I
KANSAS, 1876
F THEY CAME BACK tonight, I’d kill them both. I brushed the hair off my face, dirt mingling with the blood from my cut lip, and stood up. The front door to the cabin hung open, but at least they hadn’t burned the place. They hadn’t killed me, either, and that was a mistake they’d come to regret. It had been dusk, and I was cleaning up after dinner, the sun like a big sunny-side up egg, low enough it was sinking into the prairie. Ray went to the barn to check on the horses when I heard the shots, then the laughter, which near froze me on the spot. I peered out the window and saw two men, both still on their horses, and then Ray, on the ground beside the open barn door, unmoving, a crimson flower blooming on his white shirt and spreading beneath him. I grabbed his Colt from the holster where it hung beside the door and crouched beside the stove. “Little Missus, we come by for some dessert,” said the first one, ducking his head as he came through the door, while his friend, a bit shorter, followed close behind. “We was thinking some pie?”
“Jesus, Seth, you kill me,” said the short one. “Pie. Huh.” He fingered his mustache and peered around. It was a small cabin, and it wouldn’t take them long to see me. I shot the big one, but he’d turned at the last minute and the bullet winged him rather than hitting his heart. He screamed like a gutted pig anyway. Before I could get off another shot, the other man hit me in the face, and the Colt clattered to the floor with me right beside it. He moved quicker than I could’ve believed and picked up the Colt, pointing it at my head. “Get your bitch ass outside.” I had little choice, and while Seth banged around inside, smashing things and presumably bandaging up his arm, his friend hit me enough to keep me down before he unbuckled his pants. By that time, I couldn’t move much except my eyes, but that was enough to see Ray’s eyes, only a few feet away, were open too but never going to shut again. I could feel the grit and little pebbles in the grass embedding themselves in my back as the man shoved into me again and again. “Ruben, you ever going to get finished?” The short man grunted and stood up, hauling up
