Come up behind them." She looked at him, her dark eyes steady. "And we finish it." Ethan nodded. It was a bad plan, but it was the only plan they had.
The riders stopped 200 yards out, just beyond effective rifle range. Smart. Vance wasn't rushing this. He was letting the fear build, letting Ethan think about what was coming. Ethan had spent 5 years trying not to think about moments like this.
Moments where violence was inevitable, and all you could do was choose how you met it. He told himself he was done with that life, done with the waiting, the adrenaline, the sick certainty that some men were going to die today, and you just had to make sure you weren't one of them. But standing here now, watching Vance's men fan out in a slow half circle, Ethan felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. Clarity. He'd made his choice, and there was a strange kind of peace in that.
Vance urged his horse forward alone, stopping 50 yards from the porch. He sat tall in the saddle, his gray hair catching the sunlight, his face as calm as carved stone. "Ethan Cross." he called out, his voice carrying easily across the distance. "I'm disappointed. I gave you a choice.
You made the wrong one." Ethan stepped onto the porch, the Winchester loose in his hands. "Funny, I was just thinking the same about you." Vance smiled, cold and thin. "This doesn't have to be complicated.
Send the woman out. You have my word she'll be treated fairly under military jurisdiction." "Your word." Ethan spat into the dust. "That's worth about as much as a $3 bill."
"Careful, Cross. You're talking to a commissioned officer of the territorial government." "I'm talking to a murderer who hides behind a uniform." The smile faded. Vance's hand rested on the pommel of his saddle, casual but ready.
"You want to have that conversation? Fine. Let's have it. Your family died because they were in the way of progress. The railroad was coming through, the land was needed, and your wife refused to sell.
Accidents happen on the frontier, people get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time." Ethan's hands tightened on the rifle, but his voice stayed level. "You burned them alive." "I gave the order to clear the settlement. What happened after that wasn't my concern."
"You're a coward." Vance's eyes went flat and dangerous. "And you're a fool. You think hiding out here with some Apache makes you righteous? Makes you clean?"
He leaned forward. "You're just another broken man clinging to a losing cause. And in about 10 minutes, you're going to be a dead one." Ethan raised the rifle, sighting down the barrel at Vance's chest. The range was long, but not impossible.
One shot, that's all it would take. Vance didn't flinch. "Go ahead. Pull that trigger. My men have orders to burn everything if I fall.