself.
“That encouraging?”
“No.”
They entered.
Nalin explained her uncle’s death.
The saloon trap.
Creed.
Colter.
Ruiz listened without interrupting.
When she mentioned Taza’s second ledger, he sighed.
“I prayed this would die with my generation.”
Nalin’s eyes hardened.
“Secrets killed my uncle.”
“Yes.”
“Then do not give me another one.”
Ruiz nodded.
He went to a wooden cabinet and removed a Bible.
Inside lay a folded letter.
“Taza gave me this the morning before the wagon ambush.”
Cade stared.
“He knew something would happen?”
“He feared.”
Ruiz handed it to Nalin.
The Apache script was mixed with English place names.
Nalin read silently.
Tears filled her eyes.
Cade looked away.
Finally she translated.
“Taza says if he does not return, there is proof under ‘the place where water enters stone.’”
Ruiz nodded.
“That was all.”
Nalin frowned.
“Did you know the place?”
“No.”
Cade did.
Or thought he did.
“Fort Grant.”
Nalin looked at him.
“Why?”
“There’s a spring north of the old supply trail. Water runs directly into a limestone crack.”
“How far?”
“From here? Day and a half.”
Vale had said Colter would know by morning.
Ruiz asked, “What proof?”
“A transaction ledger.”
“And what will you do with it?”
Nalin answered immediately.
“Expose them.”
Cade remained silent.
Ruiz noticed.
“You disagree?”
“No.”
“You hesitate.”
“Evidence gets people killed.”
Nalin looked at him.
“Silence already did.”
Cade nodded.
Fair.
Ruiz offered them shelter.
Cade refused the bed.
He sat against the church wall outside, shotgun across his knees.
Nalin joined him later.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I did.”
“For six minutes?”
“Enough.”
Moonlight silvered the mission courtyard.
Nalin held Taza’s medallion.
“Tell me exactly what happened when he died.”
Cade had hoped she would not ask again.
That was another form of cowardice.
He told her.
The wagons stopped near the limestone spring.
Taza noticed crate numbers did not match the manifest.
He and Cade opened seventeen.
Rifles.
Taza found the hidden transaction book beneath the driver’s seat.
Before they could leave, Lieutenant Voss appeared.
So did Creed.
Taza accused them.
Creed ordered guards to seize both men.
Cade drew first.
One guard died.
Another shot Taza.
Then the desert became smoke and noise.
Cade dragged Taza behind rocks.
He could have tried to carry him.
Instead he chose survival.
Taza knew he was dying.
Or believed he was.
He gave Cade his mother’s medallion.
Asked Cade to deliver it to family.
Then riders approached.
Taza told Cade they would torture him for the ledger location.
“Did he use that word?” Nalin asked.
“No.”
“Then do not put it in his mouth.”
Cade nodded.
“He said, ‘They cannot take me.’”
“And?”
“I understood.”
“Maybe incorrectly.”
“Yes.”
Cade’s voice lowered.
“I shot him once.”
Nalin stared at the courtyard.
“Where?”
“Chest.”
“Fast?”
“Yes.”
“You stayed?”
“No.”
“You took his medallion and ran.”
“Yes.”
“And never delivered it.”
Cade swallowed.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Shame.”
Nalin looked at him.
“Not danger?”
“That too.”
“But shame.”
“Yes.”
She stood.
“My brother trusted the wrong man.”
Cade did not argue.
Nalin walked back inside.
Cade remained beneath the stars.
Near dawn he heard horses.
He woke instantly.
Four riders entered the mission road.
Not Creed’s men.
The lead rider wore a black coat.
Cade recognized the posture before the face.
Colter Thorn dismounted.
Seventeen years had changed him.
His hair was iron-gray at the temples.
A scar crossed his jaw where Cade’s ring had split it during their last fight.
Colter saw Cade.
For several seconds neither brother moved.
Then Colter smiled.
“Still sleeping against walls.”
Cade stood.
“Still paying other men to fight?”
Colter’s smile vanished.
Nalin appeared in the church doorway with Vale’s revolver.
Colter looked at her.
“Miss Nalin.”
“You know me.”
“I know why you matter.”
Cade moved between them.
Colter’s men raised rifles.
He stopped them with one hand.
“I didn’t come to kill you here.”
Cade stared.
“Generous.”
“I came to make an offer.”
Nalin stepped outside.
“No.”
“You haven’t heard it.”
“My uncle heard Creed’s offers too.”
Colter’s expression flickered.
“I am not Creed.”
Cade said, “That’s what Vale said.”
“Vale is alive?”
“For now.”
Colter looked genuinely surprised.
Then he returned to Cade.
“Give me the first ledger.”
“How do you know we have it?”
“You always hold your left shoulder slightly lower when carrying something under your poncho.”
Cade almost smiled.
His brother still noticed everything.
“And in return?”
“You both leave Arizona alive.”
Nalin laughed.
Colter continued.
“I take Creed down. Vale too. Gabe and the Mercer brothers disappear into prison.”
“And you?”
“I keep what I built.”
Cade stared.
“On Creed’s money.”
“On our father’s land.”
There it was.
The old wound.
Colter stepped closer.
“You took my inheritance, Cade. I spent seventeen years building another.”
“With Creed.”
“With everyone.”
“And now?”
“Now I buy rail land before the railroad arrives.”
Nalin said, “Including my uncle’s water.”
Colter looked at her.
“I offered twice what it was worth.”
“It was his.”
“Yes.”
That single word told her enough.
Cade asked, “Why the saloon?”
Colter looked at him.
“Because I wanted to see whether you changed.”
“And?”
“You didn’t.”
Cade’s jaw tightened.
Colter smiled sadly.
“A woman gets hurt. Men act cruel. Cade Thorn draws.”
He looked at the bandage around Cade’s arm.
“You still need to be the man who intervenes after spending half your life walking away from everything that actually belongs to you.”
Cade felt the hit.
It was accurate enough to hurt.
Then Colter said:
“But I underestimated her.”
He looked at Nalin.
“That was my mistake.”
Nalin raised the revolver.
“One of many.”
Colter’s men shifted.
The church bell rang suddenly.
Father Ruiz had pulled the rope.
The violent clang startled horses.
Cade moved.
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Nalin moved.
And the courtyard exploded into gunfire.
