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“Like what?”
She heard his booted feet hitting the floor as he stepped further into the room and looked over at him. Moonlight lit him, casting his face in shadows, hiding features she’d have to find with touch alone.
He brushed his thumb over her lip. “If you don’t stop looking at me like that, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of me tonight.”
“Who says I want to?”
He glanced at the bed. “Think that tiny thing will hold us both?”
“It might be a tight fit but I think we could manage.” Betsey reached for the buttons on his shirt, unhooking them before pushing the material away and running her hands over his chest. She leaned forward, kissed the spot where his heart lay and lifted her head to kiss the soft skin on his throat. “Will your ma worry if you don’t come home?”
“She’ll not even know until I don’t come in for breakfast andeven then, she might just assume I’d saddled my horse and came over here.”
Betsey worked her way up the side of his neck, placing small kisses against his skin. “Then I guess I can finally fall asleep with you in my bed.”
“You’ll not be sleeping for a long while yet.” Aaron reached for the buttons on her dress, unhooking three of them when something banged on the front porch. They both froze. “I guess you were right. Sounds as if Ben’s already drunk.”
“Sounds like.” She smiled and grabbed the front of her dress, unhooking the next button. “Go help him in and get him to bed so he doesn’t wake up Samuel. I’ll be waiting under the covers for you when you get back.”
Aaron grinned and said, “Yes, ma’am,” before turning on his heel and heading back to the main room.
Betsey finished unbuttoning her dress, pulling it off her shoulders and letting it slide to the floor. She stepped out of it and bent, picking it up when she heard the front door open, then Aaron’s voice as he said, “Who are you?” In the next instant, the front door slammed against the wall and the sound of fist on flesh filled the house moments before Aaron tried shouting her name, the word cut off before he even finished it.
Betsey ran for the bedroom door and out into the main room, gasping and sliding on her stockinged feet as she saw two strange men, one of which had an arm around Aaron’s neck, the other, still standing in the wide open door holding a pistol aimed at Aaron’s head.
All three of them looked her way, Aaron jerking in the unknown man’s grasp before he shouted, “Go, Betsey, get out of here.”
The man holding the gun turned on one heel, that pistol now aimed at her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Betsey looked at Aaron, his face blood red as the man behindhim was now all but choking the life out of him. “Who are you? What do you want?” Samuel started screaming in the next instant. “We don’t have any money.”
The man holding the gun turned back to Aaron. “You Aaron?” He laughed, the man holding Aaron grinning. “Well, looks like the boss will be handing over that fat bonus we was promised after all.”
The man holding Aaron was three times Aaron’s size and a good head taller. His dark hair was long and hanging to his shoulders, a full beard covering most of his face. The man with the gun wasn’t as bulky as the other fellow was but he was still built impressively. His blonde hair was cut short and he was missing the top part of his left ear.
“All we have is a few animals out back.” Betsey looked at each of them in turn. “Take them, just—let him go.”
“Oh, I’m afraid we can’t do that,” the blonde said. “Boss gave us strict instructions and we mean to carry them out.”
“Who is your boss? What do you want?”
The blonde grinned. “Why, we were sent for you darlin’. Harrison McBride always gets what he wants and what he wants is you.”
Aaron started struggling in the other man’s grip. “Don’t you touch her.”
The two men shared a look, twin grins covering both their faces before the blonde said, “Oh, I’m going to touch her all right. I’m going to touch her until she’s begging me not to stop.”
Betsey glanced at Aaron. He cut his eyes to the left, back in the direction of the bedrooms and she turned and ran for her room, slamming the door shut behind her. She fumbled with the piece of wood nailed beside it, trying to get it to turn and stop the door from opening and nearly had it when something slammed into the door. She lost her balance and fell backward, hitting the end of the bed as the door was shoved open to slam against thewall. The blonde stood framed in the doorway, the same cruel smile on his face.
Samuel was still screaming. Betsey looked at the cradle when the blonde did, then jumped off the bed and ran for Samuel. She was reaching in for him when the man grabbed her, lifted her off the floor, his arm around her waist crushing. She screamed, kicked and clawed at his arms, digging her nails into his skin as she struggled to get loose.
The next several minutes were filled with nothing but noise, the roaring so loud Betsey’s ears were ringing. Her screams were joined by Samuel’s, the man at her back yelling as she tore bloody paths down his arm with her fingernails. Aaron was yelling her name from the other room, the man in there with him screaming words she couldn’t make out moments before something crashed to the floor, the sound of breaking glass and things falling muffled as she heard someone running across the room—then, a gunshot.
For a single moment, everything came to a stop. Betsey ceased struggling, the man behind her loosened his grip, Samuel stopped crying and the noise from the other room came to an abrupt stop—until something slammed into the floor.
“That bonus is mine now, Calvin!”
The man behind her stiffened, his hold once again tightening. “You’ll be sharing it or so help me, Harvey, I’ll slit your throat while you sleep.”
