“And them?” She jerks her head toward Jesse and Will. “What do they seek?”
“They’re family friends,” I says. “They’re helping me track the gang.” And it’s the truth. I ain’t lied. I’s just left out the bits she don’t want to hear. I feel a twinge of guilt and push it aside. I saved her damn life, and a scout could save us precious time in the mountains. She owes me this. I’ll just have to warn the Coltons not to mention their goals or the full nature of our deal round her.
The girl lifts her chin high, like she’s trying to gauge the sincerity of my words. I reckon it might be an intimidating gaze if she weren’t on that sad pony. It’s so small, and I’m sitting far taller on Silver.
Finally, she says, “If you promise you will not dig in Mother Earth, I will help you.”
“I promise. I only want justice.”
“Revenge,” she corrects.
“Yeah, that.”
“Then I will help, at least until I locate my people. But if we come to the mine and the men you seek are already violating the earth, I will turn away and not help further.” She tips her flat-brimmed hat down to shield her eyes from the sun and says again, “It is sacred land, not to be tampered with.”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get to it. We’re wasting time.”
“I am Liluye,” the girl says. “I won’t work like a nameless mule.”
“Fine,” I says.
“Li-luw-yee,” she says, emphasizing every last beat when I don’t address her proper. “Or Hawk Singing if Liluye is too much on your tongue.”
“That’s two names,” I says. I glance over my shoulder. Jesse and Will are starting to look restless. “Look, I ain’t got time for dallying. You coming with me or not?”
She sits a bit taller in her saddle. “What is your name?”
“Kate,” I says. “Kate Thompson.”
“Thank you, Kate, for what you did for me at the Tiger.”
“It were nothing, Lil. Now let’s ride.” I turn Silver round and trot off toward the Coltons.
“My name is not Lil,” I hear her say to her pony, “but it’s a start.” Hoofbeats follow, staying close.
Guess I got myself a scout.
Chapter Sixteen
“She’s Apache,” Jesse says when we join back up. He’s squinting again, only it ain’t his normal squint. Everything ’bout his face has gone narrow. His lips are thin and pinched. Even his brow seems somehow tighter. “She ain’t riding with us.”
“She’s gonna help us out in the mountains,” I says.
“She ain’t riding with us!” He bats a hand at Lil like she’s dust he can banish back the way we came. “Get outta here,” he snarls at her. “You ain’t welcome.”
“Jesse!” His face snaps to mine and his features are caught somewhere between hate and fear. I remember the story Will told me ’bout their mother, and understand. “Look, I’m sorry ’bout what happened to yer ma, Jesse, I am, but it was years ago,” I says. “And it weren’t Lil who did it.”
“It was her people,” he barks back.
“But not her.”
“I don’t care. I won’t have no blasted Apache riding with us. Not over my dead body!”
“Oh, in tarnation!” I snap. “Will’s right. You preach ’bout letting the past be, ’bout moving on and not letting yer demons eat you whole, but yer holding on to the past more than any of us here—harping on things happened well over a decade ago! You spout all this shiny advice and can’t even figure how to follow it yerself!”
He bites his bottom lip and glares at Lil. She’s just sitting there atop her pony, gazing up at the sky like she ain’t got a care in the world.
“You don’t gotta be her best friend, you just—”
“We’ll never be friends,” Jesse snarls.
“Ugh, you make me livid!” I snap. “You just gotta ride with her, I was trying to say. You and me and Will and her. That’s all. Don’t talk to her. Don’t even look at her if you can’t bear it. But she knows the mountains, and I ain’t turning my back on that sorta resource ’cus yer too damn proud, or maybe yellow-bellied”—he glares at that—“to set aside yer prejudices a few days.”
“Oh, and you like Apache?” he says. “Yer fond of Indians now?”
“I like people who make my life easier.”
Jesse folds his arms over his chest. “I thought that’s what me and Will were doing. We help you with Rose, you help us get the—”
“I know what the deal is,” I says, cutting him off before his words send Lil running.
Jesse gnaws on his bottom lip a moment. “Still don’t see why we gotta make things more complicated by adding a fourth to the group.”
“Safety in numbers. Ain’t that what you’s said before?”
“Well, I’ll be,” he responds. “Guess you ain’t deaf after all.”
“You got a shine for everything, don’t you Jesse?”
He eyes me, frowning. “Not everything.” Then clicks his tongue and nudges Rebel east. I sit there on Silver a moment, watching him ride off ’longside Will as Mutt streaks ahead like a bullet.
“He likes you,” Liluye says.
“What?” I says, turning toward her. “No he don’t.”
“Tarak used to always speak to me in riddles. It was only after he died in a raid and his sister confessed that he wanted to marry me that I understood.”
“Yeah, well, Jesse ain’t Apache, so that riddle logic don’t apply.”
“He listened to you,” she insists. “He gave up his fight.”
’Cus he wants the gold more than he wants to split ways. Staying ain’t got nothing to do with me or what I said ’bout his bias ’gainst Apache. I’d bet good money on it. We’re using each other, me and the Coltons. Ain’t nothing more to it than that.
I remind myself to tell ’em to stay hushed ’bout the gold as soon as possible, then flick Silver’s reins.
“Come on, Lil. We’re falling behind.”
“Liluye,” she says.
I ride on and she follows.
We make good time ’long the river. The land is mostly flat and we don’t got to pause to check our course—the Salt’s guiding us just fine. But by late afternoon, all that’s changing.