Diamond in the Rough (The Red Petticoat Saloon)

by Abbie Adams

  If the posse thought they knew where the gang was, she was going to be right behind them and no one was going to tell her any different, not even a lawman with an itchy spanking hand. If her sister was with the gang, Delaney wanted to be right there with the men to greet her. She'd been searching for a long, long time and she wasn't about to stay back now—even if she earned another very painful spanking.

  Delaney's horse for this adventure was from the hitching post right outside the saloon. She knew it belonged to a regular, Juan, and he wouldn't miss it for at least a couple hours anyway. By then, she'd be returning it, no worse for the wear. She hoped anyway.

  She didn't have water to drink with her once again, but she knew the mine was only a few hours from town this time and she was following the men. So, if they didn't stop to water the horses, well then Tripp wouldn't be able to hold that against her with the spanking she was sure to get from him anyway.

  It had been hard to stay back far enough in order to not be noticed by the men. She knew how sharp-eyed they were. She was pretty surprised she'd made it so far without them noticing her anyway. She kept thinking any minute someone would turn around and come back for her. She could just imagine Tripp coming back and what he would do to her. Even as her backside tingled, her core moistened. She'd never been so torn between mixed emotions. She was terrified of Tripp spanking her again, but somewhere down deep, she craved the attention he would give to her during another spanking. Her face heated just thinking about his fingers pressing against her naughty back hole.

  What she really hadn't thought about was that a large posse was following the trio of men she followed. She'd ended up sandwiched between them and no matter what she did, one or the other was going to catch her. And the group following had caught up with her in no time flat. She'd been looking ahead to the cloud of dust Gabe, John and Tripp were raising and not behind to the cloud the group of maybe fifteen was stirring.

  "Diamond, is that you?" She heard Jebidiah's question called out to her about an hour into her trek, and before she'd even heard the group of horses coming near. She wasn't very observant, that was obvious to her when she turned around to see the whole posse.

  "Oh, hello, Jeb… I mean, Sheriff. I…"

  "What in the hell are you doing out here, young lady?" Jebidiah and Deputy Slade rode right up next to her, the rest of the posse coming in close behind. She swallowed hard. This definitely wasn't something she'd planned for. Why didn't she know that there were more men heading out? She needed a good lie, but no great excuse made its way to the forefront of her pea brain.

  "I needed to tell…" Her lie wasn't going to be listened to anyway, so her voice dropped off as the men ignored her and began to talk amongst themselves. She couldn't make out what they were saying until one voice was perfectly clear.

  "I'll take her back and then I can catch up with you guys again. My horse is strong, fast and has the endurance." This was the dreaded Deputy Slade. He was tall dark and very handsome. He also happened to belong to Sapphire, who'd shared tales of woe over the knee of the man when she made bad choices.

  Delaney couldn't think of a thing to say for a moment, maybe more. Then her bull-headed lack of common sense kicked in.

  "I am not going back until I find my sister. I'm a free woman, no matter what the men in the town of Culpepper Cove believe. You can't stop…" Her words tapered off and she thought better of it when the man started to close the gap between them.

  "Young lady, you have pushed your luck so far, and I don't have a problem bending you over and—"

  Delaney didn't look back or try to hear the end of his threat. She pressed her heels to her mount's sides and shot off like a cowboy breaking a wild mustang—or so she thought. That was until a few moments later when the thick-headed deputy plucked her from the saddle of her mare, or Juan's mare as it was.

  "Girl—you have pushed as far as you are going to." She coughed as all the air in her lungs left her chest forcefully and she ended up over the man's thighs, atop his horse.

  "You let me go. You can't do this to me!" she wailed as he turned the horse back toward the other men, all the while whaling on her backside. Maybe it wouldn't have hurt so much through her skirts if her seat wasn't already so sore.

  "You don't have a lick of sense, you foolish girl—"

  "Oh, as if that's the first time I've heard that!"

  "If you keep kicking, I'm going to tie your hands and feet."

  "If you don't let me go, I'm going to…" Again, her words fell away as she realized she had nothing to say. There wasn't much she could do when she was hanging over a horse, getting her ass walloped in front of a large group of men who all wanted to thrash her.

  "Ow… you bastard…" she cried to herself more than anyone else.

  "You know, Slade. I don't think it's worth the time to take the little hell-cat back now. We're more than halfway. With all the men out here, who's to say she'd stay there anyway?" Jebidiah's words cut through her tirade—a great relief. They could spank her the whole way, but she didn't want to go back. She'd go crazy waiting for news.

  "I think you're right, but I'm still going to whip her ass the whole way." The deputy's words were harsh, and Delaney didn't doubt them for a moment. When the men acted as though she wasn't there and continued on their way again, she started to get mad.

  She couldn't ride the whole way upside down, her head and legs bouncing as the horse galloped, kicking up dust, even if the bastard had stopped smacking her ass. She was about to holler at them, but quickly thought better of it. If Delaney knew anything, it was how to read a man, and how to bluff. She started to cough.

  It didn't take very long at all and she felt the man shift even before Jebidiah called out to the deputy. "Slade, I don't care if you take the skin off her ass with a strap when we get there. Hell, you and I both know the marshal will do just that, but you can't keep her upside down like that with the dust."

  The man had her righted before the sheriff even finished. "I know. Should we put her back on her—Juan's horse?"

  "Might as well."

  "A drink please…" She pressed her luck, pathetically coughing again.

  "You going to stay with us?" the sheriff asked.

  "Yes, of course.

  Someone, complained, "Damn woman is going to slow us down." She couldn't see who had said it.

  For being so hard-handed, the lot of them, they were softies when it came to women being cared for. She was right side up on her horse again, sipping water from one of their canteens before she knew it, but she wasn't going to let anyone say she held them back. Just as one of the men told her to put the canteen away before she fell off her horse, she bolted ahead, tipping her chin high and gulping away. Her thighs hugged the horse like second nature. She hoped that aside from anything else they might think about her, no one would think she was holding them back or that she was lacking as a rider.

  It wasn't very much longer and they'd made it to the claim. They were in for a surprise when they found John tying up an older greasy-haired scoundrel.

  "Found this guy scoping out our claim. He was coming from that direction." He gestured behind him with his thumb, then led the man toward the cabin. When the man was turned Delaney could see that John had already given him a hard time. His eye was coloring a nasty purple and red. Blood poured from his nose. Neither of which seemed to bother the man. He glared at all of them, his rotten teeth showing in some kind of a sick smirk as if he was proud of himself.

  "Did you find out anything? Where are Tripp and Gabe?" the sheriff asked as he slid from his horse and helped steer the outlaw into the cabin.

  All Delaney heard was something about an old can. It didn't make any sense but she couldn't follow their conversation as they disappeared inside. She worried for a split second that something might have happened to the men and her stomach knotted. Tripp had better be all right.

  "Come on, Diamond." Slade surprised her, when he reached up to help her from her horse. If she'd bee
n smart she would have taken off before they got ahold of her. Well, she wouldn't know where to go anyway. Still, she wasn't happy to be led into the cabin behind the others.

  "I can walk just fine on my own, Mr. Slade." She glared at him as she tried to tug her elbow free.

  "Watch your sass, young lady." The man did as he pleased and guided her along with a firm grip on her arm. "You're going to stay here with Carlos. If you give him a hard time, so help me, I swear I'll be sure to take a turn busting your ass when your man is through with you."

  She bit her tongue to keep from telling him that Tripp wasn't her man and then wondered why that thought tugged at her heart. Damned men, who needed them anyway? She couldn't wait to find her sister and be off and away from Culpepper Cove. Together they could find a claim or go back east. They could be governesses or something. Anything to get away from the over-bearing men in Culpepper Cove.

  "What are you doing?" She began to struggle in earnest when the deputy started to tie her hands up as well. "I'm not a damned criminal! You can't do this."

  "We can't trust you to stay put, so we're making sure of it. It'd be way too dangerous for you to follow us again. And we're not taking a chance this time." John came to the Deputy's side to help him when her flailing was making it difficult. "There isn't anything stopping me from lifting your skirt and whipping your tail-end right now, so I'd suggest you settle down before I do just that."

  "I hate you!" she growled. It didn't matter if she continued or not, the two men now had her tied to a chair in the cabin, just like the outlaw scoundrel. "You can't treat me like this!"

  "Sorry, young lady, but you brought this on yourself."

  Now she couldn't even wipe her tears away because her hands were tied. She'd never wanted to shoot someone so badly in her whole life. It was a good thing she couldn't get free to do it because she just might. Even though her daddy always said she had no common sense, he'd taught her how to shoot.

  ***

  "Hold up now." John slowed and brought his horse closer to Tripp. It had taken longer than they'd planned because the rivers were still flooded from rain they'd had days back and they'd had to circle around the long way. "There is something wrong… They're here! The outlaws must be here. Look, at the horses. The old man doesn't have any horses. All he's got is that mule."

  They'd been circling the small valley where the old man's cabin resided, coming in the back way. Thankfully, they had remained out of sight and not ridden directly into the camp unprepared.

  "Six of them, no five—one is the mule. And it's no wonder they need horses. Those ones look just about ready to put down," Gabe whispered, moving in closer. Every single one of the horses' heads hung listlessly. Their fur was matted, and flat like they'd been ridden hard, and for far too long. They were tied to a rail but there was no food in sight. They'd done nibbled up anything that was green and within reach. The outlaws should be hung just for treating the horses so abominably. If they'd do that to their horses, there was no telling what they'd do to people. Although there had never been any doubt as to the severity of their crimes in any of the men's minds.

  "There are less of them than last I knew. Can we get around to the front of the cabin, you think?" Tripp needed to see the layout, needed to see what they were up against. He wasn't going to take any chances this time. The Shotgun Slick Gang were going down and then Tripp was going to retire. Where the thought came from, he didn't have a clue. And he didn't have time to analyze it now either.

  "Well, you can see down there, the other side of the river is pretty open. Maybe from that ridge over there, we'd be able to see the front better." John gestured to the rocky terrain on the other side of the small valley.

  "Yeah, that's what we'll have to do," Tripp agreed.

  "Any sign the miner is still alive? You see anything else, John?" Gabe pulled his canteen free and took a drink as they all scanned the valley.

  "No. I don't know." John shook his head.

  "Listen, you guys go back to the mine. I'll stay here and scout the place out. Then when you come back with the crew, we'll decide how we want to move forward." The other men were leery of leaving him, it appeared. "It's best one of us stays here to keep an eye on them anyway."

  Gabe finally nodded, then turned back to John. "I'll stay too. We know they're here. So you'll be safe to go back to get the men alone."

  John took a moment longer and then agreed. "Yeah, that seems best. One of us needs to get back there quickly so they ain't sitting there waiting, and wasting more time. I can get there faster anyway because I'm familiar with these hills. You guys stay out of sight and stay safe. I'll be back as soon as I find the posse. It's not an hour's ride from here to the claim." With a tip of his hat, John was already leaning back in his saddle, on his way back down he ravine.

  "You stay safe too, my friend," Gabe said, even though it wasn't likely John had even heard him.

  "I think we should back off a ways to be sure them guys down there don't see us. We'll pick our way over to the point around the other side—" Tripp pointed across the valley, then continued, "or I can go scope it out, if you want to stay and watch from this direction. That way we don't miss anything."

  Gabe nodded. "I'll stay here. That way no one sneaks out one way while we're on the other side."

  Tripp nosed Sampson away, keeping his eye on the cabin as they picked their way over the rough and rocky ridge, trying to stay out of sight. Tripp's hand rested on his shotgun, wearily. He didn't trust Slick anymore then he trusted a herd of wild mustangs. He'd come down below the ridge just long enough to get around a fallen tree and wasn't able to see the cabin for a few minutes. When he'd come back to the top again, he eyed the farthest ridge, looking for any sign of Gabe. Tripp didn't think he had left him, but he wanted to be able to make sure no-one else could see the man either. Gabe was smart, but he wasn't a lawman, and probably didn't realize little things that might catch a person's eye, like lifting his metal canteen to his lips in the sunlight. Thankfully he couldn't find the man through the trees even though he knew just where he was.

  Tripp was so preoccupied looking for Gabe, he almost missed the woman on the edge of the porch of the ramshackle cabin. He only had a small view of part of the porch. She'd just dumped a bucket of water in the grass and quickly made her way back out of his sight and into the shack. For a hot second he'd thought the woman was Delaney. If he hadn't seen Delaney with his own eyes before he left, and knew for a fact there was no way she could have beaten him to that cabin, he'd have sworn it was her.

  There was some relief in seeing Damaris alive and well. Her sister would be so relieved—but it also raised the stakes. They couldn't just go in there shooting; they were going to have to be smart about it if they wanted to get her out alive.

  He stayed there scoping the land for places to hide and watching the windows for any clues for a little while. He wished there was a way to see the front of the cabin, but he would be exposed no matter what he did. He finally headed back to find Gabe so that he could be on the other side when the posse came to help. He had pretty good timing too. He saw the posse coming when he was almost there. He motioned for Gabe to meet him farther back so they could talk to the posse without any chance of the gang catching wind they were out there.

  ***

  If it was the last thing she did, Delaney would shoot every last one of those men, and especially Deputy Slade. The bastards—leaving her trussed up just like the criminal they'd found. Thankfully she didn't have a bandana tied around her mouth like him. She'd tried to talk Carlos into taking the outlaw's gag off she could ask him questions about her sister but he refused. Delaney could tell the man knew her sister somehow. She was sure she wouldn't like what he had to say, but she wanted to know. He had a sinister glint in his eye, like he was enjoying a good joke at her expense. She had to find her sister. It had been so long.

  Carlos had been kind enough to let her loose to use the outhouse before loosely tying her to a bed for the night. S
he should have been thankful for that, the chair had been so uncomfortable, but she felt degraded worse than she ever had—even living in a whore house. She dozed off in spurts, but what sleep she got was far from restful. She was so worried about her sister and she was also worried about the marshal, who had quickly stolen her heart.

  What was she thinking? All they had between them was that crazy poker game and the night of debauchery following it. Then there was the spanking and the thing he did to her bottom. Although, it seemed the shortness of their acquaintance mattered little—she couldn't stop thinking about him and imagining the things he'd do to her body. She'd never been attracted to the men who frequented the saloon before Tripp. Slipping once again into sleep, she knew that she had fallen in love with the man.

  "Sissy! No! Don't go!" Suddenly, she bolted upright, not even feeling the tug of the rope around her wrist. The scream split the air and brought Carlos running to her side.

  "Delaney, wake up!" Carlos shouted the words over her screaming. Grabbing her, he quickly undid the rope, pulling her to him, ignoring the fact that she was flailing and kicking. "Delaney, stop! You're all right! You're safe!"

  She collapsed against him, the fight leaving her in an instant as she sagged, her sobs so desperate, so full of despair that Carlos' entire body shuddered. Her eyes were wide open and yet he had no doubt that she wasn't aware of him. It was if she were looking far beyond the room, the cabin… somewhere he couldn't see and was absolutely certain he didn't want to go.

  "Shhh, shhh, I've got you," he said softly, rocking her in his arms.

  Chapter Ten