The Path One Follows

Twisting And Turning

Night had become day when Grant finally found the abandoned wagon. Sure enough, Frank was staked to the ground in a spot that looked as if the grass had been erased to leave dirt. It was most likely a regular camping spot for Hunters. He'd need to get out of here as soon as possible.

The horse was grazing nearby. That was a plus. If he could use the wagon it might help. First to bury Frank.

As he neared the man, he noticed the rising and falling of his chest. He was still alive!!!

"Holy s**t, Frank! I thought you a carrion buffet for sure. How the hell are you still alive??"

"Of course. It would be you."

The words came out weakly, but they still managed to be tinged with scorn.

"For f**k's sake, Frank! Now isn't the time for your grudge. I'm gonna get you patched up and we're going after Jolie."

"You don't get it at all. I traded her to them. I offered her up as a slave. That's why it's kind of funny you're here of all people. I did it to keep her away from you. She'd been upset at me for not coming after her. Then YOU had to play hero. If you had just let her be taken, we could've mourned and moved on. You just couldn't do that...."

Frank forced the last words out so fast that he had started coughing and needed to catch his breath. Grant was poleaxed.

"You mean to tell me...... you really did give her to them? Your wife. The mother of your son. You traded her off to be used and abused....I had hoped that bastard had been lying."

Grant pointed his gun at the man.

"You sick son of a b***h! She wasn't property! How could you ever claim to have loved her?? What kind of sad piece of s**t does that to a woman!!"

"You assume I loved her like that. She was a prize in our village. The tomboy who wouldn't settle down. I won her over without doing anything. At first, it was nice. I thought I could love her, but she kept trying to think above her station. She'd offer up advice on things that she believed she could do more effectively. It got to where she'd do it in front of my friends. It was an embarrassment. I only brought my family on this trip in hopes that something would happen to her. Then I could pretend to mourn and saddle up a philly with a better temperament."

"I should finish you off right now. You're worse than the Hunters. Maybe I should leave you tied up here. A slow death for you wouldn't help me sleep at night but I could have a rush of pleasure thinking about it. "

Grant walked closer and squatted by Frank.

"Maybe I could just shave off some layers of skin and let the noon day son smoke you like some ol' fatback?"

The description of tortures was cut off by a gunshot. Grant rolled over towards the wagon to get out of sight. There was barely a moment to gather his bearings, but he was sure that came from the North. They must've delivered Jolie and wandered by on their way back to Flint.

Well this was some bullshit. Frank had gotten him to the point his anger hindered his awareness. He could hear the man cackling. Just what in the flames of hell did he have to be so damn jolly about. Trying to get a look at the person shooting, he peaked around a wagon wheel. Another shot hit the ground. Flint had found a damn good gunman.

Finally feeling his calm return, Grant decided it was time to take out this asshole. Slowly, he crawled under the wagon. The grass would be in his way, but it would handicap Flint's man also. Grant had a split second to notice before someone grabbed his legs and pulled him out from under the wagon.

"I don't know who you are, mister, but if you fire another shot at our man up there, I'm gonna be forced to feed you a meal you're not gonna like. Chicken with buckshot dumplings. "

Grant dropped his gun and crawled out. The man walked him over beside Frank, who was cackling even harder.

"Looks like you're gonna have a friend to join you. Another dipshit farmer I'm guessing."

The thug started waving his arms at his partner on the hill.

"Hey! Lester! Get down here and help me stake this i***t beside the other one!"

Hearing that , Lester got on his horse and headed down the hill. The other little weasel, who mentioned his name was Sty, had Grant lay on the ground. Lester was close enough to speak normally now.

"Did you deliver that woman already? I hope you had a little fun for me while you were at it."

Sty was pulling out rope and laughing, until the sound of another gunshot cut him short. Sty fell over with a gurgle coming out of the hole in his neck.

Grant looked up to see Lester had a gun trained on him. Removing his mask, Lester had apparently had some work done.

"Y'all look surprised, Grant. I told you I wasn't always a housewife. "

b Jolie leapt off the horse and ran to Grant's arms. He held on for dear life.

"How the hell are you here? I was about to load up the traitor and..... you know...."

"Rescue me? You are just too cute. I'm not very good at being a damsel in distress, and with what this shitbird over here just did to me, it lit a fire in the parts of me I'd repressed to keep him happy. I don't know why you'd waste time on trash like that. "

She spat towards Frank. There was a forest fire raging in those eyes.

"That leaves me with one question. Why the hell were you shooting at me? "

"Grant, sweetie, you think I'd have missed at a measly hundred yards? I was trying to warn you about the i***t behind you. When I saw he was too close, I played along. You don't have to worry about Lester coming back. He should've been thinking with his big head. The first time we stopped, he thought he'd take advantage of me. I made sure that he wouldn't have to live with that mistake. Now, what to do with Frank."

"Later on I'll tell you about all the ways you're amazing, but for now I planned to bandage him up and take him with us. Neither of us needs his blood on our hands. I'm not sure how Junior would take that. By the way, where is he?"

"I hid him in a secret compartment in the wagon. He was supposed to escape and meet me over by that patch of trees. You mean you ain't seen him yet?"

Grant hurried to where she pointed. In the ground were drag marks by some hoof prints.

"Someone grabbed him. We're in luck though. They are headed the same direction we are. Those Hunters aren't far behind Tad and the others. If they have him, they would use him as a hostage to make them surrender. We need to go "

Jolie made her way to Frank and kicked him in the ribs.

"You happy now needledick?? Our son might end up getting hurt because of your selfish bullshit."

"That's on you honey. If you'd been faithful, I'd have never hurt either of you "

"You're right, Frank. I got it pretty bad for Grant. One minute he was a stranger, and the next, he was saving me from being f*****g raped. That's right asshole. That's why I couldn't talk to you. If you knew how close I had gotten, you'd have left me. Called me a w***e! Because I was assaulted!!! That's what got me thinking about us. When you hit me, I was done. I wanted to shoot you then and there, but I thought about Junior. About how I'd even explain that. By not taking action, I let things get worse. The same way you did by not rescuing me your damn self. I don't know what the future holds, but this marriage is over one way or the other! If we are packing up this useless meatsack, we better get started. I can't let Junior be hurt. "

"We'll get him back, Jolie."

At that the discussion ended. They started preparing the wagon to take Frank with them.