by Sharon Sala
“I’ve got to move the wagon some so that we’re pullin’ the sucker straight. It would be a shame to drag him into that big rock, wouldn’t it?”
“A crying shame,” Letty said.
They smiled at each other, then just to give Emory James a second reminder of why he was still up to his ass in dirt, they each grabbed a mule and began moving them backward.
“Hey! Whoa! Goddamnit, you people! You’re killing me, here!”
“Did you hear somethin’?” Eulis asked.
“Might have,” Letty said.
“Reckon we ought to go see who it was?”
She shrugged. “It’s your call. If it was me, I don’t think I would have stopped until the bastard was buried, head and all.”
Eulis looked at Letty and grinned.
“It’s good to have you back,” he said.
Letty frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do,” Eulis said. “We been tip-toein’ around each other like two virgins facin’ a troop of soldiers with permanent hard-ons.”
Letty’s frown turned to a glare.
“Well, it’s all your fault.”
“Mine? Why is it mine?”
“You started treating me nice, even taking care of me like I was something special. How else was I to act?”
Eulis glared back. “Dang it, Letty, you are somethin’ special, whether you like it or not. Now are we gonna drag Emory James outta’ his grave, or leave him to it?”
“You move the wagon. I’ll go tell the little bastard to stop yelling.”
“All right then,” Eulis said.
“All right then,” Letty echoed.
She walked off while Eulis grabbed the reins and began leading the mules and wagon to get a better angle.
Emory James was hanging onto the rope for dear life when Letty rounded the rock.
“What the holy hell was you two tryin’ to do to me?” he asked.
“There is not one damned thing about hell that is holy,” Letty said, and then kicked a little dirt back in the hole to punctuate her statement. “Eulis is moving the wagon to get a better angle to pull you out. And, if I was you, I wouldn’t be doing all that yelling. That Black Dog fella might have set himself up somewhere nearby just to watch you die.”
Emory’s stomach knotted as he looked around in panic.
“Why did you say that? Did you see him? Did you see sign of—”
“Shut up, Mister. You talk too much,” Letty said.
Emory shut his mouth.
Eulis got the wagon in place.
“You ready?” he called.
“Let ’er rip,” Letty called back.
Emory felt the first tug as the rope tightened around his chest.
“Easy… easy,” he begged, as the pull tightened even more. His lower half was still planted where Black Dog had put him, and he couldn’t feel any give. “Wait! Wait!” he begged.
“Ease up!” Letty called.
Eulis halted the mules.
Letty looked down at Emory.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t think this is gonna work,” Emory said. “I don’t feel any give below.”
Letty picked up the shovel and dug a bit more from around his waist, apologizing every time she nicked his hips and his butt with the shovel.
“Lord have mercy, woman,” Emory finally begged. “You’re gonna unman me with that shovel blade.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you,” Letty said. “However, if it happened, it would certainly take care of your weakness for other men’s women, wouldn’t it?”
Emory turned loose of the rope and started digging the dirt from around his waist, himself.
“Get back! Get back, damn it! You’re a scary woman and that’s a fact!”
“Are you ready?” Eulis called out.
Letty looked down at Emory, who was frantically digging dirt from around his waist.
“Yeah, he’s ready!” she yelled.
Emory looked up in disbelief and grabbed the rope just as the mules gave him another tug.
He screamed out in pain.
“More!” Letty yelled.
Emory’s scream intensified and then suddenly he was out and flopping on the ground like a fish out of water. He was out and from the waist down, as naked as the day he was born.
“Whoa!” Letty called. “He’s out!”
“Praise God,” Eulis said. He untied the rope and then drove the team and wagon up to the rock.
“My pants! Where’s my pants?” Emory groaned.
Letty looked at the man’s dirty bare ass, then leaned over and peered into the hole.
“Would you look at this,” she said. “They’re still in the hole. We pulled you right out of your britches.”
Eulis circled the rock and then stopped, taken aback by the man’s nudity.
“What happened to your pants?” he asked.
Letty pointed to the hole.
“We pulled him right out of them.”
Emory rolled over on his back then sat up, scrambling to get the rope from around his chest before this crazy pair decided to drag him behind the wagon just to see how much dust he could raise, then cupped his hands over his crotch.
“Would someone please hand me my pants?”
“You still got your legs,” Letty said. “Get ’em yourself.”
Emory cursed beneath his breath and tried to stand up, only to find his legs were still too numb to bear weight. He stumbled and fell to his knees, baring his nude ass in an even more embarrassing pose. It occurred to him then how much he disliked this woman.
“Here,” Eulis said. “I’ll get ’em for you.”
“I would certainly appreciate it,” Emory said, and glared at Letty.
Letty purposefully looked at what he could not hide and then grinned.
“You sure must have a high opinion of yourself,” she said.
Emory frowned. “What makes you say that?”
She pointed to his dirty, shriveled dingus.
“You oughta know that you can’t take a woman away from her man with something like that.”
Eulis purposefully ignored them both, but Emory gasped. He’d never been insulted in such an intimate manner by anyone, let alone a woman. He stumbled to his feet just as Eulis pulled his pants from the hole, and yanked them out of Eulis’s hands. He stumbled to the wagon, leaning against it to steady himself as he put on his pants. When he was completely covered, he eyed Eulis.
“You got yourself a real mean woman.”
Eulis looked at Letty, who was rolling up the rope they’d used to pull him out of the hole, then grinned.
“Yeah, I know.”
“How do you put up with her?” Emory asked.
“Mostly I just let her have her way,” Eulis said.
Letty snorted beneath her breath, and tossed the rope in the back of the wagon.
“If you two are through talking bad about me, it’s time we got moving.”
“You heard the woman,” Eulis said. “If you want a ride to Cherry Creek, you better get in.”
Emory grabbed onto the wagon and started trying to climb in, but his arms and legs were still too weak.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Letty said.
She bent down, grabbed him by the ankles with her good arm, then both lifted and pushed as he was pulling, which catapulted him into the wagon bed, head first.
He landed with a thud.
Letty heard him curse. She leaned over the wagon and looked in.
“I’m sorry. Were you talking to me?” she asked.
Emory rolled over on his back and ran his fingers over his nose and chin. He was missing some hide, but it was a small price to pay for being out of that hole.
“No, ma’am,” he said. “And thanks for the help in getting in.”
“No problem,” Letty said, then felt Eulis’s hand was on her back.
“Don’t you think you’ve helped him enough?”
“I haven’
t decided,” Letty said. “Where’s my rifle?”
“On the wagon seat,” Eulis said. “Need some help gettin’ up?”
“I can manage,” Letty said, and began climbing up into the wagon, only using one arm made it difficult.
“You sure you don’t need some help?” Eulis asked.
Letty turned around and glared. “If I do, I’ll ask for it.”
“Fine then,” Eulis said, and turned away just as Letty slipped. She landed butt first in the dirt and knocked the wind from her lungs.
Eulis sighed, then bent down and picked her up.
Letty batted at his hands, but was lacking the air to speak.
“Dang it, Leticia… can’t you just accept a little help without making a big fuss about it?”
He plopped her in the seat, then shoved at her leg.
“Scoot over,” he said. “I’m still driving.”
She took the rifle as she scooted, pointed the barrel so that it was straight in Emory’s face as she turned around.
“So, Emory James… I’m trusting you’re not the kind of man to try something when my back is turned.”
“No, ma’am,” Emory said, and scooted all the way back to the end of the wagon. “I’m just grateful… real grateful for your help.”
She nodded, then turned and stared straight ahead.
“We’re fine,” she said.
“Good to know,” Eulis said, and flipped the reins on Rosy and Blackie’s back.
He clucked his tongue sharply. The mules began to pull—the wheels rolled—and the journey resumed, bringing them just a little bit closer to Cherry Creek.
One More Mile To Go—One Last Soul To Save
Black Dog was dead.
Millie Sees Crow had made up her mind to do it after he’d slashed her face for the second time. When he’d found her with the trapper, he’d been furious. He had cut her hair, her cheek, and then cut off the end of her nose, claiming that he was going to make her too ugly for any other man to want. She still didn’t understand what had made him so angry, because he often sold her services to other men and kept the money for himself.
She’d killed Black Dog the night after he’d buried the trapper in the sand. She thought the trapper called himself James, but she wasn’t sure. White men had strange names that meant nothing to her. After she’d killed Black Dog, she’d thought about going back and digging up the trapper, but she’d decided against it. For now, she was glad to be on her own. Her cheek was sore and her nose very painful. She touched them lightly, satisfied that there was still enough of her medicine on the wounds to keep off flies.
Millie Sees Crow wasn’t, by nature, a vicious woman, but Black Dog should not have marked her face. She’d told him so as she was cutting off his manhood. He’d screamed at her, going mad from the pain until she’d slit his throat. After that, he’d been quiet. She’d strung his penis on a long piece of rawhide and tied it around her waist. Eventually, it would rot and fall off, which was fine with her. By then, she would have taken his power as her own.
She glanced toward the horizon, gauging the location of the sun to give her an idea of how much time before sunset. She’d never been this way before, but in the foothills of this vast mountain range were many small creeks and plenty of forage for her two horses.
When she was healed, she was going back to her people, the Comanche, which meant backtracking over a lot of territory. Even though her father had traded her to Black Dog for five horses and a dozen buffalo robes almost ten years ago, she thought he would welcome her home—especially after he saw what Black Dog had done to her. She had guns and knives and two horses. Maybe there would be a man among her people who would be willing to overlook her scars for the fine things she would bring to their lodge. She was still young enough to bear children, although all during the years she’d been with Black Dog and the men he sold her to, she had never become ripe with child. It occurred to her that she might be barren, but it was nothing she could control. All she needed to do now was heal, gather enough food to start her journey home, and hope to make it before snow fell.
A rabbit bolted out from the underbrush along the path and ran in front of her horse. She pulled her pistol out of her pocket and shot. The rabbit dropped in mid-leap. She grunted with satisfaction, pulled the horse to a halt and got off to retrieve her kill. It would fill her belly tonight and she would keep the fur to line moccasins she would wear when the winds grew cold.
She cut the rabbit’s throat to let it bleed, and then skinned it with only a few swift strokes. Wrapping both meat and fur into pieces of rawhide, then stowing it inside Black Dog’s saddlebags, she remounted and resumed her journey. A couple of hours later, she stopped on a small rise above a creek, hobbled the horses, and began to make camp. It was almost dark when she heard what sounded like a team and wagon. Millie Sees Crow didn’t like surprises, so she picked up Black Dog’s rifle and slipped into the trees.
Emory James’s butt hurt from bouncing around in the back of the crazy couple’s wagon. His ribs hurt from nearly being pulled in half. His head and face hurt from the beating Black Dog had given him before planting him in the dirt. It had occurred to him more than once that he might be taller now than he had been before they’d pulled him out, because every joint in his body below the waist had been stretched to the point of pain. He still couldn’t stand up without wobbling and wondered if his knees would ever be the same.
He looked up at the couple in the wagon seat. From the back, the woman looked ordinary—even pretty. She had nice curves and the long thick braid down her back was nut brown. But she was scary. She’d laughed at his pain and made fun of his dingus, which had totally pissed him off. Added to that, she hadn’t said more than a dozen words since they’d begun their journey together, and that had been hours ago.
The driver seemed all right, but he was definitely attached to the woman, although Emory was pretty sure that their relationship didn’t have anything to do with sex. He couldn’t put his finger on why they made him nervous, but he’d made up his mind that once they got to Cherry Creek, he would be going his own way.
“Hey!” he called out. “It’s gonna be dark soon. Aren’t you gonna make camp?”
“Been smellin’ smoke for a while now,” Eulis said. “Thought we’d make sure that whoever has made camp isn’t a threat before we stop.”
Emory’s belly flopped.
“What if it’s Black Dog? Damn it, man, why didn’t you say somethin’ sooner? If it’s him, I’m a dead man. I want out! Let me out!”
Letty turned around. The gun turned with her and once again Emory found himself staring down the barrel as Letty spoke.
“Mr., if we wanted you dead, we would have left you in the ground, right?”
Emory swallowed nervously then nodded.
“So, wouldn’t you think it would be in your best interests to be quiet until we find out a few things?”
He nodded.
“Good. Trust me. If that campfire belongs to the man who planted your ass, then we don’t want to spend the night with him, either, do we?”
“No.”
“So, if it was me, and I wasn’t interested in meeting back up with this Black Dog, I’d be flat on my face in the wagon, and hiding beneath that tarp.”
Emory lurched toward the tarpaulin covering their goods and crawled under. Letty heard him moan once, then curse softly. Either he’d bumped something that hurt, or he’d wet himself. Either way, she didn’t much care. She was still on the side of the woman who’d been caught in the middle of the mess, even if she was an Indian.
A few minutes later they pulled into the campsite. The campfire was burning, but there was no one in sight.
“Hello the camp!” Eulis called.
No one appeared, although there was a rabbit on a spit slowly cooking over the open fire.
“Hello the camp!” he called again, then thought about backing up and moving on down the road.
He didn’t like the feel of this. Wh
oever this belonged to hadn’t gone far. The rabbit was nearly done and it was obvious they wouldn’t go off and let it burn. He peered into the shadows beneath the trees, but saw no one.
At that point, Letty handed Eulis the rifle and started to get down. He grabbed her by the arm.
“Where are you goin’?”
“You have to ask?” she drawled.
“Lord, Leticia, your bladder sure does act up at the worst times. Can’t you wait?”
“I been waiting for more than six hours.”
“But this camp… it doesn’t feel right.”
“It can’t feel any worse than my bladder,” Letty said, and began to climb down.
At that moment, there was movement in the shadows. Eulis grabbed Letty’s arm.
“Wait!”
She turned, watching as a small brown woman emerged from the trees with a gun aimed in their direction. Her face looked as if she’d been beaten, and as they watched her come closer, realized that her hair had been chopped off, her cheek had been slashed and the end of her nose had been cut off, too.
“We saw your fire,” Letty said. “We mean you no harm.”
“You go now… I don’t shoot you!” Millie Sees Crow said.
“Please,” Letty said. “We need to water our mules.”
“Don’t forget to tell her that you also need to pee,” Eulis drawled.
Letty glared.
Millie Sees Crow grinned. “You go make water there,” she told Letty, pointing to the bushes behind the wagon.
“Thank you,” Letty said, and was undoing the rope around her waist as she hurried away.
There was some noise in the wagon behind Eulis, and then suddenly Emory’s head appeared over the side.
“That’s Black Dog’s woman. Watch out. He’s still somewhere in the trees!”
Eulis spun, his fear for Letty uppermost.
“Letty! It’s Black Dog’s camp! Look out! Look out!”
Millie’s eyes widened when she saw Emory’s face. She pointed at him with her chin and then grinned.
“Aaiieee! It is the trapper, James. You don’t die.”
Emory ducked back down into the wagon.
Eulis didn’t know what to do. For all he knew, he already had Letty in his clutches.
