Matthew began crying again.
“I know.”
Gideon stared.
The younger man nodded.
“I know, Gideon.”
His voice broke.
“I heard about the search. I heard you nearly died looking for me.”
Gideon's expression crumpled.
“Why didn't you come home?”
Matthew lowered his head.
For several seconds, he couldn't answer.
Then he looked toward the warehouse.
“Because the men who took me said they'd kill you if I did.”
The words struck Gideon like a blow.
He stared.
Matthew continued.
“And by the time I escaped them, I couldn't remember enough to find home.”
Elena felt cold.
Gideon slowly turned toward the warehouse.
His expression darkened.
“Who took you?”
Matthew looked directly into his eyes.
“Men working for Rusk.”
For a moment, Gideon seemed ready to explode.
Then Matthew caught his wrist.
“Listen to me.”
Gideon looked back.
His brother's expression became desperate.
“I didn't come all this way to watch you die trying to kill the man who hurt us.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Gideon nodded.
“Tell me everything.”
They moved inside the warehouse.
Matthew had made a small shelter near the back wall using blankets, old crates, and a stove connected to a safe chimney flue.
He'd been hiding there for nearly a week, moving only when necessary.
A local freight driver had helped him reach the station.
The man believed Matthew deserved the chance to find his family before Rusk's associates learned he'd returned.
Elena entered carefully and settled onto a sturdy crate platform Matthew cleared for her.
The brothers sat opposite.
For several minutes, Gideon couldn't stop looking at Matthew.
He seemed afraid that every time he blinked, his brother would vanish.
Matthew understood.
He smiled sadly.
“I'm real, Gideon.”
The older man looked toward him.
“You'd better be.”
Matthew laughed through tears.
Then his expression became serious.
He began with the day of the storm.
Ten years earlier, he'd discovered that livestock recorded as missing from several ranches had actually been moved north under altered inventory descriptions.
He found inconsistencies in his father's cattle accounts.
Then compared them with freight records he'd seen while helping with winter deliveries.
The numbers didn't match.
He believed somebody was transferring cattle without the owners' consent.
When he questioned an employee at Crow's Landing, the man warned him to stop asking.
Matthew didn't.
He prepared copies of the records and intended to take them to the county authorities.
Then Rusk's men confronted him.