“It’s the only one I have.”
Abigail slipped her hand into his.
Mateo looked down at their fingers.
She could feel how tired he was by the way he finally allowed his weight to rest against the rock.
“What happens tomorrow?” she asked.
“We move east.”
“And after that?”
“Depends on who follows.”
She studied his face.
“I don’t want to spend my life running.”
Mateo looked toward the dark canyon opening.
“Neither do I.”
“Then what do we do?”
He thought for a long moment.
“We survive long enough to choose somewhere.”
At sunrise, Isaiah climbed to the ridge.
He returned ten minutes later.
“Seven riders.”
Mateo was already standing.
“How far?”
“Maybe three miles.”
Abigail’s stomach tightened.
“Rusk?”
Isaiah nodded.
“And Strake.”
Mateo checked the Winchester.
Isaiah looked at him.
“They brought enough men to feel courageous.”
“Then we take that away.”
The canyon narrowed less than half a mile east of camp. High walls rose on both sides with scattered boulders along the ledges. Isaiah had used the pass years earlier while scouting for cavalry and remembered exactly where three men could make twelve feel like too many.
Mateo took the northern ledge.
Isaiah crossed to the south.
Abigail waited near the creek with a rifle and the spare horse.
She hated waiting.
The sound of riders entered the canyon before the men themselves appeared.
Sheriff Rusk rode first.
Gideon Strake followed with one hand bandaged from his fall in Red Hollow. Five other men rode behind them, including two deputies who looked considerably less certain than the sheriff.
Rusk stopped beneath the narrowest section.
“Mateo Begay!”
His voice echoed between the canyon walls.
Mateo answered from somewhere above.
“You ride loudly for men trying to surprise somebody.”
Several riders looked upward.
Rusk could not locate him.
“You kidnapped a condemned prisoner.”
Abigail stepped from the cottonwoods.
“No one kidnapped me.”
Rusk stared at her.
The severed rope was gone now, but the bruise remained dark across her neck.
“Get away from him, Abigail.”
She almost smiled.
“You tried to hang me yesterday.”
“The court sentenced you.”
“The court followed your lie.”
Rusk pointed toward her.
“You don’t understand what you’ve done.”
“I understand exactly.”
His face reddened.