Chapter 5 - The Price of a Child
Claire did not sleep.
Neither did Ethan.
The children eventually did because children possessed the miraculous ability to surrender to exhaustion even when adults could not.
Noah slept against Claire.
Luke and Caleb lay together.
Samuel pretended to sleep until Claire noticed his eyes open.
“Close them.”
“I can't.”
“Try.”
“Are they going to come back?”
Claire could not lie anymore.
“They might.”
Samuel swallowed.
“Is Dad why they're after us?”
“No.”
“But—”
“Your father tried to stop them.”
Samuel stared at the ceiling.
“So did their mom.”
“Yes.”
“Were they friends?”
“I think so.”
That seemed to comfort him.
Claire kissed his forehead.
Across the room Ethan watched.
When Samuel finally slept, Ethan whispered, “We take the children out before dawn.”
“Where?”
“My sister lives beyond Carson Ridge.”
“Can we trust her?”
“With my life.”
Claire looked at him.
“That's what we're doing.”
“What?”
“Trusting everyone with our lives.”
“Not everyone.”
His eyes held hers.
“Each other.”
Something passed between them.
Too fragile to name.
Too dangerous to ignore.
Before sunrise they packed.
Ethan loaded the ledger into a leather pouch.
The original deed went beneath Claire's dress inside a sewn pocket.
They would separate the evidence.
If one was taken, the other survived.
They reached the ridge by midmorning.
Then they found the bridge destroyed.
Fresh axe marks scarred the supports.
Ethan dismounted.
“Vane.”
Claire looked behind them.
No riders.
“Another route?”
“Adds six hours.”
“We take it.”
They turned north.
At noon, Caleb became sick.
Fever.
Sudden and frightening.
Claire checked him.
“He needs rest.”
“We can't stop.”
“He needs water.”
Ethan looked at his son.
Then the trail.
“There's a hunting cabin twenty minutes east.”
They reached it.
Claire cooled Caleb’s forehead.
Ethan stood outside with the rifle.
Samuel helped Luke gather wood.
For one brief moment, Claire imagined this as an ordinary family.
Then Samuel screamed.
Ethan ran.
Luke stood alone beside the trees.
Samuel was gone.
On the ground lay his navy jacket.
Claire ran toward it.
“Samuel!”
No answer.
She saw tracks.
Two horses.
Ethan found a note pinned to a tree.
THE LEDGER FOR THE BOY.
Claire's knees weakened.
“No.”
Ethan caught her.
“No.”
“We'll get him.”
“He has my son.”
“We'll get him.”
“You don't know that!”
Ethan gripped her shoulders.
“Claire.”
She looked at him.
“I lost Rebecca because I wasn't there.”
His voice broke.
“I will not let you lose Samuel while I am.”
They left Luke and Caleb with Ethan’s sister, Margaret, who met them halfway after Ethan sent a ranch hand.
Claire kissed Noah until Margaret gently took him.
Then she and Ethan rode back toward the abandoned mining camp named in Vane's note.
They carried the ledger.
But not the real one.
Ethan had copied enough pages to make a convincing duplicate.
The original remained hidden with Margaret.
At dusk they reached the mine.
Samuel sat tied to a chair.
Silas stood beside him.
Bell held a pistol.
Claire dismounted.
“Let him go.”
“The ledger.”
Ethan held up the leather pouch.
“Boy first.”
Silas laughed.
“You're in no position to negotiate.”
Ethan tossed the pouch halfway between them.
Bell retrieved it.
Silas opened the ledger.
His smile disappeared.
He knew.
“This is a copy.”
Ethan said nothing.
Silas struck Samuel across the shoulder with the back of his hand.
Claire moved.
Bell aimed at her.
“Stop.”
Silas looked at Ethan.
“Where is it?”
“Safe.”
“Nothing is safe.”
Silas drew his pistol.
He aimed at Samuel.
Claire felt the world disappear.
Then a shot rang out.
Bell fell.
Not dead.
His gun spun away.
A rider emerged above the mine.
Federal Marshal Nathan Cole.
Behind him were four deputies.
Silas seized Samuel.
Gun against the boy’s neck.
“Back!”
Everyone froze.
Claire saw Samuel’s face.
Terrified.
But watching her.
She remembered something she had taught him when he was small.
When you're scared, don't watch the danger.
Watch the escape.
Samuel looked down.
Silas’s boot rested on loose gravel.
Claire moved her eyes toward it.
Samuel understood.
He stomped.
Silas slipped.
Ethan charged.
The gun fired.
Claire screamed.
Ethan struck Silas.
Samuel rolled away.
The deputies rushed in.
Within seconds Silas was pinned.
Claire reached Samuel.
She checked him everywhere.
“I'm okay.”
She pulled him against her.
“I’m okay, Mom.”
Ethan stood over Silas.
Silas spat blood.
“You think this ends anything?”
Ethan looked at him.
“Yes.”
Silas laughed.
“You haven't read the last page.”
Claire froze.
“What?”
“The ledger.”
Silas smiled.
“Thomas didn't tell you everything.”
Marshal Cole pulled him upright.
Silas looked directly at Claire.
“Ask Calloway why his father’s signature appears beside the payment that killed your husband.”
Claire slowly turned toward Ethan.
Ethan looked as shocked as she was.
Then Marshal Cole opened the original ledger Margaret had secretly delivered to him.
May you like
He turned to the final page.
And there, beneath Thomas Harper’s name, was Jacob Calloway’s signature.
