Aiona ran toward the street as if she could catch a galloping horse on foot.
“Nielli!”
Elias caught her around the waist.
“Let go!”
“You’ll get yourself killed.”
“That’s my sister!”
“I know.”
“Then let me go!”
Aiona struggled until Elias released her.
She immediately grabbed the reins of her horse.
Marshal Bell stepped between them.
“Pike has a head start.”
“Then stop wasting time.”
Amos looked at Elias.
No argument was needed.
Within two minutes, four riders left town.
Aiona.
Elias.
Marshal Bell.
Deputy Warren Cole.
The night was moonless.
Pike knew the country.
But so did Aiona.
“There’s only one reason he’d take Nielli,” she said as they rode.
“Leverage,” Elias answered.
“He needs the deed.”
“And maybe the ledger.”
Amos cursed.
Pike could no longer hide the fraud.
His only chance was escape.
A signed transfer from one of the sisters might give him something valuable enough to bargain with—or at least enough confusion to delay justice.
They followed hoofprints west.
Near midnight, the trail split.
Deputy Cole leaned from his saddle.
“Two horses north. Two west.”
Aiona’s heart pounded.
“He’s trying to confuse us.”
Elias dismounted.
He touched the earth.
Then walked several yards.
“West.”
“How do you know?” Amos asked.
“The northern tracks are unweighted.”
Aiona understood.
“Empty horses.”
Elias nodded.
They continued west.
Two hours later, they reached an abandoned line shack once used by cattle drivers.
A faint light glowed inside.
Aiona began to dismount.
Elias stopped her.
“Wait.”
“My sister is in there.”
“And we bring her home by thinking.”
Aiona closed her eyes.
He was right.
She hated that he was right.
Elias circled the shack.
One horse.
One man.
One prisoner.
No evidence of accomplices.
Pike believed they would follow the false tracks north.
Inside, Nielli sat tied to a chair.
Horace Pike paced beside the window.
His respectable appearance was gone.
His coat was burned from the office fire.
Soot blackened his face.
“You ruined everything,” he told her.
Nielli glared.
“We didn’t forge anything.”
“You were supposed to sell.”
“You cut our fence.”
“Rourke handled that.”
“You helped him.”
Pike slapped the table.
“You think people build fortunes without making hard choices?”
Nielli stared at him.
“You call terrorizing families a hard choice?”
“I call it business.”
Outside, Aiona heard every word through a crack in the wall.
Rage nearly sent her through the door.
Elias put one finger to his lips.
Pike continued.
“Your father should have sold years ago.”
“My father knew what this land was worth.”
“Yes.”
Pike smiled bitterly.
“That was the problem.”
The creek crossing would become even more valuable once a new freight route was approved.
Rourke wanted it for stolen stock.
Pike wanted it because legitimate buyers would soon pay five times its current value.
They had planned to frighten the sisters into selling cheaply.
“What happens now?” Nielli asked.
“You sign.”
Pike placed a paper on the table.
“No.”
“You sign, and your sister gets you back alive.”
“No.”
Pike drew a pistol.
Outside, Elias’s breathing changed.
Aiona saw something dangerous enter his eyes.
Not panic.
Cold control.
“Back door,” he whispered to Amos.
The marshal moved.
Deputy Cole covered the window.
Elias looked at Aiona.
“When I open that door, you call Nielli’s name.”
“Why?”
“She’ll drop.”
Aiona understood.
Elias circled to the front.
He knocked.
Inside, Pike froze.
“Who’s there?”
“Elias Ward.”
Nielli’s eyes widened.
Pike pulled her upright and pressed the pistol near her shoulder.
“You alone?”
“Yes.”
Aiona knew it was a lie.
A useful one.
“Come inside.”
Elias opened the door slowly.
His hands were raised.
No weapon visible.
Pike smiled.
“The famous Ward.”
“I’m not famous.”
“Rourke talked about you enough.”
Elias looked only at Nielli.
“You all right?”
“Yes.”
Pike shoved the gun closer.
“She won’t be if you move.”
Elias shifted his gaze to Pike.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“Burned.”
Pike’s face changed.
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
“Bell saved it.”
“Then why ask me?”
Pike hesitated.
That hesitation was all Elias needed.
Aiona shouted from outside.
“Nielli!”
Nielli dropped.
Elias moved.
Pike fired.
The bullet hit the wall.
Elias crossed the room before Pike could fire again.
They crashed into the table.
The pistol skidded away.
Pike struck Elias across the jaw.
Elias drove him into the floor.
Pike grabbed a broken chair leg.
Then Marshal Bell entered from the rear.
“Done.”
Pike froze.
The marshal’s rifle was aimed directly at him.
“Very done.”
Minutes later, Nielli was free.
Aiona held her so tightly that Nielli laughed through tears.
“I can’t breathe.”
“I don’t care.”
“You’ll have to eventually.”
Aiona pulled back and checked her face.
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Elias stood nearby.
Blood ran from his lip.
Nielli looked at him.
“You look worse.”
“Usually do.”
She walked to him and hugged him.
Elias froze.
Nielli held on.
“Thank you.”
Slowly, awkwardly, he placed one arm around her shoulders.
“Family,” she whispered.
Elias’s eyes closed.
“Family.”
They returned home at sunrise.
The next month brought consequences.
Horace Pike was charged with fraud, kidnapping, conspiracy, and destruction of public records.
Silas Rourke faced a long list of charges.
Several gang members testified.
More stolen property was recovered.
Other ranch families came forward.
Most importantly, the false lien against Aiona and Nielli’s property was removed.
The land was legally theirs.
Completely.
The day the official papers arrived, Aiona read them three times.
Nielli read them twice.
Then they put them in a metal box and buried a duplicate copy beneath the floorboard.
Elias watched.
“Planning for everything now?”
Aiona looked up.
“I learned from someone.”
Life should have become simple after that.
Instead, Elias began packing.
Aiona found him in the barn rolling his blanket.
“What are you doing?”
He did not look at her.
“Leaving.”
Her chest tightened.
“Why?”
“Rourke’s in jail. Pike too. Fence is fixed.”
Aiona stared at him.
“That’s your reason?”
“That was the job.”
“There was no job.”
“Then the favor.”
“What about everything after the fence?”
Elias stopped.
Aiona moved closer.
“You called us family.”
“I know.”
“You let Nielli call you family.”
“I know.”
“Then you’re leaving.”
His jaw tightened.
“Aiona.”
“No. Explain it.”
Elias finally faced her.
“You were right.”
“About what?”
“I like waking up here.”
She waited.
“That’s why I have to go.”
Her anger collapsed into hurt.
“You still think caring about people is dangerous.”
“I know it is.”
“So is riding a horse.”
“That’s different.”
“No, Elias. It isn’t.”
She stepped closer.
“You think leaving before something hurts you means you beat the pain.”
He said nothing.
“It doesn’t.”
“I killed Daniel.”
“You made a terrible mistake.”
“I shot my best friend.”
“Yes.”
Aiona did not soften the truth.
Elias looked startled.
She continued.
“And you have punished yourself every day since.”
“I deserve—”
“No.”
Her voice cracked like a whip.
“You don’t get to use Daniel’s death as permission to waste your life.”
Elias stared at her.
“Do you think he wanted that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You told me he wanted a ranch. A wife. Children.”
Elias’s eyes filled.
“You think a man like that would look at you seven years later and say, ‘Good. Stay alone. Never love anyone. Never build anything’?”
Elias looked away.
Aiona’s voice softened.
“Maybe honoring him means living the life he didn’t get.”
Those words broke something open.
Elias sat heavily on a bale of hay.
For several minutes, he covered his face.
Aiona did not touch him.
Not until he reached for her hand.
Then she gave it.
“I’m scared,” he whispered.
“So am I.”
“I could wake wrong again.”
“Then we keep the guns away while you sleep.”
“I could fail you.”
“So could I.”
He looked up.
“You?”
“I’m difficult.”
Despite tears, he laughed.
“That’s true.”
Aiona squeezed his hand.
“I could get angry. I could say the wrong thing. I could lose the ranch. I could get sick. I could die before you.”
“Don’t.”
“That’s my point.”
She sat beside him.
“There are no guarantees.”
Elias stared at their joined hands.
Aiona’s voice dropped.
“Stay anyway.”
He did.
Not because fear disappeared.
Because for the first time, Elias Ward decided fear would not choose where he lived.
Or whom he loved.
---