They Ain't Proper by M.B. Guel

Author:M.B. Guel [Guel, M.B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642474824
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2023-06-01T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Lou hadn’t had a lot of luck in their life.

They had started out pretty all right. Their pa was okay with them not exactly fitting into the role they were expected to as a “girl.” They had a good ranch and a good horse. But somewhere there in the middle, somewhere between joining the Army and being forced to run far away or be hanged for war crimes, their luck had run out.

It was hard but they recovered and they felt okay about their life. At first Clementine showing up on their doorstep had felt like a huge burden, but they realized it had been good fortune to have Clementine Castellanos in their life, even if she was destined to leave in the end.

Lou felt privileged to be the cause of those little smiles or the way her eyes crinkled when she laughed.

Yeah, she might have moved on, but Lou was glad to have had her in their life while they did.

They just never figured their luck would run out with Butch fucking Burner. But here they were, sitting on a horse that wasn’t theirs, with a rope around their neck.

The rope was thick, the loose fibers sticking into their skin and feeling itchy. They looked out at the crowd that had formed in front of them, all the townsfolk who had given them sideways glances and made snide remarks. Now they all waited to watch them die.

The sun was setting behind them, a purple glow practically radiating from the mountains and reflecting on the dry earth around them. Dry, save for the large, gnarled tree that held the other end of the rope they were tied to.

Many a time they had seen men hanging from it. Sometimes they’d leave them up for days until the buzzards had picked their bones clean. They hoped they wouldn’t leave them up, for Clementine’s sake, though she seemed to hate them now, so maybe she’d enjoy that.

Lou’s heart ached at the thought of her and the last conversation they had. If they could call it that. She had been so angry, so upset.

When they had first heard the door of the jail open, they’d allowed themself to wish that it might be her. They even sat up on their cot hopefully, only to be disappointed when Butch came through the door instead with a new rage in his eyes. Butz opened the jail cell for him and Lou stared down Butch, raising themself to their full height.

Butch stared back at them, pulling some rope off his belt. “All right now, let’s go.”

“I ain’t goin’ nowhere with you,” Lou spat.

“You don’t have much of a choice,” Butch said, reaching for their arm. They batted him away but he punched them in their injured arm and they crumpled to the ground with a scream. He rolled Lou on their belly and hogtied them; their hands and legs tugged with cruel efficiency behind their back.

“Fuck you,” they growled, pain shooting through their injured arm as Butch managed to lift them onto his shoulder, his shoulder bone sticking into their stomach.

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