But power didn’t always equate control. One look at Minisino’s face told Walker that neither the presence of the two great cousins nor the potential threat they represented would be enough to stop him.

They would have to physically move against him.

They would have to spill his blood.

And if it came to that, the buffalo army would not stand idly by.

If these were all the game pieces Crazy Dog had to bring to the board, they were no closer to ending this problem than they had been before their arrival. In fact, by bringing Ayabe and Raven to argue his case, Crazy Dog might have made things worse.

There were few as stubborn as Minisino. With such great cousins standing against him, he would only be all the more determined to see this through in his own way.

Joe

Joe was in an excellent mood. Just before he led Cassie and the remaining members of Knotted Cord into the between to confront the buffalo army, he’d suddenly lifted his head and a big smile creased his features. That earned him a puzzled look from Cassie.

“I know they call you Crazy Dog,” she said, “but what can you possibly find to smile about right now? And if you give me that old ‘it’s a good day to die’ line, I’ll whack you so hard you’ll wish you were dead.”

He turned and kissed her, then said, “Honey came through. She got Jilly out of that damned place. Can’t you feel it?”

As soon as he spoke the words, he could see that she did and her smile matched his own.

“What about Lizzie?” Siobhan asked. “Is she okay?”

Joe turned to look at the fiddler with her arm in a sling and her eyes full of hope.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but I don’t know her well enough to be able to sense if she’s with them. But someone’s there, and I know she’s female.”

“It’s got to be Lizzie, right?”

“We can hope,” Joe told her. “But we’ve got other business right now.”

With that he stepped into the between, the others following on his heels. He’d expected that they’d be alone with Walker—just the handful of them facing off against the buffalo army—but when he got there, he grinned again. Good old Jack. He and Grey had brought in the big guns.

Maybe this was going to work out after all. Maybe nobody had to get hurt.

“Well, what do you know?” he said as he strolled over to Walker. “The gang’s all here.”