Innocence and the Outlaw

Chapter Ten

"Why I raped and killed her of course. Most fun I've ever had." he replied. Chase let out an angry yell but before he could get to his gun, something hard struck the back of his head and the world went black.

***

Louisa stared in shock as Boss and the men carried four bodies into camp. She saw Chase hanging limp over Boss's shoulder. What had happened? What had went wrong? Chase wasn't supposed to be hurt and who was the other man?

Petey was clearly dead, which was no surprise to Louisa. She had known that would happen and had truly been hoping for it. Petey was a horrible man who deserved what he got. Abusing women such as herself who had no choice but to be what they were. Treating her like scum and beating her around whenever he felt the urge. But why was Chase hurt?

Chase was not supposed to be hurt... Louisa had been in Tig's tent and had missed the men coming back to camp. She saw now that there were more dead bodies that Petey was being tossed recklessly on top of. Louisa saw the glinting of a metal star and realized with shock that those other dead men were law.

Who had brought law to this camp? Was it the blond man? Too many unanswered questions and no way to get the answers she sought without jeopardizing her own well-being and admitting she'd played a part in Leah's rape and Petey's death. With any luck that fat bitch was dead and not just unconscious.

"What's going on?" Tig asked Yancy as the man approached his tent.

"Boss has lost his damn mind. Apparently that guy is Leah's brother." he said pointing at the blond man. "And Chase caught Petey trying to force Leah to lay with him so he killed Petey, this guy shows up with lawmen, we killed the lawmen, and then Boss turns on Chase and it all turns into one big cluster fuck if you ask me."

"What was Leah doing out of her tent?" Tig demanded, casting an suspicious glance at Louisa. She waved her hand and shrugged.

"I have no idea. Some women just don't know how to do what's best for them."

"Do you think Boss will actually try to kill Chase?" Tig asked. "I always kinda liked that quiet, little bastard."

"The chief was always good to me. He saved my life once believe it or not." Yancy admitted.

"We gonna save his ass this time?" Tig asked with a grin.

"We'll just have to see how it goes." Yancy replied with shrug.

"HeeHee!" Tig exclaimed, smacking himself on the thigh. "This could get fun."

***

The pain is what brought Leah out of her unconsciousness. Her side was burning and hot. The warm spring sunshine was beating down on her and she could only squint because of the brightness hitting her eyes.

She realized that she was sitting on the ground and her hands and feet where tied together in front of her. She felt eyes watching her and turned her head to the side to see Chase watching her intently. He was tied up as well, though they had tied him to a wooden post with his arms behind him and his ankles tied together in front of him.

She could see the question in his eyes and managed a small smile of reassurance to let him know she was okay. She was hurting from her brothers bullet but she could tell that she wasn't dieing from it. She may die of something else sometime very soon based on the fact that she was tied up like a criminal but she wasn't going to die from Chance's bullet.

Chance?! Leah turned to her left and saw her brother tied up as well, though he was staring down at the ground and a single tear had streaked his dirt covered face. Leah looked around and saw that no one else in camp seemed to be paying much attention to them at the moment. They were tied near the trees and away from the tents and main fire. Most of the men seemed to be busy digging a deep hole and Leah supposed it was for the four dead bodies lying in a pile a couple hundred feet away.. .Of course there may be three more bodies soon that they planned on adding.