Pike spit blood into the dirt.
“Briggs was right.”
Ethan grabbed his shirt.
“About what?”
Pike smiled.
“You’ve been sitting on a fortune and watering cows with it.”
Before Ethan could ask more, hoofbeats sounded from the road.
Several riders.
Pike’s smile widened.
Ethan pulled him upright.
Nahimana moved toward cover.
Three men approached.
Not Briggs.
Deputy Marshal Colter Reeves.
Two local riders.
Ethan relaxed slightly.
Only slightly.
Reeves looked at Pike.
“Well.”
Ethan said, “He was on my roof.”
Pike interrupted.
“Kidnapped me.”
Ethan stared.
Pike continued quickly.
“Held me at gunpoint. That Apache woman fired at me.”
Reeves looked toward Nahimana.
His expression changed.
Not friendly.
Ethan noticed.
“She stopped him from escaping.”
Reeves dismounted.
“Who is she?”
“My wife.”
The word came naturally.
Nahimana looked at him.
Ethan barely noticed.
Reeves frowned.
“Your wife.”
“Yes.”
“When did that happen?”
“Yesterday.”
One rider laughed.
Reeves did not.
He looked toward Nahimana again.
Then Pike.
“What were you doing on his property?”
Pike shrugged.
“Passing through.”
“On the roof?”
Pike said nothing.
Ethan handed Reeves the map.
“Found this on him.”
The marshal studied it.
The X.
He looked at Ethan.
“You know what’s marked here?”
“No.”
Reeves folded the map.
“Maybe you should.”
“Meaning?”
The marshal looked toward the dark ridge.
“Old Spanish survey passed through here twenty years ago.”
Ethan stared.
“So?”
“They logged mineral traces.”
“Silver?”
“Not much.”
Pike laughed.
Reeves looked at him.
“Quiet.”
Then to Ethan.
“Water.”
Nahimana stepped closer.
“What about water?”
Reeves pointed toward the ridge.
“Underground reservoir.”
Ethan stared.
“Impossible.”
“No.”
Reeves looked toward the trough.
“Your spring is only one outlet.”
Ethan felt the world shift.
Water in Arizona.
Not merely ranch water.
Enough water to supply cattle.
Settlements.
Perhaps mining.
Rail construction.
Land values could change overnight.
Nahimana understood before Ethan fully did.
“That is why Briggs wants the deed.”
Reeves looked at her with reluctant respect.
“Likely.”
Ethan turned toward Pike.
“Where is it?”
Pike smiled.
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“Ask Briggs.”
Deputy Reeves tied Pike’s wrists.
“We will.”
Morning brought trouble.
And clarity.
Pike eventually admitted Briggs paid him to take the deed and damage the spring.
But he claimed the deed was already gone from Briggs’s possession.