The days following the raid were oddly peaceful. I had expected some form of backlash from the state since JW was the newly appointed lieutenant governor. What actually happened was quite surprising. Governor Pollard had the States attorney’s office bring charges against JW for blackmail, racketeering, and twenty-two counts of reckless endangerment for the men killed in the mine explosion. The irony was that the governor learned this twisting of the facts tactic from JW himself.
With JW out of the picture, I was sure to start my ranching business. Bear took over primary responsibilities as the sheriff, which he absolutely loved. Millie enjoyed having more free time and said she planned on investing it in helping me get started. As for Joshua, he was physically healing well but was emotionally torn on whether or not to tell Chloe the truth about who killed her father. So that left Mac as the only one of us uncertain about their future. I was meeting him today at the train station. He said he wanted to travel a little before he decided to settle down in one place.
“So when you do settle, you’re coming back to Asante, right?” I asked my old friend.
“Maybe,” he said to me as he shrugged his shoulders.
“Before you go, there has been something that has been nagging me for a while now.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“Whatever happened to the Dutchman and all this gold you were telling me about? If there was any gold, he must have gotten it all.”
“Oh, did I ever tell you that my great-grandmother was Dutch?” He tipped his hat and boarded the train.