Free Bare Back by N Kuhn

play with her when he’s done. She looks like she could be fun. Plus, your brother shot me because of her, so the way I see it, she owes me. Now let’s get out of here while Ricky takes care of your brother.” His leer makes my skin crawl. Without further talk, Cameron pulls on my arm, dragging me along the rocky ledge. Stumbling, trying to keep up, I try to scan the surrounding area. Dark was almost settled in and I can’t see much.
     
    “Mitch, help me, please, Mitch,” I scream out at the top of my lungs. Hopefully I at least alert him that something’s wrong. He probably can’t reach me in time, but it’s a warning that he’s in danger. “Mi-“ A hand connects with my face, knocking me sideways into the rock wall, cutting off my shouts. My head bounces off of a rock and begins throbbing with pain.  Sliding down to my knees, I hold my head in my hands as I hear Cameron and Paul arguing. I can feel the blood instantly.
    “Be careful with her, you dumb ass. My father wants her unharmed. Did I not just say that to you? You really are an idiot. The less marks you leave on her, the less angry he will be for this botched up mess.”
“I’ll do what I want. She owes me. She’s owed me for ten years and I’m aiming to collect.”
“Listen you stupid hick, she just alerted your brother we’re here. Even I’m not stupid enough to wait around for him. Let’s go.” Without warning, I feel arms wrap around me, hefting me easily over their shoulder. Trying to look through the hair hanging in my face, I see Cameron behind us, so Paul must have picked me up. As I bounce around while he walks, his shoulder keeps pushing into my stomach and I’m glad I didn’t really get to eat. Cameron stares at me as we move along the ledge. A wave of dizziness blurs my vision.
“Don’t worry Kel, we’ll catch up soon enough. You owe me, remember?” I choose to ignore him. The three of us all remain silent, except for Cameron’s labored breath as we climb down the rock hill.
     
    Finally reaching the base of the forest, there are horses waiting. I can’t look around to see where or how many, but I can hear them snorting and stomping at the ground. A pang of sorrow flashes through my chest. I hope my horses are okay. I’m thrown to the ground, landing on my ass, not for the first time today. Pain spirals up my spine. As I look up, Paul is adjusting something on the saddle that I recognize. Sansa. It’s my horse.
“Where’d you get the horses Cam?” I hear Paul ask.
“They’s running around when I was trying to get to your location so I just grabbed em up.”
“Nice, wonder if they were Billy Joe’s,” Paul says. Keeping my mouth shut, I feel Cameron jerk me to my feet. His meaty hand wrapped around my arm again. Holding both my wrists together in front of me he ties them together with rope I had hanging from my saddle bag. But he doesn’t stop there, he then wraps it around my arms, pinning them to my sides. Great, there goes any shot I have of getting out of here.
“Don’t even think about it Cam. You’re not taking her. You won’t be able to keep your hands to yourself. I know we both want some fun, but I have to follow my dad’s orders or it’s my ass. This is my last chance. If I fail, who knows what he’ll do to me,” Paul says. Guess he must have really messed up bad before. Sighing, Cameron leads me around Shelby towards Paul, who’s waiting next to Sansa. She must realize I’m here because she turns her head, snorting at the men. She nudges me with her face, and I try to rub my cheek on her nose. Inhaling the familiar scent helps ground me a little. Pushing my fear deep down, I steel myself, knowing that Mitch will find me. He has to, it’s his job, and it doesn’t even have to do with whether he really loves me or not. I can ignore my feelings. They aren’t real anyways. Love isn’t real. But he’s ex-Military and a Ranger. He has to find me. It’s just the way those kind of guys