Outlaws raided our town while my husband, the Marshal, took all the men to escort Lily to a traveling show. The mayor begged me to fetch him. I refused. In my past life, I’d ridden pregnant through the ridge trail to drag him back, saving the town—but escaping outlaws caught Lily. They violated her and left her for the wolves. My husband hunted them down, then locked himself away for three days. He never spoke of it—until the county gave me Lily’s role as head of the Women’s Society. On our child’s birth day, he dragged me into those same woods. "You conspired with them!" he snarled, breaking my legs and slitting my belly open. "Now you’ll die like she did." When I awoke, I was back on that fateful day. This time, he could protect Lily himself. … 1 The crack of a rifle shot was the sound of my second chance at life. I scrambled for the door, but just as I threw it open, the town mayor, Elias, stumbled in, his face pale. “Treisa! The outlaws are here! Get your husband up! He needs to rally the men and protect the town!” Before I could answer, Elias’s wife rushed in behind him, her voice trembling. “Elias, I’ve looked everywhere! The young men are all gone, and the guns are missing from the Marshal’s office.” I looked past her and saw a crowd of the town’s women, their faces etched with a primal fear. Elias was stunned. “Gone? Where could they all be?” As the only one who knew the bitter truth, I had no choice but to speak it. “Jed took them. They’ve all gone to escort Lily to the show in Red Creek.” “Fools!” Elias slammed his fist on the table. “The circuit judge just warned us! Said Silas Vance’s gang was getting bolder. He ordered Jed to double the patrols, and they desert their posts for a theatre show?” A few of the women spat on the ground, cursing Lily’s name for bewitching so many men. Just then, another volley of shots echoed through the gulch. Screams erupted. Elias, to his credit, kept his head. “The rest of you men, get the ironwood gate barred! Women and children, into the root cellar beneath the general store! Don’t you dare come out until you hear a friendly voice!” Our town, Stonegate Gulch, was nestled in a remote canyon. Two paths led in. The main road was wide and well-traveled, guarded by a massive ironwood gate our founders had built. This land was harsh, the people poor, and outlaws were a constant threat. That gate had saved us more than once. Once barred, it was nearly impossible to breach. The other path was a treacherous ridge trail behind the mountain. It was a winding, dangerous track where one wrong step could send you plummeting to your death. Though it was a half-hour ride to the next town, no one ever used it. After giving his orders, Elias turned to me. “Treisa, you know how to ride, and you’ve taken that ridge trail before. You have to go. Find Jed and bring him and the men back. They’re our only hope.” I bit my lip, the lie tasting like ash in my mouth. “Mayor, it’s not that I won’t go. But I fear even if I find him, Jed won’t come back.” A heavy silence fell over the room. Ever since Lily had arrived in town as the new schoolteacher, my husband’s eyes had been glued to her. Everyone in Stonegate Gulch knew the screaming matches we had over her. As their gazes burned into my skin, my sister-in-law, Abigail, stepped forward, saving me. “I’ll go. I know the trail, too. Besides,” she added, glancing at my belly, “Treisa’s with child. A ride like that could be… unwise.” Elias nodded grimly, and without another word, Abigail ran home to saddle her horse. The mayor’s wife herded the rest of us into the damp, dark root cellar to wait. An hour and a half later, Abigail returned. When her silhouette appeared at the cellar entrance, a cheer went up. We thought the men had returned. But her face was ashen. “They won’t come back,” she whispered, her voice cracking. The crowd fell silent. “Why?” someone asked. Tears streamed down Abigail’s face. “They said I was lying. Jed… my own brother… he accused me of conspiring with you, Treisa, of making it all up to ruin his day with Lily. I got on my knees and begged him, but he just called me a shameless liar and turned his back.” The story came tumbling out, punctuated by heart-wrenching sobs. The injustice of it infected us all, and the cellar filled with muttered curses against Lily, the so-called teacher who cared nothing for the women of this town, only for the attention of its men. Before the anger could fully boil over, a deafening BOOM shook the very earth beneath us. We all shot to our feet. Elias appeared at the cellar door, his face grim. “They have dynamite. They’re going to blast the gate.” “What do we do?” a woman wailed. “Are we all going to die in here?” Fear, thick and suffocating, filled the small space. Looking at their terrified faces, an idea sparked within me. “If our men won’t come,” I said, my voice steady, “then we’ll get help from another town.” “I’ll go!” Abigail declared, her tears still wet on her cheeks. But as she tried to stand, she cried out and stumbled. We forced her to sit, and when we pushed up her pant leg, we saw her shins were bruised and swollen to twice their normal size. She admitted sheepishly that she’d pushed her horse too hard and taken a bad fall on the trail. “It’s nothing,” she insisted, trying to stand again. “I can still ride.” I pushed her firmly back down. “No. You stay. I’ll go.” Ignoring their protests, I scrambled out of the cellar and swung myself onto my horse. Elias ran to my side. “Treisa, you have to bring help back within two hours. That gate won’t hold for long.” I nodded, a grim resolve settling in my heart. Halfway down the ridge trail, a figure darted out from the pines, forcing me to yank hard on the reins. My heart leaped when I saw who it was. Caleb, the Marshal from the neighboring town of Red Creek. I slid off my horse, relief flooding through me. “Caleb! Thank God you’re here!” I was about to pour out the whole story when he grabbed my arm in a vice-like grip. “I know,” he said, his voice cold as a tombstone. He sneered, his expression twisted with disgust. “I’ve been waiting for you.” 2 A numbing shock shot up my arm. “What are you talking about?” “You’re on your way to meet the outlaws, aren’t you?” Caleb’s eyes burned with contempt. “Jed came to me this morning. Told me to watch this trail, said you’d use it to rendezvous with Vance’s gang. Treisa, your father was a legend, a Ranger who hunted men like Vance to the ends of the earth. And you’re spitting on his grave, colluding with them out of petty jealousy!” His words hit me like a physical blow. It took a moment for my brain to even process the accusation. In my last life, when Jed was killing me, he’d screamed the same things. That I’d summoned the outlaws to make myself a hero and steal Lily’s position. That I’d orchestrated her rape and murder. In that instant, I knew. Jed had been reborn, too. That’s why he’d ignored Abigail’s pleas. But I never imagined he’d go this far—blocking our only path to salvation. There was no time for anger. I swallowed my pride. “Caleb, I swear to you, I’m not colluding with anyone. Silas Vance and his men are in Stonegate Gulch right now. They have dynamite, and they’re blowing the gate apart. Jed took all our men to go see a show with Lily.” I stared into his eyes, trying to will him to believe me. “Please, get your men. Ride to Stonegate. If you don’t, everyone will be killed.” For a second, my earnestness seemed to give him pause. Then he threw his head back and laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. “Treisa, you’re a hell of an actress. You almost had me. But saying Jed would abandon his post for a woman? That’s where your story falls apart.” “Jed?” he scoffed. “He’s the most responsible man I know. An old soldier. He wouldn’t do that. He’s my friend.” His ridicule was a knife in my heart. “I’m telling the truth,” I pleaded. “Go and see for yourself.” “I see you’re just trying to get me to leave so you can meet your outlaw friends.” Caleb shook his head, his face hardening into a mask of grim righteousness. “Listen to me, Treisa. Jed asked me to stop you, to talk some sense into you. Do you know why I’m here alone? Because he still loves you. He didn’t want to turn you over to the U.S. Marshals. He wanted to give you a chance to turn back from this path.” Jed loves me. Before Lily arrived, I might have believed that. He and Abigail were orphans my father had rescued from a bandit raid that killed their parents. He was ten when he came to live with us. We grew up together, inseparable. When I was sixteen, my father was killed in an ambush, an act of revenge by the very men he used to hunt. On his deathbed, he entrusted me to Jed. Jed promised. Then he left to join the army, telling me to wait for him. He served for five years. I waited for five years, raising Abigail on my own. When he returned, we were married. But he was always distant, lukewarm. People told me it was because we’d known each other too long, that we were already like an old married couple. I believed them. Until Lily arrived. Then I saw the light that could truly shine in Jed’s eyes. He would help her with her chores, stare at her for long moments when she wore a pretty dress, and secretly save his money to buy her expensive scented soaps from the city. The memory was a familiar, sharp pain. But this was no time for heartache. If Caleb wouldn’t help, I had to find someone who would. There was an army fort twenty miles away. I was a better rider than most men. If I pushed my horse, I could make it in an hour. Our town still had a chance. I tried to vault back onto my horse, but Caleb grabbed me again. “So you’re still going to them?” “If you won’t help, I’ll find someone who will,” I spat, struggling against his grip. “Let me go!” “I can’t let you do that.” Caleb twisted my arm, and a sickening pop echoed in the silence as my shoulder left its socket. He pulled a rope from his saddlebag, bound my wrists, and began leading me toward Red Creek. Tears of frustration and pain streamed down my face. “Caleb, let me go! I have to save them!” “Stop your damn play-acting,” he grunted, hoisting me onto his horse. “You’re not going anywhere today.” He led the horse toward his town. As we neared the outskirts, we saw several of his deputies rushing out, rifles in hand. Caleb called out, “What’s happening?” “A prospector just rode in! Said he saw Silas Vance’s gang swarming Stonegate Gulch! We’re riding to help!” Caleb’s face went white as a sheet.
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