“You touch me again, and I swear—”
“You’ll what?” Kane said, taking a step forward. “Scream? No one’s comin’. It’s just you, me, and the horses.”
Quickly, Rachel darted sideways, slipping between two stalls. “Then I’ll find someone who’ll believe me.”
“Don’t count on it,” Kane said. “Folks know who pays the bills around here.”
He lunged again, but Rachel ducked low and bolted toward the open doors. Her skirts caught on a nail, tearing as she ran.
“Rachel!” Kane bellowed. “You come back here!”
She didn’t.
The light outside hit her like a slap. It was blinding, hot, and full of dust. She sprinted across the yard, her heart pounding. Kane’s boots thudded against the dirt behind her.
“Stop!” he shouted. “You don’t know what you’re doin’!”
“I know enough!” Rachel shouted back.
She reached the fence and scrambled over, her dress ripping again. Kane’s hand brushed her heel, but she kicked loose and hit the ground running.
“Rachel!” he roared. “You think you can run from me? From the truth?”
She didn’t look back.
She ran past the empty corral and the old apple tree. Her lungs burned, her vision blurred, but she kept moving.
Behind her, Kane’s voice echoed across the yard.
“You can’t outrun blood, girl! It’s in your veins! Your daddy’s sins...they’ll find you same as they found him!”
Rachel reached the edge of civilization before she dared to stop. She ducked behind the blacksmith’s shed, gasping for breath. Her hands were shaking so hard she could barely press them to her chest.
Her father. Stolen gold. Kane’s words tumbled through her head like stones down a hill.
It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t true.
Her father had been brave. Honest. He’d died protecting them. That’s what her mother had said. That’s what Blaze believed.
But what if...what if that was just another lie told to keep her safe?
Tears welled up in her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand.
“No,” she whispered to herself. “He wasn’t a thief.”
Though even as she said it, her voice faltered.
She looked back toward the barn in the distance. Kane’s dark shape was still pacing near the doors, shouting her name to the wind.
Rachel turned away and ran again, faster this time.
She didn’t know where she was going...only that she couldn’t go home.
Chapter 25
“Please,” Rachel whispered, her breath white in the cold air, “just let me make it to the church.”
Her boots slipped in the mud as she darted between buildings, the lamps along Red Rock’s main street flickering low. Somewhere behind her, she could still hear Kane’s voice. He was not shouting but calling. Patient as a wolf.
