Over the Barrel (17 page)

"What are you going to do to keep Sloan from
tracking us?" she asked as she began to tidy the area.

"What are you doing?
 
Don't touch my gear!"

"If you want to be able to leave here
quickly, you need to keep your items together."

"What are you talking about, woman?
 
Now what are you doing?"

"I am experiencing back pain and am making a
pot of willow tea.
 
Do you have any
honey?"

"No, I don't have honey!"
 
The man's agitation was growing.
 
"Drink your damn tea without
honey."

"I cannot," Blair said stubbornly,
hands on her hips.
 
"Surely you
are capable of harvesting a honeycomb.
 
Even I can do such a deed."

"You are not getting any honey."

"Very well," Blair placed the kettle to
the side of the fire.
 
"I
cannot drink the tea without honey.
 
My back will begin to cause me more discomfort and you will have to
listen to me moan and cry throughout the night.
 
If you do not wish to sleep, then you
have no one to blame but yourself if you are tired."

"I'll just gag you."

"Don't you think I can make noise even with
a gag?"

Within three hours of her capture, Blair found
herself once again gagged and bound.
 
She had nagged incessantly about the group's lack of trail skills, her
back pain, and not having honey.
 
She understood that she was taking a chance with her safety, but nothing
these alleged outlaws had done had alerted her to their ability to perform true
violence.
 
Not yet, anyway.

"Let's get out of here," one of the
other men said.
 
"This woman is
annoying the hell out of me."

"Big Joe will be pissed if we leave her
unattended.
 
He wants her something
awful."

"She's tied up.
 
She ain't going nowhere.
 
And he's out huntin', so it will be a
while before he gets back.
 
We need
a break from that whinin'!"
 
He
gestured to Blair who continued to find a way to mumble loudly despite the
gag.
 
"I never knew a wench
could talk so much.
 
Damn city women
don't know how to do much, except complain."

"Gimme a nice, quiet, plain-faced woman with
some meat on her bones who can cook and likes to fuck, and I would be a happy
man.
 
Gals like this one are both
stupid and useless.
 
We'll be back
soon.
 
Don't you be trying to go
nowhere," Blair was warned.

She frowned and shook her head, yelling something
unintelligible through the gag.
 
Blair waited several minutes, until she could no longer hear the sound
of hoofbeats and carefully slid the little knife from her sleeve.
 
She started sawing away the ropes that
held her wrist, all the while listening for telltale signs of the men's
return.
 
Once her wrists were free,
she removed the dirty gag, cut the ropes on her ankles, and then stood to survey
her options.

"These men certainly lack the wits to be
decent outlaws," she murmured, taking the full supply of ammo, a frying
pan, the metal tin that held live coals, a long coil of rope, and two bottles
of whiskey.
 
Even with her lack of
tracking skills, she was able to find her way back to the streambed and in the
direction of the large, red rocks where she knew Sloan was camped.
 
One hour into her escape, she heard the
sound of horses coming towards her and slipped behind a tree.
 
A buzzing insect circled her head
incessantly, and she noticed that several others were flying in the same
direction.
 
Blair followed them off
the trail and into the sparse woods to where an old mesquite tree housed a
large nest of hornets.
 
Blair
grinned as she began to form her plan.

Cautiously, she wrapped the rope to the end of
the branch holding the nest and slowly pulled it back to bow it.
 
She tied the other end around another
tree and slipped behind some rocks to survey her trap.
 
Satisfied, she gathered wood and some green
branches, saturated the sticks with some whiskey, placed a couple of bullets
under the wood mound, and lit a handful of tinder with the coal.
 
Pleased that the air was still, Blair
lowered the kindling to the mound and raced to hide behind the largest rock.

She held her breath as she waited for the fire to
catch.
 
In a loud pop, the mound lit
into flames and began to smoke wildly.
 
The bullets exploded, making certain to give away her position to not
just the kidnappers, but hopefully to Sloan as well.

Minutes passed before she caught a glimpse of the
three men picking their way towards her, commenting on her stupidity and how
easy it was to find their escaped prisoner.
 
Focused on the fire, they did not see the
hornet nest when she cut the rope and sent it flinging in their direction.
 
Safe behind her smokescreen, Blair
watched in fascination as the three were covered by the angry horde.
 
They rolled on the ground, desperately
trying to rid themselves of the agonizing stings before they finally fled towards
the river.
 
The horses raced away as
well, snorting fearfully as the hornets threatened to attack.

Blair stayed hidden, certain that the attack had
left the men disabled, if not dead.
 
Carefully, Blair picked her way back down to the river's edge and began
to follow it to where she and Sloan had set up camp the day before.
 
That was where she found Sloan,
patiently whittling a spear, with two of the men tied neatly to a tree.
 
The outlaws' horses were neatly hobbled
to a tree away from the agitated white stallion.
 
Skinwalker, restrained only by a simple
rope bridle attached to a flimsy tree branch, pawed the ground in front of the
men with his ears back and occasionally baring his teeth.
 
The men looked terrified and very
uncomfortable.

"Are you all right?" Sloan asked
casually, merely glancing up as she approached them.

"I am perfectly well, thank you." Blair
responded crisply, taken aback that Sloan showed no concern regarding her
absence or her situation.

"I hear you paid them a little visit."

"They escorted me quite roughly to their
hideout.
 
I assure you, it was not
voluntary."

"Thank your lucky stars that this little
gang here consists of nothing but wannabes.
 
You could have been severely hurt,
taking off like you did."

"I didn't exactly see you coming after me,
either," Blair retorted.
 
"How did you find them?"

"That gosh darn horse chewed through his
reins about two hours after you took off.
 
It was hard to keep up with him on foot when he went to sniff out your
tracks.
 
Found your scent better than
any dog I've ever seen."
 
Sloan
sounded both pleased and irritated by the observation.
 
"By the time I got to where you had
been resting, you were gone.
 
I
followed the tracks up the trail and heard them as they were looking for
you.
 
Old Skinwalker was the smart
one here and took flight when he heard those hornets and smelled smoke.
 
Those idiots fell right into your clever
little ambush.
 
I simply waited by
the stream for them to come to me.
 
Well done, by the way.
 
The
bullets were a nice touch."

"Why, thank you!"
 
Blair sounded genuinely surprised by his
praise.
 
She turned towards the men,
"My, those stings look painful.
 
Perhaps you will think twice before you doubt the intelligence of a city
woman.
 
Where is your friend?"

"You killed him, you whore!
 
Next time, I swear …"

"Do not call my wife a whore."
 
Sloan leveled his gun in the man's face.

"She ain't your wife, Ranger," Old Joe
spat, "and if she was, I would take pity on you.
 
The shrew doesn't stop naggin' for a
minute.
 
I have never heard anyone
complain like she does.
 
You can
have her."

"They said Grandfather Malcolm is
responsible for the problems going on in Manitou, Sloan," Blair said.
 
She shared the story, watching his
handsome face draw into a frown.
 
"They say he is essentially bankrupt, due to gambling and
drinking.
 
What are we going to
do?"

"
We
are
not going to do anything.
 
We are
just about another week from town, and I will take care of things."

"You fool," the bound man said,
"Malcolm
owns
the law in that
town.
 
You don't have a
chance."

"How can he own the law if he's broke?
 
Your stories aren't linin' up,
mister.
 
Either you are lying or
someone is telling you a tall tale."

"Ain't no one lyin'!"

"So you are doing this for free?
 
Just to have a woman?
 
Why bring along your men, unless you
plan on sharing her?
 
There are much
easier ways to obtain a gal.
 
Ways
that won't get you killed."

"You know nothing, Ranger.
 
Old Joe is gonna sell her for ransom to
her aunt," the other man said.

"My aunt threw me away without so much as a
goodbye, you idiots.
 
You have
wasted your time in dreaming of wealth," Blair spat.

Sloan studied the two for a minute.
 
"Blair?
 
Do you think you can keep these men here
while I get some help?
 
I might be
gone over a few days."

"Certainly.
 
I can just throw some pouches of water
on them if they mess themselves," Blair said crudely, her arms
crossed.
 
"And it is easy
enough to feed them from a stick."

Sloan nodded, finally approaching her.
 
He grabbed her hair and pulled her head
back to crush her lips to his.
 
"When this is all done, I am going to blister your back end for
taking off like that," he whispered, "and then I am going to make
love to you until you beg me to stop.
 
Don't you ever frighten me like this again."

"You shall not do either deed, Mr. Adkins."

He ignored her, engulfing her lips again.
 
"And after, I am going to marry
you.
 
You are mine, Blair.
 
I will not ever allow another man to
taste you."

"I have not consented to wed you."

"I am not concerned about your consent right
now.
 
As soon as we get into town, I
will have a Justice of the Peace marry us."

"I still have not consented to marry
you," Blair whispered into his mouth as he bruised her lips again with
another hungry kiss."

"You will.
 
You have plenty of bullets," he
handed her one of the kidnapper's revolvers, "Why don't you practice a bit
while I have a nice talk with our friends here.
 
It would be good to give them something
to think about while I am gone."

"Got a whiskey bottle?" Blair asked,
accepting the gun with a sardonic smile.
 
"I can pretend that scrawny bottle neck is one of these filthy
cocks that I was threatened with."

Sloan's eyes narrowed.
 
"If any of them touched you, say
the word and they are dead."

"They never had the opportunity, as I
explained.
 
But there certainly were
several suggestive comments and explicit descriptions being shared among them
as to what should be done with my body."

"She lies, Ranger!
 
We never said nothin'!"

"Before I go," Sloan squatted before
the two, his revolver aimed straight for the leader's crotch, "I want to
know everything you can tell me about Blue Sky Ranch and old Malcom Farbor's
activities.
 
Don't leave anything
out, boys.
 
I am not in the mood to
play right now."