Natalie Acres - Wanted by outlaws

“Evenin’ ma’am.” A short, pudgy man with a muddy star didn’t wait for an invitation. He stepped inside the minute Emily Masterson opened the rickety door.

“Marshall.” She lowered her eyes and tilted her head to the side trying to escape the stench of whiskey before she moved out of his way. Might as well step aside, the man with the notorious and rude reputation almost plowed right over her.

“What brings you out here this evening?” She forced a smile but with the rumble in her belly, she knew his visit wasn’t what she’d classify as a social call.

Marshall Coe never bothered to answer. He took his own sweet time looking around her small cabin. One step here and another over there, he peeked into a bedroom before he climbed a short ladder located in the corner. He turned his head to the left and then snapped it to the right. He gave the place a good suspicious once-over.

With a huff, he inched back down the same way he went up. His gaze drifted over Emily with particular time spent at the neckline of her nightdress. She nervously tugged at the thin collar.

With a leap backwards, he leaned outside the cabin, careful to keep his hands on the doorframe. “Boys, they’ve been here. Come on in and let’s have a chat with Ms. Masterson.”

“Who are you talking about?” She didn’t raise her voice but the alarm sounded out when she hit a higher note. “No one has been here. No one at all.”

The other men traipsed inside and never bothered to wipe their feet. No one made eye contact or provided a polite introduction. The Marshall slammed the door so hard it shook and then nodded toward the men who joined him.

There were four of them, none looking particularly friendly. Two of them took her arms and quickly pinned them to the wall right beside her hips. The other two made themselves at home. One went through her personal things while the other disappeared into the narrow loft.

“Stop this! Please! Take your hands off me!”

One of the Marshall’s bandits smacked his lips while the other ran his index finger over her collarbone. “Coe, you were right. She’s just what I’ve been a wantin’.”

The Marshall’s lopsided smile made her stomach churn. He nodded and rolled back on the chair legs. He further studied her for himself. “Been havin’ all sorts of complaints in Central City.

“This one doesn’t know how we handle whores here in Colorado. Ain’t no way for a woman to know these things if she lives all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. She lives by her lonesome and waits for her no-good outlaws. Ain’t that right, Ms. Emily Masterson?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not. I am alone, Marshall, but I rarely have company and not the kind you’re implying.”

“Ms. Masterson, we’ve been hearing all sorts of things but in the past, we ain’t had any trouble, now have we?”

She swallowed stiffly. “No…No, sir….I…I don’t plan to start giving you any now.”

Marshall Coe had a bad reputation, one she realized held true. She quickly understood how much the odds stacked against her the second he arrived with his bandits. He was a disgrace to the badge. The evil look in his eyes, the expression washing across his swollen cheeks, and his firmly set jaw let her know she was in for some real trouble. She realized her predicament.

Grim, real grim.

“We’re out here tonight looking for three outlaws.”

“I…haven’t…”

He puffed his cheeks, took an agitated and exaggerated deep breath, nodded quickly, and waited. The man holding her from the right immediately began to feel her up and down. His calloused hands ran over her arm and flesh before squeezing her breast, groping her and himself at the same time.

She held her head high and tried to sink into a safe place somewhere deep inside of her mind. The place they’d never be able to find or destroy just because they touched her body and she resigned to the fact quickly. They were there for more than outlaws. They came for her.

They wouldn’t leave without what they were there for, because each of these rogues rode out of Central City with a perverse man’s goal. If she cared to guess, and she didn’t, they probably didn’t give a mule’s behind about outlaws.

“Miss Masterson, can I speak now?” The Marshall flipped something off his coat and tried to act like he remained forever bored.

Her breathing labored, she blinked her eyes and then verbally agreed. “Yes.”

He slowly stood and then paced around the room. “These men you’ve been harboring here are dangerous. They rape innocent women and steal their animals. They prey on widows and women living alone.” He grinned and abruptly stopped in front of her. “These fellas take their turns,” his motives revealed, he let it sink in before he finished, “one man at a time.”

The beastly human to her left ran his knuckles up and down the contour of her ribcage. He growled at her ear and then nipped at the lobe. She squirmed but she didn’t fight. She refused to react in the way they expected, the way they wanted, and apparently craved.

“Hard to say what they would’ve done to you, a woman like you, living out here all alone. We came in and saved the day, saved you from yourself, and those dirty rotten outlaws.”

Marshall Coe sat back down again and added more with a wink, “It’s just a damn shame we didn’t get here in time to save you from everything. No, we may have saved your life, but we couldn’t protect you from the things they were able to do to you before we arrived.”

Emily closed her eyes and resisted the urge, and the sudden need, to scream. Two pairs of hands ripped the only gown she owned away from her trembling body and everything quickly turned into a chaotic blur.

Luke pulled a large blanket from Emily’s bed. “This is my fault.”

Clay and his other cousin, Levi, watched from across the room. They didn’t dare move closer. Luke’s rage was unmatched after a battle and enough blood spilled there. They shed it the hard way, after a good ‘ole gun fight with a few knives thrown in for a better show. Too bad their lone audience passed out prior to their arrival.

“Is she gonna be all right?” Clay asked.

Luke’s eyes showed his fury as he gathered her in his arms. “I don’t know. Damn it to hell! I should’ve been here!”

“You’ve been shadowing her for months now, but you didn’t know this was gonna happen. No one whispered a word about it in town,” Clay said.

“That’s true, Luke. Most of the time when Coe and his men are traveling out, the buzz is everywhere. It didn’t happen this time. You can’t blame yourself.” Levi started dragging the bodies toward the door. “At least they didn’t…well you know. I don’t think no one got to her thata way.”

Luke wrapped Emily tight against his body. “God, I hope not.” He kissed her on the forehead. “I don’t know if I could stand it if somebody hurt her.”

Clay poked Levi in the ribs. “What’d I tell ya?”

“Yeah, looks about like what you said,” Levi grumbled.

Luke swiped her hair away from sticky cheeks stained from plenty of tears, no doubt. “She’s so beautiful and really fragile. Just look at her. She’s so close to perfect.”

Luke looked away from her then. The seething continued and after a few moments of silence, he spat off once more. “Get those bastards up and let me kill ‘em again!”

He started to cradle her harder against his body. He rocked her back and forth and back and forth. Her shape formed to his and he tried to soothe her with some nervous humming. Truth told, he couldn’t carry a tune.