PART 2 — THE SECRET BENEATH DEEP CREEK

Jedediah Boone looked down at the unconscious woman in his arms.

Then he looked toward Red Ridge.

His cabin was less than an hour away.

Warm.

Safe.

Waiting.

The town was in the opposite direction.

Into the heart of the storm.

He could carry Clara home and save her life.

But if the child she had spoken of was alone, she might not survive the night.

Jed swore under his breath.

Then he turned toward town.

“Hold on.”

He pulled the buffalo hide tighter around Clara and pushed forward.

The wind immediately swallowed his tracks.

Twenty minutes later, a crooked roof appeared through the snow.

A small cabin.

One chimney.

No smoke.

Jed’s stomach tightened.

He kicked the door open.

“Annie?”

Nothing.

Then a small shape moved beneath a quilt beside the dead hearth.

“Mama?”

The little girl sat up.

Her eyes widened when she saw the enormous stranger standing in the doorway with Clara in his arms.

Jed crossed the room and lowered Clara onto the bed.

“Your mama’s alive.”

Annie stared at him.

“Who are you?”

“Jed.”

She looked at his beard.

Then his shoulders.

Then the rifle across his back.

“You’re the Bear.”

Jed frowned.

“That what people call me?”

She nodded.

“Mama says bears leave people alone if people leave them alone.”

For the first time in years, something almost resembling a smile touched Jed’s mouth.

“Your mama’s got good advice.”

Annie looked at Clara.

“Is she going to die?”

Jed glanced at the woman on the bed.

“Not if I can help it.”

He turned toward the hearth.

The wood was almost gone.

The shelves were empty.

Not simply empty.

Bare.

There wasn’t even flour dust.

Jed’s expression hardened.

He went outside, returned with dry wood, and built a fire.

Then he cleaned one of the snowshoe hares he’d brought from the mountain.

Soon the cabin filled with the smell of roasting meat.

Annie watched him carefully.

When Jed placed a small portion in front of her, she hesitated.

“You eat first,” he said.

She shook her head.

“I’m not hungry.”

Jed looked at her.

“Don’t lie to a mountain man.”

Annie picked up the meat.

She ate slowly.

Then faster.

Jed said nothing.

He simply put more food on her plate.

By midnight, the little girl was asleep.

Warm.

Fed.

Safe.

Only then did Clara finally open her eyes.

Her breathing was shallow.

She turned her head.

“Annie?”

“Asleep.”

Clara’s eyes closed in relief.

“Thank you.”

Jed sat beside the fire.

“You went into a blizzard looking for food.”

“I had to.”

“You could’ve died.”

“So could she.”

Jed stared at her.

“Why didn’t you ask somebody in town?”

Clara laughed weakly.

“I did.”

She told him about Cobb.

The flour.

The dried meat.

The deed.

The Deep Creek claim.

The moment she spoke Arthur’s name, Jed’s expression changed.

“Arthur Higgins?”

Clara looked at him.

“You knew him?”

Jed didn’t answer immediately.

He stood and walked toward the small table.

Arthur’s mining papers lay beneath an old Bible.

Jed picked them up.

“Your husband owned Deep Creek?”

“Yes.”

“Did he ever tell you what he found?”

Clara’s heart began to beat faster.

“He believed there was silver.”

Jed slowly shook his head.

“No.”

He reached beneath his shirt and pulled out a small leather pouch.

He opened it.

A dark stone dropped into his palm.

Jed placed it beside the fire.

Something inside the rock caught the light.

A faint metallic gleam.

Clara stared.

“What is that?”

“Not silver.”

“Then what?”

Jed looked at her.

Three years earlier, he’d worked the same mountain.

He knew its tunnels.

Its hidden shafts.

Its dangerous seams.

And he knew why certain men in Red Ridge were suddenly so interested in a dead miner’s widow.

“Your husband wasn’t looking for silver,” Jed said.

Clara’s face went pale.

“Then what was he looking for?”

Jed closed his hand around the stone.

“Something worth far more than silver.”

“What?”

Before Jed could answer, a sound came from outside.

A horse.

Slow footsteps through deep snow.

Then the animal stopped directly beside the cabin.

Jed’s entire body went still.

Annie stirred in her sleep.

Clara whispered, “Who is it?”

Jed reached for his rifle.

He moved toward the window and looked through a narrow gap in the curtain.

A dark rider sat motionless in the storm.

Jed’s eyes narrowed.

The rider wasn’t carrying supplies.

He wasn’t dressed like a traveler.

And most importantly—

he wasn’t alone.

Another shadow stood farther behind him.

Watching the cabin.

Jed lowered the curtain.

Clara saw the change in his face.

“Jed?”

He turned toward her.

“Stay here.”

“Why?”

“Because whoever’s outside didn’t come looking for a miner.”

His gaze dropped to the dark stone on the table.

“They came looking for what your husband died protecting.”

Outside, the rider dismounted.

A gloved hand reached toward the cabin door.

And for the first time since Arthur’s death, Clara realized the truth:

Thaddeus Cobb hadn’t been trying to buy her husband’s claim.

He had been trying to keep her from discovering what was buried beneath it.