The Giant Cowboy Found His Bride Crying on Their Wedding Night—Then She Whispered a Secret That Made Him Step Back in Horror
PART 2
The deafening crack of gunfire ripped through the porch railing, sending splinters flying inches from the little boy’s face.
Rebecca shrieked, throwing her body over the child. “Nathaniel!”
Nathaniel Cross didn’t flinch. The six-foot-seven giant moved with the terrifying speed of an avalanche. Before Elijah could level his revolver, Nathaniel’s mᴀssive hand clamped around the barrel, twisting it upward with bone-crushing force. A second sH๏τ blasted harmlessly into the dark sky.
With his other hand, Nathaniel delivered a single, brutal punch that sent Elijah crashing off the porch and straight into the frozen mud.
“Jonathan!” Nathaniel roared, turning his rifle directly toward Clara’s first husband.
Jonathan’s smug smile vanished. He raised his hands, backing away toward the edge of the yard. “Hold on, Cross! You don’t want to do this! If I don’t give the signal, the girl in the mine shaft doesn’t get air!”
Clara staggered out onto the porch, clutching her head as a torrent of fragmented memories violently tore through her mind. Seven years ago. A cold winter room in Denver. A crying infant taken from her arms while Jonathan whispered that the child was stillborn.
“My… my baby girl,” Clara whispered, her knees buckling.
Nathaniel caught her before she hit the ground, his heart hammering against his ribs. “Clara, stay back.”
“No,” she sobbed, looking at Rebecca and the terrified boy clutching her skirt. “She’s alive. My daughter is alive down in that shaft.”
Rebecca slowly stood up, holding the little boy—Nathaniel’s son—safely against her chest. “They took her when she was six months old, Clara. Jonathan used her to force me into silence, just like he used those forged documents to trap you.”
Jonathan laughed, wiping rain and mud from his coat. “You think you’ve won? Look beneath your feet, Cross! That old mine shaft isn’t just a prison—it’s rigged with dynamite. If I don’t pull this detonator wire by midnight, the entire northern ridge—and everyone inside it—goes up in smoke!”
Elijah groaned, pushing himself up from the mud, bld streaming from his nose. “He’s not bluffing, brother. We all work for the same syndicate. And the man waiting at the bottom of that mine shaft isn’t just a business partner… he’s the one who ordered the entire operation.”
Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”
Jonathan grinned maliciously and pulled a small brᴀss detonator switch from his coat. “The man who bought Blackwater Ranch thirty years ago… and the person who told Elijah to frame you for m*rder.”
Before Jonathan could slam the switch down, a sudden, sharp flash of light cut through the storm from the direction of the old mine entrance three hundred yards away.
The heavy iron door of the mine shaft swung open.
And a small, terrified voice echoed through the valley, calling out a name that made Nathaniel and Clara freeze in absolute horror.
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