Chapter Twenty-Four
Jessie stopped a few hours outside town to make camp for the night, cursing herself that she hadn’t been able to make it the whole way. Now she’d have to spend another night on the trail instead of in a warm bed.
The cool air hit her face sharply as night fell, making her shiver. It was a reminder that winter was coming, and she needed to get things wrapped up before travel became unbearable. She had told Gray she would do anything she could to find Casey, and she wasn’t going to give up until she did.
But she hadn’t said she would do it right away.
She brushed the thought aside. She could take a break during the winter and use that time to do other things, knowing she would be back on it as soon as winter was over. But she couldn’t do it in good conscience. She had to stick this out and get it done.
She made a fire and warmed her hands over it. Things were a lot quieter without Gray around, and she realized how comfortable she’d gotten being with him. It had been hard to adjust to traveling with him at first, because she was used to being on her own. But now she found she missed the chatter around the fire and the nightly routine they had fallen into.
It had been nice to have someone to share the evenings with and keep her company. To be with someone day in and day out was something she’d taken for granted. It wasn’t just the familiarity of having him near that she missed, either. He made her feel protected, and like there was hope for the future. Like she could get out of the mess that had become her life.
She sighed and lay down in her bedroll, closing her eyes and willing sleep to come quickly. There was no use dwelling over it anymore. Regardless of how she felt, the facts were still the facts. There was no future together. She needed to get her head straight and find Casey, so she could move on with her life.
Something or someone was watching her.
The hairs on the back of Jessie’s neck stood up, and she froze. An unsettling feeling came over her, and a chill ran up her spine.
She listened intently, straining to hear any clues as to what or who had caused her to awaken in the middle of the night. The air was still and heavy, seeming to give her a clue that she wasn’t alone. She heard crickets singing in the distance, and the sounds of the cicadas’ high-pitched buzzing.
Her horse neighed but was otherwise calm, and her body clenched in preparation for a fight. The feeling of being watched intensified. The quiet crack of a footstep on a twig came from the darkness beyond her camp.
She kept her eyes closed, pretending she was asleep, and kept her breathing even. She didn’t want to alert them to her vulnerability, so she tried to peek out from under her eyelashes to see into the darkness. She couldn’t see anything or anyone.
She moved her hand slowly toward her gun, her fingers softly brushing the leaves and dirt as she moved. Her gun was always within reach, but it suddenly felt so far away.
Before she could reach her weapon, a shadow moved in the dark above her head, so fast toward her that she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop it in time. She lunged for her gun, giving up any pretense of pretending to be asleep. But the shadow figure was too quick.
The person landed on top of her, grabbing her wrists painfully and pinning them to her sides. She cried out and desperately tried to reach for her gun, but the hold on her wrists was too strong and she was unable to escape.
The person pressed a knee to her chest, cutting off her breathing and keeping her subdued under their weight. She tried to scream, but the pressure on her chest was too much, and she couldn’t suck in enough air to let out a scream.
This person meant to kill her, and she needed to fight for her life.
She bucked wildly under the person’s weight. By the shape and build of the person, it must have been a man. Another bounty hunter? Another one of her father’s hired hands? She didn’t think so, though, because her father wanted her brought in alive.
It didn’t seem like this man cared if she was alive or dead.
She twisted and reared up at the man until she was able to pull one of her wrists free from his grasp. She reached up and clawed at his face, trying to tear out his eyes with her hand. He grasped her throat and squeezed hard, cutting off even more of her air supply. She felt her breath leaving her and fought harder. Her eyes snapped to his face in the darkness as she dug hard into one of his eyes with her thumb.
“Motherfucker!” the man yelled as he shoved her hand away. His knee replaced his hands on her throat, further restricting her ability to breathe. Her sight began to fade, but when he yelled, she had recognized who it was.
Butch.
Butch had found her and was suffocating her.
Her world went black again.
Jessie awakened slowly, her vision blurry as she struggled to focus. Her life depended on being able to regain her wits, but no matter how desperately she tried to see clearly, or be free from the splitting headache overpowering her, she couldn’t force her body to comply.
She lay on her stomach on the back of a horse, being carried like an animal that had been killed for a prize. Her hair swung, unbound, down the side of the horse and blocked her view. Her heart beat faster as she realized Butch knew she was a woman, and her identity was blown.
She tried not to draw attention to herself as she surveyed her surroundings, but she didn’t know where she was. All she could see from her position was dirt and grass. There were no landmarks that she could see from this vantage point. It was daylight now, but from her position on the horse she couldn’t tell what time of day it was, or how long she’d been unconscious.
Fear gripped her as she tried to think of her next move, but her situation wasn’t good. She might be able to roll off the back of the horse and make a run for it. But Butch would catch her before she got far. Gray had gone the opposite direction, and Butch had caught her unaware. Now she had no backup, no weapons, and no idea where they were going.
Her head pounded with each step. The horse jostled her body even more as it trotted faster, and without meaning to, she let out a groan of pain.
“About time you woke up.”
They came to an abrupt stop and Butch jumped off, grabbing her by the ankle and ripping her off the horse. She gasped and shot her hands out to break her fall, but landed awkwardly on her wrist, and pain shot up her arm.
The breath was knocked out of her, the force of the fall jarring her brain even more and causing her splitting headache to worsen.
She turned over so she could face him, and his sinister grin made her stomach lurch. His eyes shone with spitefulness, like he was taking pleasure in the physical pain he was causing her. He let out a slow, deliberate laugh that sent chills up her spine.
“I should have known. I saw you with Gray a few days ago, watching Casey and me. When you didn’t turn him in for the reward, I knew something was up with you. It didn’t take long to figure out that you were on his side. And there’s a nice little reward for you as well, Jessie.”
She gasped, realizing he had pieced it all together. She was in real trouble.
She steadied herself and stood up slowly, afraid to provoke him into attacking her. She touched her gun holster but found it empty.
“I’d be an idiot to leave you with a weapon.”
She flinched at the calmness in his voice. There was no anger, no emotion, like he had done this a thousand times before. The spite in his eyes and the joy he was experiencing from causing her pain were the real indications that he was dangerous, and she might have to fight for her life if she couldn’t talk her way out of this.
He was bigger than her and stronger than her, and she wasn’t confident she could take him in a fight if it came to that. Her best bet was to either take him by surprise or get him to let her go.
She thought of a lie that he might believe and said, “I’m not working with Gray. He was going to take me in for the reward, but I got away from him. I was on my way back to town so I could leave him behind and move on with my life.”
“Like I care or believe you. You two looked pretty close to me. You didn’t look like a prisoner at all.” He dismissed her claims, not believing her for a second. He didn’t care what she said. He just wanted to use her to get to Gray.
“Where are they?”
She didn’t have to ask who he meant. The glint in his eye made her hesitate, her muscles tensing in preparation to fight or try to run away. If she gave the wrong answer, he would hurt her. She had seen this look a thousand times with her father and knew that one wrong answer could mean he’d kill her or punish her. He was practically humming in anticipation, like he was eager to strike her.
She couldn’t betray Gray, even if it meant Butch hurt her. She’d escape him, and maybe she could find a way to capture him.
“I left him a half-day’s ride to the east.” She muttered the half-truth, hopeful it would buy her some time to figure out what to do. She had left Gray east of where she assumed she was now, but she knew he’d ridden north toward Billings, so giving Butch this much wouldn’t help him any.
“Where is he going?”
She snapped her mouth shut and glared at Butch. She refused to tell him that.
The slap was hard, and so sudden she didn’t have time to brace herself. She jerked from the force, and her hand flew to her cheek to stop the sting. She glared at him, saying nothing even though he expected her to answer.
The second slap was harder. She threw up her hands to protect herself, but she was too slow. She fell to the ground at the impact.
“Where!” He roared the word, betraying his earlier phony calmness. She tried to get back on her feet to defend herself or fight him. But before she could, he kicked her in the stomach, and she fell over. The pain was unbearable, but she knew she had to fight. He might very well kill her if she didn’t at least try. She wasn’t willing to take that chance.
“I don’t know!” She cradled her stomach, the pain radiating from her center. He towered over her and grabbed her by the hair, yanking her head toward him so she was closer to his face. His breath whispered across her cheek as he snarled at her.
“I’ve had enough of you. Tell me now, or when I find the bastard, I’ll make you watch as I kill him. If you tell me where he is, maybe I’ll spare his life.”
Everything in her told her that he was lying, and no matter what she did, he would kill Gray and Luke if he found them.
She pressed her lips tightly together, refusing to give him an answer. She swung her arm and tried to punch him in the face, but she couldn’t connect.
Growling, he ripped her off the ground by her arm, almost dislocating it from the socket. He twisted her arm behind her back, and she cried out in pain. He put a bag over her head, blocking any view she’d have of their location. The bag was suffocating and hot, but she was unable to stop him.
He shoved her toward the horses and forced her to mount; then they rode off toward an unknown location.