Hanes and Wildcat
Chapter Two
She could feel the pain pulse through her body as something touched her shoulder. She showed no sign of being awake as she heard footsteps move across the room. When the person came back she sprung.
She grabbed the man's neck as she drew and cocked her gun.
"Who are you?"
She growled
"I'm working on shoulder."
Great the man was oriental. Next thing he'd be doing would be acupuncture.
" Are you stupid or hard of hearing? Any idiot could figure out you were workin' on my arm."
She seemed to take the man by surprise. Cause he didn't say anything.
She rolled off the bed with her gun still trained on him. She reached for the window and slid it open.
Without a word she slid out the window and landed on her feet. Corse she wasn't on her feet for to long. She could feel the second bullet that had hit her in the side.
She collapsed onto the muddy ground and struggled to her feet. The pain was increasing by the second.
"That damn Wildcat."
She muttered under her breath.
Then she heard the oriental man call for a Mr. Cartwright.
"Great."
She pulled her legs up and struggled to her feet.
She took a deep breath and wobbled forward. She spotted what had to be the barn, and headed for it.
She made it half way to hear running foot steps coming from behind her. She threw her legs froward the best she could to get away from who was chasing her.
She decided that she couldn't out run them she turned and aimed her gun at them.
She cocked her gun and fired. Right between the Mexican's feet.
"Don't come any closer."
Both the Mexican and the dark haired guy stopped and raised their hands.
"Look we'll let ya leave. Hop Sing's just gotta look at yer shoulder."
The dark haired man said.
"Hop-a-who? Oh you mean the guy that was gonna kill me with that voodoo he was puttin' in my arm?"
She continued to hold her gun on them as she held her side with the other.
"I won't stay without a fight."
She could feel the blood start to ooze through her fingers.
"Well there won't be any fight , but yer gonna have to come into the house anyway."
She felt a rain drop land on her fore head.
"We'll just see 'bout that. Just try n' touch me."
She hadn't hear the foot steps behind her till it clicked.
"I'm not watchin' my back."
She thought, as everything went dark.
Little Joe watched his captor pace back and forth past the fire and back again.
"Well what are you lookin' at?"
He spat
Little Joe didn't answer.
He rubbed his wrists together against the scratchy rope that bound them together. The grimy black bandana tasted like a bad campfire in his mouth.
The man pulled out his gun and spun the cylinder, he made sure it was loaded and returned it to it's holster.
He sat cross legged on his bed roll and stirred the fire with a stick.
"So you gonna tell me 'bout yer family?"
When little Joe didn't respond he continued.
"Will they pay to get you back?"
Joe could hear the droplets of rain start to hit the brim of his hat.
The man looked up and continued.
"How 'bout people in town? Anyone there?"
Joe stared into the woods around them purposely avoiding eye contact.
The man was fed up. He stood with such force he made his horse shy. He grabbed little Joe by the collar and pulled him off the ground.
"Yer gonna tell me what I want to know or I'll be fillin' yer body with lead and leavin' it in several different states!"
He dropped Joe back to the ground and towered over him blocking the light from the fire. Little Joe stared back at him with fear in his eyes.
The man leaned over.
"You gonna tell me what I need to hear?"
Little Joe nodded.
The man pulled the dirty bandana from his mouth and sat down.
"Well?"
"My pa will hunt you down to get me back. He won't pay."
The man chuckled.
"You probably think yer pretty brave talkin' like that."
Joe's facial expression stayed cross.
"What makes you think he'll know were to look?"
Joe hadn't thought of that.
The man brought out a piece of paper and started to write.
"How much do you think yer worth to yer pa?"
He briefly looked up to glare at Joe.
"More than a murderer and or kidnapper like you'd ever posses."
He would have crossed his arms could he have.
The man stopped writing long enough to pull his slicker over his shoulders to get out of the rain that now fell more steadily across the camp.
HopSing was bent over the passed out woman applying this and that to the bullet wound. Ben's gaze caught sight of the tray that the buckshot that had been removed from the woman. There had been only two wounds yet HopSing had removed three pieces of full buckshot.
This woman had been through more gun play than just today. He had several questions to ask her when she came to and they could restrain her.
Her name? Why she was being shot at? Who had been shooting at her? Why was she in mens clothes? Why had she tried to kill HopSing and the boys?
He shook his head as he watched HopSing work.
He heard the door open and close.
"That would be Adam and Joe."
He thought as he stood and left the room. But only Adam stood in front of him.
"Well were's Joseph?"
Adam had his hat in his hand.
"Pa, Little Joe never showed up at the store. Ely said the last time they saw Little Joe was when he ran out after you."
Ben ran his fingers through his hair.
"Did you talk to anyone else in town that might have seen him?"
Adam nodded
"I talked to Shelby, she said that a man in black was talkin' to him after you hauled her away. Then she had to serve some drunk guy at the bar. Other wise nobody else saw him."