Mister Quaid: 1800s: I Will Always Find You... (WLW)

Part One, 1873: Chapter Seven

August 28th, 1873, Washburn Range, Dunraven Peak, Yellowstone, Wyoming

Night crept down the mountains, dousing everything along them in a layer of chilly air. Alice shivered in Pete's shirt and Hany's trousers against Ernest's horse as three men carried on around the fire. The man who sat beside her was but a boy of only about nineteen, the same age as her brother. He stared at her and chuckled as he pulled on the neck of her shirt.

"Stop it!" She tried to back away, yet couldn't budge an inch. Her hands were still shackled and raised above her head, attached to the saddle of the horse above her. The boy gave her a heated grin and knelt down between her legs. "Get away from--"

He slapped her. "Hold still. The new boss don't want you hurt and I don't wanna get mad. Ya get me mad, ya get hurt." His hands flew to her buttons and she wriggled as the taste of blood filled her mouth. "Just relax. I promise you'll--"

Bam! A boot kicked him in the face and he flew back. Ernest stood above them both and was angrier than a mama bear whose cub had been stolen. He grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt and yanked him to his feet.

"I told ya not to leave any marks, boy!" Ernest tossed him away and watched as he made his way to the other men while holding his jaw. Ernest sat down beside her and checked her wrists. "Looks like it's chafin' a bit." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small jar of ointment. "Hold still. Colin don't want ya hurt when we meet up with 'im, for whatever reason."

"And where exactly are we heading? Where are you wake snakes taking me?"

He stared at her for a moment, then broke out into a boisterous laughter. "Wake snakes, ey?" He dabbed his finger in the ointment and smiled when he applied it to her wrists making her cringe. After a few moments of stinging pain, it soothed the burns from the shackles and she relaxed a bit against his horse. "Over yonder to Yellowstone Board and Bar. We will meet up with Colin and the rest of the gang there and he'll tell ya what ya gotta do."

"What I have to do? What are you--"

He lifted a bandana from his pocket and sank it into and across her mouth. "Ya talk too damn much. Let's just say some money was promised to the locals and yer pops didn't deliver. All of this can be laid at his feet. He was the man running yer family business, after all." After securing the cloth around the back of her head, he sat back on his heels and smirked. "Ya really got a thing for that Quaid, dontcha?"

She tried to say something, anything to get her point across, but couldn't get more than muffled mumbles out. He stood and checked the saddle was secure, then turned around and joined the other men by the fire.

Did he actually think she cared if her father had ever really promised them money? All she cared about was getting back to the ranch and checking on Pete and the others. She was happy that the Hendrix family wasn't hurt from what she'd seen, but her need to know if Pete was alright or not outweighed any relief she felt. Her side hurt from being bent over Ernest's horse, her head throbbed from being yanked around by her long hair and her arms ached from being in such an awkward position for so long, but she knew it was nothing compared to the pain Pete had endured for her. She'd lain so still after receiving the most brutal beating she had ever witnessed and didn't show any signs of stirring any time soon.

It was up to Alice to get herself out of this one. She knew that, but under her current circumstances, what exactly could she do?

Think, think, think... What should I do? What would Pete do? What would Walt want me to do?

Well, it was obvious what Walt would want her to do. He would want her to think logically and wait until she had the perfect opportunity to strike. Pete would hurl herself at these men without a second thought of her own life and that wasn't something Alice could afford to do. She had never been the type to rush into danger. Far from it in fact, but when she heard that rifle explode just as Pete had entered the house, her instincts she never thought she possessed took over.