“Seems that way.”
For a while, neither spoke. The desert wind whistled through the hollow coach, making the door creak. A single buzzard circled low overhead.
“You gonna keep pointing that thing, or are we talking now?” Blaze asked, lowering his hands.
Her lips twitched. “Depends how much I trust you.”
“That ain’t something I can buy,” Blaze said. “You’ll have to decide it yourself.”
She hesitated, then finally slung the rifle over her shoulder.
“Marisol Vega,” she said. “I’ve been trailin’ the Hollow Creek Riders since the day they left him in the dust.”
“Trailing alone?” Blaze asked.
“I don’t need help,” she said quickly.
“Didn’t say you did,” Blaze replied. “But it’s dangerous country for one person.”
“I can handle it.”
Blaze nodded toward the coach. “Looks like you handled something already.”
Her gaze followed his, and her expression tightened.
“I came back for what they left,” she said. “Buried Emilio proper. The rest can rot.”
Blaze looked at the bodies. “They were passengers?”
“One was the guard, the other...I don’t know,” she replied. “Didn’t ask names before they died.”
“Wilder’s work,” Blaze said. “Always leaves a mess.”
Marisol crouched beside the wreck, brushing sand off a set of tracks.
“They rode north,” she said. “Six, maybe seven men. Heavy horses, drag marks from sacks. Gold, maybe. Or loot.”
Blaze joined her, studying the prints. “You can read them well.”
“My brother taught me,” she said, standing. “Didn’t think I’d be using it for this.”
“World don’t ask what we want,” Blaze said quietly.
She looked at him, something unreadable flickering in her dark eyes. “You said your name was Buckeye?”
“Yeah.”
“There was a bounty notice out of Carson City a while back,” she said. “Said the Hollow Creek Riders killed a ranch hand named Buckeye years ago. That your kin?”
“Pa,” Blaze said. “They gunned him down when I was younger.”
Her expression hardened again. “Then you’ve been livin’ with this longer than I have.”
“Too long,” Blaze said.
The wind picked up, stirring dust between them. Blaze looked out across the horizon.
“You plan on following those tracks?” he asked.
