Blackwell Bounty

Chapter Fifteen

Edith had been prepared to lie down and allow sleep to carry her away into a world far less frightening that the real one. She was definitely in need of a good night's rest by now. However, the sound of the hooves beating against the ground, comparable to the sudden change in her heartbeat, forced a rush of awareness through her mind as she sat up. Without a word, Cal snatched her hand and tugged, pulling her to her feet so forcefully and swiftly her waves of ebony hair lifted from her shoulders to tumble down her back. Apparently she didn't move fast enough even with his urgent assistance because Calvin released her hand only to snake his arm around her waist and drag her deeper into the darkness of the trees. Cal didn't give her the opportunity to hesitate. Instead, his instincts overtook any slow-moving rational thoughts and he pulled Edith with him until he reached a patch of bushes that must've satisfied him. Cal sat down and jerked her to the ground with him as he braced his back against a tree, facing opposite from the horses and the camp they had just scurried away from. 

Even breathing seemed too deafeningly loud. Edith closed her eyes, fear churning her stomach, threatening to claw up her throat with her stomach, as well as the lunch she'd eaten earlier that day, in tow. In her mind she heard Cal telling her that people would come looking for them. What if it was Amos? If he had already found them, after only a few short hours, then how would they ever have a hope of escaping him? Edith's heart froze in her chest. She recalled all that Cal had revealed to her; his time with Amos, the orders of the mentor to kill and destroy all that was within sight, and finally the price Cal had to pay in order to escape all the horrors of the gang. A shudder rolled over Edith's skin like the touch of a ghost avoiding the hereafter only to haunt those who had wronged its soul in life.  

She did not want to think about what Amos might do to them if he found them now. 

Edith felt every breath Cal took. His chest, pressed firmly against her back, expanded and contracted with each inhale and exhale. His heart thumped against her shoulder blade wildly. She realized she wasn't the only one who was afraid. Edith carefully wrapped her palms around Cal's forearm where it coiled around the waist in a vice grip. At first, he flinched at her unexpected touch and then he relaxed, but only slightly. She turned her head to glance over her shoulder at him. Cal was staring off into the trees with alert obsidian eyes, like some sort of animal listening for the presence of pursuers. His other hand had drawn the gun from the holster at his hip. It was already cocked and ready to fire; the only thing the gun lacked was a target.  

Then, suddenly, the silence broke altogether.  

"Uncle Cal? Where the hell are you?" 

Edith's hair stirred against her ear as Cal whooshed out a relieved, yet irritated sigh. He grumbled a curse under his breath, sounding positively galled as he loosened his arm from around Edith and returned the gun to its holster after clicking back the hammer. Cal helped Edith to her feet and then, in a fury, stomped off toward the small camp where they had left the horses and their blankets, trampling plant life beneath his angry footfalls like a bull preparing to charge.  

With considerably lighter steps, Edith followed after him, holding up her skirts with both hands so any straggling branches and thistles wouldn't snag the hem of her dress and trip her.  

In the darkness, she couldn't see Skinny very well until she was up close and by this time Cal had stormed ahead of her and cornered his nephew against the flank of his large palomino.  

"What are you doing here?" Cal growled.  

Seeing him this way was like looking at a completely different person after hearing his soft tone only moments before.  

"You told me to come here," Skinny protested, tossing his head to flick back strands of his sandy hair.  

Edith watched Cal's shoulders rise with a quickly inhaled breath, but he had little patience to gather to begin with . "In the mornin'! You're supposed to be leadin' Amos on a wild goose chase right now," Cal snapped, raising his voice irritably. "Do you hear anythin' I say or is yer head so hollow words just echo around in there?"