Chapter 6 - The Night They Came for Her
Silas threw Martha to the floor.
Glass exploded across the room.
Samuel screamed from the hallway.
"Stay down!"
Silas crawled toward the wall and reached for his rifle.
Another bullet tore through the window frame.
Martha rolled behind the heavy dining table.
"Samuel!"
"I'm here!"
"Get into the pantry!"
Silas fired toward the tree line.
A muzzle flash answered from the darkness.
Jeremiah came running from the barn carrying a shotgun.
"How many?"
"At least two!"
Martha crawled toward Samuel.
Silas grabbed her arm.
"No."
"My boy is in that hallway."
The words came naturally.
My boy.
Silas heard them.
So did Martha.
Neither had time to react.
She pulled free and ran low.
Samuel stood frozen near the pantry door.
Martha reached him.
"Come here."
He threw himself against her.
She pushed him into the pantry.
"Stay behind the flour barrels."
"What about you?"
"I'll be right outside."
"Promise?"
Martha hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Promise."
She closed the door.
A third shot came from the rear of the house.
Silas cursed.
"They're circling."
Jeremiah moved toward the kitchen.
Martha grabbed the revolver Silas kept above the mantel.
He looked at her.
"You know how to use that?"
"My father taught me."
"You said cattle ranch."
"It was a difficult ranch."
A shadow crossed the rear window.
Martha fired.
The man disappeared.
"Hit?"
"No idea."
Silas grinned briefly.
"Remind me never to make you angry."
"Too late."
The shooting stopped.
Silence followed.
That frightened Martha more.
Silas moved toward the front door.
Jeremiah whispered, "Trap."
"I know."
Martha looked toward the barn.
Horses screamed.
Then flames rose.
"The barn!"
Jeremiah ran.
Silas grabbed him.
"They want us outside."
"The horses will burn."
A child screamed from the pantry.
Martha looked back.
Not Samuel.
A girl's voice.
"Help!"
Everyone froze.
Again.
"Help me!"
Martha opened the pantry.
Samuel pointed downward.
"The floor!"
A tiny hand protruded through a loose board near the wall.
Martha dropped to her knees.
"What in God's name?"
Silas pulled the board free.
Beneath the house was a shallow crawlspace.
A girl, perhaps nine years old, lay inside.
Her face was filthy.
Her wrists were tied.
Martha reached down.
"Take my hand."
The girl stared at Silas and panicked.
"No!"
"It's all right," Martha said.
"They'll kill me!"
"Who?"
"The men."
Martha pulled her up.
The child clung to her.
Silas looked toward the opening.
"How did she get under the house?"
The girl trembled.
"They put me there yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
Martha stared at Silas.
Someone had been on the ranch before Cole's escape was reported.
The attack had been planned.
The girl reached into her torn coat.
"I have something."
She handed Martha a folded piece of paper.
Her name was written on the outside.
Martha.
She opened it.
COME TO BELL'S CROSSING WITH THE ORIGINAL DEED.
COME ALONE.
OR THE NEXT CHILD WE TAKE WILL BE SAMUEL.
Silas read over her shoulder.
His face became terrifyingly calm.
Martha had learned that this was when he was most dangerous.
"Who gave you this?" she asked the girl.
"A gray-haired man."
Jeremiah stiffened.
"How gray?"
"Like him."
She pointed at Jeremiah.
Silas turned.
Jeremiah looked stunned.
"It wasn't me."
The girl shrank from him.
"Same face."
Martha's mind raced.
Silas asked, "Did he have a scar?"
The girl nodded.
Everyone looked at Jeremiah.
A scar ran from his temple to his jaw.
Jeremiah whispered, "No."
Silas raised his rifle.
"Silas," Martha said.
"You disappeared eleven years."
Jeremiah backed away.
"I didn't do this."
"The girl identified you."
"She said same face."
Silas stopped.
Martha understood first.
"Brother?"
Jeremiah went pale.
Samuel stepped from the pantry.
"Grandpa?"
Jeremiah sat slowly.
"I had a brother."
Silas stared.
"You told me he died."
"I thought he did."
"What was his name?"
Jeremiah looked toward Martha.
"Caleb."
The little girl whispered, "That's what they called him."
Silas closed his eyes.
Another secret.
Another man from the past.
Jeremiah explained quickly.
Caleb Mercer had worked with Ezra Cole before Thomas Bell discovered the pass.
Caleb had believed the land should be sold immediately.
Thomas refused.
Jeremiah sided with Thomas.
Caleb disappeared after a fight between the brothers.
"I thought he went south."
Silas's voice was cold.
"You thought a lot of things."
Jeremiah accepted the blow.
Martha asked the girl, "What's your name?"
"Lucy."
"Where are your parents?"
She began crying.
"Dead."
Silas knelt.
"How long have you been with Cole?"
"Three months."
Martha's stomach twisted.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Lucy pointed toward the paper.
"He said I was practice."
Silas's hand tightened around the rifle.
Martha understood.
Practice for taking Samuel.
The barn flames were spreading.
Jeremiah stood.
"We need the horses."
Silas looked outside.
The gunmen had vanished.
The attack had never been meant to kill them.
Only deliver the message.
By dawn, half the barn was gone.
Two horses had survived.
Lucy slept wrapped in blankets beside Samuel.
Martha sat at the kitchen table.
The original deed rested before her.
Silas entered.
"No."
She looked up.
"I didn't say anything."
"You don't have to."
"They'll keep coming."
"We'll send Samuel away."
"And they'll take someone else."
Silas leaned against the table.
"Martha."
"There's only one way this stops."
"You're not going alone."
"The note says—"
"I don't care what the note says."
She looked at him.
"They want both signatures."
"They want control."
"And if we bring the deed?"
"They'll kill us afterward."
"Probably."
Silas blinked.
Martha shrugged.
"I'm not foolish."
"Could've fooled me."
She smiled faintly.
Then turned serious.
"We need them to believe we're foolish."
Silas studied her.
"What are you thinking?"
Martha told him.
By noon, Deputy Harrison had returned.
So had three federal marshals.
One of them, Marshal Reeves, listened to Martha's plan with increasing disbelief.
"You want to walk into Bell's Crossing carrying the real deed?"
"A copy."
"Cole may know the difference."
"He won't get close enough."
Silas added, "Because he'll be watching me."
Reeves frowned.
"Why?"
"Because he'll expect me to interfere."
Martha looked at Jeremiah.
"And he'll expect Jeremiah to betray us."
Jeremiah's expression changed.
"You want me to."
"I want Caleb to think you will."
Silas did not like it.
Nobody did.
That was precisely why Martha thought it might work.
At sunset they rode.
Martha entered Bell's Crossing alone.
At least, that was what anyone watching would see.
The document lay inside her coat.
Her revolver was hidden beneath her skirt.
She reached the abandoned main building.
A lantern burned.
Ezra Cole stepped from the shadows.
His face was bruised from the prison escape.
"Martha Bell."
"Ezra Cole."
"You've caused extraordinary trouble."
"I've been told I'm difficult."
He smiled.
"So was your father."
A second man emerged.
Martha's breath caught.
He looked almost exactly like Jeremiah.
Older.
Harder.
No scar.
Caleb Mercer.
"Where is Silas?" Cole asked.
"Not coming."
Caleb laughed.
"He came."
Martha said nothing.
Cole stepped closer.
"The deed."
"Samuel first."
Cole's smile widened.
"We don't have Samuel."
"Then you get nothing."
"We have something else."
A door opened behind him.
Two men dragged someone forward.
Martha's heart stopped.
Silas.
Blood ran from his temple.
His hands were tied.
Cole smiled.
"You should have checked who was following whom."
Martha stared at Silas.
He shook his head once.
Don't.
Cole extended his hand.
"The deed."
Martha slowly reached inside her coat.
Then Caleb lifted his pistol.
Not toward her.
Toward Silas.
"Give it to him."
Martha removed the folded document.
Cole reached for it.
Before his fingers touched the paper, another voice came from the darkness behind Martha.
"Martha, don't."
She turned.
Jeremiah stepped into the lantern light.
Caleb smiled.
"Hello, brother."
Jeremiah raised his hands.
"I brought you what you really want."
Cole looked at him.
"What?"
Jeremiah opened his coat.
A second document was tucked inside.
The original Mercer deed.
Silas stared.
Jeremiah had lied.
He had possessed it all along.
Caleb pointed his gun at him.
Jeremiah whispered, "There's just one thing Silas doesn't know."
Silas's face hardened.
Jeremiah looked directly at his son.
"Thomas Bell wasn't murdered by Ezra Cole."
Martha stopped breathing.
May you like
Jeremiah continued.
"I killed him."
