Buck Wyld's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Buck Wyld stood at the edge of the clearing, watching a woman walk straight toward the hideout like she'd been invited. She hadn't. No one knew this place except the four people already here, and Buck had told each of them what happened to loose lips. She stopped near the rock formation that marked the hidden approach—a pile of stones stacked to look like a cowboy, something Buck and the others had built as a joke. The woman leaned against a wooden post she'd planted in the ground herself, casual as anything, like she'd been waiting all morning. Her shirt hung open at the collar, and her boots were scuffed with red dirt from the long walk in. She wasn't lost. She knew exactly where she was. Buck walked down to meet her, and she pulled something from her pocket before he could ask. A pink sheriff's star, bright as candy, sat in her palm. He recognized it immediately. It had been sitting on the mantel inside the main cabin, a stupid trophy someone brought back from town last month. No one outside the hideout had seen it. No one. "You planning to tell me who sent you?" Buck asked. The woman shook her head, slipped the star back in her pocket, and said nothing. She didn't need to explain how she got it—she already had. What Buck couldn't figure out was who inside had handed it to her, and why. One of his own people had broken the only rule that mattered, and now this stranger stood here waiting for an answer he didn't know how to give.