Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Twenty

"Just what did he do to Charlotte?" Silas demanded as he glanced at the woman up in the loft with him. Comanche saw her blush and offer a guilt laden shrug in response.

"I was just gonna show her a real man, negro but don't worry none. Colt got to her first." J.B. turned to Comanche. "You better keep an eye on your filly there, injun, or else that bastard will claim her as his too."

There was a collective rush of anger as everyone seemed to lunge for J.B. at once. Even Silas, started down the ladder with a look of pure rage on his face.

Colt beat everyone to J.B. however and threw the man to the ground before slamming a fist into his face.

"You've overstayed your welcome." Colt ground out as he yanked a bleeding and addled J.B. back to his feet. "It's time you hit the road."

"You can't toss me out with nothing."

"We can and we will." Silas vowed. "Now I'm a good Christian man and it's in my nature to turn the other cheek when a man wrongs me and that's why I have bitten my tongue and not said nothing against your constant insults about my skin color, but I won't turn the other cheek to anyone who wrongs my woman,"

"I don't even have my gun!" J.B. shouted desperately as Colt dragged him toward the barn door. Colt nodded at Silas to open the door and J.B.'s struggles became more frantic when the sound of a rabid bumping against the wooden walls filed the barn.

"Men that live the way you and I do often learn lessons the hard way." Colt stated without concern. "If you live through this then I guarantee you'll never sleep without your damn gun again."

Silas slid the wooden beam from the supports and began to open the door and Comanche saw the wild light in J.B.'s frantic blue eyes just before the man swung out and jerked himself from Colt's grasp.

Katherine reached for him but J.B. managed to twist and avoid her grasp before lunging for the ladder and scrambling up into the loft where Charlotte was alone with the baby. He slid from sight as did Charlotte.

Panic was thick in the air as Silas, Colt and Katherine rushed for the ladder. "You better not put a hand on her!" Silas called. Comanche and Frankie shared a look.

What in the hell had they gotten themselves in the middle of?

"Get your hands off her!" Charlotte called and then suddenly she and J.B. both came into view at the edge of the loft and every single person on the ground below froze when they realized that J.B. held the tiny baby, Grace, in his hands.

Charlotte lunged for him and J.B.'s fist came hard across her temple, knocking her backward out of sight.

"Please...." Silas held his hands up and stepped back, as did Katherine and Colt. "Please don't hurt that babe." Silas's voice broke and Comanche wondered why. It was clear that baby wasn't his... her skin was far too pale.

"I'll throw this baby right out this window and make her rabid lunch if y'all don't give me your damn supplies and let me ride on out of here with 'em." J.B. warned as he edged toward the side window with a wild and crazy grin on his face.

Comanche had seen a lot of terrible, evil men in his life but this man was one of the worst. It was clear, to Comanche at least, that this man was very serious in his threats. There was a cold light in his eyes that made it clear he meant what he said.

Comanche wasn't sure what all had happened to lead to this point but he knew good men when he saw them and Silas and Colt were good men. He also knew innocence when he saw it and that little babe J.B. was threatening was the definition of the word.