Love of a Bounty (Sequal to Unexpected Romance but can stand alone)

Chapter Ten

Richard felt something nudging his arm roughly. He groaned and rolled over onto his back wincing at the pain in his head. He opened his eyes to see Horse standing over him and stomping his hoof impatiently. Richard sat up and looked around trying to remember what had happened. He could feel the blood covering his dark hair and the side of his face.

"Where's my damn hat?" he said weakly. Horse lowered his head and picked the hat up between his teeth then dropped it onto Richards lap. Richard looked around.

"Tessa." he said. She didn't reply and suddenly the memory of the rifle hitting his head came back to him. All pain was forgotten as he jumped to his feet.

"Tessa!" he yelled as he ran back behind the rocks and looked for her. She was nowhere to be seen and she didn't respond to his yells. He ran back to Horse at the road and realized that Tessa's mare was gone as well. He went to lay a hand on his gun and he realized it was gone too.. As a matter of fact both of his guns were.

"Son of a bitch!" Richard said angrily. He jumped on Horse and pulled his hat down low over his aching head.

"Come on, Horse. Let's go find Tom." Horse took off at a gallop and Richard prayed Tessa was still alive and that if she was alive he would find her in time to save her.

888

"Wake up, beautiful." Fred said as he poured a canteen of water over Tessa's face. She woke up and jumped to her feet quickly looking around the campsite. Todd and Harold were sitting on some rocks about three feet away beside a campfire while Fred was standing next to her grinning.

"Come here." Harold said. Tessa shook her head.

"You come here." she replied. Harold laughed but Fred was not as entertained by her attitude. He slapped the back of her head and shoved her forward. She stumbled and practically fell onto Harold's lap.

"That's more like it." he said. Then he grabbed her face roughly and pressed his lips to hers. His thick beard and mustache dug into her tender skin. His free hand roamed over her chest and she thought for sure she was going to throw up on him. She closed her eyes tight and moved her hands, which were still tied together, down to her boot. They may have taken her gun but they had forgotten about her knife.

Richard was already dead and there was no way she could take out all three of them before they killed her too but she would be damned if she would die without taking at least one of these bastards with her.

She closed her hand around the handle of her knife and as Harold moaned against her mouth she pulled it quickly and stuck it into his neck, twisting the handle as she yanked it back out.

She jumped to her feet as blood sprayed across her from Harold's neck. Within seconds he fell lifeless to the ground. Todd and Fred both just stared at his body in shock. Tessa took advantage of the moment and lunged at Fred driving the knife into his chest.

"Stupid bitch!" Todd yelled jumping to his feet as Fred fell to the ground with the knife still sticking out of him. Tessa turned to face Todd and gasped when she found her face less than an inch from the barrel of the revolver.

"I'm gonna put a bullet right between your pretty brown eyes." he said. Tessa spit at him and suddenly a throat cleared to their right. They both turned to see Richard sitting there atop of Horse looking at them. Todd grabbed Tessa quickly and pressed the gun against her temple.

Richard looked around the campsite scanning the situation quickly. Two men were laying on the ground and appeared to be dead. One of them still had a knife in his chest. Richard looked back at Todd who was holding Tessa tight with his gun pressed to her temple. Tessa was covered in blood and her face was bruised.