31

                                    

                                          
So began our new routine. Every morning when Gaines woke, he leaned over, softly kissing the bare skin of my shoulder or neck. I would jerk away with a scowl. He would only smile and whisper “Sweet Molly”. Every time he entered the shack he would come over and take my chin in his hands, planting a firm but gentle kiss on my lips. 
No matter how I struggled to turn my face away he never let me. I would immediately wipe my mouth, as if to rid it of his touch but he would only smile and murmur “Sweetest Molly”. Night after night, held in his arms, caressed by disgusting fingers, I would go rigid, doing my best to shove away. Day after endless day this routine was repeated with mind numbing steadiness. 
Gaines had something up his sleeve with this new approach, and it worried me. Somehow, his kindness made me more afraid than ever before. What was he trying to do? 
As this new attack continued, I lost track of the time, not knowing even the season beyond the small meadow Gaines had holed us up in. In chains, the housework was minimal, and he provided canned beans and hunks of steak to eat, along with bitterly dark coffee. In a fight for my life, I felt like I was slowly suffocating. 
It was mentally exhausting to keep my guard up against his kindness. I found him repulsing, was disgusted by him, yet it became harder and harder to react, becoming forcibly accustomed to his touch. One morning I woke to find him watching me, deep set eyes locked on my face, a smile on his lips. Leaning down he kissed my neck, his hand stroking my hip. 
“Sweet Molly. Mornin’.” 
He got up, walking to the stove to make a pot of coffee before I realized what had just happened. I hadn’t jerked away! Instantly sick I scrambled to my knees and made for the water bucket, throwing up. Wiping my mouth, I looked over my shoulder to find him smiling, but it wasn’t a kind smile. It was smug and full of arrogance. 
“Won’t be long before yer beggin’ me, ‘please’.” 
Heart skipping rapidly, I realized this had been his plan all along, but I hadn’t credited him with enough wit. I had underestimated him, and men more powerful than I had been brought to their end by the very same mistake. In that moment I decided my future. I hated him, and from now on he would feel it! Shoving unsteadily to my feet, I glared back. 
“I will die before I ask you for anything, Chess Gaines! I promise you, you will not break me, not with force, not with kindness, not with time!” 
Regarding me with an amused grin, he scratched his jaw. 
“We’ll see, sweet Molly, we’ll see.” 
Beneath the hatred, I was afraid, and he knew it. 
~~~ 
Tyler and Kajika broke camp, mounting up. The trail they followed grew colder by the hour. They had been at it for a long time now, trying to track a bird across the landscape. Even Kajika, with all his skill, repeatedly lost the trail. Chess Gaines was proving to be a man with surprising talents. 
“I think he continues that way.” The Shoshone pointed northwest, directly toward the long string of mountains that rose from the earth. 
“I thought you said his place was Nevada way.” 
“This is where the trail leads, Brother. What can we do but follow?” 
“Can you keep his trail?” Tyler was worn out, dirty, and bitter. “He’s like a ghost out here.” 
“I do not believe in ghosts, only men.” Kajika was feeling much the same but was not driven by the raging fury that consumed Nolan. “I can find him.” 
“Let’s go then. We’re burnin’ daylight just sittin’ here!” 
Without waiting, Tyler moved out, his eyes following the faint trail of hoof prints in the dust. The wounds on his back were healing well, but the in the dry heat the scabs cracked, catching his shirt. As a result he often felt a smarting pain as one came off, blood trickling down his back. Along with everything else, it made him unreasonably irritable.