Nicademus: The Wild Ones (10 page)

She told him to stay put. But he had lived a life of restriction and carnage for three years. He needed to be outside, he needed to feel like a man again. Buttoning his shirt he was going to venture out and tell her so, when he heard something or someone outside.
 
Curious, he peered out of the window. He’d know Tyler Shepherd anywhere. And the sight of him on Annabelle’s land sent him into a rage. Turning in his panic, he got his guns. Then it hit him:
Annabelle had his bullets
.

“Well looka here, boys.” A man leaned forward on the front of his saddle. His dusty black hat tipped over to cover his mean eyes. He would appear handsome if it weren’t for his sun-bleached skin and the sneer he gave her, revealing teeth stained from too much tobacco chewing.

“What can I do you for?” Annabelle asked.

“Where’s your mistress, gal? Fetch her, now,” the man in all black said. The men on his left and right side glared at her as well.

“This here my property, I’m the mistress,” Annabelle replied.

The other three men laughed, but not the middle one. He sat upright, his eyes clung to her like claws. She couldn’t break free from his menacing glare. This man made no effort to hide his contempt, and she made no effort to cower in the face of it. Annabelle was from a proud people. And Nicademus was their town. Though history had proven that her kind of defiance only brought about more trouble, she couldn’t turn away from it. Which was why she kept a white boy outlaw as a pet. So Annabelle cleared her throat and spoke with as much respect as she could muster. “What can I do you for, mister?”

“Open your mouth and clean my dick,” said one of his men.

The others howled with laughter. The man put up his hand and silenced the mean taunts of his men. They hurled lewd insults before they silenced. He looked around her land and then paused at the horse she kept tied up near the trough. His gaze then went east, toward the town. Understanding lit his face as his eyes returned to her. He smirked, pushing his hat up on his head. “This here is one of those new towns, ain’t it?” the man asked.

“What kinda town is that boss?” another asked.

“Which one is it, gal?” the man in black asked.

“Nicademus,” she said proudly.

“Niggademus,” the man chuckled. The men in his company didn’t laugh. Instead they exchanged looks of disgust. The man dropped down from his horse. “Get yo man out here. I’m done with you,” he said.

“Like I says, this is my land. Now what can I do
you
for?” she said, fingering the trigger of the downturned gun. Her eyes darted between the ones on the horse and the man before her. If she took down their leader they’d act. But with the element of surprise on her side she could very well win this fight. She was willing to die trying. Bravery could make a young girl stupid sometimes.

The man in black tipped his hat from his head and gave her a fake gentleman’s bow. “Well I beg your pardon, ma’am. I’m Tyler Shepherd. Perhaps you heard of me?”

“I can’t say that I have,” she replied.

He chuckled. “I’ll own the rail line coming straight through this land, eventually.”

“I doubts it,” she replied.

His gentile smile grew mean in its mockery. “Since you people try to pretend at being civilized I’ll try to pretend that you deserve it, little girl. There’s an outlaw on the loose and a bounty on his head.” He pulled out a wilted paper from his backside. Then held it up for her. Annabelle hated taking her eyes off him for a second but she cut them over to the wanted poster. The face looked like her
pet
inside, minus the shave.

“What he do?” she asked.

“Robbed from law abiding citizens like me. Typically I let the law handle it. This one here is personal. You seen him?”

“No,” she said with disinterest. “We don’t have his kind in our town.”

The man in black glanced back to his men and they smiled, amused. He returned his gaze to her. “You won’t mind if I check for ma’self?” he asked. He then dropped off his horse and stepped forward.

Annabelle lifted the gun and aimed. “Get back on yo’ horse, sir.”

The other men drew their guns. Shepherd gave her a look a parent would give a child who learned a new trick. Well, he didn’t have to take her seriously. She had two buckshots that would deliver the lesson. Annabelle dropped her aim, targeting Shepherd’s jewels. “I means it!” she said, at the ready.

“You have no idea what kind of trouble you bout to bring on yer’self if you don’t lower that gun,” he said through clenched teeth.

“I gots an idea that it won’t matter none ta you since you’ll be searching for that peanut I’m about to blow out from between your legs,” she said with a sly smile.

The man chuckled. He seemed genuinely impressed. His smile dimmed. “Did I hear you say you stay here alone? You have no man to see to you?”

“This here is my man,” she said, lifting the gun and aiming at his face. “Now get going. Leave as you came. But if you decide to come back for a visit, my man will be waiting for you.”

He tipped his hat once more, but his eyes said that it was far from over. “You heard the lady. Let’s go, boys!” he said, mounting his horse and then drawing back but never taking his eyes off her. The men followed. Annabelle watched them ride off, trembling all over with fear. She had broken every rule made to protect their town.

Never antagonize the whites.

Never bring attention to the town (or herself for that matter).

Never draw a gun on any man unless you aims to use it.

She broke them all. Lowering the gun when she was left with nothing but dust in their wake, she backed away. She knew why she broke the rules, what caused it. She did it for one reason only.
For him
. Turning, she ran for the safety of her cottage, up the stairs to her porch and inside. She nearly collided with Jeremiah.

“That was your man. That was him,” Annabelle said, her voice and body trembling.

“You shouldn’t have done that. You have no idea what you just did!” he grabbed her by the arms.

“I couldn’t let him find you. I wouldn’t let him take you from me.” She spoke with quiet but desperate conviction, then clenched her jaw to kill the sob in her throat as fear gripped her.

What was she saying? Take him from her?
He couldn’t process the meaning of her words. Jeremiah looked past her to the door. Tyler Shepherd could come back with his posse and burn her and this entire town to the ground. Annabelle had to know that. Yet she fought for him anyway.

“Annie,” he began.

She put her fingers to his lips and stopped him. It was as if she could read his mind now. “I got ta go tell the sheriff. I gots ta warn the town. We needs ta get word to the Buffalo Soldiers. They’ll come, they have the authority to protect us.”

“It’s best that I leave,” he said, going for his things.

She circled him quickly, then pushed him back. “You cain’t go! They’ll catch you for sure. Stay here! I’ll be right back.
Stay
!”

“If I’m gone they’ll leave your town alone. That’s your chance. Shepherd wants this gold more than he wants Nicademus.”

“I just held off six white men with a shotgun. It’s my fight too. Besides, they don’t need to know you’re here. We’ve been through this before. Now I gots ta warn the sheriff.”

“No, Annie.” He tried to stop her. But she rushed the door then raced out before he could get his hands on her. He saw her get Randy and ride off the land on him, heading toward town. Immediately he searched the cottage for his ammo. He was stuck. The best way to save her and her people was to leave, not join the fight.
 
But with empty guns how far could he run? Shepherd would come back that day, that night, or a week from now. There was no telling when.

Exasperated, he stopped his ransacking to think on it further, particularly what had caused him his greatest fear. Facing Shepherd wasn’t what left him terrified. Shepherd getting his hands on Annabelle enraged him. She was brave, beautiful, and, some way, somehow, more important to him now than his crusade. He paced. He paced until the sun set. When he wasn’t pacing he was checking the windows for her or worse. He couldn’t last much longer. And then she returned. But this time she wasn’t alone. An Indian, a black woman, and the first black sheriff he’d ever laid eyes upon were at her side.

“Jeremy, this here is my Red Sun, and she Ms. Kitty, and this man is Sheriff Taylor. They knows everything. I told them who those men were and what they done ta your family. They gonna help us.”

The hatred he saw in Red Sun’s eyes tore through her words. The man wanted blood, his blood. He could tell. He nodded a greeting to them all. The sheriff walked over slowly, as if Jeremiah was the oddity. He looked him up and down and his eyes froze on the guns holstered to his hips.

 
“Annabelle says you’re on the mend?” the sheriff’s eyes lifted to his.

“I am. I can be on my way,” he offered.

“Too late to run,” the black woman said. His gaze swiveled over to hers. She was striking, with her toffee skin and long curly black hair. She crossed her arms and glared directly at him. “If you found by Shep it will indict us all. It’s best we keep him hidden.”

The Indian spoke in a foreign tongue. He took a threatening step toward him. The woman and Annabelle both had to talk to the man in his language to keep him from advancing further.

The sheriff looked back at Red Sun. “He can stay with you.”

“No!” Annabelle stepped up. “He stays here.” Every curve of her body spoke defiance and it didn’t go unmissed by the Indian. He looked at her with a mixture of hurt, disappointment, and anger.

“Annabelle, hold your tongue!” Ms. Kitty warned.

“I will not! I’m sorry, Red Sun, but no. He stays with me.” Annabelle walked over to Jeremiah and took his hand. She held it in hers. The three strangers exchanged looks and then fixed their glares back on Jeremiah. He was rendered speechless.

“Why you care so much for this white man?” Ms. Kitty asked. “What done happened between you two?”

“That’s not your business,” Annabelle responded. Though Jeremiah believed the Indian couldn’t speak English, there was something in Annabelle’s response that he did understand. And it was enough. Before Jeremiah could draw his gun he was thrown into the wall. The force of the attack nearly rendered him unconscious. Nothing prepared him for the beating. Red Sun’s fists felt like boulders as they hit his head and chest with crushing violence.

“STOP!” Annabelle screamed. She then fired a shot of her gun into the roof. It was the only reprieve Jeremiah received. Not even the sheriff could stop the attack. Red Sun looked back at Annabelle who held a gun in her hands. Red Sun answered Annabelle in his language and the beating stopped. He stood. His chest and shoulders bulked as he panted. Jeremiah reached for his weapon.

“Don’t you even think on it,” Ms. Kitty said, leveling her gun at Jeremiah. “You just lie still, outlaw, while they work through this.”

Jeremiah spat blood and put up both his hands to indicate surrender.

Red Sun had never in his life felt such pain by the actions of his sweet sparrow. Annabelle stood before him with a gun turned on him. And for all of her betrayal, to do so for this man, the scum he was, broke his heart. “Why?” he asked her in Chickasaw.

“I like him, he mine,” she wept.

The words spoken, even in his own language, made no sense. How could she choose this bandit over him?

“What he do to you?” Red Sun asked.

“Nothing. I swears it. I help heal him, and he my friend. You don’t understand. They not all bad, Red Sun. Not all of them. He’s a good man. Lost his tribe too. Lost everything because of that man Tyler Shepherd,” Annabelle pleaded. “Please understand. Say you understand.”

“She might be telling the truth,” Ms. Kitty said in Chickasaw. “Tyler Shepherd is the evil one. Believe me.”

Annabelle lowered the gun. She dropped it to the floor and walked over to Red Sun, like a child running into the arms of a parent. He could see her again. A little bird, covered in the blood of his people. The only survivor of a slaughter. He remembered how she clung to him, sucked her thumb and cried for weeks over the loss of her mother and father. How he tried to heal her, give her a life of freedom. She was grown and he had to learn to trust and accept it. He picked her up and held her to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry. Forgive me, I’m sorry,” she wept.

“
Imponna
.” Be wise, he said.

“
Chiholloli
.” I love you, she replied. He lowered her to the ground. He captured her face and trusted her spirit. She was a warrior. He believed in her more than he believed in his hate. And no matter what, he’d do whatever was necessary to protect her.

“I never touched her,” Jeremiah spoke as he struggled to stand. Ms. Kitty lowered her weapon. “I owe her my life. I don’t care what you do with me, but let me fight with you. If it comes to it. Or give me to Tyler Shepherd if it comes to that. I don’t want anything to happen to Annabelle.”

“We ain’t gonna give you to that dirty bastard. We’d hang you ourself first,” Ms. Kitty replied. Red Sun shook his head and paced away from Annabelle. She however, smiled at Jeremiah. She walked over to him and took his hand in hers again. They stood side by side to hear his fate. The sheriff picked up his hat and put it on. He too looked at the bond of friendship between Jeremiah and Annabelle with disgust.