beginning.
You should have died in that raid on the wagon train, and if you'd had
any damned sense, you would have stayed with that bleeding Apache.' :
Tess winced. Von Heusen's hold on her arm was vicious, and she could
feel the cold steel presseft hard against her temple. She swallowed. If
he killed her now, she was still the winner. She had to keep telling
herself that, so she could keep fighting him.
'That bleeding Apache, as you call aim, is here to kill you, von Heusen.
The Apache and the cavalry are riding together. Just to kill you.'
They had come to the top of the stairs. Von Heusen burst open the door
to one of the rooms and threw her inside. Tess 279 staggered across the
room as yon Heusen closed and bolted the door, putting a chair across
it.
'What now, yon Heusen?' Tess demanded.
He cast her an evil glar~ with his near colorless eyes, and she felt
fear creep along her spine. He strode across the room to her, wrenching
her by the hair.
'You foolish, foolish little girl. You could have lived as that Indian's
squaw, but now I promise you that you're going to pay dearly. One wrong
move, and I'll scalp you myself. What a beautiful trophy that hair would
be, eh, Miss. Stuart?'
She spat at him. He pulled on her hair so hard that she was certain half
of it left her head and, despite her efforts to choke back the sound,
she cried out. She saw him smile at her pain, and it sickened her, and
she realized that he liked hurting people, that killing gave him
pleasure. 'What now?
Now we wait. We wait for your ever gallant young cavalry hero to come
running up those stairs. Then I shoot him dead. Then I use you to escape
this town, and then maybe later I'll let you go, but more likely, I'll
kill you.
I'll kill you slow. I'll have you first, and I'll humiliate you every
way I know how, and then I'll kill you bit by bit.' She managed to jerk
away from him, backing toward the window, staring at him.
'You bastard! Why don't you just kill me now?
I'll make your life a living hell. I'll never take a single step with
you.
Unless.'
'Unless?' He drew out his knife, a wickedly sharp and long bowie knife
that glinted in the fraction of sunlight that entered the room.
'You leave Jamie alone. We'll go out by the roof right now and I'll come
along without a protest' -- 'How touching.'
'If you kill him, I won't make a move.'
'Oh, but I can make you,' yon Heusen told her softly. And maybe he
could. He was walking toward her, his knife before him, twisting in his
hands.
'I'll just make you bleed a little now, but you'll feel it,' he promised
her.
She was going to scream or faint. She wanted desperately to fight, to be
brave, but all she could see was the glinting steel. He was coming
closer and closer, and she didn't know how brave she could be once that
