The Root of All Evil
This chapter borders the line between T & M for some graphic scenes and violent content.
Chapter 10
"You see," Stevenson stated, matter-of-factly as his fingers fumbled with his belt and the buttons on his pants. "My wife happens to be somewhat of a frigid woman. Most of the time she won't even let me touch her. You on the other hand, you're very warm, very inviting. I can tell."
Kate choked back a sob as tears streamed down her face.
"Please," she begged in a whisper, her voice cracking. "Please."
"Oh, no, Ms. Beckett, you don't get to plead with me. You see you took my daughter away from me, away from my wife. I happen to love my little girl and she was to marry a perfectly fine man in New York, a friend of mine. Then, I came all the way this God forsaken land to get her and she's gone. Now, I think I'm being perfectly fair giving you the chance to save your child before just taking it without permission. So, you have your choice. A bullet in the head now or your child's life."
Kate whimpered in response at the torrent of tears continued to fall as he used his thumb to pry her mouth open and she gagged as he forced himself into her. He pressed the gun harder against her temple and she closed her lips around him.
He let out a moan as her body trembled wrecked with unvoiced sobs.
"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt… What the hell?"
Kate crumpled to the floor as Stevenson pushed her away and whipped around to see Demming filling the doorway his hand on his gun, Eustice standing behind him with a tray of food in her hands.
"Kate!" Eustice yelled as the tray clattered to the floor and she rushed across the room to kneel by the other woman's side.
The sound of a gun cocking brought the room still and Eustice looked up to see Demming and Stevenson standing with their guns aimed at each other. Kate whimpered as she curled into Eustice.
"Go," Demming stated, his eyes never wavering from Stevenson.
Eustice hesitated and Demming's eyes flickered to her briefly. "I said go!"
Eustice grabbed Kate by the arm, hauling her to stand and pushed her towards the doors. "Go, Kate, run."
Kate stumbled through the doors, both women fleeing down the steps as a shot ran out and the doors slammed open again as Demming barreled down the steps after them. Kate stumbled again, an arm cradled against her stomach and Demming grabbed her by the arm, pulling her towards the edge of town. Eustice trailed off veering to the side to duck behind the saloon, taking cover from the group of men shouting after the escaped prisoner.
The pair made it to the tree line as night fell and Demming pushed Kate into an alcove of rocks as the men chasing them shouted in the distance. Kate let out a whimper and Demming pressed his palm over her mouth to quiet her until the group had passed and silence once again fell over the night.
Kate pushed him off of her and scooted herself backwards until her back was pressed up against the rocks, her knees drawn up to her chest.
"Are you all right?" Demming asked reaching out a hand.
"Stay away from me." Kate growled out in reply, pulling herself into a tighter ball.
"Kate," he started in reply. "I didn't know that he would…"
"Don't," she snapped back. "Just don't touch me."
Demming drew his hand back and sighed, staring at her silhouette as the darkness crept in around them and his eyes adjusted to the lack of light.
"We should stay here for the night. Move in the morning. There are some caves up a few miles." When Kate failed to respond he tried again. "We should be able to hide there until things calm down and we can come up with a plan."
She still didn't respond, instead stared past him into the black night. One hand rubbed over her stomach gently, the other twitching at her side, fingers fumbling with nothing.
"When was the last time you ate?"
Kate let out a huff. "You know the last time I ate."
Demming nodded. Of course he did. "We should get you food."
"I'm fine."
"You need to eat. I'm sure I can find something around here. Berries, rooted vegetable."
"I said I was fine. Everything is just fine. Just stop!" Her voice rose with every statement until she was yelling.
Silence fell back over them and Demming turned his head to stare at the rock across from him. As she sniffled softly into the night, brushing a hand over her face to wipe away the streaks of muddy tears.
"Why did you help me escape?" Kate asked quietly after another long moment of silence.
Demming's eyes flickered over to her. "No one deserves what he did to you and if you had stayed there it would have just continued."
"You shot him?"
Demming shrugged even though she couldn't see him. "I shot at him. I think I may have hit his leg."
Kate nodded in reply, no emotion, just fact. He had shot his boss to help her. Why? Why would he do that if he were in Stevenson's pocket? "I'm not going to the caves, I'm going to find my husband."
"I'm going with you."
Kate let out a startled laugh. "No, you are not. I don't know if you have figured it out or not but I don't like you, so no, you are not coming with me."
"Yes, I am. Just because I helped you escape does not mean you are not still under arrest. So, if you want to try to find your husband to prove your innocence then fine but I am going with you."
Kate stared at him through the darkness. "What, you think that Stevenson is just going to let you back into the fold? You just helped a prisoner escape. That makes you a criminal, too.
She paused for a second, considering him, the situation. You're really not in on it, are you?"
"In on what?"
"Bryant, Stevenson, Lockwood. What do you know?"
"I know that Lockwood was an assassin, and that you seduced him in order to capture him. I don't know who Bryant is and Stevenson is a high level lawyer in Washington. I believe he is from New York. He had business out here in Denver and agreed to take the case since he was out here. Why?"
Kate let out another laugh. "Let me guess, Stevenson is the one that told you about Lockwood."
"Yes, why?"
Kate laughed again. "Son of a bitch."
"You know, I am getting really tired of you calling me that."
"Not you, you dolt. Stevenson."
Demming stared at her. "What don't I know?"
Kate lifted a hand to her head, pressing tenderly on the bruise forming on her temple. "Everything. You don't know everything."
Her eyes drifted over to look at his outline leaning against the rocks through the darkness. She took in a slow breath as she worked her tongue around in her mouth, feeling all the surfaces, shivering as she shook her head. She took in another slow breath and her tongue darted out to wet her lips before she started to speak, unraveling the tale for Demming to hear. From the beginning.
Jim dismounted his horse at the back of the saloon and slowly crept around the side of the building. He had heard gunshots and shouts from the edge of town and had taken a sharp turn to come up the back and avoid Main Street. Men were shouting in the street as the sunset and he crept forward a step more to peek around the corner. A body collided with his and he pulled back to see Eustice staring back at him, wide eyed.
"What's going on?" He asked as she stared up at him.
"Kate escaped."
Jim looked up as another group of men ran past the alley and mounted horses aimed at the edge of town.
"She escaped? How? What happened?"
Eustice considered the older man for a moment; the dark circles under this eyes, the worried crease in his brow. He hadn't slept in days. Eustive shrugged. "She got the upper hand when I was bringing her dinner. They opened the door and she ran. She's made it to the tree line as far as I know."
Jim looked at her for a moment, his eyes darting around her face and then past her as he considered her words. He reached out a hand to touch her arm. "Okay, come on. We have to get out of here. Out to the homestead at least."
"Why? What's going on?"
Jim's voice lowered as he led her to the horse. "Trust me. Come morning, this town is not going to be safe anymore."
Demming sat on a rock at the edge of the spring, the next morning; his back to the bank while Kate sank down into the cool water. She wanted to submerge herself in scalding water and scrub herself until her skin was raw. She wanted to drink boiling hot tea to get the taste and feel of him out of her mouth. She wanted… she wanted her husband back. Instead she sank further into the water and ducked her head under, using her fingernails to scratch her scalp, dislodging all the dirt and the rest of the dried, caked-on, blood. She scrubbed her face with her palms, erasing all traces of the tears that had, once again, threatened to fall as her throat choked up and she swallowed a sob
"You all right?" Demming called from his perch as she resurfaced. "You're awfully quiet."
"I'm fine," she forced out, bringing a hand up to run through her hair, rinsing away the layers of dirt and grime. She scrubbed her mouth with her finger tips, digging them into her tongue, scraping away at the layers of skin.
"You know, you're allowed to not be 'fine'," he tilted his head to make sure she heard his words without actually turning his head.
"Yes, well, I actually am fine, I've been through worse, so drop it," Kate huffed as she pushed herself out of the water and pulled the dress back over her head. She twisted hr hair into a coil, ringing out the water, as she rounded the pile of rocks to face him. She tossed her chin up to nod at the water. "You want a turn?"
Demming shook his head as he cracked a fallen leaf between his fingers. "No, I'm fine for now. Plus, we should probably get moving, it's not safe to stay in one place for too long."
Kate looked around as Demming pushed himself off of the rock, listening to the surrounding nature for any sign of intruding life. She heard none. No cracked leaves, no whispered words, no clomping hooves of horses. "Yeah, I'm surprised we haven't seen a search party yet this morning…"
Demming hummed in response. "So, where are we going? If this Bryant guy really has your husband then where are they?"
Kate sighed as they started back down through the woods, her bare feet clomping through the brush, grains of dirt creeping between her toes. The hem of her dress snagged on a bush and she grumbled in protest as she yanked it off. "This is why I hate dresses."
She looked up with a huff as she pulled her dress free to find Demming staring at her, a small smile playing at this lips.
"What?" She bit out.
He shook his head innocently. "Nothing."
Kate huffed again and turned to continue on. "Stevenson said that Rick was somewhere that I couldn't find him. The way he said it, he meant me. Only me. I know this land better than anyone. So what was he talking about?"
She pulled her lower lip in between her teeth, wincing as it pinched and the scab broke open again, flooding her mouth with blood. She brought a finger up to press against it.
"Sorry about that," Demming mumbled out. "It's probably going to leave a scar."
Kate just shrugged as she pulled her hand away from her mouth and rubbed her fingers together a couple of times, spreading out the droplets of blood before lowering her hand to wipe it on the skirt of her dress, the rusty red stain getting swallowed up in the folds of fabric. "This is nothing. I have one on my leg that would…"
Kate came to a halt, causing Demming to run into her back.
"Kate?" Demming questioned, looking around for whatever made her stop in her tracks, his hand on his gun. "What's wrong?"
"It wouldn't be that easy…" she stated, quietly, as if she were speaking to herself. Slowly she turned to face him.
"What?"
"A few months ago I was thrown from my horse and got hurt pretty badly. I took shelter in the mine and was stuck there for days before they finally found me. I haven't gone near the mine since. Stevenson would know about that, his wife was here when it happened…" her voice trailed off as she ran a hand through her ahir and looked around, squinting into the blue morning sky.
"But there are so many people at the entrance to the mine, besides it's caved in. It's not easy to get through the opening they've made. Someone would have seen them."
Kate shook her head as she continued to squint past him. "No, there's another entrance. Most people don't know about it and those who do, don't like to use it. You have to go through miles of caves in order to get to it but it's there and Bryant would know because he sent out his men to scout the entire area when he first arrived. We had conversations about the caves before."
Her eyes focused back in on him and her hand shot out to slap his shoulder with the back of her palm. "Come on. Looks like you get to go to the caves after all."