Chapter 14

That afternoon, as the train crept into the Waypoint station, Malik and Cowboy could see Jacob Baylor waiting on the platform. He was clad in the black suit that he wore to church on Sundays—except the day was Thursday, and Baylor looked grim.

Once he stepped down from the train car, Malik looked at Baylor and said, “What is it, Jacob?”

As Cowboy stepped down next to Malik, Baylor reached to grasp Malik’s hand in both of his, and he said, quietly, “Jorje Garcia was shot from ambush two days ago. He’s dead. I just got back from the burial.”

Malik released Baylor’s hand and stood, looking toward his boots, slowly shaking his head. He looked up at Cowboy. “This is my fault.”

“Emil,” Andy said, “what possible difference would it have made? We still have to supply the line shacks. Jorje often does that. And neither you, nor any of us, would have expected an attack that soon. Even if we did, would that have been the place you would have expected it? The ranch is more’n a hundred square miles, Emil. It’s only because you know the why of it that we have any explanation at all.”

“I should have come directly back.”

“Wouldn’t have changed anything I just said,” Andy insisted.

The Malik brothers, with Cowboy and Christina, were at Jorje’s grave, in the family cemetery. That small graveyard, which had first served only as Casimir Kolkowski’s burial place, had become the ranch’s own burial ground with additions over the years, including the graves of Manuela and Valerian Malik. The small cemetery was on a grassy, semi-wooded hill a hundred yards north of Ranch Home, the name that had come to refer to the ranch headquarters compound where almost everyone lived.

Malik and Cowboy had rented livery horses and ridden out right after they heard the news. Before they left town, Malik warned Baylor to take precautions, keep a gun handy, as there were rumors someone had a grudge against the Maliks and they might not be above taking it out on their friends. Baylor had said he would, though he seemed skeptical.

At the graveyard, the discussion continued. “Besides,” Christina said, taking a different tack, “that’s all neither here nor there. If feelin’ bad is goin’ to occupy your mind, then you need to get past it mighty damn quick.” All the men’s heads turned to her at the profanity. “Good, I’ve got your attention. Doesn’t matter, like Andy says, Emil. Dwellin’ on it is just you feelin’ sorry for yourself. It’s Jorje that we buried. What the hell you gonna do about it?”

Malik gave her a wry smile. “You’re right, Sis.”

He looked at Andy. “Who’d you put in charge of the ranch?” Jorje Garcia had been the general foreman.

“Brian Kelly said he’d honcho until we decided on who’d take over as foreman.”

“Brian’s gettin’ up there.”

“Year younger than Jorje.”

“Nah. Jorje didn’t age. Only way he was goin’ into the ground was the way it happened. What about protectin’ ‘em?”

“Didn’t know anyone needed protectin’ ‘til you got here. You got a plan?”

Malik made eye contact with Cowboy, then turned back toward Andy. “Yep. Reckon it’s better us on their trail, than them on ours.” He picked a long grass stem and put the sweet end in his mouth. Then, he said, “Cowboy and I will ride back to town tomorrow, to unload Petal and the horses from the stock car. We’ll bring ‘em back out here, then he and I are going to ... let’s just say we’re looking for horses, if anyone asks.” He dropped the grass stem to the ground.

“What we’ll do is start cuttin’ sign along our west line. We’ll just keep on around toward the north until we find some tracks. We’ll sleep out, won’t be checkin’ in ‘til we’ve done with this. Don’t say anything about this to anyone. Nothin’ anyone could do, in any case. Best bet is we keep the other side from knowin’ what we know, so keep it to just us here, with only the four of us. No hints to anyone, even Jorje’s family. Anyone else knows, it puts Cowboy and me at bigger risk ‘cause what we plan to do could put us in prison or worse.” Malik looked directly at his sister-in-law. “Christina, do you understand? This is a secret of our family. No one else knows. No one.”