“See they got that one guard set up that we’ll have to deal with but it looks like everybody else is sound asleep. Just like little babes under a tin roof durin’ a rainstorm.” Reb whispered as he and Jonah lay on their stomachs beneath some bushes just outside the glow of the firelight.
Jonah raised a brow at the other man and then he shook his head and glanced around the camp, his eyes immediately finding Bart and Joe lying off to the side fairly close to the fire. Jonah knew the men had probably put them closer to the fire to make them easier to see and cause them to think twice about trying to sneak off into the night.
Jonah could have taught him a thing or two if they had asked him. The camp was too big, the men too spread out and no one was on the backside of the prisoners between they and the forest. Clearly these men were stupid…. Or simply too beat up to give a hell.
Jonah studied Bart first. The man was sitting up but from where Jonah sat it appeared that he was sound asleep. His face was a mess of bruises and welts and Jonah knew that his right eye was so swollen that even if he woke it wouldn’t open. Bart’s shirt had been lost somewhere along the way and the skinny man’s ribs were also bruised. If Jonah had to guess he’d say they might even be broken.
He tried to find sympathy for his long lost friend but no matter how hard he tried, none would come. This was the man who had once been a friend that Jonah would have trusted with his life but now seemed more like a stranger. That was the man who had helped to hide his son from him. The man who had kept Jonah from being a real father to Clayton. Jonah didn’t care what reason Bart had for his deception. He didn’t care if God himself had come down and told Bart not to tell Jonah about his son, Bart still should have found a way to let him know. The fact that he hadn’t done that told Jonah just what kind of man the skinny half Mexican bastard really was.
Then Jonah found his gaze moving to Joe. She was lying on her side with her back to him, preventing him from seeing the face he’d spent the last five years wishing he could see. Despite the hurt and betrayal he felt at the knowledge of her deceit, he couldn’t deny, at least not to himself, that he was happier than he’d been in a long time just seeing her lying there. That woman owned a bigger piece of his heart and soul than he cared to admit.
He was pleased to see that she was still wearing the oversized buckskin. She just wouldn’t have been Joe if she’d been wearing anything else. He swallowed hard when he saw that her pants were indeed covered in blood but thankfully most of it appeared to be dry instead of fresh, (or at least he hoped so.)
“So how we gonna take care of that guard without wakin’ everybody up?” Reb whispered but his words fell on deaf ears since Jonah was already moving away from him. Silently he slipped through the shadows, unseen and unheard. Jonah had had a lot of practice at moving unnoticed. As a boy it had been a necessary means of survival, at first to avoid beatings and later to steal what little food and money he could to get by.
Jonah felt a bit of uneasiness run down his spine. He wasn’t a killer. As a matter of fact he avoided killing anyone unless it was absolutely necessary to his own survival. Getting Joe and Bart out of here would probably involve killing one or more, maybe even all, of these men. And chances were not all of them were going to be aware death was coming… It wouldn’t be a fair fight. Could Jonah murder them?
The answer to that was yes. Yes he could. Jonah had a strong sense of loyalty and he protected what was his with a fierce passion. Joe wasn’t his, not anymore, but Clayton was, and these men had shot the boy’s mother right in front of him and would have hurt his son as well if they boy hadn’t managed to run away.
Jonah would teach them a lesson on what happened when you messed with what was his and if that meant killing every single one of them, then that is what Jonah would do.
Moving silently, Jonah came up behind the guard. It was clear from the slumped set to his broad shoulders and the deepness of his breaths that the man was asleep. Jonah had noticed that it appeared the man’s nose had been broken and both of his eyes were black. Jonah sincerely hoped it was Joe that had dealt that damage to the man. She had always been the toughest person he knew and the one person that he certainly hoped he never had wanting to whoop his ass… Because Jonah had no doubts that she could do it fairly easily.
He was nearly to the slumbering guard when a twig snapped beneath his boot, the sound deafening in the silence of the night. Jonah let out a string of silent curses beneath his breath and became motionless as he ceased to breathe.
The guard snorted and let out a grunt before readjusting his butt on the dirt and drifting back off to sleep. It wasn’t until the man’s breathing evened out and Jonah was damn sure he was once again dreaming peacefully, that Jonah finally released the air he’d been holding in his lungs.
Deciding that he’d wasted enough time being sneaky, he quickly closed the remaining distance between himself and the sleeping man. Jonah clamped one hand over the man’s mouth and wrapped his other arm tight around his neck.
Instantly the man began to fight against him. He swung his head back and caught Jonah in the jaw. His head exploded with pain but he didn’t release the struggling man. Jonah had to end this soon or else the man’s kicking and flailing was going to wake up the entire camp.
Pushing all his hesitations aside, Jonah’s muscles tensed and he twisted his arms quickly. The guard’s body went limp in his arms, his neck broken. Jonah took a moment to catch his breath, the brief but intense struggle with the bigger man and the knowledge that he had just murdered a man taking its toll on him momentarily.
Then Jonah squared his shoulders, remembered the woman and child he had to protect and he threw a glance at Reb who was watching him from the bushes. Jonah nodded at the other man and then silently drug the dead guards body into the woods and began stripping him of weapons and taking them for himself.
***
Joe knew one thing for sure and certain. She was in a whole heap load of trouble. Her leg was throbbing, hot and swollen. She had a fever beginning to burn in her blood. The pain in her wrists was unbearable and her hands had long since gone completely numb. It had been two days since she’d eaten and the tiny sips of water she’d been given now and then hadn’t been enough to combat the heat of the days and the blood she’d lost.
If Joe didn’t get the hell away from these damned men and get some tending to her leg soon, then it was going to be too late for her. Dying simply wasn’t an option as far as Joe was concerned. All she knew for sure was that she had to stay alive. She was all the hope that Clayton had, especially since it didn’t seem as if Reb was coming.
Slowly and painfully, Joe pushed her battered body up into a sitting position and looked around the camp. She let her gaze go to where Cliff, the man who had been introduced to the back of her head just the day before, had been sitting and keeping guard and she realized with surprise that the man was gone.
Where the devil was he? Joe assumed he must have wandered into the woods to answer nature’s call and she knew it was the opening she’d been waiting for.
“Bart…” she whispered as she nudged the sleeping man with her elbow and he simply let out a grunt and then fell onto his side, never waking.
Joe felt her heart break just a little when she realized that she couldn’t save both herself and Bart. The man was too far gone to make a run for it… Hell he couldn’t even wake up. His ribs were a mess, his face was so bruised and welted it would be a miracle if he could speak or see once he did wake up and he’d been nearly two weeks with no food and very little water….. Bart had been her steady rock over the last few years, and while she hadn’t let herself be completely open with him or let him see the softer side of her the way she had with Jonah, Bart was still her friend.
“Bart…” she whispered again, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the man would answer her but he didn’t.
Deep down Joe knew that Bart would tell her to go if he were awake. He would want her to get back to the cabin and to Clayton. Bart had worked hard to take care of them over the last five years, despite Joe’s protests and all-out arguments that she was more than capable of taking care of herself and her son just fine.
Joe had to hurry. She quickly scooted herself backward until she came against the bark of a tree and then she pushed herself up to stand.
Instantly her head began to swim and sweat slicked her brow. She realized quickly that she was in much worse shape than she had first thought. The pain that shot through her leg when she put weight on it was nearly enough to cause the tough as nails Joe Redding to cry out in pain. Frustration filled her. With her hands tied, riding a horse was not an option and it was clear from the pain in her leg that covering the distance to the cabin on foot probably wasn’t going to work any better.
“Just where the devil do ya think yer goin’ in that shape yer in?” Reb’s voice questioned from behind her and Joe nearly sagged with relief.
“Just gonna go fer a bit of a walk is all.”
“How ‘bout ya let me help ya out.”
“My pride wants to tell ya to take yer offer and shove it but my body keeps tellin’ my pride to shut up.”
Reb chuckled and then moved to Bart. “Wake up, Bart.” He urged as he nudged the other man roughly. Bart moaned but his eyes didn’t open. “Bart.” Reb said again as he patted Bart’s cheek but still the man didn’t wake, though his eyelids did at least flutter.
Joe scanned the camp but everyone was still sleeping soundly and Cliff hadn’t returned. Where was that man?
She turned her attention back to Reb just in time to see him pour some water from his flask onto Bart’s face. The eye that wasn’t swollen shut, shot open and Reb quickly clamped his hand over Bart’s mouth to keep the man from calling out.
“Nice to see you’re still alive, Bartholomew.” Reb whispered with a grin and then he pulled his knife. “Now how ‘bout I get you two on out of here?”
“How about you don’t ever call me Bartholomew again?” Bart countered once Reb had removed his hand from his mouth.
When Reb cut Joe’s hands free she could have cried with relief as blood was once again allowed to enter her hands, and then the real pain started as the feeling began to return and it felt as if a million tiny pins were being driven into every inch of her skin.
“Reb, where is Clayton? Have you been to the cabin?” Joe asked as she rubbed gingerly at her cut and swollen wrists. Reb nodded.
“The boy is fine, though it woulda been nice to know there was a boy…..” he added pointedly and Joe shifted her feet. It wasn’t that she’d hidden it from Reb, it was just that she hadn’t seen the man since leaving all of them all those years ago. “Clayton’s at another camp less than a mile from here and he’s waitin’ on us.”
“Bart you look like hell.” Reb said, turning his attention to Bart as he helped the man to stand. Bart kept his arm around his shoulders for support to remain on his feet.
“Yeah, that’s cuz it took you forever and a day to get here. What the devil took ya so long?”
“I had to go for some help.” Reb replied. Joe was about to ask who was helping when she felt a chill run down her spine and knew that someone was standing behind her. They were close enough that she could feel the heat from their skin and Joe trembled. Surely Reb hadn’t gone to him for help! Not…..
“Time to go.” Jonah’s voice filled the night and Joe suddenly found that there was no longer any air left to breath.
She turned slowly, anger and love alike filling her as she looked up at the face she had dreamt of nearly every single night for over five years. She was torn between the urge to jump into his arms and finally feel his lips against her own again and the urge to knock that cold, indifferent look right off his chiseled face….
Before she could decide which she was going to do, her dizziness increased, her legs buckled and she found herself falling as everything around her went black.