The Outlaw (2 page)

Sarah dropped the gun and ran out into the
street, watching him ride away with his stolen money, knowing no
one would catch him. A man stepped off the sidewalk at the Saloon
at the end of the street and fired one shot at him. The outlaw’s
horse reared before he got it under control and he fired a shot
back.

More gunfire from behind startled her and she
turned. Another masked man was riding toward her. When she realized
he wasn’t slowing down, she turned and ran for the bank. She wasn’t
fast enough. A strong arm wrapped around her waist and she let out
a startled scream as she was scooped from the ground and laid
across the outlaws’ thighs, belly down.

“Let me go!” Sarah struggled, kicking her
feet and screaming. He smacked her hard on the bottom, laughing
when she yelped, before snaking one arm around her waist and
holding on. His grip was painful and her heart raced when the man
from the Saloon raised his gun at them when they neared. Thankfully
he saw her and didn’t shoot.

The outlaw drove the horse at a punishing
pace and Sarah was powerless to do anything but shield her face
from the onslaught of wind and dust. Her stomach rolled from the
rapid jarring as the horse raced across the plain and from seeing
the ground pass by in a blur under her. She turned her head to the
man behind her and glanced up at him through her lashes. The lower
half of his face was covered, his eyes unreadable as stone. He
stank to high heaven and his grip on her was this side of
painful.

They left the town behind and rode for what
seemed like hours through wide-open plains, the sun dipping down
behind the mountains in the distance. The area was barren except
for the sagebrush painting the horizon. The sun was hot and sweat
trickled down her spine. He slowed the horse enough to sit her up.
She was thankful as the blood that had collected in her head
finally started traveling where it was supposed to go but this new
position wasn’t much better. The man behind her was felt more
intimately against her bottom with every step of the horse. She
shuddered at the thought of what he’d do with her when he reached
where he was going.

As time passed, Sarah kept looking over her
captors shoulder. She saw no one, no dust cloud signaling the
approach of other riders. It meant William wasn’t coming after her.
Did he even know she’d been taken?

An hour later, at the base of a rocky
outcrop, the outlaw slowed his horse and gave a whistle that
pierced her ears. An answering call sounded in the distance and he
nudged the horse into a gallop. Riding through a maze of solid
rock, and into a small gorge, Sarah saw the others. The men who’d
robbed her father’s bank. They were sitting on the surrounding
rocks, their horses off to one side grazing on the sparse grass
growing in the small enclosed space. She looked for the man she
thought was the leader, the man she’d tried to shoot, repeatedly,
but missed. She didn’t see him and puzzled over the fact.

She counted eight men total. There hadn’t
been that many inside the bank. Where had these extra men come from
and were there more of them? Her initial fear grew as they all
seemed to notice her at the same time. One man stood, grinned and
threw his head back and laughed. “Hot damn, Virgil. Where’d you
find that piece of tail?”

The man at her back laughed and dumped her
none too gently to the ground. “Standing in the middle of the road
outside the bank. Figured since she was there, might as well have
her.”

Sarah scrambled to a nearby rock, flattening
her back to its rough surface and watched as the men laughed and
gawked at her. Her knee ached from the fall off the horse and
seeing so many men surrounding her, the fear she’d felt since being
abducted grew.

Her hair, once pinned pristinely to the back
of her head, had fallen to dangle around her face. She lifted her
hand, pushing the mass of curls away so she could see and noticed
her hand was shaking. She clamped it between her knees and let her
gaze roam the entire area.

The scraggly group of men lounged in small
groups, each one interested in her all of a sudden. Her heart
started racing as she took them all in and she wondered what they
were going to do with her. The images that came to mind caused a
shiver to race up her spine.

A tall man, his long stringy hair hanging
halfway down his back stood and took a few steps closer to where
she sat. He stared at her, spit out a black stream of tobacco juice
that dribbled down his chin, and shook his head. “Colt won’t let
you keep her.”

Virgil, the foul smelling man who’d taken
her, jumped from his horse. “Fuck Colt. He aint the law around
here.”

Sarah listened to them argue, Virgil, the
loudest. The majority of the conversation was about her but it soon
turned to the money they’d stolen and to Colt, the man Sarah now
knew led this gang of ruffians. Her thoughts turned to him as she
stared at the men around her. If tobacco guy said Colt wouldn’t let
Virgil keep her, did that mean he’d let her go? Somehow she didn’t
think so.

Long minutes ticked by and they seemed to
forget she was there. While the men were occupied in their
conversations, and heated arguments, Sarah slid along the rocks,
inch-by-inch, careful to not make any sound. She was halfway to the
small opening they’d ridden through by the time Virgil noticed
her.

He cocked his head to one side, grinning at
her. “Where you think you’re going?”

Sarah froze, her eyes wide as she stared at
him. When he took a step toward her she leaped to her feet and ran.
He caught her before she could make it to the opening of the
outcrop they were hiding in. When he picked her up, her feet
dangling in the air, she screamed. Her shrieks only caused them
more glee, their taunts of what they’d do with her spoken with more
certainty.

Virgil yelled for a rope as he carried her to
a nearby tree, the spindly branches sweeping low to touch the
ground. The trunk was small and lashing her to it was done in a
matter of minutes. With her hands behind her, fastened around the
tree, she could move nothing but her feet, which she used whenever
one of them came near her.

“She’s a hellion, Virgil. Be hours a’ fore we
can break her.”

Sarah’s eyes burned and she blinked to erase
the tears trying to form. “You come near me and I’ll break your
nose!” When Virgil walked toward her, his hands on his belt buckle,
she gritted her teeth and hoped to God she’d have the strength to
fight them all off.

“I can break her. Aint no woman around who
can resist me.”

Laughter from the others was blocked out as
Sarah’s gaze fell to Virgil. His belt was undone and when he
reached into his pants, pulling out his erection, she turned her
head.

The sun was going down, the sky painted in
hues of purple and orange. Small puffy clouds dotted the horizon
and she again wondered where William was. Of all the people she
expected to come for her, he was the first on her list and not
because he was the town marshal. He’d asked her to marry him. She
should have given him a definite answer instead of telling him she
wanted to think about it. Plain stubbornness had made her wait.
That same stubbornness would probably be the death of her.

Virgil closed the distance between them and
it wasn’t until he was right in front of her that Sarah turned to
look at him. And planted the toe of her boot in his groin. His
womanly scream was followed by another as she kicked him again when
he fell to his knees. Three more kicks followed the first two
before he rolled far enough away she couldn’t reach him. She was
panting for breath by then, those tears she’d been fighting filling
her eyes.

Watching the others, she waited for them to
come at her but they were too busy laughing at Virgil’s failed rape
attempt to bother. The sun crept lower on the horizon and by the
time Virgil was able to stand again, the air had cooled.

The look on his face when he turned toward
her would have scared her on a normal day but after what she’d been
through since noon, it didn’t faze her much. He was angry, that was
a given, and the taunts from his friends only made it worse.

He came at her again, knocking her foot away
when she tried to kick him and backhanded her for her trouble. Her
face exploded with heat from the brutal hit. When he grabbed her by
the hair, slinging her head back into the tree, her vision blurred,
her knees went weak, and her body slumped as pain shot through her
head. His heated words were harsh next to her ear as he told her
what he was going to do to her and she fought the dizzying need to
close her eyes and slip into oblivion. He was pulling her skirts up
when the laughter she heard in the background stopped. A small
clicking sound in front of her forced her eyes open. The noise had
come from a gun, its barrel lying against Virgil’s temple.

“Let her go.”

Virgil stilled, his watery eyes fixed on
hers. When he smiled, Sarah saw his rotten teeth and looked away,
up at the man she’d tried to shoot at the bank. Their leader, the
blue-eyed man she knew she’d never forget.

Colt, they had called him, glanced at her
briefly; his eyes held a lethal calmness that caused a shiver to
dance over her limbs.

Fixing his gaze back on Virgil, he took a
step closer and pushed the barrel of the gun harder into the side
of his head. “I won’t ask you again, Virgil. Unless you want your
brains splattered across this pretty ladies face, then I suggest
you let her go.”

Chapter Two

Keeping the gun still was nearly impossible;
Colt’s rage was so intense. Riding into camp to hear laughter, to
see the girl from the bank tied to a tree and Virgil’s filthy hands
on her had caused something inside him to snap. He’d wanted to
shoot the bastard on the spot. The only reason he hadn’t was he was
afraid he’d hit the girl.

Looking into her terrified face and seeing
blood on her lip, along with a red handprint on her cheek, he knew
Virgil wouldn’t live to see morning. He’d make sure of that.

Virgil was slow to move but finally let go of
her, backing away. Colt took a step in front of her, his gaze
landing on the others scattered amongst the rocks. No one seemed
inclined to dispute him. “Get ready to head out. The longer we stay
here the more likely the chances of them finding us.”

Wade stepped away from the rocks, spitting
out a wad of tobacco before wiping his mouth with the back of one
hand. “What took you so long to get back?”

Something in his eyes told Colt to tread
carefully. “Had a few men follow me when I left town. I didn’t
think leading them here was a wise choice but correct me if I was
wrong.”

The others mumbled something he couldn’t hear
before they all stood and walked to their horses. Virgil flashed a
scathing look toward him, and the girl at his back, before doing
the same. When they were occupied seeing to their mounts, Colt
turned around.

She didn’t look as daring as she did back in
town. She looked frightened, now. Upon entering the bank, he’d done
the same thing he always did. Count heads and locate the idiot who
would try to be the hero. He’d never slapped that title on a woman
before but the moment she pulled that shotgun out from under the
counter, pointed it at him and fired, his heart had lodged in his
throat. She’d missed, thank God. She had guts, he’d give her that.
She didn’t look as if she could handle a gun but shooting at him a
second time proved him wrong. Luckily for him, she couldn’t hit the
broad side of a barn.

When the smoke cleared and he saw her
standing there, barrel of the gun pointed at his head, some twisted
part inside him had wanted her. Wanted to see if she was as feisty
in bed as she was out of it. Something told him she was regardless
of her slight frame.

His gaze roamed over her now that he could
look his fill. She was finely built with a delicate bone structure
with high, pert breast shoved into the tight bodice of her gown.
Her hair was the color of honey with streaks of pale yellow mingled
throughout. It was down now, falling in waves across her shoulders,
the ends swinging around her hips, and his fingers itched to touch
it. Her lips were perfect and plump, like sweet strawberries
waiting to be tasted. His groin tightened thinking of doing just
that. Too bad he didn’t have the time. Chances are, he’d never see
her again.

The thought snapped him out of his musings
and he reached for the knife in his boot. Cutting the rope tying
her hands, she slumped and he barely caught her before she hit the
ground.

Her waist was tiny and she was light in
weight. A mere slip of a girl. Her hand rose to his shoulder, those
large green eyes rising to look at him before she tried to jerk
away.

“Easy now. I’m not going to hurt you.” He
helped her to a nearby rock, dismissing her claims she could walk.
When she was sitting he pulled the bandana from his neck and
blotted at her lip. “It’s not the cleanest but it’ll stop the
blood.”

She flinched and reached for it, giving it a
dainty sniff before scowling. “Smells like outlaw to me.” She gave
him a sardonic look before glancing past him to where the other men
were. Colt followed her gaze, seeing everyone was on their horses
and waiting.