The words seemed to burn through the page.
Below them was another sentence.
If Charles Harper learns what I know, neither of us will survive.
Luke read the words again.
His father.
For years, Charles Harper had told him that Elias was a thief, a coward, and a man who had abandoned his family.
Now a dead surveyor was accusing Charles of knowing something about his disappearance.
Luke looked up.
“Where did you get this?”
“My father's belongings.”
“Why didn't you come sooner?”
Nora's face hardened.
“Because my father was murdered, Mr. Harper. And the men who killed him spent three years searching for the papers he left behind.”
Luke lowered his eyes to the letter.
“What was your father's name?”
“Samuel Carter.”
The name stirred something in his memory.
Luke remembered a thin, quiet man who had visited the Harper ranch several times before Elias disappeared. Samuel Carter had carried rolled maps and a brass surveying instrument. He had once spent an entire afternoon arguing with Charles about the boundaries of a mining claim.
Luke had not seen him after that summer.
“What happened to him?”
Nora swallowed.
“They found him in a ravine outside Denver. The sheriff called it an accident.”
Luke looked at the blood on her sleeve.
“And you think it wasn't.”
“I know it wasn't.”
Before Luke could respond, three gunshots cracked through the night.
Nora dropped to the floor.
Luke grabbed his rifle.
Another shot shattered the window.
Glass exploded across the room.
Someone shouted from outside.
“Bring the woman out, Harper!”
Luke pushed Nora behind the kitchen table.
“Stay down!”
A bullet struck the door.
Luke fired through the broken window.
The men outside scattered.
He heard horses moving through the snow, then the sharp sound of another rifle.
Nora screamed.
Luke turned.
She was clutching her side, her face white with pain.
A bullet had grazed her ribs.
He pulled her behind the stove and pressed a cloth against the wound.
“Can you walk?”
She nodded.
“Then we're leaving.”
Luke grabbed his rifle, ammunition, a blanket, and the letter. He led Nora through the back door and into the darkness.
The wind swallowed their footsteps.
Behind them, flames began to climb the cabin walls.
Someone had thrown a burning torch through the broken window.
Luke watched the fire for only a moment.
Then he turned toward the mountains.
For the first time in three years, he had a reason to keep moving.
His brother might still be alive.
And if Charles Harper had anything to do with Elias's disappearance, Luke intended to discover the truth.
The trail toward Blackwater Creek wound through a narrow valley where the snow lay deep enough to bury a horse's legs. Luke led his mare while Nora rode behind him, wrapped in his coat.
They traveled until dawn.
By sunrise, the burning cabin was no more than a distant orange glow behind the mountains.
Nora had fallen asleep against his back.
Luke could feel her breathing, shallow but steady.
He had not trusted another person in years, yet he found himself protecting her with an instinct that surprised him.
When they reached an abandoned hunting cabin near the foothills, he helped her down from the horse and carried her inside.
The cabin smelled of old wood and animal skins.
He lit a fire, warmed water, and cleaned her wound.
Nora winced but did not cry out.
“You've done this before,” she said.
“Worked cattle. Broken bones. Been shot at.”
“How many times?”
“Enough.”
She studied him.
“Were you always this cheerful?”
Luke almost smiled.
“Only when strangers bring trouble to my door.”
Nora laughed softly, then immediately regretted it when the movement hurt her side.
For a while, the only sound was the crackling fire.
Then she said, “Your brother saved my life.”
Luke stopped wrapping the bandage.
“What?”
“Three years ago. When my father first discovered the mining records, Elias helped him hide them.”
Luke sat back on his heels.
“Tell me everything.”
Nora took a slow breath.
“My father had been hired to survey a tract of land near Blackwater Creek. The company claimed it had purchased the land legally, but the documents were forged. Several families had never sold their property. Some had never even heard of the company.”
Luke knew the mining business had always attracted men who believed money could purchase anything.
But forgery and murder were another matter.
“My father found evidence that the company was extracting gold from an underground deposit that officially didn't exist. The mine was dangerous, and the company had sealed its entrance after a collapse. But men were still working there.”
“Why?”
“Because the ore was worth a fortune.”
Nora looked into the fire.
“My father wanted to report it. Elias told him the company had already bribed the county officials. He said they needed proof strong enough that even the federal authorities couldn't ignore it.”
Luke remembered Elias's restless energy, his habit of questioning every order, and his refusal to accept explanations that made no sense.
It sounded exactly like him.
“What happened next?”
“They made a plan to copy the company's books. The original records were kept in an office near the mine. Elias knew the building because he had worked there as a mechanic.”
Luke closed his eyes.
He remembered Elias leaving the ranch that morning, joking that he would be back before supper.
He had never returned.
Nora continued.
“My father went to the mine two weeks later. He saw Elias being dragged into a wagon. He was injured, but alive.”
Luke's hands tightened.
“Who was with him?”
“Three men. One of them was Sheriff Briggs.”
The name made Luke's stomach turn.