Page 29 of Wild Horses

“She ain’t lying.” Jeb, Lewis had called him, was grinning at her like a fool. His teeth weren’t in much better shape than Lewis’ and she imagined his breath wasn’t either. She focused her gaze back on Lewis. “Let me go or I swear you’ll live to regret it.”

“Purdy and bossy,” Lewis said, laughing. “Now don’t be like that sweet thing. We can all be friends.”

Alex jerked in his grip, trying to get him to loosen his hold. He laughed again, his fingers gripping the material of her shirt tighter as he lowered his head to her neck and sniffed. “She even smells purdy.”

“Let me see,” Jeb said, reaching out and jerking her away from Lewis.

The man who joined the little trio last grabbed her next and then it was a series of pushes and pulls, each man grabbing her and holding her too tight, their hands landing in places she was sure wasn’t an accident.

It galled her to scream, to be helpless like some damsel in distress but they outweighed her by a hundred pounds each and with four of them playing tug of war with her, the whole thing got the better of her.

Anger at them manhandling her as if she were a plaything outweighed her fear. Heat filtered throughout her body as the anger grew and by the time it reached boiling, hot tears blurred her vision.

She screamed in frustration and brought her leg up, the toe of her boot connecting with Jeb’s groin. He yelled nearly as loud as she had.

The laughter of the others drowned out the majority of his cries and the fury on Jeb’s face matched what Alex felt. She kicked out again when he neared her and screamed again, arched her back to try and move whoever was holding her from behind.

The barking laughter in her ear grated on her nerves. She turned her head enough to see it was Lewis behind her. She kicked back a heel, connecting with his shin and didn’t stop bucking against him until he lost his grip. She jerked her arm free, balled her fist and swung, connecting with something before someone grabbed her braid and pulled hard enough to bring a new round of tears to her eyes.

Someone grabbed her, trapping her arms by her sides. It was Lewis, his gruff laughter ringing in her ear again. He lifted a hand, palmed her breast and squeezed.

Alex bucked again and screamed, “I’m gonna kill you!”

Their laughter filled the air but stopped just as suddenly as it came. The weight at her back disappeared and the sound of fists to flesh met her ears. She spun on her heel, her arms raised to ward off anyone coming toward her and saw Lewis on the ground, someone on top of him, punching him in the face.

The fight lasted only moments but seemed like a lifetime. When the brawling duo climbed to their feet, both of them were bloody. Her rescuer reached down to grab his dislodged hat and turned to glare at her when he stood. Alex’s stomach tightened, then cramped. It was Jesse and if the look on his face was any indication, he was furious.

He spat blood and replaced his hat, giving each of the men a hard look in turn. “She’s off limits. You touch her again and I’ll kick your ass all the way back to Montana.”

“You mean she’s not for us?”

Jesse crossed the distance between them and grabbed her, tossing her over his shoulder as if she were a potato sack. She squealed, then gasped as her stomach hit his hard shoulder. He turned back to the others and said, “No, she’s not for you. She’s mine.”

Jesse wasn’tsure what angered him more. The fact Alex was in camp or that he’d just stopped four men from tossing her back and forth between them like a rag doll.

He could still hear her screams in his head.

Riding toward camp to hear screaming had been a first. He thought it was his imagination until he saw the small group of men gathered in a tight circle, their delighted laughter raising his suspicion. He heard another scream and knew without a doubt it was a woman. But where in the hell had they found a woman in the middle of nowhere?

He’d rode hellbent for where they stood, jumping from his horse as the woman began fighting. When she yelled, telling Lewis she was going to kill him, the hair stood up on the back of his neck. He’d know that voice anywhere.

Alex was squirming on his shoulder. The fact her dainty little self was up there sent that anger to new heights. He raised his arm, swatting her behind hard enough she yelped. “Sit still or I’ll drop you on your head.”

“Put me down! You’ve got no right hauling me around like this.”

He laughed. Accosted by four men and she was still trying to tell him what to do. “I don’t think so, darlin’. In case you haven’t heard, I’m in charge around here and what I say goes.”

She kicked, slapped at his back and screamed in frustration before finally giving up to hang loosely over his shoulder. “I could have handled that on my own, you know.”

“Really,” he said. “Because from where I was standing it looked as if they were about to have more fun than just tossing you back and forth.”

“It wouldn’t have gotten that far.”

“You sure about that?”

She didn’t answer. Jesse knew next to nothing about Lewis, or the others, but from what he just witnessed, he had a pretty good idea what kind of men they were. It wasn’t hard to imagine how that whole scene would have ended had he not shown up. The fact Alex had been in danger infuriated him as much as her being there did.

They reached the shelter of the trees where they’d parked the chuck wagon. Isaac raised an eyebrow at him when he walked to the back of the wagon and deposited Alex on the ground, her backside hitting hard enough she yelled again.

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