By Kirsten Page
Copyright 1999
“How’d you know Lou was a girl?” Buck asked suspiciously.
Cole looked to make sure that he wasn’t about to be attacked by the rider known as ‘Kid’ before he answered the question. “When Rachel brought me in here, I saw one of the dresses sitting on the bed. Doesn’t take much brains to figure the rest out,” he added sarcastically.
The story was somewhat believable, but it didn’t fool the sharp mental skills of the others in the room. There had to be more to it than that. More than likely you dug through her things, Buck thought to himself. He resisted the urge to ask more questions, not wanting to cause another rise out of Kid.
Kid gathered a few things...one of them being the journal which Lou kept hidden (and off limits for any of the riders to touch) under her mattress, the other was a small stack of paper and a pencil. “I’ll be back later,” he said before walking out the door.
“Wait, Kid,” Jimmy said, reaching for his hat, “Let me go with you.” He wasn’t about to let Kid go out there alone and do something stupid, like get himself killed.
Kid faced him, “No, really, I’ll be fine.”
Jimmy looked at him, trying to tell if he was up to something. After a few moments of analyzing what he was carrying in his hands, he figured that he probably wasn’t off to do something too foolish. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve just got to take care of a few things, Jimmy. I’ll be back soon.” Without a second word on the matter, he turned and walked away from his best friend to deal with his saddened heart in one of the few ways that he knew how.
“I’d rather die than help you,” Lou growled at the man who was threatening her life once again. With the pain that she felt, and the uncertainty if she was going to make it out of this situation anyway, Lou figured that there wasn’t much to loose.
Wayne laughed and lowered his weapon. She was exactly the fireball that they needed.......strong-willed, independent, and fearless. “You’re something else.”
Lou shuddered inwardly at the evil glare in his eyes. The look that he was casting her way was more than that of someone out for blood, he was out for a lot more, but what, she wasn’t sure. “If you are going to kill me now, go ahead and get it over with.”
“Oh, you’ve really got spunk, don’t you? I like that in a woman,” he grinned and Lou closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of his breath on her face.
Her eyes shot open as she felt him touch her side, it was the same side that had been gashed and cut so horribly. Even the slightest pressure of anything caused her to flinch...and it was obvious that Wayne was aware of the pain that he was inflicting, so she did her best to hide her misery.
“I’ve got powerful friends who won’t let you get away with what you’re doing for long,” she said in a low voice. Lou wasn’t about to sit there and let him put her through this without making him aware of what she knew. “In fact, I’ve got a friend who’s on her way to see a Marshal friend of mine right now. She’s going to tell him everything that I know about you’re up to.”
Wayne looked up with interest, “That’s very interesting,” he paused, rising to his feet and dragging her up to her’s. “She wouldn’t happen to be that Ellie woman, would she?”
Lou felt her body go numb, and the air in her lungs rush out as she choked on her own gasp. “What’d you do to her!?” She struggled against his tight grip on her arm. He was pulling her outside, and no matter how hard she tried to fight back, it remained pointless.
“Oh her? I’d say she’s lying on the ground about ten miles from here,” he threw her a toothy grin, “Don’t worry, I killed her real quick.”
Nighttime came on so quickly that Johnny Bryce hadn’t even been paying attention to the fact that his visibility wasn’t as great. His mind raced as to how he was going to get Lou away from the most powerful man that he had ever met. It was not going to be an easy task, of that much he was certain.
The darkness and depth of his thoughts caused him to stop thinking about where it was that he was headed. He just kept spurring his horse harder, determined that he was going to save the woman that he was responsible for.
Much to his shock and surprise, the canyon crept up on him so quickly that he couldn’t have reacted, even if he wanted to.
His horse was wise to the end of the trail ahead and rared up, knocking her rider off, and sending him down the steep gorge. Johnny didn’t even find the breath to let out a yell...it all happened so quickly.
He felt the feeling in his stomach that he was falling with increasing speed, and then, with one last gasp he hit the bottom, surrounded by nothing but blackness. Johnny’s desire to saving the woman was no longer a feasible goal. His life was now taken from him, and Lou was rapidly running out of any hope of being rescued. First Ellie, now Johnny...the only two people that knew she was alive were gone.
Without any preparation, Lou felt her legs picked up from underneath her as she was roughly placed on the front of a horse. She realized that any effort to escape at this point in time was hopeless. There was nowhere that she could run, nor did she have the energy to run with.
Wayne wasn’t a stupid man. He had everything well-planned, even though she assumed that his original scheme had been to kill her. Now she figured that she was probably in his way, which meant that her time was ticking away with each precious second. Her only hope of making it through this situation was to play her cards right, give him what he wanted, and pray for a way to escape later.
He hoisted himself up behind Lou, and wrapped his arms tightly around her. She could feel that perhaps he was enjoying that just a little too much, and it made her already queasy stomach sick. Her head ached at the thoughts of what had happened to the woman who had given her life in an effort to save her’s.
In a few moments they had taken off into the darkness. Lou couldn’t help but wonder how far they would travel, and why he had chosen the black of night to begin any sort of journey...especially through those dark woods.
“You know, I don’t mean to pry or anything, but where are we headed?” Lou asked cautiously, not particularly wanting to be thrown from the horse or attacked in anyway.
Wayne’s silence gave her the creeps, and she could feel the chills running through her body. It was hard to stay awake...her head was swarming and becoming so dizzy.
Finally, as she was about to drift into an restless, unbidden state of sleep, he spoke. “You’re going to help me complete the one thing that I’ve got to do. You just better hope that Cole comes through on his end of the deal.” Then, without warning, he stopped his horse and forced her head to the side so that she could see his face, “And you just might provide me with a little entertainment inbetween.”
On to Chapter Twelve
