“I betrayed Vane for my daughter.”
Crowe laughed.
“Your daughter hates you.”
Jonathan looked at Mary Ann.
“Yes.”
The answer was so simple that Mary Ann’s anger faltered.
“And she should.”
Crowe’s expression hardened.
He suddenly reached inside his coat.
Jonathan fired.
Crowe fell.
Silence followed.
Pike raised his hands.
The third man groaned on the floor.
Mary Ann crawled toward Jonathan.
Blood soaked his shirt.
“Papa.”
He looked almost surprised to hear the word.
She pressed both hands against his wound.
“Gideon!”
Gideon staggered over.
Jonathan caught Mary Ann’s wrist.
“No.”
“You’re not dying.”
“Annie.”
“You do not get to return from the grave and die five minutes later.”
He almost smiled.
“Sound like your mother.”
Tears blurred her sight.
“You knew Thomas?”
“For seven years.”
“How?”
Jonathan coughed.
“After he learned who I was, he came to kill me.”
Mary Ann stared.
Jonathan gave a faint laugh.
“Had a rifle and everything.”
“What stopped him?”
“You.”
The laughter vanished.
“He said if he killed me, someday you’d learn what I had done and discover your husband had murdered your father. He said he’d already lost one family to vengeance.”
Jonathan’s breathing weakened.
“He wouldn’t make his sons lose another.”
Mary Ann bowed her head.
Even in rage, Thomas had chosen mercy.
Jonathan looked toward the steel box.
“The land papers aren’t the inheritance.”
Mary Ann glanced up.
“What?”
“The railroad is.”
She frowned.
Jonathan struggled for breath.
“Thomas knew Vane would come for the pass. He also knew Vane’s company was failing.”
Gideon stared.
Jonathan continued.
“Thomas bought bonds.”
Mary Ann shook her head.
“With what money?”
“Every cent from the timber runs. For years.”
“He barely had twelve dollars in the house.”
“Because the rest is there.”
Jonathan pointed weakly toward the ledger.
Mary Ann opened the steel box again.
Beneath the documents was a false bottom.
She lifted it.
Stacks of certificates lay underneath.
Railroad bonds.
Shares.
Dozens.
Perhaps hundreds.
Gideon whispered, “Dear God.”
Jonathan smiled faintly.
“Thomas did not own only the pass.”
Mary Ann looked at him.
“He owns the railroad?”
“Not yet.”
He coughed blood.
“But when Vane’s fraud becomes public, his shares become worthless. Thomas bought the secured debt underneath them.”
Mary Ann understood slowly.
“If Vane defaults…”
“The bondholders take control.”
“And Thomas was the largest bondholder?”
Jonathan shook his head.
“You are.”
Mary Ann’s breath stopped.
“He transferred everything six months ago.”
“To me?”
Jonathan’s eyes shifted toward the twins.
“To you and the boys.”
Mary Ann stared at the papers.
Thomas had gone out every morning in patched boots.
He had repaired their roof himself because hiring help cost too much.
He had apologized one Christmas because he could afford only wooden horses for the twins.
All that time—
He had been quietly building something enormous.
Not wealth.
Protection.
A future.
Jonathan whispered, “There’s more.”
Mary Ann almost laughed through her tears.
“How can there possibly be more?”
“Thomas knew somebody would eventually find the cave.”
Jonathan looked toward Crowe’s body.
“So he made the obvious secret worthless.”
Gideon frowned.
Jonathan pointed toward the photograph of Rebecca.
“The frame.”
Mary Ann stood.
Her legs trembled as she crossed the chamber.
She removed Rebecca’s photograph from the wall.
Behind it was a narrow brass key.
Gideon stared.
“I never knew about that.”
Mary Ann remembered Thomas’s letter.
Trust Gideon. Trust no one else.
Not even Gideon had known everything.
The key fit a small lock hidden beneath the table.
A floor panel released.
Mary Ann lifted it.
Stone steps descended farther into the mountain.
Mercy trotted down first.
They followed.
At the bottom was another room.
This one was smaller.
Dry.
Locked away.
Mary Ann lifted the lantern.
Then stopped.
Along the walls stood wooden shelves covered in ledgers, sealed affidavits, property deeds, photographs, letters, and maps.
Hundreds of documents.
Gideon breathed, “Thomas…”
Jonathan had followed them halfway down before collapsing against the wall.
Mary Ann knelt beside him.
