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“Why ain’t she purdy today?” Eldon Tremaine pranced his horse around her, making it impossible for Hannah to walk down the street. His half-brother Deacon did the same, until she was the swirling center of snorting horse flesh and half-drunk youths.
“Please, let me pass!” she implored as her frustration grew.
“No, missus, not this time. I got my orders,” Eldon flashed her a snarling grin.
“Orders?” she stared up at their circling forms, looking for a way out without risking life and limb.
“You’re coming with us, fancy ma’am. Mr. Cain wants to see you.”
She looked at him, alarmed. “Why would he want to see me?” Again, she circled in place as she stared into Eldon Tremaine’s face. He’d been the one to approach her in Somersby’s store, and a fresh stab of feral energy brought back the memory of that lewd assault.
“Aw now, lemme give you three guesses, and the first two don’t count.” His sassy voice cut her cruelly.
“I have no idea where my brother is.”
“See, you did know. Didn’t ya, ma’am? You’re a real smart one.”
“I can’t go with you. If I turn up missing, my husband will be after you.”
“Oh, little lady, this’ll take no time a’tall. You jus hop on this horse with me and we’ll be at Mr. Cain’s camp in no time.”
Before Hannah could find a means to escape, Eldon’s large hand swooped down and gathered her body upward into his. He
tossed her into the saddle in front of him, so she was straddling the horse with her skirt straining on either side rising high on her legs. He obviously didn’t care.
She tried with all her might to shake herself from his grasp, but Eldon was not just big, he was strong as an ox. Despite the way her hotly beating heart pressed forward with her struggle, her attempts to free herself were useless.
“Hey, ma’am, you best be behavin. If you get all uppity, Mr. Cain may just take a strap to your pretty ass.”
“He wouldn’t dare!”
“Oh? Well, then why don’t you just test him? He’s always had a hankering for soft, pretty flesh like yours.”
“My husband will come for him if he lays a hand on me!”
“Will he now?” With that, Eldon kicked his heels into the sides of the horse, and they went racing off toward the woods with Deacon close behind.
It was no more than a ten minute ride to the camp by the river where Jarrett Cain was resting his horse and partaking of a noonday meal.
“Whad I tell you, huh?” Eldon said as he handily deposited his bounty in front of a man not quite as big, but certainly as startling as Eldon Tremaine. “Found her this time, boss—and boy, she is a feisty one!”
Jarrett Cain raised fear in every soul around the county, a reputation he’d earned from the power he wielded. Power to extract prices few men could afford to pay, though they didn’t dare not. It wasn’t clear what gave him such influence, but he’d held the gamblers, the losers and the poor with a steel-fisted grip. At the same time he smiled like a gentleman, like some fine East Coast philanthropist granting favors, not the black-hearted rogue that he truly was.
A staggering sight greeted Hannah when her eyes finally rested on the infamous swindler. She’d never seen the man before and expected a bullish, ugly brute with a scraggly beard, bad breath and dirty clothes. She found instead, a well-dressed man of no more than forty-five years, who eyes were sharp and his smile so well-managed that it looked genuine. He had an earthy demeanor, though a well-crafted one, dark trimmed hair; his beard and mustache as neatly cared for. And though he could hardly be called a handsome man, his polish and style made him a man that, like her husband, could brew some curious feeling in her womanly emotions. She hated that fact and immediately squelched the unwanted response.
“I’d have never guessed Beau Noble would have such a comely sister,” the man said with more charm than such a man should possess. He looked toward the Tremaine boys. “How about you water your horses. I’d like to speak to Mrs. Crowe in private, then you can take her back. Our meeting will be short.” He turned back to Hannah, his smile still gracious and appealing.
“If you’ll sit, please,” he motioned to a nearby rock. “Sorry about the accommodations. I could have entertained you more grandly in my parlor at the ranch, but then you would have been absent from your life longer than would have suited either of our purposes. Hmmm? Since I was passing near town, I thought it might be time to have a word with you regarding your brother.”
Hannah was surprised by how well spoken he was; again nothing like her expectations of the man. But despite his congenial manners and fine speech, she elected to remain on her feet.
“My brother’s business is not mine—” she struggled for the right word to call him. She didn’t respect him enough to call him, Sir. “My husband will not be pleased when he hears of this … this kidnapping.”
“Oh, ma’am, it’s not kidnapping. I have no intention of hurting you. You’ll be back at your farm in no time, no harm done. And no need to mention this to your husband. I doubt he’d take kindly to you interceding on behalf of your brother.”
She protested, “But I’m not interceding.”
“Oh, but you are, in your own way. You’ll understand that soon enough.” His mood took on a sly aspect, his eyes narrowed and his voice changed enough in tone to give her chills. “Your brother owes me a good deal of money—I think we’re all well aware of that. I earned it fair and square and I will collect—one way or another.” He looked for her response and continued. “There are choices you should be aware of should your brother surface. You’ll want to relay them to him. As importantly, let him know that my patience is wearing thin.”
