Chapter 29
The dust had barely settled when Blaze heard it. It was a ragged scrape of stone against stone behind the ridge. Instinct had him turn with his revolver raised, heart still hammering from the fight.
“Movement,” he hissed.
Graycloud swung his head toward the sound. Marisol glared in the same direction, looking unsure whether to point her rifle again.
“I thought we got them all,” she said.
A low groan drifted from behind a slab of rock. Blaze advanced carefully, boots crunching over spent shells and dust. When he rounded the boulder, he found a man sprawled there, clutching his side. Blood seeped through his fingers, pooling dark beneath him.
The last of the Riders looked up, his eyes wild.
“Don’t . . . don’t shoot,” he gasped. “Please.”
Blaze glanced over his shoulder. “He’s alive.”
As Marisol approached, she leveled her rifle. “Not for long, by the looks of it.”
The wounded man tried to crawl backward, but his strength gave out. He collapsed with a groan, dust puffing around him.
“Hold still,” Blaze said.
The wounded Rider groaned as Graycloud pushed him down against the rock. Blood had soaked through the man’s shirt, dark and sticky where the bullet had torn through his side. The bandit’s face was pale beneath the dirt and sweat, and his breath was ragged.
“Please,” the man muttered. “Don’t . . . don’t finish me off.”
“Talk first,” Blaze said.
Marisol crouched nearby, wiping her rifle clean. “He’s lucky we didn’t already.”
The Rider swallowed hard, eyes darting between them.
“Ain’t . . . ain’t nothin’ left to say,” he replied. “You already took the gold.”
“What are you talking about? We took nothin’,” Blaze said. “You and your kind came after us.”
Graycloud knelt beside him, voice flat. “Name.”
“Jake,” the man whispered.
“Jake who?”
“Just . . . Jake.”
Blaze’s revolver caught the sun as he spun the cylinder. “Jake’s fine. Let’s start with who sent you.”
The bandit flinched at the metallic click. “Wilder,” he said quickly. “Always Wilder. You know that. I . . . I ain’t with him, you know. He paid me and my boys a lot of money to come after you. A lot of groups are riding around, searching.”
Blaze exchanged a look with Marisol. She did not look pleased.
“Figured as much,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Why?” Blaze asked, crouching lower. “Why keep sending men after us?”
“He thinks you got somethin’ that belongs to him,” Jake said. “At first, he just wanted you dead to get rid of you. Now . . . it’s different.”
Blaze narrowed his eyes as he watched the bandit.
“He’s half-mad now,” Jake continued. “Talks like he owns the whole damn desert. Says he’s got plans . . . big ones. Needs more gold to make ’em happen.”
“Plans don’t interest me,” Blaze said. “But names do. Who’s helping him?”
Jake hesitated, licking cracked lips. “There’s . . . there’s a man back in Red Rock Crossing. Calls himself Kane.”
Blaze froze. “Say that again.”
“Kane,” Jake said. “Met with some of us a few nights ago. Told ’em he could . . . deliver someone.”
“Who?” Marisol demanded.
Jake’s eyes flicked toward Blaze. “Your sister. The girl. Rachel.”
The world went quiet around them. Even the wind seemed to stop. Blaze stood slowly, the revolver still in his hand but hanging loosely at his side.
“What’d you just say?” he asked, his voice low.
“Kane said he knew her,” Jake stammered. “Said she’d been hidin’ somewhere in town. Told Wilder’s men he could bring her in . . . trade her for a share of the gold. He figured if he couldn’t find you, he’d take what’s close to you.”
Marisol’s breath hissed through her teeth. “That bastard.”
“He betrays his own people,” Graycloud said quietly.
Blaze didn’t move. He was staring at the dirt with his fists clenched and his shoulders tense.
“Rachel,” he said, as if testing the name in the air. “He’s going after my sister.”
“Could be a lie,” Marisol said. “These types will say anything to buy a few more breaths.”
Jake shook his head quickly. “I ain’t lyin’. I swear it. I heard it myself.”
Blaze crouched again, eyes burning into him. “Where’d you hear it?”
“In town . . . at the back of a saloon,” Jake said. “Couple of us were talkin’. Said Kane had been makin’ promises. Big talk about old debts and family names.”
“What debts?” Blaze asked.
“Something about your pa,” Jake said. “How he . . . how he took the gold that started all this.”
“My father?”
“That’s what they said.” Jake winced as blood seeped from his wound. “That he stole it from Wilder’s kin way back when. That’s why Wilder’s so hell-bent on findin’ the rest. But it’s just talk, far as I’m concerned.”
“You don’t believe it?” Marisol asked.
Jake let out a weak laugh. “Don’t believe much of anything men like that say. Your old man might’ve had a hand in it, sure . . . but he wasn’t the thief they make him out to be. He fought hard. Died harder.”
Blaze didn’t answer. His throat felt dry, his chest tight. He’d grown up hearing whispers about his father, but hearing it from a Rider made it feel different. Colder. Closer.
Graycloud glanced up at Blaze. “What now?”
Blaze looked at Jake again. “Who else knows about Kane?”
“Just a few of Wilder’s men,” he replied. “The rest don’t care. They just want their cut.”
Marisol stood, brushing dust from her knees. “He’s done. Let’s end it.”
Blaze raised a hand. “Not yet.”
Jake looked up at him, eyes wide. “Please. I told you everything.”
“You told me enough to make me sick,” Blaze said. “But not enough to make me sure.”
“I swear on my life, it’s the truth.”
“You already lost that life, Jake,” Blaze said quietly. “You just haven’t hit the ground yet.”
He turned away, holstering his gun. His hands trembled once, then steadied. The anger that had surged inside him was giving way to something else . . . something worse. Fear.
“Blaze,” Marisol said gently. “You think it’s true? About Rachel?”
He didn’t look at her. “If Kane’s talking to Wilder’s men, then she’s in danger. That’s all that matters.”
“We could ride back,” Graycloud said. “Try to reach Red Rock Crossing before they do.”
Blaze shook his head. “We don’t know where they are. If we ride blind, we could lead Wilder right to her.”
“And if we don’t, she’s alone,” Marisol said, folding her arms across her chest.
Blaze turned on her, voice sharp. “You think I don’t know that?”
The words hung heavy between them. He took a slow breath, forcing himself to calm down.
“We’ll find out more first,” he said. “If Kane’s making deals, he’s not doing it quietly. There’ll be whispers. We just have to listen.”
Graycloud nodded. “Information before action. The old way.”
“The slow way,” Marisol muttered.
Blaze gave her a look. “The smart way.” He turned back to Jake, who was slipping fast. “One last thing. Where’s Wilder now?”
Jake’s lips moved, but the words came out faint. “He’s . . . he’s headin’ north. Said he’d found somethin’. A place in the mountains . . .” His voice trailed off.
“What place?” Blaze asked, leaning closer.
But Jake was gone. His body went limp, eyes still open but empty.
Marisol stood over him. “Guess we’ll never know.”
Blaze straightened slowly, staring down at the corpse. The man’s last words echoed in his mind. The mountains. It meant something. It had to.
Graycloud began covering the body with loose dirt and rock.
“He spoke truth with his last breath,” he said. “That counts for something.”
“Doesn’t change what’s waiting back home,” Blaze said quietly.
Marisol’s tone softened. “You think Kane’s working with Wilder for real?”
“I think men like Kane don’t care who they work for, as long as there’s gold involved.”
Graycloud grunted. “Then the traitor will fall with the rest.”
Blaze’s gaze drifted to the horizon, the dying light stretching long over the hills. He could feel it tightening around him. The weight of his father’s name. It wasn’t just Wilder anymore. It was the rot spreading through everything he loved.
He holstered his revolver, adjusted his hat, and turned to the others.
“We need to ride,” he said.
“To where?” Marisol asked.
“Wherever Wilder’s headed,” Blaze said. “And if Kane’s part of it, we’ll smoke him out along the way.”
Graycloud’s eyes narrowed. “Then our war widens.”
Blaze nodded once. “So be it.”
The setting sun caught the edge of Blaze’s silhouette. The wind picked up, carrying dust across the blood-stained ground. Marisol kicked dirt over the dead Rider’s boots.
“Poor fool,” she muttered. “Didn’t even know who he was dying for.”
Blaze heard her, but he didn’t answer. His mind was already elsewhere. On Rachel, on Kane, on the truth buried somewhere between greed and blood.
And as the shadows stretched across the foothills, Blaze felt something inside him harden.
This wasn’t about vengeance anymore.
It was about family.