The Color of Forever: Book Two: Forever Cowboys Series (21 page)

“Samantha?” Ben called from the other side of the front door. “Are you okay in there?”

Bobby Lee prodded her with the gun again then positioned himself at the side of the front door where he would be hidden from Ben’s sight when he came in. He used the gun to motion her closer. “Let him in,” he ordered her again.

Samantha stubbornly shook her head. She had to find her voice and get Ben away from here before Bobby Lee and Larry killed him.

She cleared her throat. “Go away, Ben,” she called, making her voice sound irate. “I’m not in the mood for company tonight! I don’t want you here. You’re a pest,” she lied, hating to hurt Ben even though she was doing it to save his life.

“Okay, Samantha,” he said. “If that’s how you feel about it I won’t bother you again.” She heard his steps as he crossed the porch to leave. Samantha’s heart sank and lifted all at once. She was happy he was leaving but sad that she had wounded his feelings with those cruel words.

“Go ahead and shoot him, Bobby Lee!” Larry stage whispered to his partner.

“Naw, that’s a bad idea,” Larry responded in a low voice, much to Samantha’s relief. He’d be missed too soon, maybe before we could finish our business and get out of here. She’s run him off good and proper,” he continued, squeezing Samantha’s shoulder painfully. “He won’t be back here.”

They heard Ben’s truck come to life and he spun gravel leaving, accelerating fast down her driveway.

“I hope you’re right,” Larry said. “I’ve heard tell he ain’t nobody you wanna mess with.”

Bobby Lee threw his head back and laughed. “Him? He’s a coward and a half. Dwayne Parsons had a run-in with him a couple years ago at a club down in Jackson Hole. He said he called that warden every name in the book and he couldn’t get him to fight. Said Connors just told him he wasn’t gonna fight him and turned tail and left. He ain’t no threat to us unless he catches us with the goods and gets the drop on me,” he scoffed.

Samantha’s blood boiled at these insults to Ben. Okay, maybe he wasn’t the type of man to stand up and fight, but he was the kindest, sweetest and best man she’d ever known.

“He’s more of a man than you’ll ever be,” she told Bobby Lee defiantly. His lips curled in a snarl as he slapped her face hard enough to snap her head sideways. That did it! Smart females who lived in New York City took courses in self defense for protection against muggers and predators, and Samantha was one of those women. She had never had occasion to use her training and in her initial shock and fear tonight, hadn’t tried to defend herself.

It was tilting at windmills, she knew, to try and fend these terrible men off but now her fighting spirit was aroused and she’d be damned if she’d go down without a fight.

Whirling on Bobby Lee, she brought her knee up and slammed it as hard as she could into his groin, then before he had time to react, she gouged at both of his eyes with her thumbs. She was gratified to hear him scream like a girl and fall down, clutching his privates.

She swooped to take the gun from him but Larry jerked her back by her hair and cuffed her up side the head. She raged at him, raking his face with her fingernails and then grabbing his hand, bit him as hard as she could. She tried to knee him, as well, but he backed away from her field of contact.

Bobby Lee had regained his feet and was advancing on Samantha, a look of the utmost menace on his face. She knew she couldn’t fight them both off and was at the point of trying to provoke Bobby Lee to go ahead and shoot her now, before they used and abused her body. They intended to kill her once they were finished with her. Samantha had no doubt of that.

She darted across to the fireplace and snatched the poker. Whirling it around in front of her, she managed to jab Larry in the ribs and then crack it across his upper back with all her strength. She had been aiming for his head, but he ducked. Still, she was gratified to hear his shriek of pain and see him retreat to the other side of the room.

Bobby Lee came toward her, gun drawn and pointing at her. “That’s enough out of you,” he said. She could tell by the flat, cold tone of his voice that he meant business. Still, catching a glimpse of her fingernail polish remover sitting on the coffee table, she yanked it up fast, twisted the cap off and dashed the contents in Bobby Lee’s eyes.

Unfortunately, although he let out a bellow of pain and his eyes were red and weeping, he didn’t drop the gun and raised it purposefully now. Samantha had resigned herself to her fate when the front door crashed open and Ben came through fast. Things happened so quickly after that that she only registered a blur of movement, heard a few thuds and closed her eyes to keep from seeing Ben shot and killed.

“Samantha, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

She blinked in disbelief, doubting what her ears had heard. Ben? Alive? Daring to open her eyes, she blinked and to her utter joy and relief, there was Ben, alive and standing right in front of her. Larry and Bobby Lee were on the floor, handcuffed together and appearing to be unconscious.

“But … but … how did you do that?” she asked incredulously. “You just came through the door and then boom … wham … zoom … Just like that. What happened?”

Ben spoke again. “Did they hurt you?”

She shook her head wonderingly, a look of shock on her face. “It was so fast. You just burst through the door and then whoosh whoosh whoosh and it was over. Just like that,” she said, snapping her fingers. “Just like that.”

Ben spoke again, louder and more forcefully. “Samantha! Did they hurt you?”

“No,” she answered, taking a deep shuddering breath of relief and pent-up emotion, finally coming out of her shock to some extent. “No, but they made me dance for them and they were going to take turns with me after that. They made me feed them and make them coffee, too,” she said and was proud of herself that her voice barely shook during this recitation.

Ben’s eyes narrowed and she saw him go white around his mouth. He looked down at the two poachers with a look on his face Samantha had never imagined seeing there. He looked … deadly dangerous. Ben! The strong conviction washed over her that there were sides to Ben Connors she hadn’t known about until now.

The men were stirring back to consciousness and Ben prodded them with the toe of his boot to speed up the process. By the time he had them on their feet, Samantha had raced to the bedroom, gotten the shotgun from under the bed and brought it back to the living room.

She stood there now, with the gun pointed at her attackers. “Ben” she said calmly, “let me shoot them.”

Ben looked startled for a moment before answering her. “Now, Samantha, we can’t do that.”

“Maybe
you
can’t,” she said, “but I can. I wouldn’t lose my job like you would and anyhow, I won’t kill them—as much as they deserve it. I just want to make sure they don’t ever get to think about raping another woman.”

Bobby Lee and Larry huddled closer together, white faced. “Stop her, Warden,” Bobby Lee squealed. “She’ll do it!”

Larry, too, chimed in. “That woman’s a menace!” he declared. “She clawed me and bit me and then whopped me with that fireplace poker and dang near broke my back. And she jabbed me in the ribs with it so’s I can hardly get my breath!”

“You got lucky, Larry,” Bobby Lee opined. “She just about gouged my eyes out and then half blinded me with some stuff in a bottle and…” he took a deep breath, “she hurt me so bad down there I’ll prob’ly be pissin’ blood for a month!”

Ben surveyed the two men critically. Both of them were a mess. Larry had deep gouges from Samantha’s fingernails with rivulets of blood trickling down his face as he nursed his bleeding hand, her bite marks clearly in evidence. He was standing stooped over, wincing in pain with every breath.

Bobby Lee’s eyes were red and streaming and he had a hand cupped over his groin protectively.

Ben’s mouth twitched, then he threw his head back and laughed. “Samantha, I’m proud of you. I’m sorely tempted to let you make sure they both sing soprano for the rest of their worthless, sorry lives, but I’d better take them on down to Jackson Hole jail and get them booked in.”

“That’s fine with me,” Larry said. “Just get me away from that she-devil!”

“Me too,” Bobby Lee told Ben fervently. “For the love of God don’t leave me alone with her.”

“Oh don’t worry, I won’t,” Ben reassured the poachers. “In fact, I’m going to do my dead level best to make sure you never find yourself alone with a woman again in your life. Or at least for a long, long time.”

He crossed the room to Samantha and gently took the shotgun from her, standing it in a corner. “Samantha, why don’t you get dressed and I’ll drop you off at Mari and Trey’s place on my way down to the jail?”

She shook her head. “No, Ben. I just want to take a hot bath and get warm again. I … I feel s-so c-cold,” she stuttered. She lifted her white, strained face to him and saw that dangerous look in his eyes again as he glanced across the room at her tormentors.

“Okay,” he said soothingly. “If that’s what will make you feel better, then that’s what you should do.” He pulled her to him for just a brief moment, holding her tightly, then stepped away. “I’ll be back,” he told her. “As soon as I get this scum behind bars.”

Samantha smiled weakly at him, her pleasure at hearing this plain to see.

“Okay,” she told him.

After a long soak in the hottest water she could coax out of the elderly hot water heater, Samantha put on a pair of warm flannel pajamas and a fluffy faux fur robe. Her feet were toasty warm in thick slipper socks. Sitting on the living room couch, she wished she could build a fire but the thought of making another trip to the wood shed tonight made her feel cold and shaky again. She settled for an electric heater from the hall closet that began to cast its heat into the room as soon as she plugged it in and turned it on.

Sipping the cup of hot cocoa she had made herself helped to warm her back up from the inside out. She had briefly considered making coffee but decided that her jangled nerves didn’t need the caffeine.

Her thoughts turned again to what had happened when Ben came bursting into the house tonight. Really, she wondered again, what
had
happened?

It had all gone down so fast that her brain didn’t have time to register anything except a lightning fast blur of movement after he came crashing through the door. It seemed to be only nanoseconds before the poachers were handcuffed and helpless at his feet.

Samantha was deep in thought when she heard a knock at the door. Her heart leapt into her throat before she heard Marielle’s voice call her name.

“Sam? Sammy? It’s us, honey, let us in.”

Still suffering from shock, Samantha wondered why Mari didn’t just come on in since the door was leaning drunkenly on its hinges where Ben had crashed through. But then it occurred to her that having the door suddenly opened all the way would have sent her into a state of hysteria. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t even heard Trey’s truck.

Getting up, she almost fell as her knees buckled. Obviously, she was not recovered

from the evening’s ordeal. Consciously stiffening her spine and taking a deep, calming breath, she walked to the door and opened it.

Marielle came through the door and immediately folded Samantha into a hug. “Oh, Sammy! What an awful thing to happen! You must have been scared out of your wits!”

Samantha stared at her friend dully. “How did you know?” she asked, her voice flat and almost lifeless.

Trey spoke up. “Ben stopped by for a second and told us. He wanted us to come over here and stay with you until he gets back.”

Samantha nodded slowly, her yes slightly unfocused. “Yeah, okay,” she replied.

Marielle put a hand on her friend’s elbow and gently guided her back to the couch. Sitting down next to her, she took Samantha’s hand in hers. “You’re okay now, Sam,” she told her friend tenderly. “The men are gone and they won’t be back. Ben is locking them up in the jail down in Jackson Hole and he says they’ll be sent away for a long time. Besides poaching and trading in black market animal parts, what they did to you is legally kidnapping, which is a very serious charge.”

Samantha sat, staring straight ahead. She gave no indication that Mari’s words had registered with her at all.

“I fought them” she said, finally. “I tried to stop them. They were going to rape me and kill me and then Ben came and they tried to make me let him in so they could kill him, too.” She faced Marielle and Trey squarely for the first time. “But I wouldn’t do it. I made him go away. I told him he was a pest and I didn’t want him here.”