"Look at us, just one big, happy family," said Skeenan. He twisted the barrel of his gun against Andy's temple, and the boy's slight, almost muffled whimper set Slim's blood to boiling. "Guess we'll have to go see Sheriff Corey some other time. Too bad – I was lookin' forward to a trip to town."

"Let Andy go, he's not a part of this," said Slim fiercely, but the man only smiled.

"Oh, Boss Man, you have no idea just how much a part of this he is." He gestured with his gun. "Now, if you don't mind, I'll be tyin' you both up. Hold it!" he snapped as the two ranchers started to move. "Andy, tell 'em who gets the chair and who gets the ground."

For a minute, all eyes were drawn toward the boy, who looked about as confused as Slim felt. "Why? There's plenty of chairs."

Almost before he finished his sentence, the man clouted him across the head with the hilt of the gun, then lifted the barrel to point directly at Slim's chest as he and Jess lurched in Skeenan's direction.

"Careful, boys," he said, and his voice was all calm malice. "We wouldn't want poor Andy here to have to scrub his brother's blood off the floor, would we?" He squeezed his arm around Andy's neck. "Now, instead of questioning my orders, how about you follow them like a good little boy? One on the floor, one on the chair. Choose."

Other than a little trickle of blood threading his hair and a wince of pain, Andy seemed to be all right. His eyes flickered between his brother and his best friend. "Slim gets the chair," he muttered, and Skeenan smiled broadly.

"See, that wasn't so hard now, was it? Take a seat, Boss Man." He smiled at Jess. "Looks like you get the floor. Too bad for you." He nudged Andy's head in a move that would have looked affectionate without the gun. "Guess we know who Andy here likes better. I have to admit, I wasn't sure of the answer myself."

Slowly, torn between going along with the criminal to keep Andy safe and ripping into him with his bare hands, Slim moved toward the chair. "Don't pay him any attention, Andy," he said. "He's just trying to get in your head."

"I was hoping I'd get the floor, anyways," said Jess. If looks could kill, the glare he was sending in Skeenan's direction would have blasted him to pieces. "I figure it makes it easier to get outta the ropes you're gonna use on us."

"Speaking of…" The man slid his hand off Andy's neck and over to his shoulder, nudging him toward the rope Slim had dropped to the floor. "Andy, why don't you do the honors?"

"Seems like kind of an extreme way to say you don't like working here," said Slim as his brother, shaking a little, picked up the ropes and moved toward him. "Unless you've been planning this for a while."

"Sherman, I've been planning this since before I stepped on the stage with your partner." Skeenan balanced a foot on a chair and leaned his arm on his knee, the barrel of his gun never wavering from Andy. As the boy moved behind his brother and started tying a knot, Skeenan said, "Make those ropes good and tight, and nobody gets hurt. I've got both of you in my sights, and I gotta admit, I'm curious to see if I can kill two Shermans with one bullet."

Slim could feel his little brother's hands shaking against his own, and a brotherly surge of protection and fury blossomed in his heart. But any rash action now could be deadly. Instead, he used the fact that his hands were twisted behind his back and between the spokes of the chair to squeeze Andy's fingers. "Just do what he says, Andy. It'll be all right."

"Yeah, listen to big brother there," snarled Skeenan. "Play it safe, hidin' behind caution and the law. Isn't that right, Slim?"

Slim didn't answer him, just gave Andy's hand one last squeeze and let him finish tying the ropes. As his brother moved on to Jess, Slim tugged at the bonds experimentally. They wouldn't be cutting off the blood to his hands, but they were tight enough to do their job. He was disappointed, but not surprised. Andy had been so shaken while tying him up that Slim was just glad he could still feel his fingers. Besides, Andy was still free, and relatively safe. That was the important thing. Now if they could figure out what Skeenan wanted and get him out of here…

"Funny to hear about playing it safe from a man threatenin' a kid to get what he wants." Slim shot Jess a warning glare, but the hothead either didn't see it or didn't care. "If you had any guts yourself, you'd put that gun away and face me man-to-man."

"You wanna keep your own guts, you might wanna watch that mouth of yours," snapped Skeenan. He paused a moment to watch Andy tie the ropes. "You two are quite a pair, aren't you? One of you too chicken to come out from behind the skirts of the law, the other too stupid and reckless to stay out of a fight that'll get him killed." He grinned. "You know, Andy, I might be doing you a favor by shootin' 'em both right now."

"You can't!" cried Andy, and every man in the room could hear the pure fear in his voice. "They're all tied up now, they ain't gonna cause any trouble. You don't have to shoot 'em."

The man cocked his head at Andy's words. "Why, sure, Andy. I was just foolin' with ya." He waved his gun at one of the chairs at the dining room table. "Why don't you have a seat?"

Andy settled nervously in an empty chair. "What are you gonna do?"

"Why, I'm just checking to make sure you done your job good and proper. Now, you sit there like a good boy, and don't make any sudden moves. Remember, I can draw faster than you can run." Warning issued, he holstered his gun, stepped behind Slim, and fingered the knots. "Not bad." As he crossed the room, he tousled Andy's hair in a gesture of brotherly affection that made Jess snarl and Slim tug uselessly at his ropes. "You might make it out of this in one piece, after all." He grabbed the shoulder of Jess's shirt and hauled him away from the wall. After studying the ropes for a second longer than he should have, he bent down and tugged at them.

Shaking his head and sighing, he crouched down behind Jess and tugged something out of his pocket. "Andy, what did I tell you about the ropes? Good and tight, and nobody gets hurt." With surprising speed, he jerked Jess away from the wall and tossed him to the ground.

But Jess Harper never did go down easy, and he flipped back over, lunging with his feet and catching Skeenan in the side. Skeenan went down, Jess twisted to kick him again, and Andy leapt over to Slim, pulling desperately at the knots.

In the next second, Skeenan was up, gun pulled and shoved into Jess's stomach. "One more move," he shouted, voice red and vicious with anger, "and I shoot Jess in the belly, and we all get to watch him die slow."

Everything stilled. A glance at Jess's burning eyes told Slim his partner might rather have a bullet to the belly than keep on going along with Skeenan, but there was no way Slim – or Andy, for that matter – was going to let that happen. With a sigh so soft Slim was the only one who could hear it, Andy stepped away and slumped back onto the bench.

"Now," said Skeekan, hair askew, eyes a little too bright, "let's try that again." He flipped Jess on his stomach and dug his knee into the man's back, eliciting a grunt from Jess and a wince of sympathy from Slim.

The wince grew as Slim was finally able to see that Skeenan had pulled a small ball of twine from his pocket, and realized what the man had planned.

"You can't do it, Skeenan," he said, trying to stay calm, trying not to sound desperate. At the sound of his voice, Jess tried to twist his head, but Skeenan's knee only dug deeper into his spine. "You could cripple him for life. It's practically a death sentence."

"Believe me, I wish I didn't have to," said the man in mock regret as he twisted the twine around Jess's wrists tightly enough that the former gunfighter grunted in pain. "But how else is Andy going to learn? Really, this is on you, Slim – you should've taught Little Brother to be a bit more obedient."

"You're cutting off the blood from his hands," said Andy slowly, disbelievingly. "Just because I didn't tie the ropes tightly enough."

"It's not your fault, Andy," said Slim quickly, while Skeenan retied the rest of the ropes Andy had apparently neglected.

The man snorted. "Say it all you want, but that twine wouldn't be crippling your friend's hands as we speak if Andy here had done his job proper." He looked straight into the boy's eyes. "Remember that."

He finished with Jess' hands, shoved him back against the wall, and stood. For a moment, he just looked around, a king surveying his subjects. Studying Slim, bound to a chair with no way out, and Jess, breathing heavy from the struggle and wincing against the pain in his hands. Then Skeenan sat down.

Right next to Andy.

XXX

"Well, now that we're all comfy, I think we oughta talk out the rules, don't you, Andy?" He wrapped an arm possessively around the boy's shoulders, grip only tightening as Andy tried to squirm away.

"Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" snapped Jess while Slim lurched helplessly against his bonds, but the man only laughed.

"See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Only lucky for you, the only people who really matter here are the ones that aren't trussed up like…what was it? A Christmas turkey?" His arm tightened. "And that's me and Andy."

"Me?" asked Andy nervously. "What do you want with me?"

The man laughed. "Andy, I'm gonna give you what you always wanted. You're in charge."

Dread, already dripping through Slim, started pouring out in a flood, and his worry for his little brother ratcheted up a dozen notches. Three sets of eyes stared at Skeenan in bafflement and concern until Slim finally asked suspiciously, "He's in charge of what?"

The man turned his feral smile on Slim. "In charge of you. And Jess over there. For everything that comes up, Andy's gonna choose between the two of you."

Skeenan's words dropped like a rock through Slim's stomach. He was going to pit them against each other, and he was going to force Andy right in the middle of it. Slim hadn't thought his hatred of Skeenan could burn any hotter. He'd been wrong.

Jess's frown deepened. "That don't make a prairie dog's lick of sense. Talk straight, mister."

"I kinda figured you'd be a little confused, startin' off. Let me give you an example." He turned to Andy and clapped his hands on the boy's shoulders, looking for all the world like a benevolent uncle about to bestow a gift. "Andy, who do you wanna blindfold?"

Andy stared up at him blankly. "What?"

"Don't play along, Andy," said Slim, dread and fury warring in his gut. "He's just trying to get in your head."

Skeenan glared across the room at Sim, who glared right back. "I don't think I gotta remind you what happens when you don't listen to me, Andy." A glance at Jess. "How are your hands feeling over there?"

"Fine," answered Jess stiffly. "Though I got no complaints if you wanna take the rope off."

Skeenan snorted, "No, I guess you don't." He returned his attention to Andy. "You already seen what'll happen if you don't follow orders. And I gotta admit, I'd be kinda pleased to do some harm to Big Brother over there. But first I'm gonna give you one more chance to choose: who gets the blindfold?"

Slim met Jess' eyes for only a second before his partner dropped his gaze to the ground. It didn't matter; Slim didn't have to see his eyes to know what his partner was thinking. Jess would take a bullet for him, walk through hot coals, face a whole gang of thieves and robbers by himself, but being blindfolded along with being tied up would be too much for the former gunfighter. Jess relied on his senses to keep him alive; losing the use of his eyes would be almost as bad as losing the use of his hands.

But Andy knew that about him, knew that Jess needed to see what was going on the same as he needed to breathe. And Slim was sure it was that knowledge, along with the slight nod Slim sent his way, that prompted Andy to finally mutter, "Slim."

Skeenan smiled broadly. "Excellent choice. I gotta admit, I was hoping you would pick the boss." With great ceremony, and ignoring the icy, glaring daggers the two men were sending his way, he pulled a bandanna from his pocket with a flourish and wrapped it around Slim's eyes.

"It won't matter, you know," said Slim as darkness settled around him. "You can't get away with keeping us tied up indefinitely. As soon as the first stage comes in, you're through. You and your sick games."

"And that mighta been a problem for a man who just drifted in a day or two ago," Skeenan agreed pleasantly. "But no one'll think twice about a familiar face taking care of the place while his bosses go off on a little hunting trip. Besides, it's been a couple of weeks, and I think I've made a pretty good impression on the locals."

Slim's jaw tightened, and he had no doubt that Jess's was doing the same. Frustration surged. He was right. Mr. Sellers had become a familiar face in town and around the ranch; no one would question his taking over the stage for two or three days.

Which was a pretty good indication of exactly how long he planned on keeping them alive.