“Trust me.”
“I don't know how.”
“Learn.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“You paid one dollar for me.”
Elias shook his head.
“I paid one dollar because that's all I had.”
“Why are you still here?”
He looked at her for a long time.
“Because now I have something worth more than that dollar.”
Neither spoke.
Clara stepped closer.
“What?”
Elias's voice was barely above a whisper.
“You.”
She looked at him.
And kissed him.
It was not passionate.
It was frightened.
Careful.
Almost uncertain.
But it changed the air between them.
When they pulled apart, Clara whispered:
“Now you really are in trouble.”
Elias smiled.
“I figured.”
Then they heard a horse outside.
A single gunshot followed.
The window shattered.
And someone shouted from the darkness:
“Elias Hart!”
Elias grabbed his rifle.
The war had come to their doorstep.
Red Ford Burns
Pike had brought twelve men.
Elias counted them from the shadows.
Clara stood beside him.
“They're going to burn the ranch,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“What do we do?”
“Make them think we're still inside.”
Elias lit a lantern and threw it through the back window.
The men opened fire.
They had expected movement in the house.
Instead, Elias and Clara were already running toward the creek.
They crossed beneath the trees and reached the old mill.
There, Elias stopped.
“We need the sheriff.”
“He won't help.”
“He will if we give him enough reason.”
They rode back toward Red Ford.
The town was burning.
Pike's men had set fire to the feed store.
People were running through the streets.
Sheriff Boone stood outside his office with his pistol drawn.
Pike faced him.
“You can't stop me.”
Boone looked at the burning buildings.
“I can arrest you.”
Pike laughed.
“Then do it.”
Boone raised his pistol.
Elias stepped into the street.
“I'll testify.”
Pike turned.
Clara stood beside Elias.
“You.”
She held up her father's journal.
“I found it.”
Pike's expression changed.
“You should have stayed quiet.”
Clara stepped forward.
“No.”
She looked around the town.
“That's what my father did. That's what Jonas Bell did. That's what everyone here has done.”
Her voice grew stronger.
“Not anymore.”
Pike drew his gun.
Elias raised his rifle.
Sheriff Boone moved between them.
“Drop it, Pike.”
Pike fired.
Boone fell.
The street erupted.
Elias fired back.
Pike disappeared behind the saloon.
His men scattered.
Clara ran to Boone.
“He's alive.”
Elias nodded.
“Good.”
Then a loud explosion shook the town.
The ground trembled.
Elias looked toward the valley.
Water erupted from the hillside.
Pike had opened the mine shafts.
The underground pressure had broken through.
Floodwater poured toward Red Ford.
“We have minutes,” Elias said.
“For what?”
“For the town.”
They ran.
Elias and Clara gathered townspeople.
Men grabbed shovels.
Women carried children.
The blacksmith brought ropes.
For the first time, Red Ford stopped being a town of frightened individuals.
It became a community.
They worked through the night.
Elias entered the flooded shaft to close the main gate.
The water rose to his chest.
Clara screamed his name.
He disappeared beneath the surface.
Seconds passed.
Then a hand broke the water.
Elias surfaced.
He had closed the gate.
But he was bleeding badly.
Clara pulled him onto the rocks.
“You idiot.”
He coughed.
“You're welcome.”
She pressed her forehead against his.
“Don't ever do that again.”
“I'll try.”
“No.”
She kissed him.
“Don't try.”
Behind them, Sheriff Boone was helped toward the town.
Pike was nowhere to be found.
But Clara knew he would return.
Men like Pike did not surrender when they lost.
They waited.
And Pike Lathrop was waiting somewhere in the darkness.
The Price of Everything
Two weeks later, Red Ford began rebuilding.
Pike had fled.
Jonas Bell returned to testify.