Two Alone

“Help me,” Rusty screamed.

“Reuben?” the old man shouted. “Get in here.”

Quinn turned his head toward the door, but it wasn’t Reuben who came crashing through. Cooper’s sweating face was a fierce mask of hatred and rage. His hair was littered with twigs and leaves. There were bleeding scratches on his cheeks and hands. His shirt was specked with blood. To Rusty, no one had ever looked better.

Feet wide apart, Cooper barked, “Let her go, you filthy animal.”

Rusty collapsed to the floor when Gawrylow released her. He spun around. As he did so, he reached behind his back. Before Rusty fully realized what had happened, she heard a solid thunk. Then she saw the handle of Cooper’s knife in the center of Quinn’s chest. The blade was fully buried between his ribs.

The old man was wearing a startled expression. He groped for the handle of the knife. His searching fingers closed around it as he dropped to his knees. Then he fell face down onto the floor and was still.

Rusty gathered her arms and legs against her body, forming herself into a ball. She clapped her hands over her mouth and stared at the still form with wide, unfocusing eyes. Her breath was trapped in her lungs.

Cooper, knocking furniture aside, rushed across the room and crouched in front of her.

“Are you all right?” He laid a hand on her shoulder. She recoiled in fright.

He froze. His eyes went as hard as slate as he said, “No need to thank me.”

Gradually Rusty lowered her hands and released her breath. She gazed up at Cooper, her lips white with fear. “You killed him.” The words had no sound; she mouthed them.

“Before he killed me, you little fool. Look!” He pointed down at the dead man’s back. There was a small handgun tucked into the waistband of his pants. “Don’t you get it yet?” he roared. “They were going to waste me and keep you. They planned to share you between them.”

She shuddered with revulsion. “No!”

“Oh, yeah,” Cooper said, nodding his head. Apparently exasperated with her, he stood up and rolled the body over. Squeezing her eyes shut, Rusty averted her head. She heard the body being dragged across the floor and out the door. She heard Quinn’s boots thump on the steps as Cooper dragged him down them.

She wasn’t sure how long she stayed curled up in that fetal position on the floor. But she still hadn’t moved when Cooper returned. He loomed over her. “Did he hurt you?”

Miserably she shook her head.

“Answer me, dammit! Did he hurt you?”

She raised her head and glared up at him. “No!"

“He was about to rape you. You do realize that, don’t you? Or are the stars in your eyes still keeping you from seeing the light?”

Not stars, but tears filled her eyes. She was experiencing a delayed reaction to her horror. “What are you doing here? Why did you come back? Where’s Reuben? What are you going to say to him when he gets back?”

“Nothing. Reuben won’t be coming back.”

She clamped her teeth over her quivering lower lip and closed her eyes. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “You killed him, too, didn’t you? That’s his blood on you.”

“Yes, dammit,” he hissed, bending over her. “I shot him in self-defense. He walked me into the woods just far enough to separate us, then he turned a gun on me with every intention of killing me and making you his ‘woman.’ ” Staring up at him, she shook her head in disbelief, which seemed to infuriate him. “And don’t you dare pretend to be surprised. You had whipped them into a sexual froth and you know it.”

“Me? How? What did I do?”

“Brushing your hair for God’s sake!”

“‘Brushing’—”

“Just being you. Just looking the way you do.”

“Stop yelling at me!” she sobbed. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Except cause me to kill two men!” he shouted. “Think about that while I’m out burying them.”

He stalked out. The fire in the fireplace burned out and the cabin grew cold. But Rusty didn’t care.