Natalie Acres - Wanted by outlaws

Her long strawberry blond hair roped over his arms, fanning out over his thighs as he held her. The stench of blood lingered everywhere and with the swelling under her rosy red cheeks, Luke probably wanted another good fight, and someone among the living to blame.

“Damn it, boy. She’s not a prize you found in the middle of the field somewhere, or a child. Now go put her in the bedroom. Let’s get these dead bodies out of here before she wakes up and wonders what she missed.” Clay took charge. Right now, Luke most likely didn’t want to hear him speak. He planned to hold his woman and rock her into comfort and he wanted to do it in silence.

Too damn bad.

Emily started to mumble and then jerk. “Help…me,” she croaked out the request before she rolled her head against Luke’s shirt.

Nothing moved in the room while she mumbled. Luke patted her head and Clay looked on.

“Shh…It’s Luke, Emily. I’m here. Shh…We killed ‘em all, Emily. You’re safe now.”

Levi kicked at the dirt floor swept tight to perfection. “Go put her in bed, Luke. Give us a hand here.” He sounded angry, pissed off and ready to fight somebody else too. They’d fought plenty when they first arrived, several on the outside and a few more in Emily’s cabin.

Oh yeah, the dead ones picked the wrong woman.

Clay glanced over his shoulder before he loaded the smallest of the bunch over his back and tossed him on the porch. He turned around to find another corpse to carry, and grumbled as he lifted and tossed the deceased.

Levi’s lips formed a tight line. He stuck his hands in his pockets while he glared at his cousin. Anger washed over him and Clay noticed. Levi wanted to comfort Emily too.

“Here, help me.” Luke handed off Emily and if Clay had to guess, he did it for a test if nothing more. Luke once mentioned what he’d suspected for awhile. There wasn’t proof, no way to know for sure whether or not his cousin shared the same enthusiasm, a similar attraction for Emily. Now, all their cards were face up on the table.

Clay and Luke loaded the remaining bodies in the wagon. After they removed the evidence of death, they returned to wipe down the area and swipe away the blood, so Emily wouldn’t see it.

Luke walked into Emily’s confining bedroom. Levi wasn’t sitting in the chair next to the bed, but instead he sat on the mattress with his hand in hers.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” Luke asked.

“Tell you what?” Levi looked up, reluctantly tearing his gaze from the sleeping wonder in front of him—Emily.

Tension separated the cowboys, on some level. Right now, neither one of them needed to fight out their differences. They were both smart enough to realize when rage existed like this, it was better to walk away. Better still, maybe even run. This kind of fury often got a man killed when a woman brought about certain feelings hardly understood.

Clay motioned for them, and they both stepped out of her room. “Boys, before you decide to roll around on the ground out here, I think there’s a thing or two we all need to discuss.”

Luke and Levi exchanged glares but the stark anger they kept in reserve suddenly changed and they found a new direction to point it. The target had a name, his. He saw them headed straight for him.

“You been coming out here too, Clay?” Luke cautiously asked.

“Well?” Levi waited.

“You two are something else, you know that?” Clay glanced from one cousin to the next. “You were ready to kick each other’s ass and now you’re both looking at me like you don’t know if you want my blood or my scalp.”

Luke’s lips formed a tight line. Clay had a way with the ladies. If he was visiting Emily, he was fucking Emily. He’d bet on it.

“You seeing her?” Levi apparently suspected the same thing.

“Yeah, ‘bout like the two of you. Sittin’ right here on this here porch and lookin’ at the prettiest woman I ever did see. She brings out that fine china teacup when I come to call. We sit here for a few minutes and I try to work my thick fingers through the tiny handle without breaking it.”

Luke grinned for a second. He had the same trouble with Emily’s china, no doubt.

“Sweet talkin’ her pants right off of her too, I’d reckon.” Levi stalked off the porch.

“What the hell are you mad about?” Luke hollered after him. “I told you two what my intentions are, were. Hell, you know what I mean and what did you do?”

“I got to her as soon as possible. I tell ya, I did,” Clay admitted. “I ain’t gonna deny it and I don’t care if you like it or not. When you said you figured on one day marrying her, I had to see for myself what kind of woman cracked a man’s nuts without laying a finger on ‘em.”

“Why? Why the hell would you do something like this?” Luke asked.

“Oh come on, Luke. We’ve shared women before, and it ain’t ever been a problem.”

“It’s not the same.” Luke took the reins of the wagon and hoisted himself on top of it. “Not a woman in Tombstone or Dodge City or anywhere in Oklahoma looks like that one, and neither one of ya had your mind set on sharin’ her, now did ya?”

A blood curling scream interrupted them.

Luke’s face lost its color. He jumped from a perched advantage and landed on the porch mere steps in front of his cousins. The three entered her room cautiously.

Emily wept into her palms. Startled, she pulled her hands away from her face and they looked into the eyes of the familiar. Fear and shame stared back.

“I…I…” She buried her face again. Oh, this was so bad, so terrible, so awful, and unbearable. She wept and shook, sobbed and rocked. All three stood silently, helplessly; unaware of how much pain she’d endured because they weren’t there from the beginning.

Clay, several years older than his cousins, spoke first. “Emily, is there something we can do for you?”

“No!” she wailed from behind her hands. “Yes!” she cried almost immediately.

“Okay, tell us.” Luke moved closer. “What do you need, name it and it’s yours.”

Emily glanced up. She searched their faces for the answers she needed. “I don’t know what happened. Do you?”

“What do you mean, you don’t know what happened?” Luke questioned. He looked like a burly bear lurking in her corner. A big man with deep chocolate eyes and coal black hair, most men feared Luke Justice. Emily felt safe around him, most of the time. Right now, he looked mad enough to kill, or maybe like he’d already done some killing.

Clay cleared his throat and translated. “She said she don’t know what happened and that means she don’t remember or care to talk about it. Right, Emily?”

She reluctantly nodded. “I can’t remember anything after…they…put their hands on me.”

Clay set his jaw. Luke clenched his fist and Levi had to turn away from her to hide the anger. She saw the red flush of Levi’s skin before he hid under his mess of brown hair.

“Okay, well then. If you don’t remember, it’s for the best.” Luke took a deep breath and walked over to the window. “We’ve taken care of them, Emily. You don’t have to worry. They won’t ever hurt you again.”

Emily’s breathing increased with each passing second. She felt like she was going to get really, really sick. “So they…”

“Oh, no, he didn’t mean that, uh, we wouldn’t know about that, and uh…” Levi didn’t have a way with words.

“Levi, you and Luke, why don’t you two wait outside?” Clay peered up at Emily from under his long eyelashes. His royal blue eyes pierced through hers. Maybe he realized several men had their way with her. Did he know for sure? Probably so, Clay always knew things. Maybe he wanted to save her the embarrassment of discussing whatever he suspected in front of them.