Little Sharpshooter

Little Sharpshooter Chap 27

“Parker boy, what’s your name? Oh yeah, Roy. Go hang that girl and the old man up like a couple of cows getting’ ready for slaughter.” Clyde yelled. “Hey, Rose. Ya all right?” Clyde rested his hand on the girl’s shoulder and examined at her nose.

“Just let me finish her off,” Rose lunged for Randy. Clyde held her back.

“Another time. We got too much to do. I’m sure that snivelin’ little girl we hired is probably gettin’ someone riled up. We need to hurry if we’re gonna take care of business ruinin’ the kid’s name on our way out of town.”

Randy was shoved to the far side of the room where the floor was darkest and hooks stuck out from the wood beams above their heads.

Roy, cleaner looking than the rest of the group with his clean shaven square jaw and mop of blonde hair, studied the beam and then looked the two of them over. He pulled handcuffs out of his pocket, handing a pair to the man that held her.

Randy hated handcuffs. She knew just how much slack she needed to slip out of them and he wasn’t likely to give her any. He slapped the first one on and she squealed.

“Take it off! It hurts. That’s too tight. Oh, please!” she screamed, lashing around as if the skin was being ripped off her wrists.

“Shut her up!” One of the guys yelled that kept watch near the door.

Roy gave the man that cuffed her a shove and unfastened it. He placed it back on her wrist, not tightening it so much. She looked up at him with fake sad, tear-filled eyes.

“He didn’t mean to hurt you.” Roy rubbed her wrist.

“It’s all right now.” She turned her mouth to the side trying to read him. “I’m kind of scared though.”

Roy glanced at the men around him. “He’s not out to kill ya. At least not yet.” He rolled a rope through his hands, stepped onto a rickety chair before tossing the rope up and over the beam. Then he tossed it around the beam once more. “He said you’re good at escapin’ so you don’t get to hang by the hooks.”

Two mangled chairs were placed on either side of him. Bronson’s face was swelling from the fight and he struggled to stand upright from the beating he got. He was first to be tied up to the beam. As that was happening, Clyde and the manly girl were lining out terrified and useless Trevor on some details before they sent him out the door with the other two men.

Trevor’s frightened eyes met hers before he stepped out the door. She wanted to run to help him but there was nothing she could do with a gun in her back and four men still in the room.

Clyde took his time crossing the room, fixated on her. Lifting a lock of her hair, he curled it around his finger.

“You know, I might think twice about finishin’ ya off if you were to join us. A pretty girl that’s good with a gun could really be worth somethin’ to me.” His eyes met hers.

Randy lost her confidence. Bronson was not only beat up, but tied up. The law was no help, scared of the outlaws running through town. She was handcuffed, about to be hung up with Bronson. That was one scenario her pa never tried with her. Trevor was about to face danger from not only the outlaws, but the law would be after him with whatever they had planned for him. She would almost agree to anything if it would spare Trevor. However, she knew that wasn’t the answer. Real tears welled up in her eyes.

“I can’t. I don’t wanna be an outlaw. I don’t want gold, I don’t wanna be rich, and I don’t wanna be famous at all. Not for sharpshooting or bein’ James Carter’s daughter. I just wanna to be left alone and forgotten.”