The Outlaw Read Free

area.
     
    The scraggly group of men lounged in small
groups, each one interested in her all of a sudden. Her heart
started racing as she took them all in and she wondered what they
were going to do with her. The images that came to mind caused a
shiver to race up her spine.
     
    A tall man, his long stringy hair hanging
halfway down his back stood and took a few steps closer to where
she sat. He stared at her, spit out a black stream of tobacco juice
that dribbled down his chin, and shook his head. “Colt won’t let
you keep her.”
     
    Virgil, the foul smelling man who’d taken
her, jumped from his horse. “Fuck Colt. He aint the law around
here.”
     
    Sarah listened to them argue, Virgil, the
loudest. The majority of the conversation was about her but it soon
turned to the money they’d stolen and to Colt, the man Sarah now
knew led this gang of ruffians. Her thoughts turned to him as she
stared at the men around her. If tobacco guy said Colt wouldn’t let
Virgil keep her, did that mean he’d let her go? Somehow she didn’t
think so.
     
    Long minutes ticked by and they seemed to
forget she was there. While the men were occupied in their
conversations, and heated arguments, Sarah slid along the rocks,
inch-by-inch, careful to not make any sound. She was halfway to the
small opening they’d ridden through by the time Virgil noticed
her.
     
    He cocked his head to one side, grinning at
her. “Where you think you’re going?”
     
    Sarah froze, her eyes wide as she stared at
him. When he took a step toward her she leaped to her feet and ran.
He caught her before she could make it to the opening of the
outcrop they were hiding in. When he picked her up, her feet
dangling in the air, she screamed. Her shrieks only caused them
more glee, their taunts of what they’d do with her spoken with more
certainty.
     
    Virgil yelled for a rope as he carried her to
a nearby tree, the spindly branches sweeping low to touch the
ground. The trunk was small and lashing her to it was done in a
matter of minutes. With her hands behind her, fastened around the
tree, she could move nothing but her feet, which she used whenever
one of them came near her.
     
    “She’s a hellion, Virgil. Be hours a’ fore we
can break her.”
     
    Sarah’s eyes burned and she blinked to erase
the tears trying to form. “You come near me and I’ll break your
nose!” When Virgil walked toward her, his hands on his belt buckle,
she gritted her teeth and hoped to God she’d have the strength to
fight them all off.
     
    “I can break her. Aint no woman around who
can resist me.”
     
    Laughter from the others was blocked out as
Sarah’s gaze fell to Virgil. His belt was undone and when he
reached into his pants, pulling out his erection, she turned her
head.
     
    The sun was going down, the sky painted in
hues of purple and orange. Small puffy clouds dotted the horizon
and she again wondered where William was. Of all the people she
expected to come for her, he was the first on her list and not
because he was the town marshal. He’d asked her to marry him. She
should have given him a definite answer instead of telling him she
wanted to think about it. Plain stubbornness had made her wait.
That same stubbornness would probably be the death of her.
     
    Virgil closed the distance between them and
it wasn’t until he was right in front of her that Sarah turned to
look at him. And planted the toe of her boot in his groin. His
womanly scream was followed by another as she kicked him again when
he fell to his knees. Three more kicks followed the first two
before he rolled far enough away she couldn’t reach him. She was
panting for breath by then, those tears she’d been fighting filling
her eyes.
     
    Watching the others, she waited for them to
come at her but they were too busy laughing at Virgil’s failed rape
attempt to bother. The sun crept lower on the horizon and by the
time Virgil was able to stand again, the air had cooled.
     
    The look