Richard felt something nudging his arm roughly. He groaned and rolled over onto his back wincing at the pain in his head. He opened his eyes to see Horse standing over him and stomping his hoof impatiently. Richard sat up and looked around trying to remember what had happened. He could feel the blood covering his dark hair and the side of his face.

"Where's my damn hat?" he said weakly. Horse lowered his head and picked the hat up between his teeth then dropped it onto Richards lap. Richard looked around.

"Tessa." he said. She didn't reply and suddenly the memory of the rifle hitting his head came back to him. All pain was forgotten as he jumped to his feet.

"Tessa!" he yelled as he ran back behind the rocks and looked for her. She was nowhere to be seen and she didn't respond to his yells. He ran back to Horse at the road and realized that Tessa's mare was gone as well. He went to lay a hand on his gun and he realized it was gone too.. As a matter of fact both of his guns were.

"Son of a bitch!" Richard said angrily. He jumped on Horse and pulled his hat down low over his aching head.

"Come on, Horse. Let's go find Tom." Horse took off at a gallop and Richard prayed Tessa was still alive and that if she was alive he would find her in time to save her.

888

"Wake up, beautiful." Fred said as he poured a canteen of water over Tessa's face. She woke up and jumped to her feet quickly looking around the campsite. Todd and Harold were sitting on some rocks about three feet away beside a campfire while Fred was standing next to her grinning.

"Come here." Harold said. Tessa shook her head.

"You come here." she replied. Harold laughed but Fred was not as entertained by her attitude. He slapped the back of her head and shoved her forward. She stumbled and practically fell onto Harold's lap.

"That's more like it." he said. Then he grabbed her face roughly and pressed his lips to hers. His thick beard and mustache dug into her tender skin. His free hand roamed over her chest and she thought for sure she was going to throw up on him. She closed her eyes tight and moved her hands, which were still tied together, down to her boot. They may have taken her gun but they had forgotten about her knife.

Richard was already dead and there was no way she could take out all three of them before they killed her too but she would be damned if she would die without taking at least one of these bastards with her.

She closed her hand around the handle of her knife and as Harold moaned against her mouth she pulled it quickly and stuck it into his neck, twisting the handle as she yanked it back out.

She jumped to her feet as blood sprayed across her from Harold's neck. Within seconds he fell lifeless to the ground. Todd and Fred both just stared at his body in shock. Tessa took advantage of the moment and lunged at Fred driving the knife into his chest.

"Stupid bitch!" Todd yelled jumping to his feet as Fred fell to the ground with the knife still sticking out of him. Tessa turned to face Todd and gasped when she found her face less than an inch from the barrel of the revolver.

"I'm gonna put a bullet right between your pretty brown eyes." he said. Tessa spit at him and suddenly a throat cleared to their right. They both turned to see Richard sitting there atop of Horse looking at them. Todd grabbed Tessa quickly and pressed the gun against her temple.

Richard looked around the campsite scanning the situation quickly. Two men were laying on the ground and appeared to be dead. One of them still had a knife in his chest. Richard looked back at Todd who was holding Tessa tight with his gun pressed to her temple. Tessa was covered in blood and her face was bruised.

"You okay, Tom?" Richard asked. Tessa felt a relief like she'd never felt before. Sure she was probably still going to die because Richard didn't have his guns2 and there was a crazy man holding a gun to her temple but at least Richard was alive.

"I'm just fine." Tessa replied. Todd laughed.

"Not for long. I'm fixing to put a bullet….." Todd never got the chance to tell them where he was fixing to put that bullet. Before anyone could blink or draw another breath Richard pulled his knife from the strap on his leg and threw it through the air.

Tessa felt Todd's grip on her loosen and he fell to the ground dead with the handle of the knife sticking out of his forehead. Richard jumped from Horse and ran toward Tessa. Before he reached her a gunshot rang out and he felt a bullet tear through his arm. He yelled in pain and heard Tessa scream.

Tessa looked over and saw Fred laying on the ground with his gun in his hand pointing at Richard. She could tell he was about to fire another shot. She bent quickly and grabbed Todd's gun from his dead hand. She aimed at Fred and fired a shot and he fell to the ground with a hole in his head.

Tessa walked over to Fred's dead body, pressed the gun to his boot and pulled the trigger again.

"Um honey, I think he was already dead." Richard said walking over to her. "Can I ask why you shot him in the foot?"

"The bastard told me you were dead. And he said that if you weren't he would shoot his own foot off. Since he obviously wasn't in any shape to do it himself, I did it for him." she replied. Richard laughed, untied her hands and then wrapped his good arm tight around her and kissed her hair.

"Thank God you're okay." he said breathing her in. "I thought for sure I'd lost you."

"They told me you were dead… I knew they'd end up killing me but I was determined to take at least one of them with me." she replied listening to his steady heart beat.

"You are one hell of a woman." he said. Tessa pulled away then and looked at his arm. His shirt sleeve was already covered in blood and large droplets were quickly forming a puddle on the ground at his feet.

"Oh my God, Richard! You're really shot this time!" she said. Richard looked down at his arm.

"Yep." he said. "I guess I am." Tessa pulled her bandana off her neck and tied it tight around his arm but even it was soaked in blood almost instantly.

"You have to get to a doctor." Tessa said. Richard nodded. He was already feeling weak from the loss of blood and his damn head was swimming from the blow the man had given him earlier.

"No towns around too awful close." he replied. He knew that the closest town was Gatesville, the town he'd run away from a little more than a year ago, but even that was nearly a five hour ride. He didn't know if he'd last that long. There was only house he knew of any closer.

"Where's your mare?" he asked. Tessa ran from him to go get her mare that the men had tied to a tree while Richard reached down and took his guns out of the dead man's pants. He put them in his holsters, walked over to the dead man he'd thrown the knife into and pulled his knife from his head. He wiped it on his pants and walked over to Horse. He used his good arm to pull himself up into the saddle and Tessa came over on her mare.

"Are you ok?" she asked him. Richard nodded. He pulled the rope off his saddle and tied his good arm to Horses' saddle horn.

"It'll help me stay on." he said. Tessa could hear that already his voice was sounding weaker.

"Lead the way Richard." she said. He took off at a fast gallop and they rode at that pace for a long while. Finally Richard pulled Horse to a stop and looked at her. Tessa was shocked by how pale and sweaty he was.

"I don't know how much longer I'm gonna be able to stay awake." he said matter-of-factly. The blow he'd taken to his head was making it hard to even keep his eyes open.  "Just follow the sunset and in about an hour you're gonna come up on a white farmhouse with pretty flower gardens out front. They'll help us." he said.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me. Horse will follow you." he replied. Tessa nodded and then took off at a gallop again toward the sunset with Horse following behind her.

888

It was nearly dark when Tessa arrived at the white farmhouse with the flower gardens.

"Hello!" She yelled hoping to alert someone of her presence. Richard had long since lost consciousness and was laying limply across Horse's neck. The door to the house opened and a tall man stepped out onto the porch pointing a rifle at them.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"My name is Tessa Bradshaw." she replied. "My friend is hurt bad. He got shot and is bleeding out. He needs help."

"Who's your friend?" the man asked.

"His name is Richard Helms. He said you would help him. Will you or do I need to find someone else?" The tall man seemed like he couldn't make up his mind about whether to help or not and then a heavy set blond woman walked out the door and laid her hand on his arm.

"Put the gun away and help Richard get into the house." she said and Tessa saw the man listen to her without question. He sat the rifle down on the porch and walked quickly toward Tessa and Richard. Tessa noticed he had a slight limp as he neared them. Tessa jumped down off her mare as the tall man untied Richards arm from the saddle and threw him over his shoulder.

"Take your horses into the barn over there." he said motioning toward the barn. "There's a lantern on the wall inside the door if you need light." Tessa nodded and the man walked up into the house with Richard over his shoulder. Tessa was shocked by the sight. She had thought Richard was a tall and muscular man but even he looked small when draped over this giants shoulder.