“DOWN!”
Jedediah dragged Clara behind the water trough.
Another shot.
Silas stepped from the tree line.
He held a Winchester.
His face had changed.
The gentle foreman was gone.
“You always were stubborn, Jed.”
Jedediah drew his revolver.
“Put the rifle down.”
Silas laughed.
“Like your brother.”
Clara whispered, “Keep him talking.”
Jedediah stepped out enough to be seen.
“You killed Thomas.”
Silas’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
“You cut the girth.”
“I did.”
The words hit like a bullet.
Jedediah raised his revolver.
“But I didn’t mean to kill him.”
“Don’t.”
“Your father wanted Thomas frightened.
That’s all.”
Clara stared.
Silas continued.
“Thomas had decided to go to the sheriff.
Your father couldn’t allow it.
We dosed the mare.
Cut the strap enough to fail if she bucked hard.”
“You murdered him.”
“I followed orders.”
“You murdered my brother.”
“Your father gave the orders.”
Silas’s voice sharpened.
“And when Thomas hit the ground, your father was the first man who understood what we had done.”
Jedediah’s finger tightened on the trigger.
Clara said softly, “If you shoot him now, you’ll never know everything.”
Silas laughed.
“That girl’s smarter than Thomas was.”
Jedediah’s eyes turned black.
Silas lifted the rifle toward Clara.
“Unfortunately.”
Then Diablo screamed.
The stallion came over the fence.
Not through the gate.
Over it.
A wall of black muscle and fury.
Silas turned.
His rifle fired wildly.
Diablo charged.
Silas stumbled backward.
“WHOA!”
The horse kept coming.
Then Silas whistled.
Three notes.
Diablo stopped so violently his hindquarters almost collapsed.
Clara’s eyes widened.
Silas smiled.
“You see?”
He raised his rifle toward Diablo.
“I taught him well.”
That was the moment everything became clear.
Not only had Silas known Diablo before.
Silas was the reason Diablo was broken.
“You trained him,” Clara whispered.
“Trained?”
Silas sneered.
“I made him useful.”
“You tortured him.”
“I taught him consequences.”
Jedediah’s voice became deadly calm.
“Why bring him back here?”
Silas glanced toward him.
“Because you were becoming troublesome.”
Jedediah frowned.
“You started checking accounts last year.
Asking where money went.
Just like Thomas.”
The truth landed.
Silas had not merely allowed Jedediah to buy Diablo.
He had arranged it.
A dangerous horse.
A grieving man obsessed with proving he could save it.
A perfect accident waiting to happen.
“You expected him to kill me.”
Silas shrugged.
“Eventually.”
Clara moved slowly around the trough.
Silas noticed.
“Stay where you are.”
She stopped.
Diablo trembled.
Silas whistled again.
Three notes.
The stallion flinched.
Clara spoke quietly.
“Diablo.”
His ear turned toward her.
Silas whistled.
“Diablo.”
The horse’s eye found Clara.
“Stay with me.”
Silas raised the rifle.
Jedediah fired.
The bullet struck the Winchester from Silas’s hands.
Silas staggered.
Then lunged for the weapon.
Diablo reared.
Jedediah saw Thomas again.
But this time he did not freeze.
He stepped toward the horse.
Not away.
“Easy.”
Diablo’s forelegs struck the ground.
Jedediah moved closer.
Silas began whistling desperately.
Three notes.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Diablo jerked with every sound.
Jedediah remembered Clara’s lessons.
Do not demand.
Do not force.
Give him somewhere safe to go.
Jedediah opened his hand.
“Come here, boy.”
Diablo stared at him.
Silas whistled.
