Read Online Early Dawn by Catherine Anderson - Free Book Online Page B

this time, she would be three days out from Denver and four from No Name, located thirty miles south of the larger town. Even if she managed to steal one of the horses and scatter the others, the men might catch up with her before she could reach safety.
    Eden’s silk traveling costume offered little protection against the cold, and she soon felt as if she were freezing. When the man named Harold tossed her a piece of jerky and handed her a tin cup of brackish water, she briefly considered refusing the food and drink. Women in such situations often sought death. But Eden rejected the idea. Her circumstances weren’t that dire yet. Determined to sell her across the border for a tidy profit, Wallace had made it clear that no one was to lower her value by raping her. Though Eden wasn’t certain what “playing with her” entailed, she figured she could endure it until she got an opportunity to escape.
    Shivering with cold while she ate her meager supper, she peered through the darkness at the horses tethered to a high line between two stunted oak trees. She’d learned to ride at an early age, and though she was a bit rusty from lack of practice, she still felt confident in her abilities as a horsewoman. Maybe after the men fell asleep, she could make a run for it. If she took one equine and scattered the others, her captors would be left afoot and unable to give chase. She sent up a silent prayer that no one would think to bind her hands and feet.
    God had turned a deaf ear. Eden had no sooner sent up that heartfelt plea than the man named Pete advanced on her with two thongs. Though all the brothers resembled one another, Pete stood out in her mind because of the meanness that glinted in his marblelike gray eyes. He jerked her arms behind her back and tied her wrists so tightly that the leather dug into her flesh. Next, he lashed her ankles together.
    “There’s no need to bind me,” Eden tried. “Where have I to flee?”
    He ignored her question. Hunkered near the fire, Wallace called, “Bring her over here so we’ll have light. Won’t be no fun playin’ with her in the dark.”
    Pete grasped Eden’s left arm and dragged her toward the flames. Unable to walk with her feet bound, she gasped at the pain that lanced through her twisted shoulder as he pulled her over the rough ground, but Pete didn’t seem to care. He dumped her beside Wallace and then squatted to stare at her. “She ain’t so purty after the whalin’ you gave her.”
    Wallace’s swollen lips twisted in a leer. “Ain’t her face we wanna play with.”
    With that, he grasped the front of Eden’s bodice and drew his knife. With three slashes at the cloth, he laid open her dress. Then he went to work on her camisole. He didn’t bother with the corset because it didn’t cover her breasts. Eden felt the night air nip at her bare skin. Humiliation coursed through her. She strained against the leather that bound her wrists behind her back, but Pete had tied her securely. She was helpless to defend herself.
    “Well, now, what have we got here, little lady?” Wallace asked with an oily chuckle. “It’s been so long since I seen me any pink tits that I plumb forgot how purty they are.”
    “I want to go first,” Pete wheedled.
    “Go ahead. We got all night. All of us will get a turn. Just remember not to mark her up, and don’t lose your head and give her a poke. I got plans for the money Estacado will pay for her. He’ll take one look at that face and red hair and froth at the mouth like a rabid dog.”
    Pete jerked Eden to a sitting position, tossed aside his filthy hat, and bent to take one of her nipples into his mouth. The shock of sensation made her body snap taut, but the leather at her wrists and ankles was so tight that she couldn’t struggle. A scream welled at the base of her throat. She swallowed it down. She would not allow these animals to reduce her to that. She felt a filthy hand groping under her skirts. Oh, God, no, please,