Two guns. One bounty. And a man who had been hunting the wrong enemy for fifteen years.
CHAPTER 10
That night, the three men sat around a dying fire.
No guns were drawn.
No one was pretending.
Clay finally asked:
“Thomas.”
“Hm?”
“Why did you become an outlaw?”
Thomas looked into the flames.
“I wasn’t one.”
Scott looked at him.
“I was a soldier.”
Thomas smiled bitterly.
“Then I learned what soldiers were ordered to do.”
He told them about Harrow.
About the stolen money.
About witnesses murdered.
About his attempt to expose everything.
Then he told them about Scott’s family.
“I tried to save them.”
Scott listened.
“I failed.”
Silence.
Scott looked at the ground.
“I hated you for fifteen years.”
“I know.”
“I imagined killing you every night.”
“I know.”
“And now?”
Scott looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Thomas nodded.
“That’s fair.”
Clay watched them.
For the first time, the three men understood something.
Revenge had kept them alive.
But it had also kept them prisoners.
Clay looked toward the horizon.
“When this ends, what will you do?”
Scott answered first.
“Find somewhere quiet.”
Thomas laughed.
“You?”
Scott looked at him.
“Maybe.”
Clay smiled.
“And you?”
Thomas stared into the darkness.
“I don’t know.”
A gunshot rang out.
The fire exploded.
Harrow’s men had found them.
Clay grabbed his rifle.
Scott drew his revolver.
Thomas stood slowly.
“Looks like we don’t get to finish the conversation.”
Clay smiled.
“Then let’s finish the war.”
They rode toward Devil’s Pass.
Dawn was approaching.
And with it, the final reckoning.
