Little Sharpshooter Chap 27

“Parker boy, what’s your name? Oh yeah, Roy. Go hang that girl and the old man up like a couple of cows getting’ ready for slaughter.” Clyde yelled. “Hey, Rose. Ya all right?” Clyde rested his hand on the girl’s shoulder and examined at her nose.

“Just let me finish her off,” Rose lunged for Randy. Clyde held her back.

“Another time. We got too much to do. I’m sure that snivelin’ little girl we hired is probably gettin’ someone riled up. We need to hurry if we’re gonna take care of business ruinin’ the kid’s name on our way out of town.”

Randy was shoved to the far side of the room where the floor was darkest and hooks stuck out from the wood beams above their heads.

Roy, cleaner looking than the rest of the group with his clean shaven square jaw and mop of blonde hair, studied the beam and then looked the two of them over. He pulled handcuffs out of his pocket, handing a pair to the man that held her.

Randy hated handcuffs. She knew just how much slack she needed to slip out of them and he wasn’t likely to give her any. He slapped the first one on and she squealed.

“Take it off! It hurts. That’s too tight. Oh, please!” she screamed, lashing around as if the skin was being ripped off her wrists.

“Shut her up!” One of the guys yelled that kept watch near the door.

Roy gave the man that cuffed her a shove and unfastened it. He placed it back on her wrist, not tightening it so much. She looked up at him with fake sad, tear-filled eyes.

“He didn’t mean to hurt you.” Roy rubbed her wrist.

“It’s all right now.” She turned her mouth to the side trying to read him. “I’m kind of scared though.”

Roy glanced at the men around him. “He’s not out to kill ya. At least not yet.” He rolled a rope through his hands, stepped onto a rickety chair before tossing the rope up and over the beam. Then he tossed it around the beam once more. “He said you’re good at escapin’ so you don’t get to hang by the hooks.”

Two mangled chairs were placed on either side of him. Bronson’s face was swelling from the fight and he struggled to stand upright from the beating he got. He was first to be tied up to the beam. As that was happening, Clyde and the manly girl were lining out terrified and useless Trevor on some details before they sent him out the door with the other two men.

Trevor’s frightened eyes met hers before he stepped out the door. She wanted to run to help him but there was nothing she could do with a gun in her back and four men still in the room.

Clyde took his time crossing the room, fixated on her. Lifting a lock of her hair, he curled it around his finger.

“You know, I might think twice about finishin’ ya off if you were to join us. A pretty girl that’s good with a gun could really be worth somethin’ to me.” His eyes met hers.

Randy lost her confidence. Bronson was not only beat up, but tied up. The law was no help, scared of the outlaws running through town. She was handcuffed, about to be hung up with Bronson. That was one scenario her pa never tried with her. Trevor was about to face danger from not only the outlaws, but the law would be after him with whatever they had planned for him. She would almost agree to anything if it would spare Trevor. However, she knew that wasn’t the answer. Real tears welled up in her eyes.

“I can’t. I don’t wanna be an outlaw. I don’t want gold, I don’t wanna be rich, and I don’t wanna be famous at all. Not for sharpshooting or bein’ James Carter’s daughter. I just wanna to be left alone and forgotten.”

Clyde’s face softened as he tilted her chin up so he could look at her better. “I can grant you at least one of your requests. I will happily leave you here alone and forget all about you. Too bad we didn’t meet under different circumstances or I might be swayed by your heartbreaking sentiment.” He showed her his messed up hand. “This is a little hard for me to forget. Every day it painfully reminds me that you’re still alive. ” He backed away so Roy could take her to the chair. Roy cinched the rope tight around her hands. There was no point to squeal over the ropes. She wouldn’t be able to work the slack if there was any.

“Hold onto the rope. I’m takin’ the chairs away,” Roy said.

At least Roy was kind enough to warn them. Randy dangled in front of Bronson. He moaned from his weight pulling on his arms.

Clyde swung Randy around to make her look at him.

“By the time someone finds you, we’ll be long gone and if he lives, your boy will have no choice but to be one of us.” He pushed her so she collided into Bronson.

“Why can’t I just take care of her now?” Rose pressed the mouth of her gun against Randy’s chin. Randy wanted to kick her.

Clyde yanked on Rose’s arm. “She ain’t yours. Ya earned that bloody nose but now you can get back at her by takin’ ownership of the boy when we get to Robber’s Roost. Don’t spoil the fun. It will be worth it to leave her alive knowin’ you’re about to get all the alone time you want with him. There will be nothin’ she can do about it but wonder where to find us.” Clyde laughed all the way out of the building with Rose on his heels.

Roy lingered to make sure Randy and Bronson stayed put. They had no choice. He did a good job hanging them up.

“Why does a nice kid like you hang out with the likes of them?” Bronson asked.

“Because I aint’ got no one else to turn to. My folks is some good, well-respected people back home. I don’t fit their mold no more. They won’t have me since I can’t live by their rules.”

“Why these guys?” Bronson asked.

“I ain’t stayin’ with them long. I just need a roof over my head so I follow along quietly for now. It won’t always be this way.”

“You gonna clean up your act?” Bronson prodded.

“I’m gonna make a fortune of my own. I won’t take care of my men like these guys do it. I have a better plan.” Roy lifted the turquoise stone around Randy’s neck to look at it. “That’s rather pretty.”

“But your plan ain’t doin’ right is it?” Randy asked, hoping he didn’t plan on taking the necklace.

“Nah. Sure ain’t. It ain’t your place to judge me neither.” He pointed at Randy and then at Bronson.

“I didn’t say nothin’. I’m just hangin’ here. So it don’t matter what I say anyway,” Bronson said.

“Ha. Just hangin’.” Roy snickered. “Well you two just hang around here for a while. I don’t have the patience for this. I got better things to do.” Roy winked and went out the back door.

Randy’s face was in Bronson’s chest. The worst part was the stink of his armpits. It quickly became a small problem as the painful pressure of the metal cuffs with the rope wound around her wrists escalated.

“Can you get free?” Bronson said softly.

“No. There’s no slack. I thought we would only have the metal cuffs on. That’s why I made such a fuss. But this is a real problem.”

Bronson studied the beam over their heads. “You’re gonna need to climb.”

Randy narrowed her eyes at Bronson. “How?”

“Climb up me.”

“But rope is tightly wound around the beam from our weight.”

“You’ll need to climb around the beam to unwind it.”

“I’m not a monkey.” Randy sighed. She twisted back and forth, bumping into Bronson’s body until she kicked both boots off. She nearly had her knees in her chest when her toes gripped onto the belt holding up Bronson’s trousers.

“Ahh… Don’t push my britches off.”

“I’m not.” She gripped with the toes of both feet to push up but wound up pushing him away from her instead.

“Bend your knees more before you push up.” Bronson spun in a circle when her toes let go of him. “You’re gonna make me sick.”

“Sorry.” She dug her toes in against his waistband again and pushed up. When she started to fall back, she gripped his rope with her tied up hands and scooted them up until she reached the beam. She struggled to find a way to pull herself up. Her hands were too close together.

“You’re gonna have to stand on my shoulders. Maybe my head.” Bronson groaned.

Randy held the beam and looked down. With his arms above his head, there was little room on his shoulders for her feet. She turned her feet sideways next to his neck.

“When did you wash those stockings last?” He asked her.

“Oh, I don’t know. They can’t smell any worse than your armpits.”

“Just get on with it.”

Her chest rested against the beam. She was able to pull herself up onto her elbows and swung her leg up. The rope rubbed against the beam as it loosened sending Bronson’s feet to the floor. Randy had very little rope left between her hands and the beam.

“I don’t know if I’m gonna be to able to get back up once I come down.”

“Try. My arms are killin’ me. Hurry up.”

Randy eased her body down with her foot against the rope to guide her to Bronson. He was much farther away than before.

“You’re gonna have to put those smelly feet on my head. You’re almost there.”

She finally found his head. Bronson held her legs steady as Randy ducked under the beam and then climbed back up once more.

She struggled to pull herself up.

“Put your foot in my hands.”

She did and it was the boost she needed. When she came down again, she didn’t have the rope to keep her from falling to the floor. Somehow she managed. Must have been all her practice balancing on Al.

She was finally on the floor and started untying Bronson’s rope.

“Let me undo yours first.” He pulled on the rope for what felt like forever until he undid the knot and unwound her hands. She curled her hand up but there wasn’t quite enough room to slip her hand out the cuff. “I think my hands are bigger than they use to be.”

“Rub this greasy slime on your hands.” Bronson held out a nasty black jar.

Randy frowned at whatever the black and greasy stuff was in the jar. She rubbed it on the back of her hands and dared not breathe in. Her eyes watered from the powerful smell. She pinched her thumb and pinky together. The cuff painfully slid off.  She worked at freeing Bronson.

“Hurry,” Bronson intently watched Randy struggle to loosen the rope.

“I know.” Randy bounced on the balls of her feet trying to undo the knot. Her hands were so greasy that the rope kept slipping out of her fingers.

“Wipe your hands off on somethin’!” He fussed.

She pursed her lips, stared hard at him as she rubbed them off on his trousers.

“I don’t care. Just hurry!”

She finally untied him but no matter how much of the greasy stuff she put on his hands, the cuffs wouldn’t slide off.

Randy and Bronson searched the room for anything that could help free him.

“We’re in luck. I found chain cutters.” He handed the large pinchers to Randy. She pinched off the chain on each cuff. Bronson slid his sleeves down over his wrists to cover them then rubbed the grease off on his trousers.

“Let’s go.” He headed for the back door.

Bronson peered around the edge of the building.

“I don’t have my pistol,” Randy clung to Bronson’s arm.

“Neither do I.”

“What are we gonna do?”

“Forget the guns for now. First we need to find out where they took him.”

They carefully crept alongside the building, keeping watch for the outlaws. They were nowhere to be seen.

Bronson pulled the shoulder of her shirt, keeping her close as they walked along the backside of the buildings. He looked down each gap between buildings and stopped when he saw something going on near the bank on the other side of the street. Bronson swore.

“What?” Randy tried to look around Bronson but he pulled her to face him.

“They are makin’ him rob the bank. I need to get help and some guns. You’re gonna have to go to the other side of the street behind the buildings and see what you can do. Just don’t let none of them see ya. Clyde doesn’t wanna kill ya yet. I don’t know about the girl. She might kill ya on sight.”

“That’s real helpful.” Randy sighed.

“Well, you’re still on the good side of the law. If we don’t stop this, Trevor will have the outlaws and the law down his throat. He won’t survive if that happens. Understand?” He shook her shoulder a little.

Her eyes welled up a little and she nodded.

“Good.” He pushed her ahead of him.

Randy slowly made her way down the alley. She robbed a clothesline as she went. After tying the ties of a sunbonnet under her chin, she buttoned up a puffy sleeved shirt over her own. She scrunched up her nose over her new attire and casually crossed the street looking all around for danger. As soon as she was safely across the street, she ran behind the buildings until she neared the bank, still looking for familiar faces and saw none. A small barred window was on the side of the bank. Randy peered inside.

Trevor trembled holding a gun at the banker while the banker filled a bag.