Lily screamed and grabbed her daughter, pulling her tight against her chest and running for the bedroom and the rifle that was in there but Brian got to her just before she reached the gun. He pulled a screaming Sarah off of her and threw the girl down on the bed before grabbing Lily's soft face roughly in his hand and pressing a hard, painful kiss to her lips.

"I've been wanting to get my hands on you for a long time. 'Course it'd be better if you weren't fat with another man's baby" he said running his hand over her stomach. Lily felt her stomach turn but held back her vomit. She felt a nearly paralyzing fear as flashbacks of Nathan raced through her mind. Only her daughters sobs and the thought of her unborn child snapped her out of her fear and made her realize she didn't have time to be afraid right now.

She brought her knee up and grunted with satisfaction when it connected solidly with his groin. All the breath rushed out of him as he doubled over. Lily pulled out of his grasp and grabbed the rifle but before she could aim it another set of stronger hands grabbed it and jerked it away from her.

"You're a feisty one." A tall mountain of a man said with a sneer. He grabbed her and threw her down on the bed before tying her hands together behind her back. When he stood her back up Brian had recovered himself enough to clench his fist and punch her hard across the cheek. Lily was not sure where she found the strength but instead of screaming out or crying she squared her shoulders, looked into his mean blue eyes and spit in his face.

"I'm gonna have fun with you." Brian promised with a chuckle and Lily felt a shiver of disgust run across her skin.

"Brian get out here!" John called and Brian grabbed Lily's arm and led her out into the main room.

"What am I doing with the kid?" the mountain of a man asked.

"Bring her along, Blue. I heard Kaid sayin' he likes em young." Brian replied.

"No!" Lily screamed as she heard Sarah crying out for help. Her cries were silenced when Blue used his bandana as a gag to silence her and then tied her hands together. Lily looked at the six men standing in her home and realized that the situation was hopeless.

"What do you want me to do with him?" Paul asked as he pointed at Gavin who was cowering in the corner.

"Kill him." John replied with a shrug.

"No wait!" Gavin cried. "My name is Gavin Henderson. My father own a number of banks. He would pay you a lot of money for my safety." Paul looked over at John waiting for orders and John nodded.

"Tie him up, Paul. We'll take him along." he said. Allie moaned and used the table to pull herself to her feet.

"Well if it isn't Jack's little doll. You sure are a pretty thing." Blue said walking over to her. He handed Sarah to John and then ran a finger down her cheek.

"I want this one first." he said as lust filled his small black eyes. Allie felt disgust fill her and shook her head.

"Never." she said. "I will kill you first." she promised. Blue laughed loudly.

"A little thing like you?" he asked bringing his hand down to her breast and giving it a squeeze. Allie jerked away and spit at him.

"Don't touch me."

"Leave us alone!" Lily exclaimed with desperation. "Hawke and Jack will kill every last one of you."

"They can't kill us if they are already dead." Brian whispered in her ear, his breath hot and moist against her skin. Lily felt her heart break at his words. Was her husband dead? That couldn't be possible. Hawke was too full of power, strength and deadliness to ever be killed by men as savage and witless as these men.

Blue lowered his mouth to kiss Allie and she bit down hard on his lip causing him to howl with pain. He punched her hard in the face and she grabbed onto his shirt to keep from falling. She saw his knife on his belt and knew it was her only chance. She couldn't kill all of them but maybe she could take at least one of them out.

She grabbed his knife quickly and in an act of desperation she jerked it across his thigh and as blood began shooting from his leg she knew her aim had been true and she had cut through the artery that ran there. Blue's eyes widened with pain and horror as he realized he was dying. The blood was pouring from him so quickly that his vision was already going black. He grabbed at her as he fell and she gasped when he jerked her necklace from her neck and it fell to the floor.

Allie didn't have time to pick it back up before something hard connected with the back of her head and the world went black.

888

Lily watched in horror as Allie fell unconscious into the man named Paul's arms.

"Dammit. I always liked Blue. Kaid, Bearclaw, tie him to his horse and we'll get out of here. You men hang around and deal with my son and that injun when they get back." John said. Lily felt hope enter her for the first time. Hawke wasn't dead. But what if Kaid and Bearclaw killed him and Jack when they came back? She couldn't lose her husband. She looked over at Sarah whose brown eyes were wide with fear as she watched the men. Lily straightened her spine and forced herself to focus on surviving and saving her brave sister, her daughter and the baby in her belly. She had to stay strong for them.

She was pulled up roughly behind Brian on a horse and she saw that her daughter was sitting in front of John on another horse while Allie was with Paul. Blue's dead body was thrown over yet another horse. Gavin's hands were tight and he was sitting on a horse alone that was tied to John's horse. She didn't see any other horses and realized that Bearclaw and Kaid must have hidden them and she prayed that her husband and Jack would be okay and she prayed they would find her, Allie and Sarah before it was too late.

888

"I know a lot of the lessons you tried to teach me I didn't want to hear back then and over the last few years I've come to realize that most of the time you knew what you were talkin' about. But I still say you should kick whoever's ass it is that is destroyin' your traps." Jack said as he and Hawke went about fixing the third broken one they'd come across.

"I am beginning to think that is a good idea myself." Hawke grumbled.

"Hawke, I've been wanting to ask you something." Jack said his voice suddenly sounding more serious. Hawke stood straight and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"You have always spoken too much, do not stop now. What do you want to ask?"

"Well I don't really have a last name to give to Allie. Bennett was what I was raised as but he wasn't my real pa, and I'd rather not take my real pa's last name. As a matter of fact I'd rather chew my own foot off than do something like that…" Jack rubbed the back of his neck and then squared his shoulders and looked into Hawke's eyes.

"I want to be Jack Owen. I want to be your son in name since I already feel like I am in all the other ways." Hawke stared hard at Jack for several long moments and Jack wished he knew what the Indian was thinking.

"Jack Owen…I like it." Hawke replied and then in a moment that shocked both of them Hawke reached out and wrapped his arms around Jack in a tight fatherly hug as he patted him on the back.

"Right. Now let's get this thing fixed so we can get home. I am hungry." Hawke said awkwardly after he pulled away. Jack nodded and swallowed back the emotion in his throat.

They were just finishing when Wolf jumped to his feet and let out a bark. Janna came running out of the trees then and from the way she was panting they could tell she had been running hard.

"What are they doing?" Jack asked as Janna and Wolf yipped back and forth and Janna kept looking back in the direction of the cabin.

"Talking." Hawke replied simply. Wolf's body tensed and he growled low in his throat.

"Get on your horse, Jack. Something is wrong." Hawke said, his body tensing. Hawke jumped on Trigger in one fluid motion and Jack was reminded of the fact that Hawke was an Indian first and a white man second as he seemed to become one with the forest and the animals.

Jack jumped on his horse as well and the two men galloped as quickly as they could toward home with both wolves keeping pace behind them.