“She’s a bit willful, Elijah. I tried my best with her, but she’s still a bit
headstrong,” Sarah warned. “Her name is Debra.”
“I don’t really give a shit, Sarah.” Elijah’s boots were already clacking across the
wood dining room floor as he headed towards the room. One of the men following was
uncoiling a rope he had been holding.
Henry rose and closed the kitchen door while Clara poured them each another cup of
coffee. Henry added a liberal amount of whiskey to each cup and the two couples sat at
the table in silence. The enforcers would be riding down by the end of the week for Tom,
and the place would be happier with the brooding teenager gone. It would be nice to have
Sarah and the kids moving back to the farmhouse.
Elijah opened the bedroom door and expected her to sit up, blinking in confusion at the
unexpected light. The girl was hidden under the blankets, and the four men surrounded the
bed without her so much as moving. She should have heard our boots, Elijah thought, and
he wondered if he would find stacked pillows under the quilt. The thought of wasting time
chasing her down if she had run pissed him off. They still had two more girls to pick up
and he wanted to be headed back up the mountain by dawn.
Debra sensed people around her, even through the loud music. Her fingers curled around
the edge of the quilt and slowly drew it down. A man with shining black eyes was staring
at her, and Debra had a fleeting thought that he was the devil. Her mouth dropped open
and she stared at the other three cowboys standing around him. Sleep. I’m asleep, and
this is some crazy nightmare from being out on this stupid farm.
When a rough hand reached out and grabbed the back of her head, she opened her mouth to
scream. He shoved spongy ball into her mouth and strapped it to the back of her head
while the other two men each grabbed a fisted hand and locked leather cuffs onto her
wrists. Before she could try to remove them, which she would discover was useless with
their keyed latches, she was rolled onto her stomach. Her long legs got twisted in the
quilt and she tried to kick and free them while her wrists were hooked together behind
her. She shrieked muffled outrage and fear into the gag.
What’s happening? Oh god. Debra was screaming behind the gag, but with Ryker still
wailing in her ears she had no idea how smothered the sound was. Her arms were stretched,
and she yanked in panicked terror at the thick cuffs and pressed her tongue against the
expanded foam in her mouth, trying to push it out. She was being kidnapped, and her only
thought was of her own survival. It never crossed her mind to consider what these men
might have done to the rest of her family.
Hands pulled the blanket free and lifted her out of the bed. The earplugs popped out and
she stared at them on the pillow, with their tinny music continuing to blare. She looked
up at the tall man, the devil, and frantically shook her head while tears slipped down her
cheeks. Someone was wrapping a thick leather collar around her throat, and she tried to
twist away from him. The big devil man gripped through her hair and held her head still
until the collar was latched, and then a man with a rope clicked a hook through the metal
ring on the front of it.
“Carry her out, Joseph. There’s no sense having her knock any of Clara’s things over,”
Elijah said. He turned to leave, and Debra’s eyes widened when an even bigger man… not
taller, but definitely more muscular… grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her over
his shoulder. Her braid slapped against his leather chaps at the back of his knee, and
Debra stared down at the wooden floor while she bounced on the shoulder digging into her
ribcage.
They walked out the door onto the porch and she grunted as he lurched down the wide
steps. The big man’s knees bent and he lowered her to the ground behind the line of five
tethered horses. There was another girl about her age, bound as she was and tied to the
back of one of the animals with another cowboy standing next to her. The girl had been
crying. There were muddy streaks down her cheeks, but now she was staring with wide-eyed
fright at Debra.
Suzy’s sleeping tee shirt was already dusty from the ride over to Henry and Clara’s farm.
She had been woken much as Debra had, though she had been dreaming about leaving to go to
the expensive college in the fall. After spending the past year with barely passing
grades, she had lost her chance at the scholarship that would have saved her dad another
year of overtime at work. There were a lot of parties and social events for high school
seniors, and Suzy had justified the grades that were falling as fast as the extra dollars
her dad would have to earn, by pacifying herself that she would only be a senior once in
her life.
Suzy had spent the past fifteen minutes riding in the saddle in front of one of the
terrifying men. She looked at the new girl’s tank and shorts, and she was grateful that
at least her own nightshirt was not so tight and revealing. Unfortunately, she was only
wearing her pink thong panties underneath it.
“Samuel, this one can ride with you. We’ll cut across the west cornfield to Chris and
Thelma’s place,” Elijah’s deep voice stated. “Remember what Sarah said: the girl might be
a handful.”
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