Chapter 39

“But you shot Ben, didn’t you? And you even believed his story. You must have, or you wouldn’t have questioned me.”

Eliza sunk back into the hay. “I had to shoot him. I didn’t know what he was going to do with me. I didn’t know what his plan was. I couldn’t spend another day with him, or another week, or another month.”

“But you don’t know what I’m going to do to you either. And you never did. What if he was right, Eliza, and I’m the bad guy? What if I lied to you, and I’m the one who shot the sheriff in the back, right before I shot his pretty wife? What then?”

“Why are you saying these things?” Eliza cried. “What are you trying to do to me? I don’t want to believe that you’re the bad guy, Ford. I don’t want to be afraid of you. I don’t want…I don’t want…” She couldn’t catch her breath.