Chapter Twenty-Five
Sadie had never been so scared in her entire life.
She had no idea how long she’d been there.
She was tied to a chair, her arms bound and stretched out in front of her across the table with her palms showing up.
The room she was in was dingy and stuffy, the only light falling through a small dirty window behind her, barely illuminating where she was.
There was no flooring and even the walls seemed to be made of clay. It was cold in there.
Walter had removed the cloth from her mouth, and for what felt like hours, her uncle and Briggs had been interrogating her, all the while getting drunk on some sweet-smelling alcohol. They circled the table like vultures, ready to descend on her at any moment.
So far, Sadie had been able to stay strong, calling upon her faith and praying to God, while Walter and Briggs tried every trick in the book to make her admit to the lies they spun.
Please, God! Send for help! Send someone to save me from these lunatics. Please make sure that Ellen and Daniel and Ruby and Sam are all right. Please help me!
Sadie felt like crying, but she refused to show any kind of weakness.
She reminded herself that these were two grown men trying to intimidate one much younger woman.
It was unbelievably disgusting and completely unfair, but that was where she usually drew her strength. Defying all odds. She was good at that.
However, her strength started to fade when Walter and Briggs started to get violent. What had started with mere questions—even though some had been utterly inappropriate—had now turned into something else entirely.
“You have burned your father’s will the day after his funeral, haven’t you!” Walter shouted at her. “Admit it, you useless broad!” He slammed his fist onto the table, making it rattle for the tenth time. Sadie simultaneously hoped and feared that it would break and crumble all around her.
“You married after your parents’ death,” Briggs continued his strange rant, which seemed to focus on slightly different details than Walter.
“That means that you committed fraud by keeping the ranch unlawfully. It should have gone to your uncle, not you!” he yelled, pointing his stubby finger too closely at her face.
“You lied to me the entire time!” Walter screamed at her when it was his turn again. “I am your last surviving family! How could you do this to me?” he whined, but as soon as he didn’t get the desired reaction from Sadie, his sad and devastated face turned into a menacing mask once again.
“I could bring you in front of a judge and have you thrown in prison for the rest of your life!” Briggs threatened coldly.
“And don’t think that wouldn’t happen, because I know just the right judges who’d do that for me!
” He bared his teeth at her, slapping a switch a little too closely onto the table to make her jump.
It worked. He’d hit her across her open palms once already, and they still burned.
“My lawyer told me that I don’t even need proof of your marriage,” Walter continued with his lies. “He told me that I am the sole heir of the entire estate regardless of the date of your wedding, because you deviously burned your father’s will!”
And so it went on and on, with Walter and Briggs taking turns spewing their lies and accusations, making crazy claims trying to grind her down. Sadie just kept quiet.
At first, she’d tried to reason with them and defend herself, but she’d quickly realized that they didn’t function like that. They’d completely ignored any argument she’d made, belittling her along the way, grinding her down more and more.
She didn’t want to cry but it was getting harder and harder to remain focused. She knew that she was innocent in all of this, but the things they were telling her over and over again started to mess with her mind.
“If you don’t cooperate with us,” Briggs yelled at her, “and tell us exactly what we want to hear, I will throw you in the deepest and darkest prison I know, and you will never see daylight again! Do you hear me?” This time he brought the switch down across both of her forearms. The thin fabric covering her skin did nothing to hold off the stinging pain that followed.
Sadie cried out. It was too much. She couldn’t hold on anymore and her tears started to fall.
Nobody would come to save her. Nobody would hear her down here in that dungeon. It was over. Her beautiful life as she knew it was over. Her uncle would take over the ranch and for all she knew, he might still have her thrown in prison, just because he had the power to do so.
She would never see Ellen and Daniel and Louise again. She would never see Ruby and Sam again. Thinking about Sam’s handsome face made her cry in earnest. He’d already lost his first wife. Now, because of her own fault, he’d lost his second, too.
Sadie felt awful that she hadn’t been able to prevent that from happening.
For Sam and also for poor little Ruby. She was so happy at the ranch.
What would happen to them now? Her thoughts started to spiral out of control and she felt real panic.
The pain in her heart was like a knife stabbing her over and over.
“If you write the ranch over into my name, I might consider letting you live there,” Walter said with a sleezy look in his eyes.
“I wouldn’t marry you, because you have been used already, and I won’t have to anymore, but maybe we could…
come to our own kind of agreement.” Sadie shuddered at the insinuation.
Walter and Briggs laughed menacingly and poured themselves some more alcohol.
There was a commotion outside. Sadie only noticed it when the two men suddenly froze, after she saw shadows flit across the window. There were voices outside, but she couldn’t recognize them. Was this Sam? Her heart lurched into her throat and she was overcome with a sudden burst of hope.
Despite the repercussions, Sadie started to scream as loud as she could.
“Help me! I’m down here! Help me…” Briggs backhanded her so hard across the face, her whole head spun to the side.
His knuckles slammed against her cheekbone and she saw stars.
Her mind felt like it was wrapped in cotton wool and her hearing sounded as if she was underwater.
She’d never been hit like that before. It was too painful to wince.
Sadie was in such shock, she was only able to sit there, stiffly, trying to breathe slow, flat breaths for fear of passing out.
There was a loud crash behind her. Sadie’s ears were ringing so every sound appeared muffled.
She thought she heard Walter and Briggs yell and shout, but there were other voices, too.
The way she was tied up made it impossible to move, so she just sat there at that table, scared to move her head to look because she was so dizzy.
Someone fumbled with her bindings and Sam’s face appeared before hers.
A heart-wrenching sob escaped her when he looked at her with so much love in his eyes, it hurt.
“Sadie! Are you all right? Did they hurt you? Thank God we found you!” he said, speaking too fast with obvious relief. He pulled her into his arms and held her close, while the chaos was still going on inside the room. He kissed her hair, her temple, then her cheek and Sadie winced.
He pulled back immediately and started to look her over, touching her arms and face.
He saw the red marks on the palms of her hands, and then the welts across her forearms. His eyes focused on her cheekbone, and his face suddenly turned angry.
He was clearly seething. His fingertips came up to her, but Sadie winced again before he could touch her.
“You hurt my wife?” Sam yelled with a wild growl in his voice as he turned around to Walter and Briggs, who were held by several men.
Sam roared and stormed toward Walter, grabbing him by the collar, slamming him hard against the wall. Walter released a forced grunt, then lifted his arms to defend himself.
“I didn’t touch her!” he squeaked helplessly. “Briggs beat her! I didn’t!”
Sam pushed Walter once again against the wall, then he stepped aside in front of Briggs, pulled back his fist and punched the sheriff so hard against his jaw, Sadie heard a cracking noise. Briggs howled in agony.
“Take them out of here and throw them in jail over night!” John ordered the other men. “I’ll contact the U.S. Marshal, who is in town right now. I’m sure he’ll be interested to hear your conduct.”
Before the others dragged both men outside, Sam grabbed the sheriff’s star on Briggs’ vest and ripped it off.
“You do not deserve to wear this badge! You are a disgrace!” Then he turned to Walter.
“And you! You are even worse than that. Trust me when I tell you that I’ll do everything in my power that you’ll never see the light of day ever again!
” Walter scoffed, but Sadie only had eyes for her husband.
The men went outside and Sam turned back to her.
Sadie could finally breathe. She rushed to him, slung her arms around his neck, even though it hurt, and pulled Sam into a fierce embrace.
“You saved my life!” she cried, but this time those were tears of joy. “More than once. God sent you to me to save me and you keep showing up to do exactly that.”
Sam released a shuddered breath as he gently pulled back.
“You are my wife! I will always show up for you,” he said, his voice thick with emotions.
Their eyes locked and Sadie realized in that very moment that what she felt wasn’t just gratitude and respect.
She realized that she’d actually fallen in love with this man.