Outlaws Of Phantom Canyon (Savage Series) (2 page)

The Barlow, Sanderson, and Company
Stagecoach rocked back and forth on the worn out leather thorough braces. It swayed in a cradle-like motion, as it rolled on down the Cherokee Trail across the vast prairie, behind a matched team of four stout muscular horses, that instantly reacted to Gus, the stagecoach driver's commands.

Bright rays of sunlight showed through the open windows of the stagecoach onto Julianna’s white porcelain face, warming her on this brisk cold morning as she peered out the open window port with its leather curtain rolled up and tied in place with a leather thong. She took in the wide view of her new surroundings, and the tale-tale sign from this morning’s vivid sunrise
, that rain would be coming before nightfall to this beautiful prairie land of buffalo grass, prickly pear cactus, and wildflowers.

Now what was tha
t saying my father always said. . . as Julianna thought to herself. Oh yes,
‘Red sails at night, sailors delight; red sails in morning, sailors take warning’
. From the looks of the sky, there was undoubtedly going to be some stormy weather here today.

So much for her new fancy
dress made
of taffeta, with its multiple layers of ruffles and flounces she was wearing. It was sure to be ruined in the soggy mud today as it was known that stagecoaches and wagons were notorious for getting stuck in the mud, and that all passengers would need to climb out, lightening the load, and help push it through the deep mud, bumps, and ruts.

The long journey across the wide open rolling prairie had already taken a big toll on
 Julianna. She felt worn out and sorely bruised from all the bouncing along on the rough wash-board and pot-holed trail. After a while she sat back against her bruised backside on the hard wooden bench seat from her avid window gazing, and looked upon the other tired worn out passengers. Wes McCormick and Norman Lloyd sat directly across from Julianna. They had spent many hours chatting with Julianna and her nanny, Rosa, in the last couple days to past the time.

Julianna guessed they were in their mid-forties. Wes McCormick, who had a shady look to him, was traveling to Denver from Dodge City to meet a saloon owner about selling out his Double Barrel Saloon. The other man’s name was Norman Lloyd, and was also headed for Denver to meet his mail order bride that he had been writing to for the past year. Norman was so nervous during the trip that he could not stop fidgeting with the gift
he obviously had wrapped himself with his big clumsy hands. Both men had boarded the stagecoach a couple days ago at Las Animas, where the stagecoach had stopped for the night to rest the horses and passengers. 

That left Julianna’s nanny, Rosa Radford, the overly plump old woman sitting beside Julianna on the bench seat. Rosa appeared to have never missed a meal in her life. Hired by Julianna’s father to be her nanny, Rosa had spent the last 20 years of her 65 years raising Julianna as if she was her very own child.

This tiresome long trip through the wilds of the Colorado territory was the hardest on Rosa. Every rut and rocky bump on the Cherokee Trail seemed to jar her feeble body to the bone, as she bounced around in the stagecoach on the unforgiving oak seat. Rosa didn’t think she had a muscle or bone left in her old body that didn’t feel bruised.

As much as Rosa loved Julianna,
as if she had borne her herself. Rosa was very much looking forward to the day that Julianna would get married, so that Rosa did not have to escort Julianna on anymore of her wild adventures. With Julianna’s natural charm and beauty, Rosa knew before the end of next year that Julianna would have her choice of suitable suitors, and probably be happily married before long after.

Up on top of the stagecoach sat the seasoned teamster driver, Mr. Augustus Parker, and his sidekick and long time best friend
, Peter Roland, who always rode shotgun for Gus. Pete wore a Colt Peacemaker low on his hip. He carried a 10 gauge Greener double barrel shotgun under the driver's seat for the extra protection it offered, to guard the gold and bank money usually being transported on the stagecoach. Gus also wore a Colt Peacemaker,
but when handling a stagecoach team of four scared horses, he usually had to leave the shooting up to Pete.

After taken in all the beauty from the prairie scenery she could, Julianna finally sat back and closed her eyes t
o rest them for just a moment . . .

 
Julianna awoke from her dreamy slumber in a startled reaction to loud gun fire, and a scream from her elderly nanny who was sitting beside her in the stagecoach. Julianna sat forward to peer out the open stagecoach window only to see a wild bunch of outlaws quickly riding up with their pistols drawn, and firing at the stagecoach! 

Up on top of the racing stagecoach, Pete was firing back with his Colt pistol at the fast approaching outlaws
, as Gus was encouraging the horses to give it their all. Pete had yet to hit any of the pursuing outlaws with the stagecoach swaying and bouncing along knocking off his aim. But as the outlaws drew closer, he put his .45 back in its low hung holster, and pulled out his Greener 10 gauge sawed-off shotgun from under the driver's seat. Before Pete had a chance to cut some of the outlaws in half with it, sharpshooter outlaw Alexandra Baxter shot Pete in his left arm. Losing his grip, he dropped the shotgun off the side of the stagecoach.

*     *     *

Finally, as Julianna's daydreaming mind slowly wandered back to the present time . . . She found her voice shaky as she tried to get in control of her dangerous situation by telling the big strong man who was holding her tightly captive in his lap, “Put me down. Put me down now!” She had turned her upper body so that she could look up into Gabriel’s face, to those slate blue eyes that looked so chillingly cold this time.

When Gabriel intently returned Julianna’s now silent stare, he felt raw emotions rolling inside him that he did not expect or understand. Sure he was undoubtedly upset for having to use this beautiful woman as a human shield, but he did it to try and keep anyone else from getting shot. All he knew was he didn’t like this dangerous situation at all, and the last thing he needed right now was to have to wet nurse a demanding hostage!

For a headstrong woman that always had something to say, Julianna was for once again completely silent. Not only had the long tiresome stagecoach ride already taken its demanding toll on her, but this was way beyond even her
ability. She had no idea how to convincingly persuade these awful outlaw men to let her go, especially
this
outlaw, who was tightly holding her in his lap with one of his tanned muscular arms around her small hourglass waist. While he had his other tanned muscular arm extended forward in front of Julianna, as he held onto the horse’s leather reins as they raced away. 

Gabriel held Julianna so tight up against his hard body, that she had no choice but to feel his strong muscled chest, as it moved in and out with his every breath. She could feel the hot moist air from his breath on her ear and the back of her delicate neck, as Gabriel da
red to breathe, while his heart raced faster than normal! 

As much as Gabriel tried to convince himself otherwise, the fast pounding of his heartbeat was not due to the enraged posse that he knew would soon be looking for them, but from the intense heat that was growing in his loins from having her in his lap
, and the alluring smell of her faint lilac perfume that drove him wild.

*     *     *

The Phantom outlaw gang managed to get away with all the gold money and a beautiful young woman. But two members of their gang were injured. Victor had been shot in the shoulder and was in a lot of pain, but he would make it. Sam, who had been gut shot, was having a hard time staying conscious enough to ride, with loosing so much blood. Gabriel was also unable to travel very fast riding double on his horse with Julianna in his lap. So all three horses were trailing back behind the rest of the outlaw gang.

Gabriel was far too deep in his own worried thoughts to really notice that he had slowed down considerably
, once they were safely far enough away from the stagecoach. Having to improvise and kidnap this breathtakingly beautiful young lady was definitely not part of his well thought out plans. He had already seen that she was obviously from back East, undoubtedly spoiled, and use to getting her own way. He knew he was going to have a very hard time keeping the rest of the outlaw gang off of her. Which meant keeping her safe was going to be a full time job that he didn’t have time for. Nor a job he wanted. The last time he cared for a woman she ended up dead . . .

He would love to just stop
, and let Julianna go now that the gang was safely away from the stagecoach, but Gabriel did not have that cold of a heart to do it. They were too far away from the stagecoach now, which had probably already gone on its way, to its next stop to report the robbery. So now Gabriel must carefully figure out how he will still be able to follow through with his well made plans, and take care of this spoiled brat at the same time. Unable to take the chance of telling her his dangerous secret, if he wasn't careful, Gabriel may have to take his secret to his cold grave just to save her . . .

*     *     *

Slowly coming out of the shock from having been held with a Colt pistol to her beautiful head, then thrown on the back of a big horse and kidnapped; Julianna tried again to persuasively convince this handsomely strong man to let her go. “Sir, please let me go! I promise you, I won’t tell anyone about you and your outlaw gang.”

“You don’t
know
anything about our outlaw gang,
or
me, so what could you say?” Gabriel was quick to reply in irritation as kidnapping this beautiful young lady had put him in a sour mood.

“My father . . . he can pay you a whole lot more money than
your men have stolen here today,” Julianna managed to say, as dust caught in her parched throat and she coughed. 

Noticing her thirst, Gabriel took his muscular arm from around her narrow waist
, and reached down for his canteen of water that always hung on the saddle horn of his saddle. He handed it to Julianna for her to drink as he said, “Lady, I did not kidnap you to trade for more money. I kidnapped you to keep my ass from being shot off back there by your dumb ass traveling companions.”

This annoyingly beautiful woman was already driving Gabriel nuts
, and getting under his sinew tough skin in an irritating and yet arousing way, that kept his wandering mind on improper thoughts of her. Instead of what he should of been thinking about. He had hoped talking to her in such a manner would shut her up.

While he was instantly lost aga
in in his own troubled thoughts,
Julianna exclaimed, “How dare you use that kind of language in front of me!”

Gabriel quickly put his troubled thoughts to the back of his busy mind
for now, as he let her have it. “Lady, let’s get this straight right now. You have been kidnapped, you
will
do as I say and no arguments, or I
will
let the rest of the gang fight over you and then do to you what they want. By then you will wish you had listened to me! I’m sure by now you have figured out how much they want to get their filthy hands on you. So you
will
do as I say, got it?” Gabriel fiercely stated more than asked, as he was getting extremely irritated with her now.

Julianna opened her mouth with the strong intent to protest, but the vivid thoughts of what those awful men obviously wanted to do to her, and the angered look in Gabriel’s smoldering slate blue eyes
, told her all she needed to know right now. In defeat, she shut her mouth and nodded in agreement. Thinking that if she was going to be forced to bed down with any of these awful men, she felt she’d rather it be this ruggedly handsome man. Who has shown her some compassion, and hopefully would be kinder to her than the rest of the outlaw gang. Who she could tell were raised in a barn, and haven’t bathed in who knows how long.

Maybe it would have been better to have taken the chance at being shot at, than to have taken this annoying aristocratic lady hostage. A bullet wound wouldn’t be near as painful as her soft warm body, that he held so close to his, and was painfully distracting him from keeping his mind on his real job.
 

*     *     *

Sam, who had been gut shot by Pete, had passed out from the great loss of blood. He fell from his gray colored horse to the prickly pear cactus covered ground below. Gabriel saw him fall and knew Sam was but a few short breaths from being the Devil's newest resident. As Gabriel stopped his big bay horse beside Sam, he said to him with no true sorrow, "Sorry partner, but you won't be needing your horse anymore."

After climbing down off his big stallion, Gabriel took a strong leather thong from his worn out saddlebags, and gently tied Julianna's delicately gloved hands together. Gabriel then lifted Julianna from his tall stout horse
, and set her onto Sam's big gray gelding. He reached down to Sam's body, and took Sam's beat up old hat off his head. Smashing it down onto Julianna's soft curls, so that she had something to protect her delicate white face from the hot bright rays of the sun. As he grabbed the leather reins to her gray horse, he climbed back onto his own horse and told her, "Don't even think about trying to run away. You would never survive out here by yourself."