“Yes.”
Tomas looked toward his three daughters.
Then he said:
“Choose one.”
Noah glanced from Elena to Isabel to Rosa.
Elena knew the country.
Isabel possessed the stolen company map and understood the documents.
Rosa had already noticed details about the horses that Noah had missed.
He shook his head.
“No.”
Tomas raised an eyebrow.
“No?”
“I’m not choosing one.”
Elena’s expression cooled.
“Then ride alone.”
Noah pointed to her.
“You know the canyon.”
Then Isabel.
“You know Bell’s records.”
Then Rosa.
“You know horses and trails.”
He looked back at Tomas.
“If this company is coming with twenty-five rifles, choosing only one person because that makes the story simpler would be stupid.”
Rosa smiled first.
Isabel tried not to.
Elena crossed her arms.
Noah continued.
“I need all three.”
Tomas stared at him for several seconds.
Then, unexpectedly, the old man laughed.
“So did your father.”
Noah frowned.
“What does that mean?”
But Tomas was already walking away.
“Sleep while you can, Bennett.”
“Why?”
Elena picked up her rifle.
“Because we leave before the moon goes down.”
“For Broken Spur?”
She looked toward the canyon.
“For the truth.”
And far beyond the ridge, unseen in the darkness, a single rifle shot echoed across the desert.
They left at three in the morning.
Noah rode Flint.
Elena took a dark gelding called Ash.
Isabel rode a chestnut mare carrying saddlebags filled with maps and documents.
Rosa brought two spare horses and enough medical supplies for Noah to wonder what exactly Tomas expected them to encounter.
No one spoke much during the first hour.
The moon hung low over the desert.
Elena led.
Black Knife Canyon deserved its name.
Two walls of dark volcanic rock rose on either side of a twisting passage barely wide enough for three horses in places.
Noah had crossed the region before but never through this route.
“How do you know this trail?” he asked.
Elena did not look back.
“I grew up here.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“I know.”
Rosa rode beside Noah.
“She does that.”
“Does what?”
“Answers a different question.”
Elena’s voice floated back.
“I can hear you.”
“That is why I said it loudly.”
Isabel suppressed a smile.
Noah began to understand the sisters.
Elena was direct until she did not wish to be.
Isabel observed before speaking.
Rosa spoke first and decided whether she should have afterward.
They were very different.
And clearly accustomed to protecting one another.
At dawn, they stopped beneath an overhang.
Isabel spread the stolen map across a flat rock.
“This came from Crown Meridian’s temporary office.”
“You actually broke in?” Noah asked.
“I entered through an unlocked window.”
“At night?”
“It was more private.”
Noah stared.
Rosa handed him coffee.
“She means yes.”
Isabel pointed to the map.
“The railroad company has not purchased Red Mesa.”
“I thought Bell represented the railroad.”
“He wants people to think that.”
She tapped a name printed near the bottom.
Southwestern Continental Rail Survey.
“Bell has been negotiating with them.”
“So Crown Meridian buys land cheaply before the railroad arrives.”
“Yes.”
“Then sells it to them.”
“For five or ten times the price.”
Noah looked at Broken Spur on the map.
“And my ranch?”
Elena answered.
“Bell offered to buy it last year.”
Noah remembered.
A polite letter.
An absurdly generous price.
He had thrown it into the stove.
“He knew the route before anyone else.”
“Yes,” Isabel said. “Someone inside the survey office gave him information.”
Noah leaned closer.
A second line ran through Black Knife Canyon.
“What’s this?”
“An alternative route.”
“That canyon is too narrow for track.”
“Unless they blast it.”
Rosa’s expression darkened.
“And blasting could collapse the northern spring.”
Noah looked at her.
“The water feeding Red Mesa?”
She nodded.
“So even if Bell can’t legally own the valley—”
Elena finished the sentence.
“He can destroy it.”
That changed the problem.
Land could be defended in court.
A spring buried beneath hundreds of tons of rock could not.
“When?”
Isabel retrieved a second page.
“Explosives arrived in San Mateo two days ago.”
Noah stood.
“We need to move.”
They rode harder.
By late morning they reached the eastern side of the canyon.
Elena suddenly raised a fist.
Everyone stopped.
She pointed toward the ground.
Boot prints.
Fresh.
Noah dismounted.
“Three men.”
“Five,” Elena said.
He looked again.
She pointed.
Two sets of prints overlapped the first three.
“Company?”
Isabel noticed a cigarette stub.
“Bell’s men use those imported Virginia cigarettes.”
Noah glanced at her.
“You stole that information too?”
“I listen.”
Elena moved toward a ridge and returned several minutes later.
“They’re waiting ahead.”
“Ambush?”
“Yes.”
Rosa checked her revolver.
Noah looked around.
The canyon narrowed twenty yards ahead.
Perfect place to trap horses.
“We go back.”
Elena shook her head.
“They probably have riders behind us by now.”
Noah stared up at the cliffs.
“Can we climb?”
“With horses, no.”
“Without?”
Elena smiled slightly.
Now he knew she had an idea.
Twenty minutes later their horses were hidden in a shallow side cut beneath Rosa’s supervision.
Noah followed Elena up a steep rock shelf while Isabel circled toward the opposite ridge.
“What exactly are we doing?” Noah whispered.
“Making five men believe there are twenty of us.”
“That sounds optimistic.”
“You chose all three.”
“I’m beginning to regret how confident I sounded.”
Elena almost smiled.
They reached the top.
Below, five armed men waited around the bend.
One held a rope stretched across the trail.
Another sat behind a boulder with a rifle.
Noah recognized the tall man nearest the center.
Wade Mercer.
A gunman who worked for whoever paid best.
Noah had seen him once in Tucson.
“Bell sent expensive help,” he whispered.
Elena nodded.
A gunshot exploded from the opposite ridge.
Not at the men.
At a rock ten feet to their left.
Mercer spun.
A second shot came from farther south.
Isabel had moved.
Then another from the north.
Rosa.
Mercer’s men looked toward three directions.
Noah understood.
Each woman was changing position between shots.
Creating the illusion of multiple shooters.
Elena fired once from beside Noah, then immediately descended to a lower shelf.
Mercer shouted.
“How many are up there?”
No one answered.
Noah called down.
“Enough.”
Mercer recognized his voice.
“Bennett!”
“Morning, Wade.”
“You picked the wrong friends.”
Noah glanced toward Elena.
Then shouted:
“I was thinking the same thing about you.”
Mercer fired toward his voice.
The bullet struck stone.
Elena moved silently along the ridge.
Noah continued talking, keeping their attention high.
“Bell paying you by the day?”
“Enough to buy your ranch when you’re dead.”
“That much?”
“Come down and I’ll show you.”
“I think I’ll stay here.”
Rosa fired.
A company horse broke loose.
The others panicked.
Mercer tried controlling them.
That was the opening.
Elena slid down behind the group and cut the rope across the trail.
Isabel appeared near the horses and slapped two animals into motion.
Chaos erupted.
Mercer’s men believed themselves surrounded.
They ran.
One dropped his rifle.
Another abandoned his horse.
Within less than a minute all five retreated eastward.
Noah climbed down.
Rosa emerged laughing.
“That worked.”
“It barely worked,” Isabel corrected.
“It worked beautifully.”
Elena picked up the dropped rifle.
“They’ll report that we have more people.”
Noah nodded.
“And Bell will slow down.”
“Maybe.”
Isabel searched the abandoned saddlebag.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She pulled out a folded telegram.
Noah read it.
BURN BENNETT DOCUMENTS BEFORE NOON TOMORROW.
He looked at the others.
“They know something is at my ranch.”
Elena mounted.
“Then we reach it first.”
They rode through the afternoon.
By sunset Broken Spur appeared beyond a row of cottonwoods.
Noah expected smoke from the chimney.
Dogs barking.
His foreman cursing at a broken gate.
Instead the ranch looked silent.
Too silent.
Noah kicked Flint forward.
“Elijah!”
No answer.
The front door stood open.
A chair lay overturned on the porch.
Noah drew his revolver.
Elena and Rosa spread out.
Isabel remained near the barn.
Noah entered the house.
“Elijah?”
A groan came from the kitchen.
His foreman lay on the floor, blood dried near his temple.
Alive.
Rosa rushed in and knelt beside him.
“What happened?”
Elijah opened his eyes.