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“You taught my father that lesson?” Eden asked.

Pike looked back at her. “Your father declined to cooperate.”

“Then Josiah’s wagon broke apart on the road.”

A pause. Brief, but Jesse saw it.

“Wagons fail,” Pike said.

“Not usually after a stranger threatens the family.”

Pike’s mouth tightened. “I gave your father advice. If he neglected it, I cannot be held responsible for every misfortune that followed.”

Jesse heard movement behind the wall adjoining Nate’s examination room. Soft enough that Pike, standing farther away, might have missed it. Whit had insisted on posting a man there in case the clinic became a target. Jesse had thought it unnecessary.

He had never been more pleased to be wrong.

“Crowley told me something before he beat me,” Jesse said. “About persuasion.”

Pike’s attention swung to him.

“He said a lesson works better if a man lives to tell it.”

“Crowley spoke too freely.”

“Who told him that?”

Pike smiled without warmth. “I am sure you can work it out.”

Eden moved half a step forward. “My brother lost three years of his life.”

“Then he should be thankful he has the years ahead of him.”

She went very still.

Jesse had wanted an answer about Josiah. He had not wanted Eden to hear it delivered like that.

“You know what happened,” she said.

“I know your father refused terms that would have benefited everyone.” Pike folded the paper against his palm. “We needn’t revisit old business. Tell Bassett he has until noon. If he insists on making a spectacle of this, I’ll find another way to secure the road.”

“The way you secured the mill road?” Jesse asked.

Pike’s eyes narrowed. “A man with your injuries should be careful about making accusations.”

Eden stepped between the bed and Pike before Jesse could answer.

“No,” she said. “You will leave. Whatever you came to threaten, we’ve heard enough.”

He moved toward her.

Jesse caught the edge of her sleeve with his left hand. She stopped, then stepped aside, keeping the bed between them.

From the examination room came the sound of a latch lifting.

Pike heard it.

His head turned. The polite expression vanished.