“Tell me I’m worth more.”

He said nothing.

“I know what people say when they’re trying to be kind.”

“I wasn’t going to say it.”

She turned furiously.

“Then what?”

Caleb stepped close.

“I was going to tell you that if your father sold you, the shame belongs to him.”

That broke her.

Not because it was beautiful.

Because it was true.

Abby covered her face.

Caleb took one step forward.

Then stopped.

He waited.

She was the one who closed the distance.

When his arms came around her, Abby felt something inside herself finally loosen.

For the first time since the chapel, she cried without shame.

Elias learned about the investigation within two days.

The first warning came as a dead steer left outside Caleb’s gate.

The second was a bullet through the kitchen window.

The third was fire.

It began just before dusk.

Isaiah smelled smoke.

By the time Caleb reached the porch, flames had already spread through dry grass north of the barn.

“Wind’s pushing south!” he shouted.

Everyone moved.

Hands opened corrals.

Isaiah drove horses toward the creek.

Abby carried water until her lungs burned.

Then she spotted riders through the smoke.

Three men.

One was Elias.

He had not come to burn the ranch.

He had come for the records.

Abby ran for the house.

Elias reached it first.

She entered through the kitchen and heard drawers opening in Caleb’s office.

Abby grabbed the iron stove poker.

When Elias emerged holding the leather satchel, he froze.

For several seconds they simply stared at each other.

His gaze dropped to the poker.

Then to Abby.

He smiled.

“You’ve become ambitious.”

“You’ve become careless.”

He laughed.

“Careless?”

“You kept records.”

“That was your mistake. Thinking the records matter.”

“They’ll matter to a judge.”

Elias’s smile vanished.

“You think Caleb Boone will protect you?”

“He already has.”

“From what?”

“You.”

Something changed in Elias’s face.

Not anger.

Fear.

Then the roof beam cracked somewhere behind them.

Smoke rolled through the room.

Elias shoved Abby aside and ran.

She stumbled after him.

Outside, Caleb was trying to release cattle trapped behind a burning rail fence.

“CALEB!”

The wooden brace above him collapsed.

A flaming rail struck his shoulder and pinned him.

Abby ran.

“Stay back!” Caleb shouted.

She ignored him.

The rail was enormous.

She grabbed it.

Heat seared her palms.

Her healing arm tore open beneath its sleeve.

“Abby!”

She pulled.

Nothing.

She screamed and pulled again.

The timber shifted.

Caleb dragged one leg free.

“Again!”

Abby planted both feet.

Every insult she had ever swallowed became strength.

Every stare.

Every laugh.

Every apology for being too big, too heavy, too much.

She lifted.

The beam rose.

Caleb rolled clear.

Abby dropped it and collapsed.

Caleb caught her.

Then Isaiah shouted.

“HE’S GETTING AWAY!”

Through the smoke Elias galloped toward the western ridge.

The satchel crossed his chest.

Marshall Hooper, arriving with two deputies, tried to pursue.