The Outlaws: Jess (31 page)

The other men were already snoring when Jess
hissed, "You're going back to Cheyenne tomorrow."

"I'm going to Dodge," Meg returned. "You
can't stop me."

Jess had no answer to that. It galled him to
think he had no control over meg. He was still fretting and fuming
over Meg's stubbornness when sleep abruptly claimed him.

The passengers boarded the stage early the
following morning after a hurried breakfast. Moments later the
stage lurched forward, and Jess knew intuitively that nothing he
could say would convince Meg to turn back. She didn't seem to
realize her presence in Dodge wouldn't help him, that it might even
make things more difficult for him.

Most of the passengers were dozing when a
spate of gunshots jerked them awake. No one besides Jess and Meg
seemed to realize what was happening. Jess immediately checked his
guns, as did Meg and the cowboy, and moments later the stage ground
to a halt. Jess searched for a target but was thwarted when someone
stuck a gun through the window and ordered everyone to toss their
guns out the window or be blown to kingdom come.

"Jess," Meg whispered, "we can't give up our
guns to those outlaws."

"We have to," Jess said grimly. "If we don't
do as they say there are likely to be casualties, deaths even.
Innocent lives are involved. I don't want one of the victims to be
you. Most likely they'll just collect our valuables and leave."

Briefly Jess considered shooting and taking
his chances, but the thought of Meg being hurt in the melee quickly
dissuaded him. Reluctantly his guns joined those bring tossed out
the window by the frightened passengers. Meg's were the last to go.
Then the door was jerked open and the passengers ordered out.

Jess glanced at the outlaw and recognition
slammed through him. It was Jay Calder, the man who had shot Meg.
Meg must have recognized him at the same time, for Jess heard her
gasp.

"This is a holdup," Calder growled. "Line up
beside the coach while my partner collects your valuables. You,
too," he ordered, motioning for the driver and guard to climb down
from the driver's box.

Jess caught a glimpse of the second outlaw
and his heart sank. Jay's brother Lucky was the man holding a gun
on the two men in the driver's box. Jess's first thought was that
the guard had fallen asleep on the job, allowing the Calders to
overtake them without warning.

"Move it," Lucky barked when the men didn't
move fast enough. Jess thought it regrettable that Lucky had
survived his wound.

Then the guard made a tragic error. He
reached for a shotgun hidden beneath the seat. He wasn't fast
enough. Lucky fired and the guard fell back, mortally wounded. The
driver gaped at his dead partner and quickly clambered over the
guard's body, joining the passengers standing beside the coach.

"Nice work, Lucky," Jay congratulated. "Now
relieve these good people of their valuables."

"Now wait a damn minute," the businessman
blustered. "I'm not going to stand for this."

Without warning, Jay clubbed the businessman
upside the head with the butt of his pistol. "Anyone else want to
object?" he growled.

The elderly woman promptly fainted.

Jess stepped in front of Meg to protect her
in case the bandits recognized her as the bounty hunter who had
shot Lucky. The passengers began emptying their pockets. Lucky
raked in the loot, grabbing whatever jewelry they wore while Jay
kept his gun trained on the passengers. Jess had little of value
except his father's pocket watch, and he refused to part with it.
While both bandits were concentrating on the businessman's full
pockets, Jess surreptitiously slipped the watch from his pocket and
concealed it in the waistband of his trousers.

Something must have caught Jay's eye for he
swung his gun around to Jess. "What did you just do?"

Jess lowered his head, hoping Jay wouldn't
recognize him. It had been dark the night of their encounter, and
there was a fair chance neither of the Calders hadn't gotten a good
look at him. His hopes were shot all to hell when Jay's eyes
narrowed on his face.

"Say, I know you," Jay said. "You're the
pilgrim we met up with outside Cheyenne a while back, ain't ya? I
see you've managed to escape the law. What did you say your name
was?"

"Jess," Jess said, recalling that he hadn't
mentioned a last name on the occasion of their one and only
meeting.

"Oh, yeah, I remember now. My brother nearly
bled to death after that damn bounty hunter shot him. I hope you
sent that blasted female straight to hell."

Jess merely stared at him. Jay was distracted
when Lucky suddenly exclaimed, "Sonuvabitch! I thought that female
menace was dead!"

Jay spotted Meg standing behind Jess and
grabbed her arm. He pulled her forward and yanked off her hat. Inky
black hair cascaded down her back in a silken waterfall. Jess
stepped forward to protect her and was promptly stopped by the
barrel of Jay's gun.

"What the hell happened, pilgrim?" he
blasted. "You were supposed to finish her off." He gave a snort of
disgust. "Did the little whore get to you? Did she offer her body
for her life?"

Jay leered at Meg and pulled her against him.
"Me and Lucky could use a taste of what you gave the pilgrim."

Jess objected violently as he launched
himself at Jay. "Take your filthy hands off her."

Jess didn't see the blow coming as Lucky came
up behind him and bashed his head with the butt of his pistol.
Darkness and pain closed in on him, and then he knew no more.

Meg watched helplessly as Jess made a slow
spiral to the ground. She tried to go to him but Jay's arm
tightened brutally around her.

"Let me go!"

"You ain't going nowhere, bitch," Jay
snarled. "You shot my brother. He nearly bled to death before I got
him to a doctor."

Meg kept mum, though she badly wanted to
remind Jay that he'd killed a bank guard without remorse, and had
shot her and left her for dead.

"Let me go to Jess," Meg cried, trying to
break free of Jay's ruthless grip.

"Is he your lover?"

"None of your business."

The barrel of his gun bit into the soft flesh
of her neck. "I'm making it my business. Is the pilgrim your
lover?"

"Yes. Yes!" she repeated unashamedly.

Jay sent her a grim smile. "You must be damn
good. Me and Lucky are gonna find out just how good you are real
soon." His smile faded. "A word of warning. We're hard to
please."

"Lucky," he called to his brother, "get the
other passengers into the stage, and put the pilgrim in with
them."

A terrible fear seized Meg. "What about
me?"

He smirk was far from comforting as he rubbed
his groin in an obscene manner, giving hint of precisely what he
wanted from Meg. "I got plans for you, lady."

Meg renewed her struggles and received a
jarring blow to her head for her trouble. It was hard enough to
subdue her, but not enough to render her unconscious. She watched
helplessly as Lucky and the cowboy loaded Jess into the stage. She
was still reeling from the blow when she was rudely pulled away
from the stage and tossed aboard Jay's horse. Jay mounted behind
her as Lucky slammed the stage door shut and leaped into his
saddle.

Helplessness swamped Meg as she glanced over
Jay's shoulder and prayed that Jess wasn't badly hurt. As for
herself, she knew exactly what she was up against and steeled
herself to fight for her survival.

# # #

Jess didn't come around until the stage
pulled into the small border town of Wilson, Kansas to report the
robbery. Had he not been incoherent from the blow, he would have
demanded that the stage stop and let him out to go after Meg.
Unrelenting fear seized him. The Calders had a substantial head
start; he worried that he couldn't catch up to them in time to save
Meg from grave bodily harm.

Groggily he climbed out of the coach and
arranged with the driver to leave his bag and Meg's with the
station master in Dodge. Then he retrieved Meg's horse from the
rear of the coach and joined the other passengers who had been
robbed of their belongings. Someone sent for the sheriff and he
appeared directly. Everyone wanted to talk at once and Sheriff
Durant was slow to sort things out. Finally he came to Jess.

"You claim your friend was taken by the
outlaws," he questioned. "Want to tell me what happened?"

"Doctor Gentry didn't see it," the cowboy
injected. "He'd been struck down. But the outlaw named Jay took her
up on his horse against her will and carried her off. Funny," he
said, thumbing his hat to the back of his head. "We all thought she
was a man. But Jay seemed to know her. Knew Doctor Gentry,
too."

"Doctor Gentry," the sheriff repeated. "A
medical doctor?"

Jess nodded. "Can we get to the important
issues, sheriff? My fiancée is missing. What are you going to do
about it?"

"The Calders are a menace to society,
unfortunately they're slippery as eels. It will be a day or two
before I can get a posse together. We're a small town. Might have
to send down to Goodland for men."

Jess's fists clenched at his sides. "That
won't do. I'm going now."

"Hold on a minute, Doc. Explain how the
Calders knew you and the woman."

"Meg Lincoln is...was...a bounty hunter. Jay Calder
shot her when she cornered him and his brother after they fled from
a bank robbery they'd pulled off in Cheyenne."

Durant rubbed his bristly chin. "Meg Lincoln?
Heard about her. What about you? Where do you fit in?"

"I saved her life and that's all I'm going to
say right now. Time's running out, sheriff. The Calders neglected
to clean out my pockets after knocking me cold. I'm going to buy a
pair of guns and light out of here before the trail gets cold."

His face set in grim lines, Jess turned
abruptly and made for the door. The sheriff made no move to stop
him, though he stared thoughtfully at his departing back.

Hang on, Meg, Jess mutely pleaded as he
headed for the nearest gunsmith. I'm coming.

Less than an hour later Jess was fully armed
and carrying enough food to last several days as he returned to the
place where the outlaws had stopped the stage and taken his Meg. He
fervently hoped the tracking skills he'd learned over the years
would eventually lead him to the woman he loved.

Meg held herself as stiffly as possible
within Jay Calder's brutal embrace. Jay took outrageous liberties
with his hands while they rode at breakneck speed over rough
terrain.

Once away from the stagecoach, Jay had
stopped long enough to bind her wrists in front of her. He
understood that she was dangerous and had bound her as a
precautionary measure.

"Where are you taking me?" Meg asked over the
din of pounding horses hooves.

"None of your business," Jay hissed into her
ear.

"Jess will find you no matter where you take
me."

She said it with confidence despite her
misgivings. Jess was a doctor, not a skilled tracker. Even if he
did eventually find her, it would be too late. She knew her time on
earth was limited. The Calders wouldn't allow her to live. After
they used her, they'd kill her. Her face hardened.
Not if she
could help it.
She wasn't helpless, she knew how outlaws
thought and intended to outsmart them.

At nightfall they stopped beside a creek and Jay
promptly tied Meg to a tree while the brothers brought out their
supplies and sat down to eat a cold meal of bread and cheese and
drink from a bottle of whiskey. Meg was offered nothing to eat but
she didn't mind. Her stomach roiled at the very thought of food.
But she did have another pressing need.

"Calder!" Meg called, catching the brothers'
attention. "Untie me. I need to...go behind the bushes. And I'm
thirsty."

Jay lurched to his feet. "I ain't untying
you. I don't trust you. If we give you an inch, you'll take a
mile."

"I need to go," Meg repeated.

"Damn female," Jay complained as he untied
her from the tree and used the extra rope as a tether. "You can go
as far as this rope will take you, but I ain't untying your
hands."

Meg's legs nearly buckled when she tried to
stand. Long hours in the saddle had stripped away their strength.
But soon her blood began circulating again and she walked to a
clump of bushes. She cast a warning glance at Jay and stepped
behind them.

"Don't try anything funny," Jay warned,
tugging the tether as a reminder.

Meg struggled with the fastenings on her
trousers, and for one of the few times in recent memory she wished
she were wearing a dress.

"Hurry, I ain't got all day," Jay
grumbled.

Meg reappeared from behind the bushes and
walked defiantly toward the creek.

"Where are you going now?"

"I'm thirsty." She dropped to her knees
beside the creek and scooped water into her mouth until she'd drank
her fill.

"You're too easy on her," Lucky complained as
he watched the proceedings. "I can't forget how I suffered on her
account. I damn near died."

"So did I," Meg shot back. "Jess is the
finest doctor I know. He saved my life."

"You mean that pilgrim is a doctor?" Jay
guffawed. "Here we thought he was an outlaw like us."

"You were wrong," Meg countered.

"Bring her over here, Jay," Lucky said,
indicating his bedroll. "I want her now. I ain't never done it to a
woman wearing trousers."

"You'll wait, just like me," Jay advised. "We
ain't in safe territory yet and can't afford to let our guard down.
Her lover could be following with a posse. Wait till we get to the
hideout tomorrow, then we can both take our fill of her."

"Over my dead body," Meg hissed.