Chapter Four
Gray awoke the next morning to a boot gently shoving him in the arm. It was still dark, but the orange and yellow colors of the sun had begun to peek from behind the mountains, creating a peaceful sunrise. One that was quickly interrupted by his captor.
“Time to get up. Get ready now because we have to go,” Aaron said. His voice was firm and businesslike, leaving no room for arguments.
Gray grumbled, but sat up and stretched as well as he could with ropes still binding him. His body ached from being tied up all night, but he wasn’t going to admit weakness in front of the kid.
He watched as Aaron collected a few of Gray’s items from around the campsite and put them into his saddlebag. Gray’s gun, holster, and knife all went into the bag one after another.
“Yeah.” Gray shook his head to shake off the sleepiness as best as he could. The urge to urinate took precedence over anything else. “Need to piss before we go, though.”
Aaron’s face and neck turned as red as the rising sun, confusing Gray. Something was up with this kid. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something wasn’t adding up. Why did he turn red at everything?
“Fine.” Aaron faced him, pointing to the bushes nearby. “You can go over there.”
Gray’s eyes followed to where Aaron was pointing at and smirked. “Well, don’t know how I’m supposed to piss if I’m still tied up.”
Aaron’s jaw clenched and his eyes slightly narrowed.
“Or you can hold it yourself if that makes you feel better,” Gray said sarcastically.
After a moment, Aaron drew his gun and pointed it at Gray, then gestured with it for him to spin around.
Obeying, Gray turned, standing still to allow Aaron to work easily. After a moment, his hands were free, and he rubbed his wrists absently to ward off the pain.
He walked into the bushes nearby and surveyed the land while he relieved himself. The trees were thick, and the brush running deeper into the woods was too dense for him to escape through. There were two horses at camp, and Gray wondered when Aaron had left to get the other one. He couldn’t make it past Aaron to get to his horse, not with Aaron in between them.
Growling in frustration, he resigned himself to having to go back to camp. He wasn’t able to make a run for it. And even if he could, it would take him days to get back to town on foot.
When he got back from relieving himself, the camp was completely packed up and Aaron was brushing a chestnut horse. He seemed to have great affection for the animal, patting it gently as he worked. The horse nipped playfully at him, and his innocent laughter rippled through the air.
Gray’s own horse was gently nudging its face at Aaron’s hand, asking for attention. The young man had a way with animals, it seemed. Gray had to change horses often so he’d never formed a bond with one, although he respected the magnificence of the creatures.
He smiled as he watched the kid, who seemed to be thoroughly distracted by the horses and not paying attention to Gray. His eyes shifted back to camp and landed on the kid’s saddlebag that was still by the unlit fire.
His breath caught in his throat when he saw the brown handle of a knife sticking out from the corner of the saddlebag. His eyes darted between the kid and the bag, judging how quickly he could get to the knife before Aaron noticed.
As he stared, the chestnut horse walked between them, blocking Aaron’s view of Gray. Heart pounding at the sudden opportunity, Gray crouched, ran to the pack, and grabbed the knife, tucking it into the front of his waistband. Then he darted back to the edge of the woods so the kid wouldn’t notice.
His heart raced, but Aaron’s expression was blank as Gray walked out of the woods.
“Ready to go?” Aaron asked when Gray got closer.
He nodded and started to move toward his horse, but stopped short when the kid pointed his gun at him again.
“You’re delirious if you think I’m going to let you get on your own horse with no restraints.”
Gray shrugged and splayed his hands wide. “Can’t blame a man for trying.”
The kid quickly tied him up, but didn’t check him for any weapons this time.
What would Aaron do if Gray didn’t comply and get on the horse? He was twice the size of this kid. He could easily take him and get his gun away. But it would be safer to use the knife to free himself when the kid wasn’t looking.
As if reading his thoughts, the kid spoke. “You have two choices. Get up on the horse on your own, or I’ll drag you behind it.”
Gray didn’t doubt it for a moment. Shrugging again, he mounted the horse and waited for the kid to do the same. Surprisingly, Aaron mounted the chestnut horse and grabbed the reins before Gray could make a move for them.
“Just a word of advice to a bounty hunter,” Gray said. “It’s easier to control someone when you’re on the same horse.”
“Don’t think I need your advice since you’re the one captured and I’m the one who did the capturing,” Aaron quipped back. He held his head high in the air and cocked a brow, leaving no room for discussion.
“True. But it’s not over yet,” he reminded him.
Aaron shook his head and spurred his horse into motion without saying anything. The two horses trotted side by side one another.
“Unless you’re afraid you’ll be overpowered?” Gray goaded. “Are you afraid of being on the same horse as me because you know I can overpower you?”
Aaron raised an eyebrow and shook his head, refusing to answer.
“I can pay you to let me go, by the way,” Gray attempted.
The kid snorted and kept his eyes trained on the path in front of them. “Just how much are you willing to pay for your freedom?” he asked.
Satisfaction coursed through Gray. There was a way to get free. “How much would it take?”
Aaron’s mouth curved before his eyes met Gray’s. “Reward for you and Luke is $7,000. Got that much on ya?” Sarcasm dripped from his words.
Gray’s stomach dropped as shock gripped him. That amount was impossible to pay. Casey was more than out for blood with that kind of bounty. No wonder they had been ambushed by so many gunslingers.
The shock must have shown on his face because the kid huffed a breath out before saying, “Thought so.”
As they rode, Gray thought about other things that were off about Aaron besides the fact he always turned red. The way the kid had checked him for weapons last night. He’d practically been blushing the whole time. He was impossibly thin for a bounty hunter. Almost delicate. Something wasn’t adding up, and he wanted to know what was off.
It was a good thing Luke hadn’t been in camp when the kid arrived. When backed into a corner, Luke was usually a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later kind of person. It was a problem they didn’t need since Luke was unaccounted for. If he came in guns blazing and killed the kid for holding Gray hostage, he didn’t want to clean up the mess.
Gray decided to figure out who they were dealing with before he took action.
Luke couldn’t be more than a day behind them, and he’d be able to track them with ease. Gray had been doing his best to slow their pace as much as possible to make it easier for Luke.
He admired the kid’s spunk, but the guy didn’t stand a chance. To be so young and be a bounty hunter took courage, or stupidity. He wasn’t quite sure which one this kid possessed, but suspected maybe it was a bit of both. The kid had made a few smart moves along the way that showed skill in what he did. Aaron had dragged him from camp to disorient him, and keeping a distance from him now was a good idea. He was taking his time to cover up their tracks as well, which normally worked on most trackers. But Luke would be able to find them.
Aaron couldn”t have been more than fourteen or fifteen, max. He was of slender frame, had a little bit of brown hair visible under his hat, and had green eyes. Gray knew from experience that the kid was deceptively strong. He wouldn’t have thought so looking at him, given how small he was, but the way he’d thrown Gray around last night proved there was more to him than met the eye. Gray hadn’t expected Aaron to be as smart as he was for someone so young. He’d clearly been in this line of work for a while.
The kid was a puzzle that Gray wanted to solve. He couldn’t stand a mystery that he didn’t understand.
“This is a good place for a break,” Aaron said.
They stopped on the trail next to a calm river that wove through the valley. The rays from the sun bounced off the surface of the water, and the current gently lapped against the shore. It looked like heaven.
Gray was pulled from his thoughts and clumsily dismounted after a little shuffling around. It wasn’t easy when his hands were tied behind his back, but at least his feet were free.
“You mind cutting me loose so I can wash my face?” It was hot as hell, and the sun had been beating down on them all day. He had intentionally left his hat at camp as a clue for Luke, so Gray had nothing to protect him from the sun’s intensity. Sweat pooled on his chest, soaking his shirt, and if he didn’t get water and shade soon, he’d be in bad shape. His stomach growled in hunger, but his desire to get shade and water overpowered his need to eat. He tried to look as pathetic as possible, slouching to lessen his height as he rubbed his wrists as if he was in pain.
Aaron gave him a calculated look and huffed. “Fine. Try anything funny and I’ll shoot you.”
Gray felt a wave of satisfaction go through him. The kid wasn’t totally unrelenting. It meant there was hope of being set free. Gray gave his most charming smile and said, “Thanks.”
The kid’s cheeks flushed red from what had to be embarrassment. Gray tilted his head to the side and kept studying the boy. What was there to be embarrassed about?
When he was free, he turned to face the kid, but Aaron had already stepped away to put distance between them. Smart.
Grinning, he cocked an eyebrow and shrugged. The kid’s eyes narrowed and he snapped, “Be quick about it.”
Aaron was so cautious and smart about handling Gray. There hadn’t been a single opportunity to overpower the boy or make an escape, because he kept his distance and always had a gun on him. Gray’s shoulders sagged a bit at the realization that the only way he was going to get free was if Aaron let something slip that Gray could use, or if he could make the kid like him enough to be set free. He had to find a way to get the kid to relax and let his guard down.
He walked over to the edge of the river and unbuttoned his shirt. He heard a shriek behind him, and his mouth twitched with amusement. The kid was fun to mess with.
“What are you doing? I didn’t say you could get in the river!”
Gray faced his captor and unbuckled his pants, grinning at how red the kid’s face had become. “Come on, Red, what are you so embarrassed about?”
“Don’t call me that,” Aaron shot back at him.
“Why? I’ve never seen anyone’s face get as red as yours right now.” He laughed, unable to stop himself from deliberately trying to cause discomfort.
The glare that followed showed that the boy really didn’t appreciate being made fun of.
Discarding his pants and underwear, Gray dove into the water naked and let the cool waves wash over him. It was heaven. Coming up for air, he shook his hair from his face and looked back over at the kid, who stood on the shoreline, arms crossed. He opened his mouth as if he was going to yell something, but stopped short, stomped over to where Gray’s clothing lay in a pile, and sat down on the ground next to it.
They were about a half-day out from arriving at Bozeman, where Gray was certain Aaron would turn him in. He might as well see if he could talk his way out of the situation now, so Aaron didn’t have to get hurt when Luke found them.
Gray sighed. The kid was one hell of a bounty hunter, and it’d be a shame for him to lose his life so young over something so trivial. He didn’t like the idea of the youngster losing his life for making a poor decision.
“What got you into bounty hunting, anyway?” Gray yelled at the kid.
He waited for Aaron to answer and when he assumed he wasn’t going to get one, he pressed again. “Might as well talk instead of waiting in silence for two days, Red.”
Aaron groaned before quipping, “How did you get into murder?”
Gray grinned. The kid really did have spunk. Maybe it was from believing he held a position of power right now, unaware that his prisoner actually had the upper hand. Gray could get away at any moment he wanted, and he would. Either before Luke showed up, or when Luke did.
“I’m not into murder. My brother is the one who’s been accused of that. I’m simply helping him clear his name because he didn’t do it.”
Aaron snorted and rolled his eyes. He was on the shoreline eating hardtack he must have pulled from his saddlebag. “You know how many criminals I’ve talked to who say they didn’t do it? Almost every one of them, except the ones who like to brag about it.”
“How many criminals have you brought in?” Not waiting for an answer, he dove into the water again, letting its coolness wash over him.
Gray’s curiosity was piqued. The way the kid spoke with such ease made it seem like he’d been a bounty hunter for a while. Resurfacing for air, he located Aaron on the shore. His hand was on his gun, as if waiting to see if Gray was going to try to swim away.
“Enough to know how to be careful and not to trust what they say. It’s not my job to judge if someone is innocent or guilty. That’s what the law is for. It’s my job to bring criminals in so the justice system can do its thing. If they are innocent, they will be let go. If guilty, they’ll be punished.”
Wise words and a wise judgment call from someone so young. Gray followed a similar philosophy when he worked as a gunslinger, except he didn’t care if his targets were innocent or guilty at all. Money was money.
“From the way you talk, sounds like you’ve brought in a lot of criminals.” Gray wanted to see if the kid would volunteer more information that might be used to convince him to let him go. When he didn’t get a response, Gray asked, “So how long have you been doing it?”
Aaron gave him a disapproving look. “Nosy, aren’t you?”
A tad defensive, perhaps? This seemed to be a sensitive subject and Gray wondered why. Maybe there was something there he could use.
He needed to get the kid’s guard down. “Nothing else to do since we are just riding along,” he said.
Aaron paused before responding. “Been doing this a few years now,” he said. “How long have you been a gunslinger?”
A few years? Gray was careful to keep his expression even. If the kid was fifteen, that meant he’d started when he was thirteen or younger. What kind of life did this kid have for this to be the path he took?
“More than a few years. My brother really is innocent, you know. If you’ve been doing this a while, I’m sure you’ve developed a sense for who has done the deed and who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Aaron grimaced. “It’s not my place to judge. If you are innocent, it will be found out.”
“Not if you give me back to the man who sent you here.”
Maybe he could figure out details about who had put this huge bounty out on them. This kid wasn’t really dangerous, and if the boy thought he had the upper hand, it might give Gray a chance to question him, and the kid might answer freely. “Who put the bounty out on us, by the way? And what motivation do they have to put up such a high reward?”
Dodging the question again, the kid pulled out his gun and waved it from Gray to the shore. “Enough talk, it’s time to get out. We need to get going.”
Gray thought about calling his bluff and staying in the water to see what Aaron would do, but it wasn’t worth the trouble. It didn’t matter if he was tied up or swimming naked to freedom. The outcome would be the same. He would get free somehow.
He got out of the water. Aaron tugged his hat low over his face, but this time he didn’t look away, instead stubbornly pointing the gun at him. Gray pulled his pants up his legs and thought about rushing the kid to overpower him, but the distance between them was too great. He’d never make it before getting shot.
“It is the brother of the man your brother killed,” Aaron blurted out abruptly. He spoke curtly, and looked at the space between them, rather than at him, which made it easy for Gray to shuffle his knife back into the waistband of his pants without the boy noticing.
Knowing that the person who put the bounty on Luke was an angry family member of a man they killed wasn’t going to narrow it down any. Gray and Luke had made a lot of enemies over the years; it was impossible not to as a gunslinger. The families of the men they turned in. The families and friends of the men they killed. Everyone they’d killed over the years had been a brother or child of someone.
“If you don’t care who is innocent or guilty, because you think the law will sort it out, you should know that if you return us to the man who put this bounty on our heads, I don’t think the law will be deciding who is guilty or innocent. The man who put the bounty out will take care of that. If he cares enough to put a large bounty out like this, exactly what do you think he’ll do with us when he has his hands on us? I’m going to guess it’ll have nothing to do with the law.”
His shirt was on at this point, and he was fully dressed. Aaron’s eyes finally met his, but Gray didn’t see any sympathy there. It was hard to read this kid. He couldn’t tell what Aaron was thinking at any given moment. Half the time, he thought he could get the kid to do what he wanted, and the other half he thought it was pointless.
“Not my problem,” was all the kid said. “Turn around.”
Gray turned around again and clenched his jaw. He was getting nowhere. Aaron hadn’t given Gray anything he could work with and wasn’t relenting on letting him go.
“Where did you learn to tie people up like that?” he tried one last time.
“Anybody living in the West better know a simple tie.”
Evasion again.
Aaron ushered Gray to the horses and waited for him to put his foot in the stirrup to give him a boost. Before he got on, Gray turned to face the kid.
“Not everybody in the West knows how to do a bowline knot as fast as you. It’s impressive. You’re one of the fastest I’ve ever seen at tying knots.”
Surprise flashed in Aaron’s eyes. “I grew up on a ranch. We used them all the time, so I’ve had lots of practice.”
Finally, something he could work with. The more he got Aaron to reveal personal information, the more the kid would let his guard down.