Down in the valley below as he was checking and resetting traps, Garrett heard the echo of a woman’s scream carried on the wind. Dropping the trap he ran to his horse, grabbing the saddle horn he swung himself onto his horse. He rode swiftly up the valley back tracking the echo from where it first came from. Riding through the trees at a slowing his pace, avoiding the fallen trees until he came upon a ridge, a ridge that would enable him to look over the valley and beyond. Out of the corner of his eyes, Garrett saw the rumps of several horses heading towards the coulee.

Letting his horse make its own way down the steep hill, he came upon horse tracks – fresh ones, no more than a few hours old and one that was carrying more than one person. Following the tracks back to where they originally started he found himself in a place he hadn’t been in two weeks.

 Jumping down off his horse Garrett started to look over every inch of the area. At first nothing appeared out of place. However the more he walked around the more things begun to appear out of sorts. Feeling the groves in the ground he knew there was a struggle one against five or maybe six. All around the groves and in the grass, Garrett found pieces of a woman’s dress. Not just any woman’s dress – Genisis’s, the very same one he saw her wearing two weeks ago when the first spoke.

“Genisis…” Garrett mumbled as he held the torn piece of her dress.

“I will hunt them down and kill them! I will find you!”

Standing, slowly up Garrett from the corner of his eye spotted the blood soaked rock and the empty satchels in the bush. Satchels monogrammed with the general stores name. Wasting not a second more Garrett ran to his horse and jumped on her back. Turning her around to follow the trail to where he saw the horses go into the bush. Studying the horse tracks as he rode beside them, he figured there were at least six horse and five men. One horse was carrying a heavy burden, and beside the sunken tracks where droplets of blood.

A trail of blood that wasn’t stopping, or letting up.

“Hold on, Genisis. I’m coming.”

Riding hard and fast following the tracks down to the coulee, the further into the coulee he rode Garrett realized that he knew where they took her. Deep in the coulee laid a small shack, one that wasn’t owned by anyone but was used by everyone. One that was used quite a bit when a sudden blizzard or rain storm came up. Despite being well known it was still a perfect hiding spot when on the run or looking to stay low.  It was hardly used over the past few years, since Jasper started to lose the mountain men.

“Whoa!” Garrett quietly stopped his horse in the low bush several feet away from the shack.

“Steady girl, I will be back. Now rest and be ready.” Garrett stroked his horse’s neck as he tied her to the bush.

Softly and slowly he crept closer to the camp around the shack the men had set up. He walked so soft that not even a twig or blade of grass broke under his weight. Creeping closer to the camp he saw four men sitting around the camp fire laughing and drinking whiskey. While a fifth one came out of the shack and stood beside the fire and joining in the merriment. Garrett wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying and to get any closer was putting him in danger, perhaps Genisis too. So he waited patiently in the dark for the right moment as the men grew silent.

The silence was long until eventually broken by Carl Hopken, now that the main deed was done it was time for him to tell the group why he wanted to get even with her.

“One day, not to long go I saw Genisis walking down the street and thought it would be funny to sneak up on her, so I grabbed her around the waist. When she turned around I planted a quick kiss on her lips. God they were soft. She shoved me back and wiped the kiss off with the back of her hand before she slapped my face quite hard for a girl. I have to admit I was taken back by the slap and I was stunned when she told me that it was not nice to do that. I never really cared about things like; you see I left my parent's farm when I was fifteen. Too many mouths to feed so I thought one less mouth there would be more for the rest of the family to feed. I’ve been drifting ever since that day. Along the way I would pick up work on a ranch but after a few months go back to drifting again.”

“A little while ago I asked her out to go on a picnic the following Saturday.  I had the cafe owner make a basket for us and told her that I would pick it up at noon. When she said no, that made me mad so grabbed her arm and asked why. Well she told me to let go of her and that not all girls wanted to be treat so rough. The girls I know like it rough and dirty. She told me that if I did leave her alone that she would get her father and the sheriff so I backed off right away. Don't need any sheriff snooping in to my background.” James mumbled.

Harold continued off where his brother stopped “I was coming out of the tavern when I saw the exchanged between the two of them. But it was James’s facial expression of hurt and embarrassment that set me off heading towards her. I grabbed her arm and tugged her down the alley. Threw her up against the side of the building and without thinking I kissed her. That was one mistake I won't try again. I backed away from her to give us some space when she spat on the ground.  Felt like slapping her for such an insult cause I remember my father telling us how to keep our women in line. Wiping her hand across her mouth she told me that I was just like my brother and walked out of the alley at a fast walk.”

There was a pause for a few minutes to let all of this knowledge soak in, when Tom explained his history with Genisis. “I was in town buying some supplies that Mabel needed for the house. Everybody knew that my parents took in this Negro couple who fell upon hard times. After a few years my father decided to put their names on the ranch as partners just in case something happens then the ranch would still be in the family. Nobody thought that in six months my parents and Mabel's husband would die when that flu epidemic hit the town. I was only five years old at the time and before my mother passed away she asked Mabel to raise me.  There was a social dance coming up and asked her if she would like to come with me. In a very loud voice she said no never so that everybody in the store heard and could hear them snickering. Dam I was so embarrassed that I left and went to the saloon to get a drink.”

The four men turned to their leader Hart to learn what she had done to him. Looking at the guys Frank begun to speak, “I was coming from the blacksmith when he saw her standing at the corner. There was a bunch of wild looking men who just rode up to the saloon and were tying off their horses. I offered to walk her back to the store so I grabbed her arm and walked her by the men who were given me hints on what to do. I told them that I would try but she was very hard to please. After we past them she turned around and gave a good dressing down to me, right there on the boardwalk. Those men heard everything and it wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't start to laugh. She walked away heading back to the store and I mumble under my breath that I would get even with her one day. And I did, we all did.”

After saying his piece, Hart left the fire side to go back to the shack to check on the girl. Carl and Tom were talking about what they would do with the money while the Carter brothers looked at Frank for they knew the truth (That the bunch of men were the rest of their gang who finally caught up to them, in place a different section later) Nobody knew that Hart had killed the owners of his ranch and took over the running of it to make himself look good to the community.  After a few months the Carter brothers drifted in and lent their abilities to helping run the ranch. What few cowhands that was on the ranch actually did the ranch work while Hart and the Carters took to robbing, stealing and rustling the cattle. Should the townsfolks and surrounding family’s new the truth about their past and that they belong to gang of thieves under the command of Wilson Morgan who was going by the name of Frank Hart. They would be run out of town and the territory.

 As the men talked Garrett moved to a thicker bush to hide behind, with a better view of the men Garrett was stunned to see that the four men were from Jasper. Worse than that he knew them only in passing but he knew them.

“Oh my God!” Garrett spoke quietly to himself as he moved closer to the shack.

Looking over to the shack and through the large, broken window the fifth man was slapping and hitting Genisis hard as she laid on a bed unconscious. He continuously hit her trying to arouse her back to life. Stopping from what seemed like an endless beating to throw a log on the dwindling fire, so he could see and enjoy his victim’s pain. The burst of flames lit up the shack enough to reveal the man’s face to Garrett.

“Hart?!” Garrett quietly mumbled under his breath in utter disbelief.

The shock quickly wore off after remembering something his father once told him about Franklin ‘Frank’ Hart. Red told him about how Frank took over the ranch and how he hits his women though it was only a rumor, one that was now proven true right before his very own eyes. A man who would beat a woman was no man, this Red taught him since he was a child. Women were to be loved and respected, not to be beaten and broken. Witnessing Hart beating her made Garrett want to break cover and attack, not just Hart but all the others too. He calmed his heart down long enough to wait for the right moment to strike.

A calm that was ready to break at any moment.