Jericho’s body turned rigid with the need to ride after her and hand her a whupping of his own. At the very least, he intended to let her know she wasn’t fooling him with her disguise and that if she didn’t put a stop to her shenanigans, he’d go directly to Flynn.

By the time he managed to find an excuse to take his leave from Elkhorn Ranch, she had at least a thirty-minute lead. With darkness settling in earnest, it was harder to track her. He trailed her far enough to know she’d taken a circuitous route—to make a show of riding toward Kenosha Pass—but had eventually headed around to Healing Springs Ranch.

As he neared the section of Middle Fork River that ran through Wyatt’s land, he dismounted and led his horse along the stretch of riverbank where he’d come that September night almost two years ago.

That had been the night he’d freed Dylan from the mountain shack where Bat and his gang had locked him up after beating him. Getting past the guards hadn’t been easy, but Jericho knocked them both out and broke Dylan free from Bat’s hangout.

Only then did he learn Bat had placed a death warrant on Dylan. As long as Dylan remained in debt to Bat and stayed in South Park—even in Colorado Territory—someone eventually would turn him over to Bat again.

And the next time, Dylan wouldn’t get away, not unless it was in a coffin.

Even though Jericho hadn’t been as close to Dylan during those last couple of years living in South Park, he’d still considered him one of his best friends. At the time of Dylan’s run-in with Bat’s gang, Jericho had already quit his position as Elkhorn Ranch foreman and had been readying to leave. It’d been an easy decision to move up his departure and take Dylan with him.

The night they’d ridden out, Jericho hadn’t known where to go. But his horse took him in the direction of the one place he’d thought he’d never return. To his dad’s home in Chicago.

When his dad had sent Jericho and his older brother, Nash, west to Missouri in early ’62 to get away from the War of Rebellion, Jericho had been livid. He’d already had a distant relationship with his dad since his mom’s murder. And with his dad pushing him away even more, he’d decided he never wanted to see the man again.