The wind did not howl in Red Creek anymore. It whispered. Jeremiah Graves sat his horse, a dusty bay mustang with a scarred flank and patient eyes, on the southern ridge, looking down at what had been his home for seven years. The sun was a dull copper coin behind a veil of smoke, and the air smelled of charred pine, scorched leather, and something worse. Something that made a man’s throat close up and his hand drift to the butt of his Colt. Red Creek had been a good town. Not pretty, not pro