Chapter 1 - Drop the TorchThe summer of 1988 had burned Red Creek Ranch almost colorless.
Dust coated the fences.
The grass beyond the barns had faded from green to pale yellow.
And seventeen-year-old Emily Carter had been tied to a wooden post in the middle of the ranch yard for almost an hour.
Rope pinned both arms against her body.
Sweat ran from her hairline.
Her lips were dry.
Several yards in front of her sat two men on horseback.
The man in front was Victor Raines.
Emily knew his name even though they had never formally met.
Everyone in the county knew Victor.
He loaned money.
Bought distressed ranches.
Collected debts.
And smiled whenever someone else became desperate enough to need him.
Today he carried something worse than paperwork.
A burning torch.
Flames rolled above the oil-soaked cloth.
Victor looked directly at Emily.
“If you can’t bring your father back, you’re the one staying here today!”
Emily’s heart hammered.
But fear had burned into anger months ago.
“Then go ahead.”
Victor frowned.
Emily turned her head and spat into the dirt.
“He abandoned my mother and me.”
Her voice became harder.
“He took the gold and ran a long time ago!”
The second rider shifted uneasily.
Victor did not.
“You really believe that?”
“I know it.”
Something changed in his eyes.
Not amusement.
Frustration.
As though Emily had failed to understand something obvious.
He tightened his grip on the torch.
“Then maybe Daniel Carter needs a reason to remember he has a daughter.”
Emily’s confidence cracked.
Victor pulled his arm backward.
The torch moved behind his shoulder.
Emily pressed herself against the wooden post.
He was going to throw it.
“Go ahead!”
Her voice broke.
“You think he’ll come back for me?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
The flame snapped in the wind.
Then—
“DROP THE TORCH!”
The voice came from across the ranch yard.
Old.
Deep.
Absolute.
Victor froze.
His arm remained pulled backward.
The second rider turned immediately.
Emily recognized the voice before she saw the man.
Hope struck so suddenly that tears filled her eyes.
“Grandpa!”
The camera of memory would always hold Silas Carter exactly as he appeared that afternoon.
Seventy years old.
Weathered hat.
Gray mustache.
A cigar resting between his lips.
One hand holding an old revolver low beside his leg.
Not aimed.
Not shaking.
Silas looked directly at Victor.
“Put it down.”
Victor slowly lowered the torch.
“You stay out of this, old man.”
Silas removed the cigar.
“You tied my granddaughter to a post.”
Victor smiled.
“Your son owes us.”
“My son owes you nothing.”
Emily stared at her grandfather.
Victor laughed.
“Ask the girl.”
Emily swallowed.
“He took the gold.”
Silas’s eyes flicked toward her for only a second.
There was something in his expression she did not understand.
Pain.
Then he looked back at Victor.
“No.”
Emily stopped breathing.
Silas continued.
“Daniel didn’t steal that gold.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
Emily pulled against the rope.
“What?”
Silas said nothing more.
Victor stared at him.
Then, quietly:
“You know where he is.”
Silas’s face remained unreadable.
Victor’s horse moved beneath him.
The second rider whispered:
“Victor…”
Silas placed the cigar back between his teeth.
Victor looked from Silas to Emily.
And Emily suddenly realized something that frightened her more than the torch.
Her grandfather had not come merely to rescue her.
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He knew something about her father.
Something he had never told her.
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