The Color of Forever: Book Two: Forever Cowboys Series

by Whitley, Hope

  She dreaded them finishing eating, but all too soon they had shoved their plates away and slumped back in their chairs. Both men were eyeing her, their intent plain to see on their faces.

  The one called Bobby Lee suddenly sat up straight and snapped his fingers. “Hey Larry, I got an idea! Remember those high price dancers we seen on TV that time we stayed at a motel and rented a porn channel? They ain’t got nothin’ on this little hottie.”

  He smiled suggestively at Samantha. “Can you dance?”

  She attempted to lie, knowing it was an exercise in futility to try and change their minds. “No, not really. I’m … I’m a terrible dancer,” she faltered.

  Bobby Lee slapped his knee. “Well just do the best you can do and it’ll be fine, won’t it Larry?”

  Larry grinned salaciously. He seemed unable to tear his gaze from Samantha. “Yeah Bobby Lee, any old dance she does will be okay in my book.”

  In a way Samantha was relieved because it had occurred to her belatedly that if she had managed to deflect their intentions to make her dance for them, they would probably have moved right on to the main act of the night’s entertainment even faster. Since she was the main act, she much preferred to stall as long as possible. Maybe something would happen to save her or she’d hatch a successful plan to get away from them.

  The gun! She had completely forgotten the gun Marielle had loaned her! It was a double barreled shotgun, what Ben called point and click. He had given her lessons in how to use it and it was loaded and ready. The problem was that it wasn’t where she could put her hands on it quickly or easily. It was under her bed. When she had asked earlier to be allowed to go to her room to change clothes, her plan had been to open the window and run like the wind. She hadn’t remembered the gun then, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway since they wouldn’t let her leave the kitchen and get out of their sight.

  Her mind was working feverishly, trying to come up with a plan to either get away or get to the gun.

  “Come on, honey, move that pretty little ass! We want to see some sexy dancin’, don’t we Larry?”

  Larry licked his lips in reply, obviously anticipating her dance … and more.

  Samantha moved to the living room, the men right behind her. Bobby Lee was poking her between the shoulder blades with his pistol.

  “Don’t you get no bright ideas about tryin’ any funny stuff,” he told her menacingly. “We’re bein’ nice to you so far but we can be real mean and you wouldn’t like that. You wouldn’t like that at all.”

  Samantha wondered if raping her wasn’t their idea of meanness and shivered to think that she was at their mercy no matter what they did. Reaching the living room, Bobby Lee holstered his gun again and looked around the room.

  “Where’s your radio?” he asked Samantha. “We gonna need some music for you to dance to.”

  She swallowed hard, terror almost robbing her of speech. “I don’t have a radio,” she replied. “But I have some music on my phone. I can play that.”

  Bobby Lee nodded his approval. “That’ll work. Just don’t try no funny business with that phone, you hear? Cuz I’d see you and nobody could get here quick enough to save you even if you was able to send some kinda signal.”

  “I won’t,” she said.

  Samantha soon had her phone playing a popular rock song as she was forced to dance for the two men sitting on the couch, watching her intently.

  “Come on, now,” Bobby Lee exhorted her. “You can do better than that! Shake your ass and wiggle some. We wanna see some action, right Larry?”

  Larry merely nodded, so spellbound by Samantha that he didn’t seem able to tear his eyes away from her. She actually saw a thin stream of drool oozing from his parted lips. Ugh!

  She had to think of some way to stop this, to get away from these horrible, repulsive men. They didn’t even qualify as men, she corrected herself. They were animals. But on the other hand, calling these awful men animals was an insult to the animal kingdom.

  Suddenly, she heard a vehicle coming up the long driveway and one glance at the men told her they heard it, too. Her heart almost burst from her chest with fear. It was Ben! It had to be Ben, stopping by to bring her up to speed on his search for the poachers. She felt an hysterical urge to giggle, thinking that the search was over because she had found them.

  The truck stopped, the motor was cut off and they heard footsteps coming up the porch steps. Bobby Lee had already sprung up from the couch at the first noise of the approaching vehicle. He drew the deadly looking pistol again and held to Samantha’s back.

  “Who is that?” he hissed into her ear, his voice muted to a bare whisper.

  “I don’t know,” she fibbed, hoping that Ben would think she had gone to bed and leave. She was afraid that the men would kill him if they got a chance. They were bound to know that the local game warden was probably aware of their poaching and what it would mean to them if they were caught.

  Bobby Lee motioned for Larry to join them about the time she heard Ben’s knock on the front door.

  “Larry,” Bobby Lee whispered, “Walk over to that window real quiet like and see if you can figure out who’s come callin’ on our little darlin’ here so late at night.”

  Larry obeyed, tiptoeing to the living room window and parting the curtain just a crack to be able to see outside to the driveway. He made his way back to where Larry stood with Samantha as the second knock came at the door.

  “It’s that game warden that’s been hound-doggin’ us, Bobby Lee.”

  Samantha risked a look at her gun-wielding captor and was even more afraid for Ben when she saw his cruel smile. He seemed pleased, which led her to believe that he meant to kill Ben and of course, her too, once they had finished with her.

  “Unlock the door and let him in,” Bobby Lee told her, his voice so low she had to strain to hear his words. She shook her head, mute with fear. He twisted her arm savagely and a gasp escaped her lips.

  “Samantha?” Ben called from the other side of the front door. “Are you okay in there?”

  Bobby Lee prodded her with the gun again then positioned himself at the side of the front door where he would be hidden from Ben’s sight when he came in. He used the gun to motion her closer. “Let him in,” he ordered her again.

  Samantha stubbornly shook her head. She had to find her voice and get Ben away from here before Bobby Lee and Larry killed him.

  She cleared her throat. “Go away, Ben,” she called, making her voice sound irate. “I’m not in the mood for company tonight! I don’t want you here. You’re a pest,” she lied, hating to hurt Ben even though she was doing it to save his life.

  “Okay, Samantha,” he said. “If that’s how you feel about it I won’t bother you again.” She heard his steps as he crossed the porch to leave. Samantha’s heart sank and lifted all at once. She was happy he was leaving but sad that she had wounded his feelings with those cruel words.

  “Go ahead and shoot him, Bobby Lee!” Larry stage whispered to his partner.

  “Naw, that’s a bad idea,” Larry responded in a low voice, much to Samantha’s relief. He’d be missed too soon, maybe before we could finish our business and get out of here. She’s run him off good and proper,” he continued, squeezing Samantha’s shoulder painfully. “He won’t be back here.”

  They heard Ben’s truck come to life and he spun gravel leaving, accelerating fast down her driveway.

  “I hope you’re right,” Larry said. “I’ve heard tell he ain’t nobody you wanna mess with.”

  Bobby Lee threw his head back and laughed. “Him? He’s a coward and a half. Dwayne Parsons had a run-in with him a couple years ago at a club down in Jackson Hole. He said he called that warden every name in the book and he couldn’t get him to fight. Said Connors just told him he wasn’t gonna fight him and turned tail and left. He ain’t no threat to us unless he catches us with the goods and gets the drop on me,” he scoffed.

  Samantha’s blood boiled at these insults
to Ben. Okay, maybe he wasn’t the type of man to stand up and fight, but he was the kindest, sweetest and best man she’d ever known.

  “He’s more of a man than you’ll ever be,” she told Bobby Lee defiantly. His lips curled in a snarl as he slapped her face hard enough to snap her head sideways. That did it! Smart females who lived in New York City took courses in self defense for protection against muggers and predators, and Samantha was one of those women. She had never had occasion to use her training and in her initial shock and fear tonight, hadn’t tried to defend herself.

  It was tilting at windmills, she knew, to try and fend these terrible men off but now her fighting spirit was aroused and she’d be damned if she’d go down without a fight.

  Whirling on Bobby Lee, she brought her knee up and slammed it as hard as she could into his groin, then before he had time to react, she gouged at both of his eyes with her thumbs. She was gratified to hear him scream like a girl and fall down, clutching his privates.

  She swooped to take the gun from him but Larry jerked her back by her hair and cuffed her up side the head. She raged at him, raking his face with her fingernails and then grabbing his hand, bit him as hard as she could. She tried to knee him, as well, but he backed away from her field of contact.

  Bobby Lee had regained his feet and was advancing on Samantha, a look of the utmost menace on his face. She knew she couldn’t fight them both off and was at the point of trying to provoke Bobby Lee to go ahead and shoot her now, before they used and abused her body. They intended to kill her once they were finished with her. Samantha had no doubt of that.

  She darted across to the fireplace and snatched the poker. Whirling it around in front of her, she managed to jab Larry in the ribs and then crack it across his upper back with all her strength. She had been aiming for his head, but he ducked. Still, she was gratified to hear his shriek of pain and see him retreat to the other side of the room.

  Bobby Lee came toward her, gun drawn and pointing at her. “That’s enough out of you,” he said. She could tell by the flat, cold tone of his voice that he meant business. Still, catching a glimpse of her fingernail polish remover sitting on the coffee table, she yanked it up fast, twisted the cap off and dashed the contents in Bobby Lee’s eyes.

  Unfortunately, although he let out a bellow of pain and his eyes were red and weeping, he didn’t drop the gun and raised it purposefully now. Samantha had resigned herself to her fate when the front door crashed open and Ben came through fast. Things happened so quickly after that that she only registered a blur of movement, heard a few thuds and closed her eyes to keep from seeing Ben shot and killed.

  “Samantha, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

  She blinked in disbelief, doubting what her ears had heard. Ben? Alive? Daring to open her eyes, she blinked and to her utter joy and relief, there was Ben, alive and standing right in front of her. Larry and Bobby Lee were on the floor, handcuffed together and appearing to be unconscious.

  “But … but … how did you do that?” she asked incredulously. “You just came through the door and then boom … wham … zoom … Just like that. What happened?”

  Ben spoke again. “Did they hurt you?”

  She shook her head wonderingly, a look of shock on her face. “It was so fast. You just burst through the door and then whoosh whoosh whoosh and it was over. Just like that,” she said, snapping her fingers. “Just like that.”

  Ben spoke again, louder and more forcefully. “Samantha! Did they hurt you?”

  “No,” she answered, taking a deep shuddering breath of relief and pent-up emotion, finally coming out of her shock to some extent. “No, but they made me dance for them and they were going to take turns with me after that. They made me feed them and make them coffee, too,” she said and was proud of herself that her voice barely shook during this recitation.

  Ben’s eyes narrowed and she saw him go white around his mouth. He looked down at the two poachers with a look on his face Samantha had never imagined seeing there. He looked … deadly dangerous. Ben! The strong conviction washed over her that there were sides to Ben Connors she hadn’t known about until now.

  The men were stirring back to consciousness and Ben prodded them with the toe of his boot to speed up the process. By the time he had them on their feet, Samantha had raced to the bedroom, gotten the shotgun from under the bed and brought it back to the living room.

  She stood there now, with the gun pointed at her attackers. “Ben” she said calmly, “let me shoot them.”

  Ben looked startled for a moment before answering her. “Now, Samantha, we can’t do that.”

  “Maybe you can’t,” she said, “but I can. I wouldn’t lose my job like you would and anyhow, I won’t kill them—as much as they deserve it. I just want to make sure they don’t ever get to think about raping another woman.”

  Bobby Lee and Larry huddled closer together, white faced. “Stop her, Warden,” Bobby Lee squealed. “She’ll do it!”

  Larry, too, chimed in. “That woman’s a menace!” he declared. “She clawed me and bit me and then whopped me with that fireplace poker and dang near broke my back. And she jabbed me in the ribs with it so’s I can hardly get my breath!”

  “You got lucky, Larry,” Bobby Lee opined. “She just about gouged my eyes out and then half blinded me with some stuff in a bottle and…” he took a deep breath, “she hurt me so bad down there I’ll prob’ly be pissin’ blood for a month!”

  Ben surveyed the two men critically. Both of them were a mess. Larry had deep gouges from Samantha’s fingernails with rivulets of blood trickling down his face as he nursed his bleeding hand, her bite marks clearly in evidence. He was standing stooped over, wincing in pain with every breath.

  Bobby Lee’s eyes were red and streaming and he had a hand cupped over his groin protectively.

  Ben’s mouth twitched, then he threw his head back and laughed. “Samantha, I’m proud of you. I’m sorely tempted to let you make sure they both sing soprano for the rest of their worthless, sorry lives, but I’d better take them on down to Jackson Hole jail and get them booked in.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Larry said. “Just get me away from that she-devil!”

  “Me too,” Bobby Lee told Ben fervently. “For the love of God don’t leave me alone with her.”

  “Oh don’t worry, I won’t,” Ben reassured the poachers. “In fact, I’m going to do my dead level best to make sure you never find yourself alone with a woman again in your life. Or at least for a long, long time.”

  He crossed the room to Samantha and gently took the shotgun from her, standing it in a corner. “Samantha, why don’t you get dressed and I’ll drop you off at Mari and Trey’s place on my way down to the jail?”

  She shook her head. “No, Ben. I just want to take a hot bath and get warm again. I … I feel s-so c-cold,” she stuttered. She lifted her white, strained face to him and saw that dangerous look in his eyes again as he glanced across the room at her tormentors.

  “Okay,” he said soothingly. “If that’s what will make you feel better, then that’s what you should do.” He pulled her to him for just a brief moment, holding her tightly, then stepped away. “I’ll be back,” he told her. “As soon as I get this scum behind bars.”

  Samantha smiled weakly at him, her pleasure at hearing this plain to see.

  “Okay,” she told him.

  After a long soak in the hottest water she could coax out of the elderly hot water heater, Samantha put on a pair of warm flannel pajamas and a fluffy faux fur robe. Her feet were toasty warm in thick slipper socks. Sitting on the living room couch, she wished she could build a fire but the thought of making another trip to the wood shed tonight made her feel cold and shaky again. She settled for an electric heater from the hall closet that began to cast its heat into the room as soon as she plugged it in and turned it on.

  Sipping the cup of hot cocoa she had made herself helped to warm her back up from the inside out. She had briefly considered makin
g coffee but decided that her jangled nerves didn’t need the caffeine.

  Her thoughts turned again to what had happened when Ben came bursting into the house tonight. Really, she wondered again, what had happened?

  It had all gone down so fast that her brain didn’t have time to register anything except a lightning fast blur of movement after he came crashing through the door. It seemed to be only nanoseconds before the poachers were handcuffed and helpless at his feet.

  Samantha was deep in thought when she heard a knock at the door. Her heart leapt into her throat before she heard Marielle’s voice call her name.

  “Sam? Sammy? It’s us, honey, let us in.”

  Still suffering from shock, Samantha wondered why Mari didn’t just come on in since the door was leaning drunkenly on its hinges where Ben had crashed through. But then it occurred to her that having the door suddenly opened all the way would have sent her into a state of hysteria. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t even heard Trey’s truck.

  Getting up, she almost fell as her knees buckled. Obviously, she was not recovered

  from the evening’s ordeal. Consciously stiffening her spine and taking a deep, calming breath, she walked to the door and opened it.

  Marielle came through the door and immediately folded Samantha into a hug. “Oh, Sammy! What an awful thing to happen! You must have been scared out of your wits!”

  Samantha stared at her friend dully. “How did you know?” she asked, her voice flat and almost lifeless.

  Trey spoke up. “Ben stopped by for a second and told us. He wanted us to come over here and stay with you until he gets back.”

  Samantha nodded slowly, her yes slightly unfocused. “Yeah, okay,” she replied.

  Marielle put a hand on her friend’s elbow and gently guided her back to the couch. Sitting down next to her, she took Samantha’s hand in hers. “You’re okay now, Sam,” she told her friend tenderly. “The men are gone and they won’t be back. Ben is locking them up in the jail down in Jackson Hole and he says they’ll be sent away for a long time. Besides poaching and trading in black market animal parts, what they did to you is legally kidnapping, which is a very serious charge.”