The Town’s Most Feared Gunslinger Risked His Life to Save a New Waitress From Outlaws — Until a Secret From Twelve Years Ago Revealed That Her Missing Father and His Missing Brother Had Vanished on the Same Night
Chapter 10
Clara and Elias rode into the mountains.
They found Thomas inside an abandoned mine.
He was older.
Thinner.
His hair gray.
But his eyes were unmistakable.
Clara stopped.
“Father?”
Thomas looked at her.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then he whispered:
“My little girl.”
Clara ran into his arms.
She cried.
He held her tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
She hit his chest.
“I hated you.”
“I know.”
“I thought you abandoned us.”
“I wanted you to hate me.”
“Why?”
“Because hatred keeps people away.”
She pulled back.
“You could have come home.”
“I tried.”
Thomas looked at Elias.
“Three times.”
Elias stared.
“I never knew.”
Thomas smiled sadly.
“Because I didn’t want you involved.”
Then Thomas revealed the final secret.
Crowe had never been the real mastermind.
He was only the local commander.
The person controlling everything was the man who had arrived in Red Hollow after the fires.
A federal official named Nathaniel Voss.
Voss had been Thomas’s greatest enemy.
And he was coming for Clara.
Thomas handed Elias his old revolver.
“This belonged to my father.”
Elias looked at it.
“Why give it to me?”
“Because I won’t be the one who needs it.”
A gunshot echoed.
Thomas fell.
Clara screamed.
Elias looked toward the mountain ridge.
A sniper.
He fired back.
The sniper disappeared.
Thomas was dying.
He grabbed Clara’s hand.
“Don’t let him turn you into someone afraid.”
His eyes closed.
Clara sobbed.
Elias held her.
Then Thomas whispered one final sentence.
“The train.”
Clara looked up.
“What train?”
“The last train from Red Hollow.”
