Chapter 1

The first I was aware there were trespassers on my ranch I was coming back from town after buying a load of supplies. I was taking them back to what I consider my summer home when I saw a new model car stopped on one of my ranch roads leading in that direction.

This development made me very angry since I've always been a private sort of person, even more so after my military tours in the wars in the middle east. I had allowed no one except a few cowboys who I knew on the ranch since my uncle had died and I'd inherited it.

Stopping my truck I stealthily took my rifle from the rack behind my seat and approached the empty car. The windows were down and the keys in the ignition. I popped the hood and removed the distributor rotor, then drove my truck to my original destination.

Thirty minutes later I approached the car again. This time I was in full camouflage gear and crawling. No one was near the car so I circled it until I found three sets of girl or small woman sized footprints leading away from the road.

Their trail began circling within a hundred yards of the road, so I settled down to wait patiently. About five minutes later I heard them coming back by.

The three girls were making as much noise as any forty Girl Scouts I'd ever seen in the woods! They stopped not five yards away from me and never saw me.

"Jennifer, we ought to leave you alone for insisting we take a hike and find a camping spot!" The speaker sounded angry, and the other one joined in against Jennifer.

It must have been Jennifer who answered back. "Would you please remind me whose big idea it was to run away from home? We've driven two hundred miles on a tank of gas and no one has a clue of where we are any more than we do!"

Their conversation was sounding more interesting all the time! I backed away from them and went to change back into casual clothing. There was nothing to gain in giving them any more information to identify me by.

The girls were predictably easy to find again, I simply went back to the same spot and waited for their next circle. I was sincerely glad I'd spotted their car to begin with.

If they'd gotten lost an hour or so later I wouldn't have found their car for a week or more and by that time it would have been days too late for them.

"Halt right where you are." I ordered them. "This is the County Sheriff and we have a complaint you're rustlers." They must have been relieved to have been found by someone in authority, and certain this confusion could be cleared up quickly.

"We ran away from home, sir." Two of the girls spoke at once. "Call our parents and they'll vouch for us!"

"Oh, that explains everything then." I told them, "You didn't look like any gang of hardened rustlers I've ever seen. I still have to take you in, and department regulations say I have to restrain your hands while in custody. Put your hands behind your backs, please. It will only be for a little while."

Two minutes later I had each of their hands secured with sturdy plastic wire ties. I told them, "Okay, follow me, girls."

They had no earthly idea of their present location, except perhaps which state. As we walked I questioned them about their hometown, wanting to be certain they hadn't been circling in their car, too. They were two hundred miles from their hometown, alright.

Up to then I had broken no laws, except for impersonating a police officer, and that could be explained by the fact they were trespassing on my land.

I had spent hundreds of dollars on the posted signs. The painter had made a mistake in his spelling, and about half of them said, "Trespassers will be persecuted!"

I'd liked them all but the painter had insisted on giving me a discount, I liked them even better then. I'd worked for a solid week to put all of the signs around my perimeter, my ranch is rather large.

If I piled the girls into my truck and took them into town I'd get nothing but commendations from the real Sheriff. The girls were tempting me though. A couple of them were enough to make a man's prick get hard and his mouth salivate at a glance. The other was merely gorgeous.

I made the fateful decision I just had to get to know them better, and yes, I knew that meant in the Biblical sense, too. I was taking these young stray girls as my own, and as long as I was discrete about it, I'd get away with it.

I led the girls to the old fort. That was the only name I had thought of it by since I'd found it as a boy while searching for a stray cow and her calf.

The historical society would have turned hand springs to have this site under their control. That's also why I was as determined they'd never even hear of it.

I led the girls into the cave, then into one of the cells. The last one in, I think it was Jennifer, got spooky and headed back out. "Where do you think you're going, young lady? If you really want to be lost in the woods with your hands behind your back, I'll let you go?"

"Alright, Girls, listen up here. You are about to learn an important lesson. You're all in this together. Until further notice, when one of you behaves stupidly you will all be treated as if you were stupid."

"You were behaving stupidly when you got lost. It was only luck caused me to go to town today, rather than next week. Had it been next week you'd all been buzzard bait when I found you, and I'd be drowning my sorrows for you in a bottle, or several bottles. Instead, you are now safe and under my protection."

I'd always known the people who'd stocked the cave had to have been Confederates. I'd found numerous buckles, sabers, some firearms and other memorabilia. There were supplies stored here for prisoners, too.

There were iron shackles small enough to fit the girl's necks and I took them to their cell. Locking those around their pretty necks took only a few minutes, then I secured the ends of the chains to the upper crossbar of the cell.

I'd put the girls on their tiptoes as an incentive to follow my next order. I clipped the plastic ties off their wrists, then told them, "I'm leaving for a while, you can spend that time removing your clothing and praying for my safe return. The last people here besides you and me were here in the 1800s during the Civil War."

I started at the tallest girl, the brunette, "Your name is Jennifer, right?" She nodded and I kissed her passionately. She had dark eyes and full lips to die for! Her complexion had to be one of Mediterranean descent. She made no effort to avoid my kiss and I accepted her reaction as a good start.

The second tallest girl was a blonde, I asked her, "Your name is?"

"Sharon." She answered. She had pretty greyish blue eyes. Her most striking and quite possibly her most attractive features were her cute little upturned nose and a sassy looking mouth that would make a mom want to slap her and a man want to kiss her.

I did just that after first kissing her pretty nose. I went for it and put some fire in the kiss. She responded and her knees went limp as a dishtowel. I had to hold her up until she recovered, not that it was a hardship for me!

The smallest girl had her long blond hair tied back behind two of the prettiest tiny ears in existence. Her mouth had a grim set to it as if she were trying hard not to cry.

I put a finger under her chin and raised it gently. "Your name has to be Dolly." I told her. "You are the prettiest baby doll I've seen in years!"

She opened the most beautiful set of blue eyes I've ever seen, and for a moment I felt as if I were falling into them! I leaned to her sweet lips and kissed her chastely. I'll be damned if the little sweetheart didn't kiss me back!