Page 17 of Wilder’s Mistake

I circle the western access twice, stop beneath the bluff where a shooter could watch the gate and send Colt back through town to check whether anybody follows. Nothing moves, but that doesn’t mean we are alone. It means Perdition is patient.

At seven, another message arrives from the same unknown number.

MIDNIGHT.

I show Kane immediately.

“Cyrus thinks repetition makes him important,” Kane says.

“Cyrus thinks King’s legacy still means something.”

Kane looks toward the clubhouse windows. “How is Lucy?”

“Angry. Watching everything.”

“Does she understand what staying with you means?”

“She’s learning.”

“Learning is not accepting.”

I know that better than he does. Lucy can want me in bed and still decide the cut, gates and men outside them are too much. I have never doubted her desire. I doubt whether desire can carry the weight of my life.

“Keep her close,” Kane says.

“I will.”

I find Lucy in the common room with her bag at her feet and an untouched bottle of water beside her. She watches the movement beyond the windows, following every bike that passes through the yard.

“You all right?” I ask.

“No.” She looks at me. “What am I supposed to do if this gets worse?”

“Stay inside the clubhouse. Keep away from the windows.”

“And wait?”

“Until I come back.”

Her mouth tightens, but she nods. “All right.”

I take the stool beside her and draw her between my knees.

“Perdition isn’t getting through the gates,” I say.

“That sounded more like a threat than reassurance.”

“It was.”

A prospect brings sandwiches from the kitchen and leaves them at the bar. Lucy takes one, then looks toward the photographs on the wall. King appears in the center of several, broader and younger, his hand on the shoulder of men who now sit under Kane’s gavel. Chains and Griz stand close to him in one old shot beside the river.

“They miss him,” she says.

“Some miss the certainty. King never left room for doubt.”

“Kane does?”

“He lets people question a call, but once Kane makes it, the questioning stops.”