“I did not say I would sleep on the floor.”
Ethan stared.
Nahimana pointed toward a chair.
“You can sleep there.”
He laughed.
“That chair was built for someone half my height.”
“Then curl.”
He laughed harder.
Nahimana’s expression softened.
Eventually he made a pallet near the stove.
Not comfortable.
Good enough.
Nahimana took the bed.
Ethan lay awake.
Night wind pressed against the walls.
Wood creaked.
Somewhere outside, a horse shifted.
Then—
Creak.
Above.
Ethan opened his eyes.
Another creak.
Roof.
He sat up.
Nahimana was already awake.
She looked toward the ceiling.
“You heard?”
“Yes.”
Ethan reached for his rifle.
The sound came again.
Scrape.
Not wood settling.
Movement.
He stood.
Nahimana slipped from bed and took her own rifle.
Ethan whispered, “Stay here.”
She gave him a look.
“No.”
Of course.
They moved toward the back door.
Another scrape overhead.
Ethan opened the door and stepped outside.
Moonlight.
Cold air.
He looked up.
Nothing.
Then a shape dropped from the far side of the roof.
Ethan ran.
“Stop!”
A man sprinted toward the corral.
Nahimana moved faster.
She cut across the yard.
The intruder reached the fence.
Nahimana fired.
Not at him.
Into the dirt directly ahead.
The horse inside the corral startled.
The man stopped.
Ethan caught him from behind.
They hit the ground.
Dust.
Fists.
The intruder punched Ethan’s jaw.
Ethan drove his shoulder into him.
Nahimana reached them and aimed the rifle.
“Enough.”
Both men stopped.
The intruder wore a bandana across his lower face.
Ethan ripped it down.
He knew him.
Wesley Pike.
A ranch hand who had worked briefly for Briggs.
Ethan’s blood went cold.
“Where’s my deed?”
Pike smiled through blood.
“What deed?”
Ethan hit him.
Nahimana said sharply, “Ethan.”
He stopped.
Pike laughed.
“So she’s your new wife?”
Nahimana’s rifle did not move.
“She is the person holding the gun.”
Pike looked at her.
Stopped laughing.
Ethan searched him.
Knife.
Matches.
A folded piece of paper.
Not the deed.
A rough map.
Ethan opened it.
His ranch.
Spring.
House.
North pasture.
One area marked with an X beneath the ridge west of the house.
Nahimana leaned closer.
“What is there?”
“Nothing.”
Pike laughed again.
Ethan looked at him.
“What?”
“You really don’t know.”
“Know what?”