Chapter One
WYOMING TERRITORY –1877
The gunshot came from nowhere.
Isabella Sutcliffe instinctively ducked as the horses stamped their feet and tugged at the reins she clutched.
“Hush, now,” she said, sounding much more assured than she felt.
The leather dug into her gloved hand as she tried to make sense of where the shot had come from. It had been close—much too close. And it was her duty to alert Papa, Carter, and Henry if she saw anyone who might suspect what they were doing.
Izzy pressed her back against the clapboard wall of the newest shipping company to open its doors this side of Cheyenne. The building was so new it still smelled of sawdust. Perhaps the shot had been nothing at all. Maybe it was just some fellow out on the street . . . doing what exactly? There was no way the men inside hadn’t heard. She needed to see what was going on.
Another shot came, and Izzy squeezed her eyes closed. She couldn’t write this one off, not when a shout and a loud thump followed it. When the third shot sounded, followed by the unmistakable sound of her father’s voice telling someone to get down, she knew she had to dosomething. She couldn’t just stand here with their horses, waiting for a bullet to find her.
But Papa and her brothers were still inside that building.
There was no door, but there was a single window just beyond where she stood. Just as she started to nudge the horses a few steps so she could look inside, the glass shattered and a man tumbled out.
“Carter!” Her brother’s name slipped past her lips as a barrage of shots echoed from around the front of the building.
Carter stumbled to a standing position, and Izzy nearly dropped the reins that held their only way out of this town when she saw the blooming bloodstain on his thigh. He took one look at her as he leaned his weight against the wall. Without a hat, his red hair—the same color as Izzy’s—was rumpled, and sweat beaded his forehead.
“Go!” he said, gesturing weakly at the horses. “Leave them, and get out of here.”
“Not without you.” Purpose overtook the fear that clenched Izzy’s heart. She had to get Carter to safety. And then she had to find a way to get Papa and Henry out of that building. They were all she had.
When Papa had spouted this idea of a way to help poor folks get a little more money, Izzy had only agreed to help because he’d asked her. She cared about people like them, people down on their luck. But she never would have said yes if it hadn’t been Papa asking. Her family was everything to her, especially after they’d lost Mama.
“Izzy, I can’t.” Carter’s breathing came in short gasps as he slid down the wall. “Can’t get on a horse. Go.”
“No!” Izzy reached for his arm, but there was no way on this earth she could lift her older brother.
He gripped her arm and held her gaze with clear eyes. “I left them inside to fight alone so I could come out here and find you. Don’t make it be for naught.”
A wave of terror surged through her. Those men out front—lawmen, she had to suppose—were still shooting. Surely that meant Papa and Henry had a fighting chance.
“They’ll surrender,” Carter said, as if he were reading her mind.
Izzy shook her head. “That isn’t any better!”
“I’ll get Henry out. He’ll be behind you.”
“What about you? You need a doctor!” Izzy’s voice was bordering on hysterical.
“They’ll see to it. You can’t try a dead man.” He gave her that lopsided smile she’d always made fun of.
Her heart clenched. “I’ll get a lawyer.” She knew where the money was, the remaining funds Papa squirreled away to give to families that needed it. Her family were the ones who needed it now.
“You have to ride out of here first.”
Izzy glanced over her shoulder, as if she’d find reassurance somewhere behind her. But all she saw was the building next door and the dusty ground that led to it.
“Go around back!” a voice shouted between shots.
It jarred Izzy into motion. If she didn’t leave now, she wouldn’t be able to help any of them. She handed the reins of the other horses to Carter and scrambled up onto Sally, her chestnut mare.
With one last look at Carter, she fled off across the flat ground toward the low hills rising in the distance. Hidden beyond those hills was a small lake—and the tiny cabin they’d moved into that winter.
