When I finally come to again, it's to the sound of the woods. The gentle birdsong and rustling of leaves in the breeze bring me peace, making me feel like everything had just been a dream.
My dream is rudely interrupted by the sound of a voice. A voice that has me sit up so quickly that I hit my head against the bars of the cage I seem to find myself in. I let out a grunt of pain and annoyance at the situation. Yes. I am currently held in a cage like a common animal.
I see the most animalistic human being that I had ever had the displeasure of interacting with abandon his conversation with another man and start to walk in my direction. I remember Jeremy's warnings about Bobo and it takes a lot of effort to push down the slight fear that creeps up my spine. I couldn't let him see that I was even slightly afraid. I wasn't. He was just a man in a coat and I was an Earp.
With these thoughts, I raise my head to meet my captor's gaze fully. Bobo walks toward me lazily, like a housecat would towards a bird it had just downed. He smiles at me almost hungrily, and his teeth glint in the late afternoon sun. It seems to have been at least three hours since they had taken me from the burnt remains of the Valdez home. I wonder where Jeremy is? Did he manage to find the dentist? Was he all right?
Bobo interrupts my thoughts again by opening his mouth. "Well, well. It would seem the little darling has finally decided to join us. I do hope you don't find your accommodations too lacking?" His eyes mock me with every word. I bare my teeth at him. "What the hell do you want with me, Bobo?"
He lets out something resembling a laugh. "It is less about you and more about your sister." What?! He knows Wynonna? How does he even know she is my sister? He must see the confusion across my face, because he explains. "A little birdy told me you were asking for information about Wynonna Earp." I'd bet good coin the "little birdy" was that damn bartender. I grit my teeth; it was no use denying it.
"What does Wynonna have to do with anything?" I ask, crossing my arms across my chest in a show of defiance. Bobo moves closer to my cage, running a finger along one of the bars as he speaks.
"Your sister stole something very important to me." He taps his finger against the bar at the end of his sentence, to my great annoyance. Who gave this woodpecker the right to treat other people like they are his property? Screw that.
I start thinking of a witty retort, but he beats me to it. Bobo's eyes go a shade darker before he speaks, the next words that leave his mouth has my blood turn to ice in my veins.
"I want back what she owes me, along with her life as repayment." He wants…he wants to kill Wynonna? What could she possibly have done to warrant that? I cannot stop the fear that flashes across my features this time. Bobo seems to revel at finally drawing this emotion from me, grinning darkly in victory.
"What did she do? Why do you want her…dead." I fight the urge to throw up at saying the last word. Bobo smirks and turns to move away from my cage. "It is none of your concern." I move forward, grasping the bars. "Then why have you captured me?" I ask and am unable to hide the desperation in my voice. Bobo whips around again and I am taken aback by the malice in his dark eyes.
"You are going to bring Wynonna to me. You are bait that she would never be able to ignore." My hands tremble as I listen to his words. Bobo wants to use me as bait…to lure Wynonna…so he can kill her.
I am brought from the turmoil in my head by a third man entering the campsite. The balding man walks over to Bobo hurriedly. "Boss, the Countess wants to see you urgently. It's about the money still owed by the Grey family." Bobo looks up at the intruder with major annoyance and gets up from his crouched position in front of my cage.
"Well, little darling. It seems I have other matters to attend to. Don't be distraught, I will be leaving you in very good company." I scoff as he turns to the man who had brought him the message.
"Red, you and Hardy stay and watch our guest. Make sure she is comfortable." The way he says this and the way the two men are smiling hungrily at me lets me believe that he means the complete opposite of comfortable. I try my best to hide all signs of the fear coursing through my veins.
Bobo takes one last look in my direction before he moves towards his horse, mounts it and trots off into the green thicket.
The man, Red, walks over to my cage and gives me a once over. He smiles, showing his sharply filed teeth. I mean, who even does that?
"Can I help you?" I say, my voice dripping with contempt. He grins even wider and licks his lips, as if I was a piece of steak he was about to consume.
"Well, aren't you a little spitfire. We will have quite some fun with you." Then he walks over to the other man, the one I saw Bobo first speaking to when I woke up. He must be Hardy. Red pushes Hardy's feet from where it is propped up on an overturned crate. "Hey! What did ya do that for?!" A disgruntled Hardy exclaims.
Red just ignores him as he takes the crate, moves it near a tree and takes a seat. Then he takes out a knife and starts carving at an apple. Hardy grumbles underneath his breath, clearly annoyed at being disturbed from his comfortable position.
He then picks up a hand mirror from a table next to him and looks at himself, running his hand though his hair. Then he looks over at me with a wink. "Like what you see?" He says, causing me to scoff. Arrogant self-obsessed asshole.
Deciding I have had enough of them for a lifetime, I sit back against the bars. I had no idea how I was going to get out of this…but I had to figure something out. My stomach growls. I was hungry. I last ate this morning, before I headed out on my last stretch of journey through the woods to reach Monument. The energy from the pigeon I had snared has long since dissipated.
I look longingly at the apple in Red's hand and briefly consider begging him for a piece. But, remembering I am an Earp, I push the thought away. I'd rather go hungry then ask this scum for anything. They would probably just use it to torture me. So I just let out a resigned sigh and rest my head against the bars of my cage. Might as well catch a few moments of sleep.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
The sound of a bark wakes me. Was that a dog? I peer into the darkness ahead of me, but the little light provided by the remaining fire makes it difficult to see anything besides the shape of my two guards.
It goes quiet again, the only sounds being that of the cicadas and frogs singing their mating calls. Oh, and the snoring. I roll my eyes at Red who lets out another obnoxious gurgling sound from his prone position against the tree. The bark must have been my imagination.
I look over at Hardy, seeing him once again holding his damn mirror, trying to get the light from the fire to shine on it so he can gaze upon himself again. His narcissism makes me feel like throwing up, besides the emptiness in my stomach.
I am about to close my eyes once more, when I hear it again. This time I am certain it is a bark. Hardy also seems to have heard it and sits up, staring into the woods. For a few seconds we hear nothing. But then, all of a sudden, a dark blur moves from a bush near Hardy.
The blur jumps up, grabbing the mirror from his hands and runs back into the underbrush. Hardy jumps to move after it. "Hey! Get back here!" The shouting rouses Red from his sleeping position against the tree. "What's going on?" He says, clearly annoyed. Hardy turns back to Red from his position at the edge of the woods. "It's that damn dog again! Bobo said next time we gotta kill it."
"All right, let's get after it then!" Red says as he and Hardy move off in the direction the dog had went, leaving me completely alone.
Then something rustles in the bush next to my cage, startling me. Was the dog coming for me now? I am quickly proven wrong when the figure of a human, not a dog, pops out of the bush. I let out a scream of surprise, but the figure quickly stops me with "Shhh! Be quiet, I am getting you out of here."
The figure's voice sounds oddly familiar, and I know I've seen that green tunic and tight brown leather pants before. "Nicole?" I ask with complete surprise in my voice.
The figure removes the hood from her face and the mask across her mouth, confirming my suspicions. Nicole smiles at me. "Yep. We meet again, milady. Seems you cannot seem to get away from me. Was my offer of dinner too much to resist?" She says with a smirk and my surprise immediately switches to annoyance.
"Hah! You wish." I say with a scoff, folding my arms across my chest.
"Hey now, that's no way to speak to your saviour." I drop my hands from my chest and grab the cage, growling at her. "I don't need any saving!" At this Nicole frowns and then shrugs. "Kinda looks like ya do, princess." She says and I want to punch that smirk from her face so badly.
"Don't call me that! My name is Waverly." She looks at me with a glint of victory in those warm, brown eyes. "Mmm, Waverly." She seems to roll my name around on her tongue, pondering it. "That's a real pretty name." She finally says with a smile that make her dimples appear. I cannot help the lurch in my stomach at their appearance.
I am about to respond when the sound of voices coming from the woods interrupts me. Nicole must see my panic, because she removes something which looks like a lock pick from a pocket somewhere in her pants. She holds it in front of me. "Look, do you want my help you or not?" Realizing she was, in actual fact, my only chance out of here, I nod begrudgingly at her in defeat. Nicole smiles in victory and starts picking at the lock.
The voices come closer and I look down at Nicole in panic. "Will you hurry up! They are coming back." Nicole looks up at me with annoyance in her eyes. "I am going as fast as I can!" She then continues her task, her tongue peeking out of her mouth adorably. Er no. Annoyingly. That's what I meant. Definitely NOT adorably.
Just as I see Red enter the campsite again, I hear the click of the lock to my cage. Nicole yanks the door open just as Red notices us. "Hey!" He shouts as he runs towards us, Hardy right behind him. Nicole grabs my hand and pulls me from the cage as she runs rapidly in the direction of the woods.
Just as we are about to reach the edge of the clearing, I spot the knife Red had used to carve his apple earlier. It was my father's dagger and I couldn't leave it. I pull on Nicole's hand to get her to slow down. She looks back at me with a questioning frown, Red and Hardy hard on our heels.
"That's my father's dagger!" I say and Nicole's eyes seem to soften. She gives a small nod and then raises her hand to whistle.
All of a sudden, a dog, which I now know is Jack, jumps from the underbrush. He heads straight for Red and Hardy, causing the former to trip and the latter to look on in complete surprise.
The moment of distraction is all I need as I dart towards the crate where Red had left the dagger, picking it up and something compels me to grab Nicole's hand again.
We hear the sounds of a recovered Hardy moving rapidly towards us from behind. This time we don't dare stop, but run as fast as our feet can carry us.
In our rush to escape I do not notice the tree root sticking out in front of me in the path. My foot hooks onto it, causing me to trip. I feel a searing pain shoot through my ankle. I am pretty sure I had twisted it. They were surely going to catch…I am brought from my thoughts by strong arms moving behind my knees and back. Nicole lifts me from the ground like I weighed nothing and continues to run.
I can hear the rapid footfalls from behind us start to fade away as I am surrounded by the smell of vanilla beans and earth, carrying me swiftly into the unknown.