Give My All to Jessie (Third in Outlaw Series)

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Jessie's heart felt as if it weighed one whole ton as she guided her pa's palomino down the steep cliffs of the canyons she'd been riding through. She knew better than to try to ride the beast. He might be surefooted but he was unpredictable and would probably toss her to her death at his first chance.

Jessie glanced up at the sky and cursed. The evening was passing too quickly. She had hoped to be off these cliffs by nightfall but it wasn't looking good. The horse tried to stop and Jessie grumbled as she tugged his reins.

She'd been traveling hard for four days. Four days ago she had left Armadillo. Four days ago she had left Langley.

Jessie's temper had had time to cool since then and she found she wasn't angry at what he'd done any longer. Hell, in a way she was impressed. She hadn't realized that Langley had it in him to be so cleverly devious. Drugging her lemonade? Who'd have thought? And he had even managed to get all the information they'd need out of Billy before killing him—which was a feat in itself. Billy might have been annoying but he hadn't been a fool.

Unfortunately it had taken a few days for Jessie to realize she wasn't angry at Langley any longer and by then she'd been too far away from Armadillo to simply turn around and go back to him—and it was painstakingly obvious that this time he hadn't followed her.

Jessie should have known better than to think he would chase after her. Hell, she'd been the one to leave him not once, but twice. Still, she had hoped he cared enough to trail along....

Oh well, Jessie would go to Bingham, avenge her father's death, get her money and then move on to the next adventure. An outlaw never lamented about the past or wished for what could have been. Her pa had taught her that.

Jessie was caught up in her thoughts and didn't realize that the agitated Palomino was going to rear until it was too late. When he reared, her grip on the reins slipped and he tore loose from her, rushing past her and causing Jessie to lose her already precarious footing on the cliff side.

Jessie screamed as she fell on her backside and then slid on her back down the loose rocks. She could feel the sharp stones, tearing through the fabric of her shirt and ripping into her skin.

When she finally reached the canyon floor, her head slammed against a rock and her world swooned. Jessie was fighting to hold onto consciousness when a male voice chuckled beside her. "Well, well, what do we have here, boys?"

She saw a flash of a pock marked face just before her world went dark.

***

The first thing Jessie was aware of as she began to stir was pain. Nearly unbearable pain in her back and her head. There were ropes around her wrists and the skin was chaffing beneath them. She knew that she was laying on the hard ground and knew she was outside because the sun was blazing down upon her.

Jessie kept her eyes closed and merely laid there attempting to determine just how much trouble she was in. Four male voice were speaking. They were making crude jokes and wondering how long it would be before she woke up.

Jessie vowed right there and then that if she lived through this, she would find that no good horse of her pa's and shoot it square in the face! Jessie attempted to shift her hands and was unable to stop the moan of pain that left her lips.

"Well, look who's waking up," a male voice announced. Jessie opened her eyes to find the man with a pock marked face kneeling beside her. "Good morning, beautiful."