Chapter 8 - Brothers
Cade dove behind the stone well.
Nalin slipped behind an adobe wall.
Colter’s men fired first.
Bullets chipped stone.
Father Ruiz disappeared into the church.
Cade had only Vale’s shotgun with one remaining shell.
He waited.
One rider advanced.
Cade fired.
The blast tore the rifle from the man’s hands and sent him backward into the dust with pellets through his shoulder and upper chest.
Nonfatal maybe.
Not Cade’s concern yet.
The shotgun was empty.
He threw it aside.
Nalin fired twice.
One bullet struck a wooden post.
The second grazed another attacker’s thigh.
He fell behind a trough.
Colter shouted:
“Stop!”
His men hesitated.
Cade rose enough to see him.
Colter stood in the open.
Weapon still holstered.
“Are we really doing this?”
Cade said, “You started.”
“Seventeen years ago?”
“Yes.”
Colter laughed.
“Of course you think that.”
He motioned.
His remaining men lowered rifles.
Nalin kept Vale’s revolver aimed.
Cade stepped from behind the well.
“What do you think happened?”
Colter’s expression changed.
“You beat me until I couldn’t see out of my left eye.”
“I know.”
“You broke two ribs.”
“I know.”
“You accused me of burning a barn I helped build.”
“I know.”
“And then when the truth came out, you never came.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“What do you want me to say?”
Colter’s jaw tightened.
“I want you not to know.”
Cade understood.
Knowing without acting had become another insult.
“I was wrong.”
Colter stared.
Cade continued.
“I took the ranch when you had earned half. I beat you for something you didn’t do. I learned the truth and let shame become an excuse.”
Nalin watched quietly.
Colter’s eyes reddened.
For a moment Cade saw his younger brother beneath seventeen years.
Then Colter hardened again.
“Keep the apology.”
“I wasn’t buying anything.”
“No?”
“No.”
Colter looked toward Nalin.
“See? He finally learned.”
Nalin replied, “Not enough.”
Cade almost smiled.
Colter’s gaze dropped to the old ledger hidden beneath Cade’s poncho.
“You don’t understand what Creed will do to get that.”
“You do?”
“I handled his legal work for fourteen years.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed money.”
“For what?”
“To buy back the Thorn ranch.”
Cade froze.
Colter smiled.
“Yes.”
“You bought it?”
“Twelve years ago.”
Cade had lost the ranch to debt after leaving Arizona.
He had never returned.
Colter continued.
“You threw it away. I recovered it.”
“Then why work for Creed after?”
“Because recovering land is easier than keeping it.”
Cade understood the shape.
Debt.
Rail speculation.
Creed’s capital.
Compromise becoming partnership.
Partnership becoming dependence.
Nalin said, “And now you are Creed with cleaner hands.”
Colter looked at her.
“That is what Cade thinks.”
“I did not ask Cade.”
Colter’s eyes narrowed.
Nalin continued.
“You sent men to hurt me in a saloon.”
“I told them not to injure you badly.”
Her laugh was cold.
“How generous.”
“Gabe exceeded instructions.”
“You knew what Gabe was.”
Colter said nothing.
“You wanted Cade angry enough to shoot.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted the sheriff to arrest him.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“I expected Creed to offer Cade a bargain.”
Cade frowned.
“What bargain?”
“The same one he offered me eleven years ago.”
“Work for him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To prove something.”
Cade stared.
Colter smiled without humor.
“That you and I were not different.”
There it was.
Not land.
Not money.
Not only.
Colter had spent seventeen years trying to prove Cade’s moral superiority was false.
Cade almost laughed.
“Colter, I never thought I was better than you.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
“You left.”
“That was cowardice.”
“To me, it looked like judgment.”
Cade felt the tragedy of it.
Two brothers spending half their lives answering statements the other never made.
Nalin lowered her revolver slightly.
“You both wasted many years.”
Neither brother argued.
Then hoofbeats thundered from the northern road.
Far more than four riders.
Colter turned.
His face lost color.
“Creed.”
“How many?”
“Twenty, maybe.”
Nalin looked toward the church.
“Father Ruiz.”
Cade ran inside.
The priest was loading his shotgun.
“You must leave.”
Ruiz shook his head.
“This is my church.”
“It is also adobe.”
“Good walls.”
“Not against twenty rifles.”
Colter entered.
“There’s a canyon trail south.”
Ruiz looked at him.
“You brought this danger.”
“Yes.”
“You admit easily.”
“I’m improving.”
Cade looked at his brother.
“Now?”
Colter smiled faintly.
“Seems fashionable.”
They moved quickly.
Nalin gathered water.
Cade reclaimed a rifle from the wounded attacker.
Colter ordered his men to help their injured companions.
Then gunfire struck the mission bell.
Metal screamed.
Creed’s riders appeared on the ridge.
Silas Creed sat at the center.
Beside him rode Gabe Mercer.
His right hand bandaged.
His nose swollen.
He held a rifle in his left.
Creed called down:
“Colter!”
Colter walked into the courtyard.
Cade grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
Colter looked at the hand.
Cade released him.
Colter shouted:
“Silas!”
Creed smiled.
“You stole from me.”
Colter laughed.
“I learned from you.”
Creed’s expression cooled.
“Give me the ledgers.”
Nalin stepped beside Cade.
“Both?”
Creed looked at her.
“So the priest talked.”
Cade understood.
Creed did not know whether they had the second ledger yet.
Useful.
Colter shouted:
“We don’t have it.”
Creed raised one hand.
Rifles aimed toward the mission.
“Then I suppose we burn another building.”
Father Ruiz whispered a prayer.
Nalin’s face went still.
She had watched one home burn already.
Cade checked his rifle.
Colter glanced toward the rear exit.
“South trail.”
Nalin said, “Not all of us make it if they see us run.”
Cade looked at Creed.
Then at the mission bell.
Then the horses.
A plan formed.
Dangerous.
Stupid.
Predictable in a different way.
Cade handed the rifle to Nalin.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving Creed what he came for.”
Colter understood.
“No.”
Cade removed the old ledger from beneath his poncho.
He stepped into the courtyard.
Raised it overhead.
“Silas!”
Creed’s riders stopped firing.
Cade smiled.
“You want your book?”
He walked toward the well.
Then dropped the ledger into it.
Creed screamed.
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And every gunman on the ridge looked toward the water.
Exactly as Cade hoped.
