An Outlaw's Silence (manxman)(second story in The Crane Gang series)

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Zachariah had a goddamn headache.

His skull had taken more knocks in the last few days than it had in a long long time. Without opening his eyes, Zachariah took stock of his situation. He was sitting in a hard backed chair. His hands were tied behind the chair and his ankles were tied in front of him. He was indoors and he could tell there were quite a few people surrounding him.

Two of those people were currently having an argument.

"Dammit, Jebidiah, quit mother henning me to death! I'm fine!"

"I'm not mother henning you, dammit."

"Just let him love you, Gill. He loves you so good."

"Nobody asked you, Pete," the man, who must have been Jeb, replied. "What the hell happened to your face, Gilliam? Is that bastard the one that hit you?"

"No," Gill assured him.

"Wyatt said he ran into a post," a female voice spoke up.

Laughter rang out and Zachariah cracked open his eye to see a gap-toothed man with red hair. "He never has been real graceful."

Zachariah noticed Gill standing to the side and another man, a man who was tall and lithe in build with short dark blond hair and green eyes, was tending to his face with concern and dedication. Gill appeared stuck somewhere between annoyance and reverence as he watched the man.

Zachariah squirmed a bit and attempted to avert his gaze. It wasn't often he met men who were like him and it happened even less often that those men were in relationships and were openly affectionate.

"I believe he's waking up," the female voice spoke again.

Suddenly, Wyatt's face was directly in front of him and Zachariah opened his eyes fully. He saw the welted cut on Wyatt's cheekbone and growled low. Damn that Gus and his friends for not only picking on someone weaker and smaller than they were, but also someone who hadn't done a damn thing to them to deserve the treatment.

'You okay?' Wyatt mouthed.

Zachariah grumbled. "I'd be a lot damn better if you crazy people would stop hitting me in the head and tying me up."

Wyatt moved when Jeb came to stand in front of the chair. "And I'd be a lot damn better if I didn't have a bounty hunter wandering around my land."

Zachariah rolled his eyes. "I'm not a threat to any of you. Did I, or did I not, just hop into a fight that wasn't mine to protect Wyatt?"

"Bounties are worth more alive," the red-head, Pete, spoke up. "Of course then you have to listen to 'em bitching and moaning the whole way back to town."

"Nothing worse than bitching and moaning," Gill agreed.

Zachariah pulled on the ropes but they were tied tight. He wasn't going anywhere until these jackasses let him go. "I'm no longer a bounty hunter," he admitted. He was speaking to Jeb but for some reason his gaze kept returning to Wyatt who stood off to the side and watched him closely. "I was one for a long time, took down a lot of men and made a fair living. I have a sister, a half-sister, she's seven years my junior. Some men were angry because I took down their boss and they have her. I'm trying to find her and every second counts. I really don't have time for this bullshit."