The Outlaw

Chapter Sixteen

They made camp that evening just before dusk and Ethan was happy to see that Caroline was given a tent. It gave him an idea on how to talk to her alone without risking blowing his cover or getting her hurt. Ethan walked a little ways away from camp and signaled for Grayson to follow him.

While Ethan took care of natures calling he whispered over to Grayson.

"I need to talk to Caroline and let her know who I am."

"You can't, Kid… You can't talk remember." Grayson replied as he pretended like he was checking the ammunition in his rifle.

"She has her own tent. I figured he'd do that. He doesn't want his little Caroline sleeping out where all the men can see her. If I was to get hurt he would send me into her tent for her to tend to me."

"What makes you think that?" Grayson asked. Ethan rolled his eyes.

"He's my father. I know how he thinks and I know exactly what he'll do in any situation. Trust me. He'll see me hurt, he'll send me to her tent, he'll tell her that someone will die if she steps out of line with me and then he'll tell her to patch me up. When we were all riding together before he did that anytime any of the guys were hurt. Her pa was a doc so she knows things about medicine."

"Well just how do you suppose you're gonna go about getting hurt?" Grayson asked. Ethan pointed to the rattlesnake that was curled up about three feet from where the men were standing.

"Holy shit! That's a big snake." Grayson said pulling his gun. Ethan grabbed his arm to stop him from shooting.

"You have to shoot my leg and then shoot the snake. You can say you missed and got me instead."

"I don't never miss."

"You can say it scared ya." Ethan replied.

"I ain't some young kid that's wet behind the ears.. I'm a tough old man." Grayson said his voice full of indignation.

"Yea a tough old man that kisses his horse good morning." Ethan replied with a chuckle.

"Her name's Annabelle, dammit." Grayson said. "Now where do you want the bullet and how deep in your leg am I putting it?"

"Not very damn deep unless you want one in your ass." Ethan replied matter of factly. "I was thinking you could graze my lower leg right above my boot."

"You sure about this?" Grayson asked. Ethan rubbed the back of his neck and shifted his weight onto the leg he wasn't about to get shot in.

"Yeah." he said.

The men didn't know but Caroline was watching them from behind her tent flap and her heart jumped up into her throat at he sight of 'Kid' rubbing his neck nervously. She would bet her life that man was really Ethan… But how could that be possible? She cursed the tears of hope that she felt gathering in her eyes. This could not be Ethan. She had killed Ethan a month ago. Though it seemed more like a lifetime ago after all she'd been through since then. She closed her tent flap and sat back on her blankets, pulling her knees up to her chin and sobbing into them like a child. A woman could only be strong for so long before she broke down.

Caroline screamed when a shot rang out followed closely by another shot. She jumped from her tent to see 'Kid' jumping up and down on one leg while grabbing at the other one. She could see blood on his hands as he touched the leg he was favoring. The man named Grayson pulled a knife and cut off the head of a big rattler and held the rest of it's long body in the air.

"What the hell are you two doing!" Mitchell demanded storming toward them.

"I killed a rattler." Grayson replied. Mitchell pointed to Ethan who was having a really hard time keeping himself from yelling out and telling Grayson to take his revolver and shove it up his ass. He hadn't realized just how damn bad this was gonna hurt and a man who couldn't talk certainly wouldn't be able to curse Grayson's soul to the fiery pits of hell.