Nia reached the rocks behind the cabin as Harlan Voss and the other two riders entered the clearing.
She dropped into the dry creek.
Snow had collected along the banks, but the bottom remained partially sheltered beneath thick pine branches.
She pressed herself against the frozen earth and listened.
Hooves stopped.
Leather creaked.
A man laughed.
“Smoke in the chimney.”
Harlan.
Even after everything, the sound of his voice could make her wrists ache.
Another man spoke.
“Maybe she ain’t here.”
“She’s here.”
“How do you know?”
“Because there ain’t another roof for fifteen miles.”
Boots hit the ground.
Nia slowly lifted Jonah’s rifle.
She could not see the cabin from where she hid, but she could hear the men walking around it.
A moment later wood cracked.
They had kicked open the door.
Nia shut her eyes.
Jonah’s table.
His blankets.
The little shelf with three chipped plates.
The repaired curtain.
The home that had been dead for three years and had only just begun to feel alive again.
They were inside it.
She heard another crash.
Then laughter.
Nia began moving.
She crawled farther down the creek toward a narrow rise from which she could see the road leading back from town.
Jonah had told her to hide.
She intended to do exactly that.
But not until she warned him.
At the cabin, Harlan Voss stood in the middle of the room and studied the evidence.
Two cups.
A woman’s repaired dress hanging near the stove.
A blanket folded where Nia had been sleeping.
He smiled.
“Told you.”
The youngest of the three men, Foster Kells, picked up the dress.
“So she really came here.”
Harlan snatched it from him.
His face had the hard, unpleasant look of a man insulted by another person’s survival.
Nia had escaped him.
That mattered more to Harlan than money.
People like Harlan did not forgive disobedience because forgiveness required seeing another human being as an equal.
“She cost us plenty,” Harlan said.
The third rider, Wade Cutter, looked toward the door.
“What about Carrian?”
Harlan’s smile changed.
“We ask him where she is.”
“And if he won’t say?”
Harlan set Nia’s dress down carefully.
“Then we ask harder.”
From the ridge, Nia finally saw movement along the town road.
A horse.
Jonah.
Her heart pounded.
She climbed from the creek and ran through the trees parallel to the road, staying out of sight of the cabin.
Jonah rode slowly because of the supplies tied behind his saddle.
He noticed movement near the trees.
His hand went toward his revolver.
“Nia?”
She stepped from cover.
Jonah stopped instantly.
“What happened?”
“Three men.”
His expression changed.
“At the cabin?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Minutes.”
Jonah began reaching for his rifle before remembering he had left it with her.
Nia handed it over.
“No.”
Jonah looked at her.
“No what?”
“You cannot ride down there.”
“I’m not leaving my house to them.”
“They are waiting for you.”
“So?”
“So there are three.”
“I can count.”
Nia grabbed his horse’s rein.
Jonah stared at her hand.
“They want me,” she said.
“That doesn’t make this simpler.”
“If I go—”
“No.”
“You did not let me finish.”
“Didn’t need to.”
Nia’s jaw tightened.
“They came because of me.”
“They came because they’re criminals.”
“You don’t know them.”
“I know enough.”
Harlan’s voice suddenly carried from below.
“Carrian!”
Jonah turned.
So did Nia.
Harlan stood outside the cabin.
He had apparently seen Jonah’s tracks on the road.
“We know you’re up there!”
Jonah dismounted.
He led the horse behind a stand of trees and untied the supply sacks.
“What are you doing?” Nia whispered.
“Keeping them from shooting my horse.”
Despite herself, she stared at him.
“That is what worries you?”
“That horse has better manners than most people in town.”
Nia almost laughed.
The sound frightened her because she had nearly forgotten how to make it.
Jonah checked the rifle.
“How many guns?”
“All three have revolvers. Harlan carries a rifle on his saddle.”
“Harlan?”
“The man in the dark coat.”
“The one who tied you?”
“Yes.”
Jonah became very still.
Nia saw something cold move through his expression.
“Harlan!” Jonah shouted.
A moment later the answer came.
“You’ve got something belongs to me!”
Jonah’s jaw hardened.
Nia looked at him.
Jonah shouted back, “People don’t belong to you.”
Harlan laughed.
“That what she told you?”
“No. That’s what any decent man knows.”
Silence followed.
Then Harlan called, “You send her down and we ride away.”
Nia waited.
Jonah answered.
“No.”
One word.
Nothing dramatic.
Nothing shouted.
But it landed inside Nia with extraordinary force.
No bargain.
No hesitation.
No calculation.
Just no.
Harlan fired first.
The bullet struck a pine trunk several feet from Jonah.
Nia dropped instinctively.
Jonah fired into the snow near Harlan’s horse.
The animal reared.
Harlan cursed and jumped back.
“I can hit closer,” Jonah shouted.
“You won’t get another chance!”
“Then stop wasting mine.”
For nearly an hour, neither side moved.
The storm worsened.
That helped Jonah.
Harlan’s men had expected fear, not a rifleman who knew every rock and tree surrounding the cabin.
But Jonah knew patience could become dangerous.
Night would arrive soon.
In darkness, three attackers could approach from different directions.
“We need town,” he said quietly.
Nia shook her head.
“They might follow.”
“That’s the idea.”
“What?”
“We make them think we’re heading for the north trail. Then we circle east.”
“You think they will believe it?”
“They want you badly enough to be stupid.”
Nia studied him.
“And if they are not stupid?”
“Then we improvise.”
“That is not comforting.”
“Wasn’t meant to be.”
They waited until the snowfall thickened.
Jonah mounted.
Nia climbed behind him.
It was the first time she had touched him voluntarily.
Her arms went around his coat.
Jonah noticed.
He said nothing.
They moved north through the trees.
Within minutes, shouting rose behind them.
Harlan had seen their tracks.
The pursuit began.
Jonah pushed the horse harder.
Branches tore at his coat.
Nia held tight.
They crossed a frozen stream, rode another quarter mile, then Jonah abruptly turned the horse onto a stretch of exposed rock where snow had not settled.
They followed the stone east.
Behind them the riders continued north.
For perhaps twenty minutes, it worked.
Then a gunshot cracked through the trees.
Jonah swore.
“They figured it out.”
A second shot.
Nia felt Jonah jerk.
“Jonah?”
“I’m fine.”
He wasn’t.
Dark blood appeared along his upper arm.
Nia’s fear became rage.
She twisted around.
Harlan’s gray horse emerged through the snow behind them.
Nia raised the rifle.
Jonah realized what she was doing.
“You know how to shoot from horseback?”
“No.”
“Wonderful.”
Nia fired.
The shot went wide.
But Harlan ducked, giving Jonah several precious seconds.
They reached a steep trail descending toward town.
Lights glowed faintly in the distance.
Another shot.
This time Jonah’s horse stumbled.
Not hit.
Just exhausted.
Jonah slowed.
“We won’t outrun them.”
Nia heard the resignation in his voice.
“What do we do?”
Jonah looked toward an abandoned logging cut to the right.
“We stop running.”
He swung down.
Together they led the horse behind a rock embankment.
Jonah gave Nia the rifle again.
“Stay low.”
“What about you?”
“I’m going to talk.”
She stared at him as if he had lost his mind.
“With Harlan?”
“With whoever reaches us first.”
“That is a terrible plan.”
“I’ve had worse.”
Harlan appeared through the snow.
He dismounted twenty yards away.
Foster and Wade spread out behind him.
Harlan’s eyes found Nia.
“There you are.”
She lifted the rifle.
He smiled.
“You won’t shoot me.”
Nia’s hands stopped shaking.
“You were wrong about many things.”
Harlan took another step.
Jonah drew his revolver.
“That’s far enough.”
“You willing to die over her?”
Jonah looked at Nia.
He thought about Margaret.
About Annie.
About the three years he had spent believing that caring for another person was simply another way to invite grief into a man’s life.
Then he looked back at Harlan.
“No,” Jonah said.
Harlan smiled.
Jonah continued.
“I’m willing to make sure you don’t decide whether she lives free.”
The smile vanished.
A horse suddenly whinnied behind Harlan.
Everyone turned.
Lanterns appeared through the snow.
Several riders.
From town.
At the front rode Amos Bell.
Beside him was Sheriff Ed Mercer.
Jonah almost sagged with relief.
Harlan reached for his gun.
The sheriff raised a shotgun.
“I wouldn’t.”
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Foster dropped his weapon.
Wade followed.
Harlan remained frozen.
Sheriff Mercer looked toward Nia.
“Ma’am, are these the men you’re afraid of?”
Nia stared at Harlan.
Fear had controlled every mile of her escape.
Now eight armed witnesses stood between her and that fear.
“Yes.”
Harlan sneered.
“She belongs—”
The sheriff struck him across the mouth with the barrel of the shotgun before he could finish.
“No human being finishes that sentence in my county.”
Harlan went down.
Jonah looked toward Amos.
“How did you know?”
Amos shrugged.
“You’ve been buying one man’s supplies for years. Today you bought two people’s. Then Cal Danner spent ten dollars he didn’t have five minutes after some strangers asked questions about you.”
Jonah gave a tired laugh.
“Always knew gossip would save my life eventually.”
Then his knees buckled.
Nia dropped the rifle and caught him.
“Jonah!”
Blood had soaked through his sleeve.
He looked at her.
“Still fine.”
“You are a terrible liar.”
“Been told.”
She pressed her hands over the wound.
For the first time, Jonah allowed her to hold him without pulling away.
The sheriff’s men took Harlan and the others into custody.
But before they left, Harlan looked directly at Nia.
“You think this is over?”
Nia felt Jonah tense beside her.
Harlan smiled through blood on his lip.
“There was a fourth man.”
Nia remembered.
The man she had left sleeping beside the fire.
The one she had not killed.
Harlan continued.
“Silas Crowe isn’t stupid enough to ride straight into a rifle.”
Sheriff Mercer dragged him away.
But Nia stood silent.
Because Harlan was right about one thing.
There had been four men.
And only three had come to the cabin.
That night, as Jonah’s wound was stitched in a room above the trading post, Nia looked through the frosted window at the dark road beyond town.
Somewhere out there, one man remained.
And this time he knew exactly where she had gone.