UNDECIDED OUTLAWS

Chapter 3.

           

Jaspers POV

I woke up choking on my own blood, drowning in my own thirst and bleeding the evidence of my injuries.

It didn't matter how I'd ended up in the barn of a stranger. It didn't matter that I was bleeding out on the dirt, because none of any of it mattered to me anymore. The only thing that mattered to me was getting out of this alive and getting back to my 'Mama and Papa to grieve the death of a minor that didn't deserve to die.

I was alone. And I couldn't make it back to my parents alive with the cops on my tail, tied to a chair in the middle of bumfuck Idaho.

They'd kept me tied up pretty good. My wrists were bleeding onto the rope. I could feel it. I could feel the warm blood pore over my calloused fingers but I couldn't feel the cuts.

It was dark out. The birds were put to sleep and the possums were scattering along the tin roof. No matter which way I looked at it; there wasn't a way out. The windows were barred shut for some bizarre reason and the door was most probably locked. This was worse than an interrogation room at the cop shop.

I could hear them just outside the door. Arguing about what they were going to do with me. One of them said that they wanted to shoot me. In that case they'd be doing me a favour but my Mama wouldn't think so.

The door crashed open against its hinges and the guy whose nose I broke showed his face. I contemplated playing dead but he'd already seen me awake when he walked in and he was already looking angry. He had a band aid on his nose to patch up the small damage I'd done to him but I'd need a whole box to patch up the damage he'd done to me.

I had experienced the most traumatic event of my life.

I had been at the shops with my little sis last night and the cashier was a man with a gun. He shot without unwillingness; and my lil sis died.

The masked man gave me his gun after beating me up a little and told me that the police will find me. He forced the gun in my hands to get my finger prints and took the money with him as he drove away.

When the cops came, I fled on foot because I didn't know what else to do and hid in this barn because I didn't know where else to go. Then this guy caught me and because it was midnight he tied me up and left me here to feel numb. He watched me as I cried helplessly in my chair and when it was morning, he beat me in the kitchen in front of his whole family. To say I'd had a bad day couple of days was an understatement.

A fist hit me in the face before I had a chance to speak.

"vete a la mierda perro."

My curse words rolled of my tongue with the fresh blood and the little bit of sanity I had left.

                "English. Peasant."

It was odd, being abused by somebody I didn't know. I knew the last name but I could never put a name to the faces of the four or five Keaton boys. I didn't know they had a sister. I had never seen her around town and when I saw her in the kitchen this morning I couldn't shake of her gaze. I cannot remember her name because it was blocked out when I was knocked out.

                "Easy, Craig."

So the guy had a name. I'd expected something a little darker like Darth Vader or something but Craig worked just as fine.

                "Shut up, Robert. I've had enough of you. I'm still not happy with that shit you pulled with Cadence earlier."

                "Yeah. Well she's our little sister and I know she's a pain in the ass put you needa lay of her a little. It doesn't matter about Lucas but Cades the last good one this family has got."

The brothers stopped with the back and forth as soon as Craig gave Robert a look and he pulled out a gun like it was nothing and fiddled around with it like he was bored.

                "Cadence needs to grow up a little which is why I got her and Bennet to watch this guy for the night. Since you guys won't let me kill him."

Cadence and who I assumed was Bennet walked into the barn as if on cue and they all looked at me like nothing more than scum. All except Cadence and Bennet and the two other brothers that weren't there.

                "So I hear you're a child killer, Jasper? The Coppers were round here today so ya lucky I didn't dob ya in."

I struggled in my chair but I had nothing left. Not a blink of energy. Not a blink of sanity. I screamed at him in a line of Spanish curse words, while his laugh echoed of the walls of and empty barn. So my lil sis was dead and there was nothing I could do about it.

                "Cade, come over here will ya?"

Cadence was scared. I could see it. Her hands were trembling by her sides and her eyes were bloodshot like she'd spent the day crying. She was a little more beaten up than I'd remembered. She had a black eye and a split lip and her hair was all over the place. She walked over to him quickly and didn't bother looking at his face. She didn't just look scared. She looked angry and out of her mind, but sympathy danced in her eyes when she looked at me.

He took her hand gently and she tensed up. All the colour she'd once had in her face was gone as he caressed her hand in his. He slid the gun in her hand and she flinched.

                "Shoot him."

My whole body stiffened before hers did and she shook her head vigorously.

                "I am not like you, Craig."

She handed it back to him and he hit her across the head with the barrel of the gun. I saw Bennet wince, but other than that the brothers just let it happen. I didn't understand this family. Not one bit. My family loved each other. Nobody ever hit anybody and when somebody was hit; the whole family protected that person.

I clenched my teeth so far hard that they nearly chipped. My mama always told me never to hit a woman. She told me never to hit anyone and if Craig was her son she'd disown him.

Cadence didn't cry though. She just held her face and walked away like she was used to it and Craig pointed his large shiny hand gun at me.

                "Por favor, no me hagas esto. Please don't do this to me."

I begged him for my life, not because it had value to me but because it had value to my family and I couldn't let them loose two children in the space of two days. I found it ironic that my family left Spain to pull me away from crime; yet it followed me to Australia like my shadow.

He pulled the trigger back and the gun clicked, when he started to laugh again I opened my eyes only to hear my heart beating into the shadows of the room. I wanted to cry but I wasn't stupid enough to let Craig make me feel so weak. I'd never felt so weak before. Craig had no mercy and if he continued the path he was going I'd give him ten years before he was locked up in prison or dead.

                "calm down omego. The gun is empty."

I could have killed him if I wasn't tied up but heaven knows that I couldn't. He was much larger than me. I was just a lanky guy and he was tall with muscle and I had never been much of a fighter. I had never been the type of guy to enjoy hurting people.

I zoned out for a bit but the sound of a gun being loaded took my attention back to Craig. He was enjoying patronising me. Torturing me like I was less than a convict. He was treating me like I really did kill me sister. Like I was mean enough to pull a gun on my own blood, but I wasn't like him. I would never hurt my family. I'd already hurt my family enough times to know what it feels like when they give up on you.

He handed the gun to Bennet calmly and he spat at me before following Robert outside. He whispered something in Bennet's ear and Bennet stiffened. I would too if I had somebody breathing by my neck.

When he was gone- Cadence and Bennet had a hushed conversation in the corner. I couldn't hear a word of what they were saying but I knew they were talking about me by the way they shot glances my way.

I planned on staying awake until they fell asleep but my eyes just wouldn't stay open. I closed my eyes and dreamed of the life I could no longer have because my lil sis was taken by a masked man.