The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,194

and moving on down the road.

He didn’t like the feel of this. Whoever this belonged to hadn’t gone far. The rabbit was nearly done and it was obvious they wouldn’t go off and let it burn. He peered into the shadows beneath the trees, but saw no one.

At that point, Letty handed Eulis the rifle and started to get down. He grabbed her by the arm.

“Where are you goin’?”

“You have to ask?” she drawled.

“Lord, Leticia, your bladder sure does act up at the worst times. Can’t you wait?”

“I been waiting for more than six hours.”

“But this camp… it doesn’t feel right.”

“It can’t feel any worse than my bladder,” Letty said, and began to climb down.

At that moment, there was movement in the shadows. Eulis grabbed Letty’s arm.

“Wait!”

She turned, watching as a small brown woman emerged from the trees with a gun aimed in their direction. Her face looked as if she’d been beaten, and as they watched her come closer, realized that her hair had been chopped off, her cheek had been slashed and the end of her nose had been cut off, too.

“We saw your fire,” Letty said. “We mean you no harm.”

“You go now… I don’t shoot you!” Millie Sees Crow said.

“Please,” Letty said. “We need to water our mules.”

“Don’t forget to tell her that you also need to pee,” Eulis drawled.

Letty glared.

Millie Sees Crow grinned. “You go make water there,” she told Letty, pointing to the bushes behind the wagon.

“Thank you,” Letty said, and was undoing the rope around her waist as she hurried away.

There was some noise in the wagon behind Eulis, and then suddenly Emory’s head appeared over the side.

“That’s Black Dog’s woman. Watch out. He’s still somewhere in the trees!”

Eulis spun, his fear for Letty uppermost.

“Letty! It’s Black Dog’s camp! Look out! Look out!”

Millie’s eyes widened when she saw Emory’s face. She pointed at him with her chin and then grinned.

“Aaiieee! It is the trapper, James. You don’t die.”

Emory ducked back down into the wagon.

Eulis didn’t know what to do. For all he knew, he already had Letty in his clutches.

“Letty! Letty! Are you all right?”

Letty came out of the bushes tying the rope back around her waist.

“Yes, I’m fine. What’s all the yelling about?”

“Emory said that’s Black Dog’s woman.”

Letty’s smile slipped sideways. Lord. Why was it that they always stepped into the shit instead of over it?

She scooted behind the wagon then peered over the side.

“Where’s Black Dog?”

“Dead!” Millie said.

Emory came out from under the tarp within seconds.

“Dead? Where?”

Millie pointed with her chin. “Two days that way.”

“Are you sure? How did it happen?”

“I sure. I stuck knife in him.”

Everyone stared at the little brown woman. She didn’t look like a killer, but they didn’t have a reason to dispute her word.

Letty circled the wagon and moved toward the fire. She pointed at Millie’s face.

“Did he do that to you?”

Millie nodded. “I cut off man part. See.”

She held up a strip of rawhide that she’d tied around her waist. The trio stared in horror at the short piece of man meat hanging at the end of the strip.

“Good Lord,” Letty muttered.

Eulis felt his testicles drawing up into his belly and cupped himself in reflex.

Emory climbed over the side of the wagon and then wobbled toward the fire.

“Sorry about what happened to your face, but it don’t matter a bit to me,” he said, then pointed to the rabbit. “Reckon I could have me a piece of that rabbit?”

Millie pointed her rifle.

“Shoot your own,” she said, and waved the gun in Emory’s face.

Emory didn’t take her seriously, and saw this as his opportunity to get away from Letty and her gun.

“Come on, Millie… you’re gonna need someone to take care of you. Black Dog hurt me, too. He took my horse, left me for dead. You and me… we’ll be good together. I don’t beat my women.”

Letty didn’t believe what she was hearing. Even if the woman was an Indian, she didn’t deserve an asshole like Emory James.

“Millie? Your name is Millie?” Letty asked.

The little Indian woman frowned. “No. Black Dog call me that. I am Sees Crow of the Comanche. I need no one to take care of me. I take care of myself.”

Letty eyed the piece of shriveled up prick dangling near her knee, and allowed as how the little woman sure could do that.

“We’re gonna be moving on down the road now,” Letty said.

Millie Sees Crow nodded. When Emory started toward her, she pointed the gun at his belly and frowned.

“You go