A deluge of cold water slapped Slim back into consciousness. "Jess!" he snarled. They'd talked about this. Now, not only was he soaked and in a foul temper, he was also going to have to pull the straw tick out of the mattress to dry. He took a swipe at Jess, only to realize that he couldn't move his hands.

Come to think of it, he couldn't move his feet, either. And when he opened his eyes, he could see the supposed perpetrator sitting on the floor across from him, also tied up and scowling.

Oh. Oh, right. They were prisoners.

He shook his head to clear it of the dizziness and the water, then twisted around from his position on the floor to look for Andy. He breathed a sigh of relief to see him sitting in a corner, looking scared and tired but basically unharmed.

"Guess what, Sherman?" said a voice, and Slim frowned. Skeenan. He'd almost forgotten. "You've got company."

Slim finally took the time to look around at the rest of the people in his house. There was Skeenan, of course, grinning that loathsome grin and holding Slim's rifle, but he had been joined by five other friends, and suddenly Slim remembered the ambush in the barn.

He winced as the memory brought back the sensation of pain that had been mercifully absent until now, the echo of pounding fists and pointed boots. Looking around, though, he couldn't really fault himself for losing to these men. Five to one was bad odds, even if they'd taken him head-on, and each one of them looked like a killer, fierce and desperate. They also, oddly, looked familiar. At least, the short one did, the one with the scar.

Slim glanced at Jess, who shrugged and grimaced. Slim knew exactly how he was feeling. They were having a hard enough time with just one; taking on all six was going to be next to impossible.

"This is all that's left of my crew," explained Skeenan. "Charlie, Burt, and Mingo. Ted and Pinky are new, but they don't have much fondness for you, either, seeing as how their brothers are serving time on your say-so. Each one of us lost friends or family in your private little war. So as you can imagine, none of us are terribly fond of you."

That explained it. At Skeenan's words, Slim was reminded of his time in Medicine Bow, and the vague familiarity of the men around him made sense. He must have seen them, at one time or another, while the whole awful business was going down.

Slim returned his attention to Skeenan. "The feeling's mutual."

Charlie dropped and snaked a hand around Slim's throat, forcing out a choked gag. "Y'know, Bill, I think I'm startin' to understand your feelings."

Surprisingly, it was Skeenan who pushed the man back. "Nobody kills Sherman but me." He glanced into the corner. "Or possibly his kid brother there. Which doesn't matter, because we need him."

Slim coughed through the new swelling in his throat. "Need me for what?" He caught the way the men's eyes shifted from Slim to Skeenan to Andy, and Slim was suddenly deeply uneasy.

Skeenan sighed. "We're headed for Canada."

Slim's eyebrows lifted, and hope sprang desperately into his chest. He glanced at Jess, who looked just as surprised as he felt.

"Can't wait," said Jess. "I hear it's nice this time of year."

"Sorry to disappoint," said Skeenan, "But when I say "we," I'm meaning your pard here. And his younger brother." His smile at Jess was pure venom. "You ain't invited."

"Well, that just cuts me to the quick."

"What makes you think we'll go along with you?" Slim tried to keep a tight rein on the hope that was surging in him. After all, Skeenan had proven more than once that he didn't have an ounce of mercy in him. But if Slim was with Andy, he could protect him, and they'd have a better chance getting away outdoors on horseback than tied to the chairs. And Jess was resourceful; even with a guard or two, there was a good chance he could get away, get help in Laramie.

Skeenan looked surprised. "Why, I figured you'd wanna look out for your little brother, you two bein' so close and all. Course, I can understand if the past few days have changed your mind on that front – ain't easy to see your own brother turn against you, is it?" He smiled wolfishly at Andy, who only glared back. "But if Andy's health ain't enough to turn your mind, maybe your partner's health is."

A quick glance in Jess's direction proved that Jess, unsurprisingly, looked angry. It had been his default mood since this whole thing began. "Meaning what?"

Skeenan took a step back and nudged Jess with his toe, unperturbed by the fact that Jess looked like he wanted to bite through the boot. "I mean, while you and Andy are leading us to Canada, your partner is going to be here, comfortably tied up."

Confusion etched a path between Slim and Jess's glance. "That's it?"

"That's it." Skeenan shrugged. "Of course, we won't be leaving him with any food or water, and we'll be putting him someplace that people aren't likely to find, so if you ain't back in three or four days, he'll die of thirst."

Slim gritted his teeth, and this time, he couldn't look at Jess. Death by dehydration was a common way to go, out here in the middle of Wyoming, but it wasn't pretty. Slim wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy.

And Jess was far from his enemy.

"From the minute we leave, you've got about two days before you'll have to turn back. You get us as far as possible, don't raise a fuss, and we'll let you go. You'll make it back just in time to save your partner, and we'll be long gone."

Slim stared at him in rage and indignation, gritting his teeth. The prospect of leading a group of outlaws and their ill-gotten gains out of the country rubbed him nearly raw. And there was little reason to think these men would really let him go – he was far more likely to be shot in the back riding away.

"And if I don't?" asked Slim.

He suspected from the get-go that wasn't really an option, but even his faintest hopes were dashed as Charlie pulled out a Colt and held it up to Jess's head with an ease that said he'd done this before and didn't have any qualms about doing it again.

Breathing steady, trying not to show the rush of fear, anger, and frustration coursing through him, Slim looked at Skeenan. "I got one condition."

"What's that?"

"Andy stays here."

Skeenan laughed loudly. "You want him to die of thirst, too? You like the thought of him choking on his own throat?" The men around him cackled along. "Sorry, Sherman. He's too useful. He comes with us."

"Ain't I got any say in this?" snarled Jess from against the wall.

Charlie kicked him hard enough to knock him fully to the ground. "Unless your partner here starts doing everything in his power to keep you alive, you're gonna be dead in a week. Far as I'm concerned, that means you don't got a say in anything."

Slim watched Jess struggle to sit back up and tried not to imagine him gasping for moisture as dehydration slowly set in. He tried not to imagine himself at the head of this disreputable gang, leading them to safety. He tried not to imagine what they could do to Andy, what he might not be able to stop them from doing to Andy.

Things were not looking up.

XXX

Andy's hands were fists behind his back, and he longed for just enough freedom to take a swing at Skeenan. He knew it wouldn't do any good, but at this point, he didn't care. He could barely look at Slim, bruised and dripping blood, untied but held firmly between two outlaws, without wanting to tear something apart.

But Skeenan and his new friends were ignoring him, assuming, and very rightly so, that he was no threat. Instead, they were studying Jess, and Andy understood why. Of the three of them, Jess was the one they wanted to lock up, and Andy doubted Jess would make it easy.

"You want I should knock him out?" asked Charlie, rubbing fingertips against the butt of his Colt longingly. Andy felt his heart jump; no matter how thick Jess's skull was, there was always the chance of permanent damage. And he'd already sustained more than his share of what Andy hoped was not permanent damage.

Skeenan studied Jess carefully, with a caution that was not misplaced, in Andy's opinion. The younger man looked ready to spit nails and swallow fire without stopping for breath. But to Andy's surprise, Skeenan said, "Naw, I don't think so." He crouched down in front of Jess, careful to stay out of reach even with his captive tied up. "In fact, Jess here is going to walk out to the root cellar all on his own."

Andy snorted. He hadn't meant to, but that was funny. "I'd like to see that."

"Yeah, me too," said Jess, in a tone that indicated he had no intention of being a cooperative prisoner.

Skeenan let out an exaggerated sigh. "It's like you ain't been payin' attention to anything that's been goin' on here the past few days. You're gonna do exactly what I say, and you're gonna do it how and where and when I say it, and you're gonna do it because each and every one of my pals here has a grudge against your friend Sherman."

Andy glanced over to where Slim was held up. He looked to be doing all right, even though he was hunched a bit over his stomach, but he was certainly in no condition to take on six men who already hated him.

Slim, of course, had other ideas. "Don't go along with 'em, Jess," he said, and Andy could have cussed him out at that moment for being so dad-burned hardheaded – to borrow a phrase from Jess. In a thoughtful and well-considered reply to Slim's resistance , Charlie laid another hefty punch to Slim's gut, and Andy grimaced as his brother couldn't hold back a grunt of pain.

"Your move, Jess," said Skeenan. "But you should probably know that Burt here" – he nodded at the shortest man in the group, the one with the scar across his face, who made up for lack of size through hulking muscles and a ferocious demeanor – "packs a powerful grudge against your pard. His fiancée left him after her brother was hanged for rustlin', and he blames Sherman for that. And he's a bitter, bitter man."

Slim was mercifully, thankfully silent – perhaps sensing that his two cents would do little to no good – as Jess weighed his options. Andy could almost read the thoughts on his face. Six against three was bad odds. Worse when the three were pretty well secured. And worse still when the three were hurting.

Andy knew it was coming, but something still broke inside him when he saw Jess's face fall in submission, when his hero's chin dropped in a helpless half a nod. Andy couldn't see any possible way out, but he had been hoping on Jess – Jess, who had ridden into more scrapes than a jackrabbit in a pack of wolves, who had outsmarted, outfought, or at the very least out-toughened anyone who confronted him, who always insisted there was a way out even if you had to hoof it yourself. If Jess had given up…

"Good boy," said Skeenan mockingly, then rose and gestured to the littlest of the new bunch, a mousy man with a twitchy nose and the habit of gnawing his lip. "All right, Mingo, get the ropes off. Then you and Ted lead the way to the root cellar in front of Harper, and Charlie and I'll follow. We'll leave Pinky and Burt with the Shermans."

Andy expected Slim to react badly, to say something or do something stupid, but he was uncharacteristically silent. Andy worried he had broken a rib or something in the last scuffle, until he realized that Slim was mostly staring at Jess. And Jess was staring back.

So they weren't out of it yet. Andy felt a thrill as hope rekindled, even though he didn't have the slightest idea what Slim and Jess were trying to tell each other.

He didn't have to wait long to figure it out, though. Because almost as soon as Jess was free of the ropes and standing, he threw himself bodily at the nearest available criminal, who happened to be Skeenan.

At practically the same time, Slim jerked away from the grips of his inattentive guards and threw a clean punch that immediately knocked out the man on his left – Pinky, by Andy's best guess. In as much time as it took to draw breath, a full-fledged battle ensued.

Almost as quickly as it started, though, it was over, because Andy had been right in his earlier assessment – two hungry, tired, and hurting men and their little brother were no match for six men spoiling for a fight and looking to dole out punishment. Jess was unconscious within minutes, and Slim as good as. Andy tried not to get too queasy looking at their new collection of injuries, including Jess's split lip and the way Slim's arm wrapped tightly around his ribs.

"All right," said Skeenan, breathless, and Andy was immensely gratified to see that his mouth was bleeding heavily and his face was already starting to bruise. "All right. Get Harper out there, and get him tied up, real good. I don't want anyone comin' out and finding him on account of some noise. Ted, wake up Pinky and get the horses ready. We're riding out now. And Burt," he cast a ferocious, angry glare to the carpet and its current occupant, "you take care of Sherman."

The men ran off to follow Skeenan's orders, and Andy was almost sick to his stomach as Burt stepped over to his brother. "Leave him alone!" he shouted, but Burt didn't even look in his direction. Andy was helpless, and they both knew it.

"All right, let's git, Sherman," he growled, and he hauled Slim up by the collar of his shirt. Andy could see his brother trying to pull away, but it was obvious to everyone in the room that the tall rancher had enough on his plate with just trying to stay on his feet. He couldn't even straighten up, just stood hunched over, and Andy's ribs ached sympathetically.

But Burt clearly couldn't care less, and he shoved an unresisting Slim out the door, followed slowly by an unconscious Jess carried by his own guards. Too soon, it was just Andy and Skeenan, standing alone in the living room. Andy tried not to think about the blood on the bearskin rug, and the overturned furniture, and his family, hurt and bleeding and prisoners just outside the door.

Skeenan sat on the couch and studied Andy. Andy, burying his fear as deep down as it would go and doing his best to channel Jess, stared back with all the ferocity he could muster. Unexpectedly, Skeenan grinned and leaned back.

"I like you, Andy," he said conversationally, as if he had just ridden in on the stage and they were waiting for Slim and Jess to change the teams. "You're sharp, and you've got a backbone, but you know to go along 'til the wind changes. I can see you turning into one hell of a man, with the right kind of learning."

Andy swallowed and tried not to look nervous. He didn't much like where this was going. "So?"

"So this." Skeenan leaned forward. "We got your buddy in the root cellar, and your brother tied to a horse outside. It's hard to say how long it takes thirst to leave a mark on a body, but I'd guess Jess hasn't got more than three days. Four 'til he's dead."

"Yeah, you said that already," said Andy, trying to be brave, trying to be nonchalant, but his heart was thudding out a stampede. "What's your point?"

"My point, Andy, is that there's one more choice to make here." Skeenan's eyes drilled holes through Andy's skull. "After two days on the trail, we're gonna let a Sherman come back to save poor Jess." As the words registered with Andy, Skeenan emphasized, "One Sherman."

"And the other one stays with you. You and your gang," whispered Andy, horrified. Even in the middle of Skeenan's mind games, he had never really thought it would come down to this. He had always, always thought, even when it seemed like all hope was gone, that Slim or Jess would swoop through with a rescue. And if they didn't, at least they were going through everything together. Never once did Andy see this as the ending. The last time the little family would be together.

But Skeenan was already shaking his head. "Not quite, kid." He paused and let the moment drag out, clearly relishing the toll it was taking on Andy. "Most of us would like nothin' more than to see your big brother hanging from a cottonwood. If we let you go, I can't see much point in keeping him alive – after we've had some fun with him, that is."

Andy's stomach crushed into a ball at the words, but Skeenan continued as if talking about the weather. "You, on the other hand, I wouldn't mind keeping around – it might be good for both of us, replacing the brothers we lost. And I think you'd catch on mighty quick to life on the other side of the law, given half a chance."

Andy swallowed. "That's it, then. The last choice – either I come with you and you let Slim go, or you let me go and kill Slim."

"That's about the size of it." Skeenan rose, adjusting his hat. "Don't worry; you've got nearly two days to think about it. And then you get to choose."