Taylor climbed to his feet and picked up the box. "Donate anything of value to the church," he instructed the deputy at the door and walked back in. Ignoring his dinner, the only meal he'd had that day, he went to the cell where Running Bear was laying on a bunk, recovering from the beating the town's people had given him earlier.
"You all right?" he asked softly with a glance over his shoulder to ensure they had some small amount of privacy now that the crowd was gone.
"I am well." Running Bear sat up with effort and gripped his chest.
Probably broken ribs, Taylor thought. "What the hell happened? How did you get involved?" he asked aloud.
"Our brother was not in his cave when I went to visit him this morning. I tracked him to your new home and then onward to town. He took the life of a man behind the tavern. Someone saw him, and I tried to intervene." Running Bear fell quiet.
Taylor didn't need to hear the rest to understand what happened. "They want to hang you Saturday. I can get you out of here, but we probably can't return to Indian Territory ever again once we're gone."
"No, brother." Running Bear stood and came to the bars of the cell. One of his eyes was swollen shut and his features bruised. "Protect Fighting Badger. He is our brother. I believe he broke his promise to us for a reason. He told me someone was after your wife."
Taylor's hands clenched into fists.
It wasn't Fighting Badger's fault; it was his. Fighting Badger acted only to protect those he cared about since he had taken an oath to his brothers seven years before. "I should be in there," Taylor muttered. "I should've protected her or known or … prevented this somehow."
"We cannot undo this," Running Bear said. "Take care of him and your wife. I will not see you homeless. Our people know what that is, Taylor, to be taken from the home of your ancestors and sent elsewhere. If my life will prevent that and keep the peace, then I will give it freely."
"But you don't deserve to die." Taylor rested his head against the bars, sorrow creeping into his mind.
"The night you fell from the sky, I was supposed to cross the river with my cousins to hunt bison. Instead, I went to the crater and found you, a child, crying and lost."
Taylor smiled at his most treasured memory. Running Bear had gathered him up in his arms and carried him back to their village and his mother, whose shocked expression at seeing her son holding a boy that fell from the sky was Taylor's second favorite memory.