Chapter 8 - The Train to Copper RidgeChloe boarded the train alone.
At least, Silas believed she did.
Dominic’s men followed through the mountains.
Leo, wounded but stubborn, rode with them.
Silas waited in the locomotive.
“Welcome.”
“Release the passengers.”
“When I have the land.”
“You already lost the court case.”
“Courts are temporary.”
He showed her dynamite wired beneath the engine.
“One spark and everyone dies.”
Chloe swallowed.
“What do you want?”
“Your signature.”
A new deed.
She signed.
Silas smiled.
Then Chloe said:
“You forgot something.”
“What?”
“I’m not twenty-one.”
Silas frowned.
“The territorial inheritance law requires two witnesses for transfer of inherited property by an unmarried woman under twenty-five.”
Silas stared.
Chloe smiled.
“You should have hired a better lawyer.”
Silas struck her.
She fell.
Then gunfire erupted outside.
Dominic.
The battle moved across the train roof.
Silas dragged Chloe toward the locomotive.
The train accelerated.
Ahead lay the unfinished Copper Ridge bridge.
“Silas!”
Dominic climbed across the coal tender.
Silas fired.
Dominic ducked.
Chloe grabbed the brake.
Silas seized her.
They struggled.
The bridge approached.
Dominic jumped onto the locomotive.
He tackled Silas.
The two men fought beside the furnace.
Chloe reached the brake.
It jammed.
“DOMINIC!”
The unfinished bridge was seconds away.
Leo rode alongside.
“JUMP!”
Passengers leaped from rear cars after Moretti men disconnected them.
Only the locomotive remained.
Chloe kicked the brake lever.
Nothing.
Dominic struck Silas.
Silas laughed.
“We built everything together!”
Dominic hit him again.
“And you destroyed everything.”
Silas pulled a knife.
Chloe screamed.
Dominic caught his wrist.
The edge stopped inches from his throat.
Then Silas looked at Chloe.
He smiled.
“Your father begged too.”
Dominic’s face changed.
He twisted Silas’s wrist.
The knife fell.
Silas stumbled backward.
The locomotive hit the unfinished bridge.
The front wheels left the track.
Dominic grabbed Chloe.
They jumped.
They struck gravel.
Rolled.
Behind them, the locomotive plunged into the canyon.
Silas Creed disappeared with it.
The explosion shook the mountains.
Chloe lay against Dominic.
“Are we dead?”
Dominic breathed heavily.
“Not yet.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
She kissed him.
“Because I’m still angry with you.”
He laughed.
May you like
And beneath the burning sky of Copper Ridge, the war finally ended.
Or so they thought.
