Mail Order Bride: Captured Hearts: a Clean Western Historical Romance (Mail Order Brides of Gold Creek Book 6) by Emily Woods

Author:Emily Woods
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2015-10-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

“Now you’ll think twice about being such a hero!” the bandits sneered.

He took a large swing and pounded his fist into Ira’s stomach. The pain was almost unbearable and it felt to Ira like his guts were being destroyed inside him. He had little doubt that he would meet his end there, in an abandoned ranch on the outskirts of Ruby Ridge.

He was strung up, his hands tied together and hung up from the ceiling. The only thing keeping him alive was the bench that he could just about reach with the tips of his toes. Whenever he lost his precarious balance and his foot slipped, it felt like his arms would be torn from their sockets. He could hear Abe screaming out in pain from the next room and tried not to think of what was happening to him. He didn’t even know where Curtis was. He stared at the man who had just punched him, who now strode around the room with all the pride and importance of a military general.

Ira knew that he and Abe and Curtis should have just killed them back at the Dunn’s ranch, rather than merely chasing them away. The problem was that his first instinct was not to kill or destroy, but to build. His soul ached when he thought about what his life had become. Out in the wilderness chasing bandits? It wasn’t the life for him – not because he was afraid but because there was so much more he wanted out of life.

“You’re going to die tonight,” one of the bandits taunted him, pushing him out of balance and making him swing from the ceiling.

Ira resisted the urge to shout out in pain, knowing that he would be further ridiculed for it.

A strange thought struck him while he swung painfully.

These people have nothing to live for.

It was plain to Ira that this thought was true, for otherwise why would they be prepared to torture and kill people who hadn’t even harmed them, merely stood in the way of their way when robbing innocent people? Ira knew that the bandits couldn’t have any dreams, for it was his own dreams that kept him wishing that he could stay alive and that they didn’t have to fight.

Yet the dead eyes of these men lit up when they fought and struck and inflicted pain, as if they were getting a sick thrill from hurting other people. No one with hope or dreams would do that, Ira thought.

But all the theorizing in the world wouldn’t save him as one of the bandits approached him with a pack of dynamite, a twisted smile on his face.

“Goodbye, hero,” he said. “Say hello to the devil for me.”

***

“How will we find him?” Mollie asked, panicked.

She rode on the back of Antinanco’s horse behind Antinanco himself, her hair flying out wildly behind her as they stormed across the wide plains. Huyana had insisted on coming and sat in front of her father, her chest puffed out with all the bravery of a seasoned warrior.

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