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Harvey, the man in the other room laughed. “Let me have a poke at the girl first and I’ll let you take credit for shooting this bastard.”
Calvin, the man at her back yelled, “Deal,” a moment before he turned and dragged her out of the bedroom.
It took long moments for her brain to make sense of what she was seeing. The room was in shambles and Aaron was face down on the floor, his right shoulder and the back of his head stained red with blood. Alarm slammed into her chest as something tookhold of her body, crawling up from her belly to explode out of her mouth in a hysteria-filled scream so powerful it felt as if her head was going to pop as she stared down in horror at Aaron, his blood leaking into the floorboards.
Later, she’d struggle to comprehend what happened after that. Harvey, the man who’d shot Aaron ran to the door, his eyes wide when he turned back around and said something her brain didn’t process at the time. He ran for her room and came back out moments later with her dress and Samuel.
She was still screaming when they dragged her from the house, her last look at Aaron one of him not moving. The two men were shouting as they crawled onto their horse’s saddles, the one holding her dragging her up with him while the other man held Samuel, who was still screaming in protest, as the man fired his gun at something she couldn’t see.
Her struggles and constant screams were abruptly cut off when something suddenly slammed into the back of her head and the world went dark.
The pain registeredbefore the voices did. Aaron winced, his whole body locking tight as what felt like fire slammed into his back.
“He’s coming to.”
“Hold him down, don’t let him move.”
He struggled, the pain so intense he could do nothing but scream through it. The voices came and went, the pain easing before it once again became searing.
He was in and out of consciousness, the light in the room alternating from filled with sunlight to so pitch black he could see nothing but the faint outline of someone in a small cot by the wall.
The days seemed to bleed into one another until he couldfinally open his eyes and keep them open.
It took a few minutes for his eyes to focus enough to make out the person laying on the small cot. He blinked against the bright rays of sunlight streaming through the window until he could see it was Ben.
He scanned the room, turning his head in a slow arc. A curtain hung from one side of the room to the other, blocking his view of the front door but he’d seen the inside of this building enough over the years to know where he was. He was in Doc Reid’s office.
His mouth felt as if it was filled with dust and several attempts to swallow did nothing to ease the dryness in his mouth. He licked his lips and turned his head back to where Ben slept. It took saying Ben’s name three times before his friend stirred. When he looked over at him, his eyes widened moments before he jumped to his feet and yelled, “Evan, he’s awake!”
Commotion from the other side of the curtain drew his gaze in that direction as Dr. Evan Reid stepped behind the white sheet draped across the room. “Aaron, it’s about time you woke up. I was beginning to think I’d over medicated you.”
Aaron licked his lips. “Water.”
More commotion, followed by the sound of things being moved around filled the air as he laid there staring at the ceiling. Ben stepped into his line of sight, a glass held in one hand. “Here you go. Can you sit up?”
He nodded his head but soon found out that no, he couldn’t. Not without help. He winced as they helped him sit up enough to drink a few mouthfuls of water. His shoulder burned as if it was on fire by the time he laid back down.
Snatches of memories filled his head, screams and the sound of a gun going off confusing him until he turned and saw Ben again. Betsey. He panicked the moment he thought of her and tried to sit up again. “I’ve got to go.”
“Easy, Aaron.” Evan tried to ease him back down, pushing onhis left shoulder, the right once again aching to the point his entire arm hurt with it.
“Where’s Betsey and Samuel? Are they all right?”
Evan gave him another soft push back onto the table. “Lay back and try to calm down.” Evan looked at Ben. “Run get marshal Avery.”
Aaron reluctantly laid back down and stared up at the ceiling.
“Are you in any pain?” Was he? His shoulder ached and he was hungry enough to eat half a cow but the pain was nothing compared to thoughts of where Betsey and his son were. Did those bastards take them? He knew the answer the moment it popped into his head. Of course, they took them. It’s why they were there.
“Aaron?”
“My shoulder hurts a bit but only when I moved.”
Evan nodded. “The bullet was in pretty deep. It nicked your shoulder blade and took a bit of work to get it out.” He messed with the bandages, asked him more questions he didn’t want to answer but stopped poking on him when Morgan and Ben walked around the corner of the sheet.
“It’s good to see you awake, Aaron. I had Caleb run out and inform your folks. It took Noah two days to get your ma to leave so I suspect she’ll be here as fast as her horse will carry her.” Morgan glanced at Ben before turning his attention back to him. “The men who shot you, do you know who they were?”
“Yes.” Aaron clenched his jaw as their faces filled his mind’s eye. “They worked for Harrison McBride.”
