by Mary Wine
Her chains rattled as a faint tremor traveled over her body. Right now, she wasn’t much better off. It was a somber moment as she considered the harsh realities of her dilemma. Was her will stronger than her flesh? It was easy to say yes, but backing up that claim would be a test of her endurance. She feared dying in the attempt more. Life was a beautiful thing. That thought was especially clear now that she faced the idea of freezing to death instead of catering to Joseph’s demands. A shudder of revulsion went through her as she considered his cock. She did prefer the cold to touching that flesh.
Hearing that demand in Sloan’s voice would have made her shiver with excitement…
She didn’t waste any energy debating the wisdom of thinking about Sloan. A surge of warmth went through her as she let his image fill her mind. One thing Joseph had taught her was the power of her own confidence. Indirectly the slob had shown her that one freely bestowed kiss was worth ten stolen ones. She wasn’t a maiden any longer because she’d made a gift of her innocence to the man of her choosing. Clamping her into slave irons showed her the value of indulging in her passion for Sloan. The railroad agent might disappear into the night, smashing her heart as he went, but she would never reproach herself for surrendering her innocence to him. Her body was hers to share, the only person she needed to even that out with was God.
And she sure did like the idea of knowing that Joseph Corners couldn’t take her virginity. A smile curved her lips as she considered it justice well suited to the man and his thieving family.
Besides luck was a double-sided coin. It flipped on you without warning. It was just possible she would never see Sloan again. The chains around her wrists were hard and real. No one would have any clue as to her fate. If she died right against this wall, Joseph would bury her body and cover up any trace of his crime.
At least, he would never be able to take away the favor she’d given Sloan. Chastity was a woman’s gift to bestow. Men had tried to force it from them for centuries. Joseph couldn’t steal her free will.
A sense of calm washed over the panic that had tried to strangle her. She would survive this. Somehow, someway. She would not give up. Not even as she drew her last breath.
“Smell good?” Brianna didn’t answer Joseph. The pop and sizzle from the iron pot on the stove didn’t bother her too much. It was the red glow of the coal that captivated her. She was too far away to feel the warmth radiating from those red-hot coals. The cabin was made only of trees that had been stripped of their bark and used to construct the walls. There was a second-floor loft above her, made of smaller trees. Mud had been packed into the groves between each tree trunk to help keep the weather out, but chunks of it lay in piles along the wall. No one among Joseph’s kin seemed to take maintenance any more seriously than cleaning.
The winter air seeped in, chilling her as she tried to hug her legs tighter. The front door of the cabin let in huge gusts of snow-chilled air every time it opened. Her knickers and socks were poor coverage against the dropping temperature. But maybe, she could scrap a little ice through the gap between the logs, just a bit to hold back her thirst. Picking at the mud, she tried to loosen another chunk of it.
“Nothing like bacon on a cold night.” Joseph smacked his lips as he chomped down on a thick slice of cured ham shank. He shook his head like a huge dog did after being fed. “Got a piece for you, wife, if you want to be nice.”
Brianna turned her face towards the wall. Her belly grumbled but she preferred hunger.
Joseph tsked under his breath. “You sound awful hungry. That belly is good and empty, isn’t it?” She heard his boots hitting the floor as he came closer. The scent of ham grew stronger and more tantalizing with each footfall. “Bet you’re thirsty, too.”
A hand gripped her hair, tugging her head around to face a piece of ham. He dangled the roasted meat in front of her nose as the scent filled her senses and her belly rumbled loudly.
“Say ‘fuck me, Joseph’ and it’s yours.”
She snarled at him instead. The hand holding her hair tightened, making her cry out with the pain. He stooped down until his mouth was right in front of hers. He stuffed the ham into his mouth and chewed it with huge motions of his jaw as he forced her to keep her face level with his. Shutting her eyes didn’t keep her from hearing his lips smack or smell the scent of that meat. Opening her eyes, she shoved her foot into his unprotected crotch again.
“Shit!”
Joseph rolled away from her. His cussing made her smile as she recognized her own power. She might be the one wearing chains, but he couldn’t force her to like him.
A second later, a hard smack landed on her face. This time she laughed at his abuse, smiling as she tasted blood on her tongue. Joseph frowned at her glee.
“We’ll just see how you feel after a night in your knickers. You don’t get nothing until you ask me to fuck your pretty little pussy. Not even water.”
Her humor died away as she hugged her legs tight. She shivered as she pictured the snow right on the other side of the tree-trunk wall. Only a foot of wood separated her from ice. The idea was hypnotic in a fashion, drawing her towards a dream world where everything sparkled on millions of icy crystals all full of color and wonder… She let it carry her away, because it was so much more inviting than looking at the ugly reality of Joseph.
“Can’t help you.” Sloan held his tongue as the bartender picked up a glass and began to polish it. His temper was paper thin, but there was a finesse to prying information out of a barkeep. The man glared at Jed before spitting on the floor.
“No breeds in my place.” Jed’s face didn’t betray a single emotion, but Sloan fought to keep his own temper leashed in the face of the bigotry. The West was full of it. Indian, Chinese and the black man were all harnessed for labor but resented by the same men who wanted them breaking their backs in the sun. Jed simply turned and pushed out the shutters that served as doors. Sloan returned his attention to the barkeep.
“Sure you can’t help us find that homestead?” Sloan placed a small leather pouch on the bar and fingered it so that the coins inside clinked against one another. The barkeep’s hands froze on the glass as his mustache twitched.
“The Corners boys owe me a fine bit. Now, if I was to go spreading their personal information around to strangers, they might not show up in my place again.”
Sloan flicked the leather pouch again. A month’s pay for him, but worth every penny if it got him enough facts to find the Corners’ homestead tonight. The new sheriff didn’t know and the land office wouldn’t be open until ten the next morning. But even the sheriff couldn’t force anyone to divulge the information. Sloan looked at the barkeep.
“Guess you’ll have to decide if you want that bill paid or those boys back in here wanting more of your whiskey for free.”
The barkeep was tempted. Sloan saw it in his eyes. But the man stiffened and went back to polishing his glass. “Maybe, maybe not. Fact is, Joseph was telling me that he’s set to come into some money. I need customers that have a good income. There’s nothing that says I need to like them any too much.”
“What kind of money?” Sheriff Seth Kindle turned from where he’d been leaning against the bar to aim his gaze at the barkeep. “From where? What I hear is, that family hasn’t worked their land in years. Knowing about a crime makes you guilty, too.”
“I didn’t admit to nothing, lawman.”
Sloan wasn’t in the mood to let the information slip out of his grip. Kindle was a lawman and that shiny badge pinned to his vest had a habit of shutting up men like the barkeep. “It’s simple, really. I can cover the man’s bill in exchange for information or you can deal with the sheriff tomorrow when we get that information from the land deed office. Either way, I’ll get what I want. You’ll be the one left with a bar tab and no one to make good on the debt. My offer expires when I leave.”
Sloan didn’t bother to voice the fact that Kindle’s deputies were on their way to the land deed office’s manage
r. But the man lived on a homestead a good two hours’ ride outside town. In the dark it might just be impossible to find, even for an experienced trail man. Sloan felt his gut twisting with the possibilities of what Joseph Corners might be doing with Brianna out on his land. But no one in town knew where that parcel was, except the barkeep in front of him. The game held the highest stakes he’d ever gambled with, but he was going to win. Well after midnight now, the saloon crowd had thinned out. This was the third bar they’d searched looking for information on Joseph. Silver Peak didn’t want for watering holes.
“Guess we aren’t doing business.” Sloan reached for the pouch, but the barkeep placed the glass over it. “Joseph’s a loud man with whiskey in his belly. I only overheard him talking, but I hear a lot of nonsense in this bar. That don’t mean I run to the sheriff with every bummed-out miner who’s prone to plotting crazy stuff while his head’s in a whiskey bottle. They sleep it off and go back to their claims. That’s not a crime.”
“True enough. But a woman’s gone missing this time.” Kindle glared at the man as a trickle of sweat ran down the side of his face. “I find her up at his place and I’m coming back for you. That’s a promise.”
“Now see here!”
Sloan felt his temper snap. He grabbed the front of the barkeep’s vest and hauled the man up against the bar. His eyes bulged as the tips of his boots scrapped along the wooden plank floor.
“The only thing that is going to be seen is my fist coming towards your face. That’s my woman out there in the night and no one steals from me. Tell me where that weasel lives and I’ll pay his tab off as a thank you. Don’t tell me and I’ll watch you rot on a chain gang along with Joseph Corners for kidnapping.”
“Fine… He just said he was getting married. I thought it was one of them mail-order brides. I figured the girl was coming with a dowry. Honest. I never knew nothing about no kidnapping! Not one word, swear it on my mother’s soul.”
Sloan tightened his grip on the man’s shirt. “Where’s the claim?”
The barkeep muttered out the directions and Sloan forced himself to release the man. He didn’t want to. He needed to kill something. Craved the solid flesh-to-flesh contact that would make sure no one ever touched his woman again.
“Let’s go, Sloan.”
Sheriff Kindle was already heading towards the door. Sloan eyed the barkeep. “I’ll be back if you sent us on a fool’s errand.”
The barkeep swallowed roughly before Sloan turned to follow the lawman into the freezing night. He heard the barkeep pick up the pouch. Sloan had never spent a month’s pay so fast or so well. For the first time in his life, he recognized that money meant nothing compared to a woman.
His woman…and he was going to find her.
Kindle was already sitting in his saddle as Sloan mounted his own horse.
“You can’t kill him.”
Sloan gathered up the reins as he kicked his mount into action. White puffs appeared in front of the animals’ mouths as they took off into the early morning hours.
“I mean it, McAlister. I’d have to hang you if you pulled a trigger in cold blood. Corners is a coward. You won’t be getting a fight out of the man.”
His blood wasn’t cold, far from it. Rage flowed through him like a spring river gorged with melting snow.
“McAlister.”
“I heard you, Kindle.” Sloan didn’t slow his mount. He shot a hard look at the lawman. “You get the first shot, but if he slips through your grasp I’m taking a shot. I’m not going to spend my life looking over my shoulder for that bastard.”
“You might be wrong.”
“Then I’ll apologize.” Kindle rolled his eyes at the idea. Sloan simply shrugged. “The only thing I’m wrong about was thinking Joseph had been put off back on the dock. I didn’t finish the job. Brianna’s up there or he knows where she is.”
Jed reined his horse in closer to Sloan’s. The night was half gone and darkness blanketed everything as the early morning hours crept by. “She’s been up there a good amount of time.”
Jed kept his voice low, but it sliced into Sloan like newly sharpened razor blades. He didn’t like the sting, because nothing should matter so much to him. An iron-hard rule that Brianna had somehow managed to melt in two. Jed was right about one thing, she had been with Joseph Corners too long. One minute was too long. He tightened his grip on his rifle. It might be uncivilized, but he enjoyed the solid steel of the weapon resting against his palm. Always had. It allowed him to slip into a calm that could prove deadly to anyone who crossed him. Joseph had stepped way over the line.
“Let’s go find her.”
Warren and Jed moved in tight as the sheriff and his men led the way. They knew the road better and, in the dark, it was an advantage that Sloan needed. It would still be early morning before they reached the claim. The amount of time ate a hole in his gut. The idea of what he might find tormented him. He shoved it all aside, forcing his attention to the task of finding Brianna.
Finding Brianna alive was what mattered. He’d deal with the rest of it after he had her back in his arms.
Chapter Eight
Cold did funny things to the mind. Brianna didn’t much mind at the moment though. She enjoyed the strange dreams of her life’s moments and Christmas mornings from her past. But her stocking was empty. She pushed her hand down into it, searching for even one piece of sweetbread, but all she felt was the scratchy wool yarn the sock was made of. Her belly growled deep and long as slumber faded away in the face of hard hunger.
Her eyes fluttered open. The first rays of dawn were turning the cabin gray. Two of her captors were snoring louder than full-grown hogs. Her lips rose in a tiny smile at the image. Joseph did remind her of a hog. He was lazy enough to enjoy wallowing in filth. At least a hog had only a simple brain to excuse its lack of hygiene.
Her belly rumbled again as that smile made her lips hurt because the tender skin was dry. Thirst made her mouth feel like cotton as she rubbed her fingers against each other trying to warm them. She couldn’t feel her toes hidden inside her shoes and her entire body shook as her knickers failed to keep the winter morning chill away.
At least the night was past. She focused her attention on the increasing light, trying to force her mind to think. The sun was rising and the temperature would increase now. She clung to that idea, actually fantasizing about the sun as it cleared the horizon, spreading its rays out to warm the air.
The bar across the front door splintered and flew to pieces. The door pushed back into the cabin with enough force to rip the top leather hinge out of the frame. The snoring ended as Joseph and his kin grumbled while trying to regain their wits. They didn’t do it fast enough. The cabin was already full of black dusters. Polished rifles gleamed in the early morning light as they were pointed at the disoriented inhabitants.
“Brianna, move over this way.” Sloan’s voice was deadly. Too calm and controlled, but it was the sweetest music she had ever heard. Lifting her hands from where she’d tucked them between her thighs the chains attached to her shackles rattled loudly. The cussing from Joseph and his family stopped instantly as the metal sound filled the cabin. Joseph pushed back away from the rifle in front of his chest, while his face turned pasty white. The shackles damned him instantly.
Sloan’s eyes darkened as his gaze traced the chains. He turned his attention to the man standing in the doorway. “That enough proof for you, Sheriff?” The tone of his voice was even lower now and it sent a shiver through her. Sloan wasn’t in the mood to be told no.
“Sure is.” The lawman raised his rifle, aiming it at Joseph’s father. “You went too far this time, Jonah. This here is illegal and I’m going to have to haul you and your boys into town.”
“I’ll tell you what’s against the law. Breaking in a man’s door. That’s what’s illegal!” Jonah raised his fist, but didn’t move towards any of the muzzles aimed his way. “Besides, the boy done it. Stupid fool is in love. He’s the one you nee
d to take in.”
“Pa!” Joseph’s voice cracked as he whimpered for his father to protect him from his own transgressions. But the lack of moral fiber that ran through him clearly came from his father, because his sire and brothers all turned to point at him.
“Yeah, Joseph done it. Not me.” Sloan wasn’t interested in the sniveling that filled the cabin. His finger itched to pull the trigger. He clamped down on the impulse as he aimed his attention at Joseph. The man trembled with fear. Sweat popped out on his forehead in spite of the cold.
“The key.”
Joseph frowned. It was an ugly expression filled with hate. He spat on the
floor as he pulled a brass key out of his vest pocket. Sloan stared right back with an equal amount of hatred. They stood facing off over her as Brianna felt her jaw drop open. Never once had she ever thought that she could inspire any man to fight for her. This morning it was a beautiful sight that sent a surge of excitement through her.
Sloan never took his eyes off Joseph. “Toss it to her and don’t miss.” Joseph hesitated, his fingers turning white because he pressed so hard on the key. One dark eyebrow rose on Sloan’s face before he lowered his head to look down the sights of his weapon.
“Do it, man.” The sheriff wasn’t in any better mood as he aimed his gun at Joseph. “I can’t believe you left her chained up in this chill. You’ll be lucky if the judge doesn’t hang you for it.”
The key clattered on the floor next to her feet. Joseph whimpered like a child, muttering words that didn’t make any sense. She stared at the key for a long moment, held mesmerized by the fact that freedom was in reach. Her fingers reached for it just like the child in her dream had done looking for sweetbread. Her belly rumbled again as she tried to make her fingers work. The key clattered back to the floor, but she grabbed it and fit the end into one shackle. The heavy iron fell towards the wall as the chain rattled.
