Chapter 16
“What are you doing?”
“Something foolish.”
“Wyatt.”
“Five minutes.”
Her eyes flashed.
“The last time you said five minutes, you were hit over the head.”
“Then I’m improving through experience.”
She grabbed my sleeve.
“Don’t make me watch him hurt you again.”
The words stopped me.
There was more in them than fear.
More than obligation.
I touched her hand.
Just once.
“I’m coming back.”
I crawled through the hatch beneath the woodpile.
This time, Cora did not stop me.
Under the cabin, I moved slowly.
Every inch hurt.
My head throbbed.
My leg burned.
My ribs ached.
But above me, I heard Cora speaking to Elias.
Not pleading.
Talking.
Keeping him occupied.
“You came all this way,” she called. “Was it worth it?”
“You forced me.”
“No. I left.”
“You humiliated me.”
“You told people I belonged to you.”
“You owed my family everything.”
“And there it is.”
I reached the far side.
Snow blew into my face.
I took the wolf trap from beneath the porch.
Heavy iron.
Chain attached.
I set it carefully beneath fresh snow near the barrel where Elias had taken cover.
Then I dragged the chain around the porch support.
My fingers felt numb.
One mistake and the trap would crush my hand.
Inside the cabin, Cora said, “You know what frightened me most?”
Elias answered, quieter now.
“That no one would come after you?”
“No.”
I finished setting the trap.
“What frightened me was that someone would.”
I crawled backward.
When I returned inside, Cora was at the window.
She looked at me.
I nodded once.
She understood.
That surprised me.
Then again, perhaps I should have stopped being surprised by her.
I raised the Winchester.
“Vane!”
Silence.
I shouted again.
“You want her?”
Cora turned sharply toward me.
I continued.
“Come take her.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Then she understood the trap.
Elias answered from outside.
“You finally see sense.”
“No.”
I opened the door a few inches.
Cold wind pushed snow across the floor.
“I finally got tired of talking.”
I fired toward the barrel.
The shot struck wood.
Elias ran.
Exactly where men run when bullets follow them.
Away from cover.
Toward the side of the porch.
Toward the patch of untouched snow.
The trap snapped.
His scream split the night.
He fell.
The pistol flew from his hand.
Cora was outside before I could stop her.
I followed as fast as my leg allowed.