Chapter 4: THE PROPOSAL BEFORE THE ATTACK
Eli’s shock disappeared beneath instinct.
He crossed the room, lifted the rifle near the wall, checked it, and reached toward the ammunition.
“I have another rifle in the bedroom.”
Chaska stayed where she was.
“No.”
Eli stared.
“No?”
“We will not barricade ourselves inside this house.”
“There are four armed men riding toward us.”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps we can debate philosophy after they are gone.”
Waya almost smiled.
Chaska did not.
“They expect you to resist.”
“Good.”
“They expect you to be alone.”
“Even better.”
“They also expect frightened people to hide inside a wooden building.”
Eli slowed.
Chaska indicated the window.
“That is how Voss’s people have treated others. They trap families indoors, surround the property, create fear, threaten the buildings. Sometimes they burn an outbuilding first and allow panic to finish the work.”
Eli lowered the rifle.
“What are you proposing?”
Chaska looked toward Waya.
Waya opened the rear door.
“Let them reach the ranch.”
Serina lifted her leather bag.
Eli frowned.
“You have been observing this property for three days.”
“Yes,” Waya replied.
“This was planned.”
“Yes.”
“You knew they would come today.”
“Yes.”
Eli turned to Chaska.
“And nobody thought I might like to know?”
“We needed to see what you would choose.”
Those words struck him differently.
“What I would choose?”
“With the contract.”
Eli stared at her.
Chaska continued.
“We could have arrived yesterday. We could have explained the entire situation before your pen ever touched the page. We did not.”
“Why?”
“Because what we are offering depends on the man you are now, not only the young man you were in the canyon.”
Eli’s eyes narrowed.
“What exactly are you offering?”
Chaska moved closer.
“For ten years, our families have watched property disappear through pressure, dishonest surveys, false debts, and papers written in languages people did not understand. Settlers have lost land through the same methods. Voss succeeds because he keeps every frightened family separated from the others.”
She touched one finger to the tabletop.
“We intend to end that separation.”
Eli waited.
“We want a council. Shared defense. Shared access to water. Witnesses present whenever land changes ownership. Traders unable to rewrite terms after an agreement is reached. Scouts who warn families before hired riders arrive. Ranchers who refuse to say an Apache family’s loss is none of their concern, and Apache families who refuse to ignore a settler’s burning barn.”
Eli took that in.
“You want an alliance.”
“Yes.”
“Among people who barely trust one another.”
“That is where most alliances begin.”
“And why do you need me?”
Chaska held his gaze.
“You own the central property.”
“That sounds like a map problem, not a leadership qualification.”
“You cross boundaries more naturally than you understand.”
“I barely cross the distance from my kitchen to the barn.”
Serina smiled.
Chaska ignored the interruption.
“We heard stories about you.”
Eli sighed.
“The wagon wheel?”
“The wagon wheel,” Serina said.
“The wandering horse?”
“That also.”
Waya added, “And the widow whose fence you repaired.”
Eli looked from one to another.
“How do you know all this?”
“We ask.”
Waya glanced down at his boots.
“And sometimes we follow tracks.”
Chaska’s voice became quieter.
“You help people even when they are not your people.”
Eli looked away.
“I do not have people.”
Chaska answered immediately.
“ That is the lie you have been telling yourself. ”
Before Eli could respond, Waya returned from the doorway.
“Two minutes.”
The atmosphere sharpened.
Eli looked at the land document.
Then at the stove.
He lifted the paper from the table.
Chaska watched him.
Eli folded it once.
Then again.
He held one corner above the flame.
Fire caught.
The broker’s letterhead blackened.
The signature line curled inward.
Seconds later the offer was burning inside the stove.
Eli watched it disappear.
“If your alliance requires me not to sell this place,” he said, “I suppose temptation has just become less of a problem.”
For the first time since arriving, Chaska smiled openly.
It changed her whole expression.
Waya cleared her throat.
“Very moving.”
Serina nodded.
“Extremely.”
Waya pointed toward the south.
“Armed riders.”
Eli reached for his hat.
“Would somebody like to explain the plan?”
Waya handed him the rifle.
“Try not to spoil it.”
Comments (0)