Tall.
Lean.
Dark hair touched with gray at the temples.
A familiar crooked smile.
Cole’s entire body went numb.
Wade Maddox was alive.
Cole stood slowly.
“You.”
Wade smiled.
“Me.”
Cole crossed the yard before anyone could stop him and drove his fist into his brother’s mouth.
Wade crashed backward.
Soldiers grabbed Cole.
Wade wiped blood from his lip.
Then laughed.
“I suppose I earned that.”
“You murdered people.”
“Careful.”
“You poisoned their water.”
Wade’s amusement disappeared.
“Take our guests to the storehouse.”
The women were marched away.
Cole struggled.
“If you touch them—”
Wade punched him once in the ribs.
“Still saving everybody, aren’t you?”
Cole glared at him.
“I mourned you.”
Something flickered behind Wade’s eyes.
Gone immediately.
“That was convenient.”
“Why?”
Wade sighed.
“Because dying simplified things.”
He ordered the soldiers to bring Cole into the officers’ building.
Captain Bell remained outside.
Inside, Wade poured himself whiskey.
Cole stood with his hands tied.
“Three years ago,” Wade said, “I discovered something near Red Mesa worth more than Father’s entire freight company.”
“Silver?”
Wade smiled.
“Water.”
Cole said nothing.
“Do you know what controls Arizona, Cole? Not gold. Not cattle. Not railroads.”
Wade raised his glass.
“Water.”
He spread a map across the table.
Several valleys were marked in red.
“An underground basin runs beneath Red Mesa. Enough water to supply mines, ranches, a railroad station, perhaps eventually an entire town.”
Cole stared at him.
“The Apache spring.”
“Was one outlet.”
“So you poisoned it.”
“I needed them gone.”
“You killed children.”
Wade’s face hardened.
“I moved an obstacle.”
Cole lunged.
The soldiers slammed him against the wall.
Wade waited.
“You always were sentimental.”
“And you always were a coward.”
Wade’s eyes narrowed.
Cole nodded toward the door.
“You needed soldiers. Hired guns. Poison in the dark.”
Wade walked closer.
“Do you know why I arranged my death?”
Cole remained silent.
“Father’s company had debts. My partners needed freedom to operate outside the law. A dead man creates fewer questions.”
“So why sign your own name?”
Wade laughed.
“Because no one was supposed to survive the spring.”
Cole went cold.
“Those women did.”
“Yes.”
“And now you have a problem.”
Wade smiled.
“No.”
He looked directly at Cole.
“Now I have the solution.”
Cole frowned.
Wade opened a drawer and removed a document.
“Father changed his will before he died.”
Cole stared at the paper.
“The Red Mesa land was not mine alone.”
Understanding arrived slowly.
Then horribly.
“Half belongs to me.”
“Exactly.”
Wade placed a pen on the table.
“I need your signature.”
Cole laughed once.
“You poisoned forty people because you needed me to sign land over?”
“No. I poisoned them because I needed the land empty.”
Wade tapped the document.
“You are simply the final inconvenience.”
“And if I refuse?”
Wade shrugged.
“Then tomorrow morning Captain Bell discovers twenty-two hostile Apache prisoners attempted an uprising.”
