Vengeance Creek: The Sons of Daniel Shaye

47

“Two hours,” Ralph Cory said. “No more.” He pointed to one particular set of tracks. “These.” Then he pointed to the other, original two. “These are older. Yesterday.”

“I agree,” Colon said.

James was still mounted, twisted around in his saddle so he could look behind them.

Cory and Colon stood and turned to face him.

“Anything?” Cory asked.

“I see some dust…I think.”

“Berto?” Cory asked.

Colon mounted his horse so he could take advantage of the same vantage point James had.

“Anything?” Cory asked again.

“I see nothing,” Colon said.

James looked disappointed. “I thought I saw…”

Cory mounted, touched James on the shoulder. “He’ll catch up. Don’t worry.”

“It’s just been too soon,” James said. “I don’t want to lose another brother…you know?”

“No,” Cory said, “I don’t…but I think I can imagine.”

“It would be better to keep moving,” Colon said.

“James?” Cory said.

Reluctantly, James dragged his eyes from the horizon behind them. “Yes,” he said. “Okay, let’s go.”

Thomas was back on the trail, only this time he was tracking his own brother. The trail was fresh, though, and he was moving much faster than they were. He expected to catch up to them in a matter of hours, even if he had to keep riding after they camped, or if they reached the town of Blue Mesa.

Alone with his thoughts during his ride, he couldn’t help but wonder about his father. To this day they still had not talked about what had happened between Thomas and Ethan Langer. He knew his father was disappointed that he hadn’t killed Langer—rather than crippling him and sending him to prison—and sometimes, when he caught Dan Shaye looking at him, he felt guilty. He’d told his father that he thought killing Ethan Langer would have been too easy, and would have put the man out of his misery. That way, Langer was a cripple, was in prison, and was still haunted in his dreams by Mary Shaye. But either he hadn’t done a good job explaining or his father didn’t want to listen, or both. Now, if they could talk again, maybe he’d be able to get his father to understand.

Thomas thought he’d been doing too much drinking on the wrong side of town. When this was all over, he was going to try to make his father listen to what he had to say. Their relationship was not going to change—for the better—unless they faced what had happened with Ethan Langer and talked about it.

Daniel Shaye was questioning whether upholding the law was something he still wanted to do. It had already cost him a wife and one son. Now he had sent two more sons out wearing badges like targets on their chests. Plus, he himself had been shot two years in a row.

What else was he fit to do? In his entire life he’d been on one side of the law or the other. He was over fifty. Could he settle down someplace and be a storekeeper? A rancher? He didn’t know anything about either.

But what about his sons? James was smart—very smart. If he went back to school, Shaye thought he had the makings of a good lawyer. Maybe a doctor. He had potential, he just needed seasoning for it to blossom.

Thomas was different. He had talent with a gun, and he’d already used it to kill men. Shaye saw the raw talent in his oldest son too. Thomas had the potential to be a better gunman and better lawman, he thought, than he himself had ever been.

Shaye shifted in his saddle. His wound was throbbing, but he didn’t think it was bleeding. He knew that for the past year he hadn’t been a very good father to Thomas. What happened in Oklahoma City with Ethan Langer stuck in his craw. The whole point of the hunt was to find Langer and kill him. What Thomas had done was allow the man to live—crippled, and in prison, but still alive. He had not been able to come to terms with that, but maybe it was time. After this was all over, he told himself, he would talk to both Thomas and James about what had happened and what was going to happen.

All they had to do was all come back from this hunt alive.