He looked like a respectable businessman.
That was what made him dangerous.
“Clara.”
She froze.
Pike smiled.
“You should come home.”
“My home is not yours.”
“It will be.”
Pike held up a document.
“You signed nothing yet.”
Clara's face changed.
Pike smiled.
“Not yet.”
Elias moved between them.
Pike looked at him.
“You spent your last dollar on a woman who isn't worth the trouble.”
Elias's voice was calm.
“You don't know what she's worth.”
Pike's smile disappeared.
“I know exactly what she's worth.”
Clara stepped forward.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She held Pike's gaze.
“You know what you can make money from.”
Pike's face darkened.
“You think this man can protect you?”
Clara looked at Elias.
Then back at Pike.
“I think you are afraid he will.”
Pike walked away.
But before he disappeared into the saloon, he said:
“You'll regret that.”
That evening, Elias and Clara returned to the ranch.
There they found something buried beneath the porch.
A small metal box.
Inside was a journal.
Clara recognized her father's handwriting.
She opened it.
The first page contained a single sentence:
If anything happens to me, the water survey is not the only thing Pike is after.
Clara turned the page.
Her hands began to shake.
“What is it?” Elias asked.
She looked up.
“My father knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That Pike didn't just want our land.”
She turned another page.
“He wanted something underneath it.”
The Secret Beneath the Ranch
The journal changed everything.
Clara and Elias spent the next two days reading it.
Her father had discovered an underground spring that stretched far beneath the valley.
But that wasn't all.
A surveyor hired by Pike had found traces of silver ore.
Not enough to make Pike rich immediately.
Enough to make him dangerous.
Clara's father had refused to sell because he believed Pike would destroy the valley's water supply while mining the land.
He had planned to expose him.
Then he died.
The final pages were written only three days before his death.
If they come for Clara, she must not sign anything.
Elias closed the journal.
“We need proof.”
“We have the journal.”
“Not enough.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Find the surveyor.”
“His name?”
“Jonas Bell.”
Clara's face went pale.
“Pike killed him.”
“Are you sure?”
“I heard Pike say he had left the territory.”
Elias stood.
“Then we find out.”
They rode north.
Three days later, they found Jonas Bell living in a mining camp.
He was thin and half-blind in one eye.
When he saw Clara, he began to cry.
“Your father warned me.”
“What did Pike do?”
“Threatened my family.”
“Why didn't you speak?”
“Because I was afraid.”
Elias understood.
Fear had kept too many people silent.
Jonas gave Clara a folded map.
“This shows the underground water channels.”
Clara opened it.
There were red markings beneath the Whitmore ranch.
Elias studied them.
“What are these?”
“Mine shafts.”
Jonas swallowed.
“Pike started digging before your father died.”
“Then we have proof.”
Jonas shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed to the map.
“You have something worse.”
“What?”
“If those shafts collapse, the underground water system will flood.”
Elias stared at the map.
“Can Pike control that?”
“Yes.”
“Why would he?”
Jonas looked at Clara.
“To force you to sell.”
They returned to the ranch at sunset.
The house was dark.
Too dark.
Elias drew his pistol.
“Stay behind me.”
They entered.
Everything had been overturned.
The journal was gone.
Clara searched frantically.
Then she saw the table.
A message had been carved into the wood.
MIDNIGHT. RED FORD. BRING THE DEED.
Beneath it was another line.
COME ALONE.
Clara stared at Elias.
“I have to go.”
“No.”
“They'll kill someone if I don't.”
“That's exactly why you don't go.”
She looked at him.
“What do you want me to do?”