Chapter 87

Racaato's rifle cracked and destroyed the stillness of the night. A scream from those approaching helped add to their confusion. I was observing with the goggles and saw the party halt. Racaato fired again and the scream this time was even louder.

"You, standing beside Jara, if you do not want to die, lay down on your face with your arms out in front of you," I said, yelling it to him as I started their way.

In a surprising moment of lucid deduction he did it. I doubt he would have if he'd known Dieta would soon be presiding over his torture. We all approached then and Jara rushed into my arms when we drew near, but I hugged her to me with my left arm while keeping my Glock pointed in the direction of the men on the ground.

"Dieta, tie the hands of the one who wasn't shot. Jara, let us see if we can stop the bleeding of the other two," I said.

"Why. We should just kill them and the one you didn't shoot also. They dragged me from my camp after Barbo was killed. They say they are taking over my camp," Jara said, and was almost screeching from her anger.

"They are not taking over your camp no matter what they think. We will probably kill them soon. Barbo was not dead when we left your camp and Jalayla was going to see about him. We want these to live for a while because Dieta thinks she can make them tell us their plans. We will need to keep them alive long enough for her attentions."

"Oh, I see. In that case we should hurry. Maybe Dieta will let me help her," Jara said, and her mood had changed at once.

She dropped to her knees to look at the wound of the first one Racaato had shot. It was apparent she didn't know anything about using pressure to stop the blood flow. She did understand a tourniquet though, and she didn't waste any time applying one just above the man's ruined knee. I turned to see how Racaato was doing with the other one.

"I must have pulled the shot too high for this one. It entered his thigh and he is bleeding much more than the other one. I tied a thong around his leg above the wound, but I don't think it is helping," Racaato said.

"It doesn't matter. We have two alive - surely we can get one to talk. If not I'm sure Dieta can at least make them scream for a while," I said, making sure it was loud enough for the men to hear.

I didn't really relish torturing them, but there were no rules of warfare in this time. I had seen from the way they'd acted so far they would have done the same or worse. Just then I thought I heard a voice yelling from a long distance. I called for quiet and we all listened, but didn't hear anything.

Racaato had been right in his diagnosis. His guy died pretty quickly. Dieta and Jara had the bleeding stopped for the other one, but I saw they didn't intend to let the pressure off the tourniquet periodically.

They had tied the rawhide cord off with a knot that could only be untied with a knife. It didn't really matter, since Racaato's shot had destroyed the knee. He probably wouldn't be any better off with a dragging leg than he would be with a missing leg.

I decided I should clue them in though, in case it ever came up with reference to one of my legs. I explained about the blood's circulation, which was a revelation to them, and then we released the tourniquet and put on another one which could be tightened or loosened with a stick wound up in it.

He bled some more when we released it, but not nearly as much as he had at first. Jara claimed she could take care of him well enough if Dieta wanted to get started trying to convince the other one to talk.

Dieta outdid herself almost at once with the other man. She pulled out the drop point hunter I had given her, placed the point firmly in his ear and told him if he didn't tell us everything he knew about today's goings on pretty quickly she was going to start pushing and twisting on the knife.

No wonder it worked on him. It made my asshole draw up and want a dip of snuff, and she wasn't even mad at me.

We soon knew this had been pretty much a target of opportunity type thing. Jakado had sent the seven men out just to take a look at Barbo and his camp's situation. When they arrived and found Barbo was terribly wounded they made their own decision to take over.

They'd learned Racaato had raced off to get help and posted the two sentries to send us back. The one on the ground had no idea we'd already disposed of all those he left at Barbo's camp. He was shocked when Dieta told him he and the one who was shot in the knee were the only two left alive.

"What will you do with me now?" he asked.

"It will be Jara's decision. What do you think she'll do with you? You came to her camp while her mate and his second were badly wounded from cave lions and instead of helping, you captured her and tried to take over her camp. I'm guessing she is going to want you dead, but she might find a use for you cleaning up after our horses or something," I said.

"If we need help so bad cleaning up after the horses I will do it myself. Let's just kill him and be done with it. If we keep him around we will have to watch him always," Jara said, sharing her feelings on the matter with us, loudly.

"I suppose you are right. He has already demonstrated he doesn't mind kidnapping women. What do you say Dieta, what are your thoughts on the treatment he should receive."

"I would like to see how much of his worthless skin I can get off of him before he dies," Dieta said.

So much for the kindness of the fairer sex. It seemed the tender feelings were not to be extended to men who kidnapped women. I wasn't ready to kill him yet though.

I didn't intend to do it myself anyway, since he might have a mate and I damned sure wasn't interested in gaining another one tonight. I wasn't sure where the duty would lie if Dieta killed him and since I was pretty sure Jara would be joining me in my bed after all this I didn't want to chance letting her kill him either.

I decided there was no time like the present to get things sorted out.

"Dieta, will you ask your new friend which of the other men we met tonight had mates? We might as well start planning for what tomorrow will bring," I said.