The Daring Prey

Chapter Two-1

Chapter Two

The stagecoach lurched and wobbled along the dirt road, heading south from Gordburg towards the first little hamlet along the way. The place didn't have a name. Straps hung down on the inside of the coach for passengers to hang on to and Alexa clung to hers. They weren't traveling all that quickly, but someone had decided to make the stagecoach as authentic as possible, which meant that it had an authentic Nineteenth Century suspension. The seat cushions could have been padded a little more to compensate, but nobody had bothered with that.

"Rough ride, isn't it?" Mike smiled at her from the opposite seat. They were the only two passengers. That was understandable, since this was the first stage of the day and it left Gordburg so early in the morning that it was barely daylight. Alexa had taken it thinking that she might get enough of a head start on Mike to make it hard for him to catch up to her, but when she'd arrived at the station she'd found him already there and waiting for her. She had to admire his determination, but he was putting something of a crimp in her plans. Dinner with him last night had been fun. He was witty and well-traveled, wouldn't give her any more than hints about what he did for a living and was clearly interested in her. It was all very flattering to be the focus of his attention, but she was going to have to find a way to shake him before he messed up her plans. Last year, she had competed in that very unusual and challenging competition and beaten the three other women participating in it, all gorgeous professional athletes whom she had never beaten at anything before. It had come as a surprise to her when Will had told her that she'd also beaten the unofficial record of a mysterious young woman he called 'Elf-Girl' who had gone uncaptured longer than anyone before her. But she had not beaten the official record, and that's what really counted. Having finally beaten Martina, Lynette and Naomi at something, Alexa found it irksome that she was still only Number Two in the Gordburg record books, such as they were. Will had given her some training in outdoor survival in addition to all the other training he had given her in s****l submission. He had also given her a lot of information on Gordburg and how things worked there. Now she thought that she had a fair shot at beating the official record of that near-mythical 'Elf-Girl'. She did wish that she knew more about the woman, including how she had come by that nickname, but that was something she could leave for another day. She smiled across the narrow space at Mike, who was hanging on to his own strap.

"It's not so bad," she replied. "And it'll be over in a little while anyway. You know, I was kind of surprised to see you waiting for me."

"Why? I told you I found you interesting. I want to see what you're going to do. You haven't told me anything about that."

"It isn't really any of your business," Alexa replied without any attitude. "Besides, there's a lot about you that you haven't told me either."

"Such as?"

She liked the way he looked at her. It was a mixture of curiosity and frankly carnal interest. She might be a personal trainer and sometime fitness model, but that didn't mean she had bulging muscles and washboard abs. She didn't have bulges: She had curves, a teensy bit more in her hips than she would have preferred, and a teensy bit less in her boobs than she would have liked. Her stomach was flat, and she had very nice legs. Mike had seen much of it all last night at dinner when she'd worn her daring long-skirted halter-top dress, the one slit all the way up to her hip on one side, and he'd been properly appreciative and attentive all the while. He wasn't seeing anywhere near as much this morning, since she was swaddled in bulky sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt, but she knew that while he was looking at her as she was now, he was remembering her as he'd seen her last night.

"Well," she said after a pause, "you could at least tell me your last name."

"You'll laugh."

"No I won't."

"All right," Mike shifted in his seat. "It's Jackson."

"Mike Jackson? As in Michael Jackson?" Alexa's smile widened, but she didn't laugh.

"Michael Andrew Jackson," he said with a rueful grin. "I was named after my grandfathers. I had nothing to say about it."

"It's not a bad name," Alexa said. "I've heard worse."

"You know, I've been thinking about you ever since last night," Mike said, changing the subject. "I wanted to know more about you, so after you left me at your hotel room door without even so much as a good-night kiss, I asked around a little."

"I paid for dinner," Alexa said, trying to change the subject herself. "If you'd paid for it you might have gotten that kiss."

"Now, see, if you'd let me know that ahead of time I would have paid for it. I did pay for your lunch," Mike countered. "At least I didn't order the most expensive thing on the menu."

Alexa laughed.

"Aren't you going to ask me if I found out anything about you?" Mike asked.

Alexa's smile faded away. "Should I?" she asked. What had he found out? She couldn't bring herself to ask.

"Your choice," Mike shrugged. "Let's just say I was interested in you from the start."

"And now?"

"Now I want to find out what you're up to. The only way I can think of to do that is to follow along."

"I didn't invite you along," Alexa said.

"Try telling me to get lost, then."

"I would, if I thought it would work," Alexa retorted.

The stage rumbled into the first little unnamed hamlet and pulled up in front of the lone saloon, which was also unnamed. Mike started to get out, but stopped once he saw that Alexa wasn't moving.

"Going on to the next town?" he asked.

"No," Alexa answered. "I'm getting out here. You go ahead. I'll be along in a moment."

"You're not just telling me that to get me out of the stagecoach?" Mike sounded doubtful.

"Trust me," Alexa favored him with her sweetest smile. "You'll want to see what comes next."

He looked at her, shrugged, and got out of the coach. The moment he did, Alexa shucked off her sweatshirt and pants. Under it she wore her most comfortable jogging outfit, very short little shorts in vivid green and a belly-baring shirt in canary yellow. Last year, she had burdened herself with so much stuff that she'd had to stash most of it away in hiding places in the woods. This time around, she was traveling light.

"You're right," Mike said as she disembarked. "I did want to see that." He looked her up and down appreciatively. "So now what?"

Alexa favored him with a grin. "Now I'm going to get some coffee," she said as she went past him and into the saloon.

"I could buy you breakfast," he called out as she pushed open the swinging doors.

There was a fair crowd in the saloon, chiefly men dressed for the outdoors drinking coffee and wolfing down doughnuts or danishes. Alexa got herself some of the coffee, but passed on the pastries. Mike followed along after her, chewing on a cherry danish. There were a couple of women there, apparently with husbands or boyfriends. They didn't seem to appreciate Alexa's presence or her appearance very much. She in turn ignored them but made brief eye contact with many of the men, giving each of them a brief nod and a smile before she finished her coffee and went back outside.

The day was warming up nicely, though it was still a bit on the cool side for the way she was dressed. Alexa didn't mind. She'd be warm enough soon. The stage had already left, taking her sweatshirt and pants along with it, so all she was left with was her jogging togs and that funny little chip in her left earlobe that would identify her if she got caught but in the meantime was more like an ATM card she could use to buy whatever she needed. She paused for a moment to stretch and then set out for the big barn at the eastern edge of town. Will had told her that each nameless hamlet had its own mini-slave market in one of those barns, and she was curious to see what it was like inside one of them. The big double doors were shut, but there was a normal-sized door standing open alongside them, so she went into the barn through it.

It was dimly lit inside, but there was the same sweet smell of fresh hay. Alexa paused for a moment to let her eyes adjust and then began exploring the barn. There was no elevated stage here, just a central passageway that ran from one end of the barn to the other, where it ended at another closed pair of big doors. Stalls lined both sides of the building. She peered over the low wall into the first one. It was empty. She worked her way down along one side, and in the third stall she found two naked young females, both blonde, lying asleep, snuggled together on a thick blanket that had been spread over the straw. They had collars around their slender necks that appeared to be fastened to the far wall with lengths of chain. The next stall was empty, but the last one held an attractive female of around thirty, with long, dark hair and a very nice hourglass figure. She was awake, sitting on her blanket in a far corner of her stall. She wore a collar and chain much like the blondes had. She stared at Alexa warily until Alexa went away to check the other row of stalls on her way back to the entrance. The first two were empty, but the third was interesting. There were three small cages that looked a lot like dog carriers in it, each one containing a naked female. They were all lying with their heads pointed away from the passageway, so Alexa couldn't tell much about any of them. She moved on, wondering why they were in cages. Maybe they were going to be taken somewhere? Or was it some sort of punishment, since the cages were too small to stretch out in?

The last stall held another naked female, this one in her late twenties, with short brown hair and big brown eyes. She was awake, just lying on her side, apparently waiting for something. She didn't move when she saw Alexa. She just looked away and sighed. Her curiosity satisfied, Alexa went back outside into the sunlight. It seemed so bright after her time in the barn that it took her a minute to realize that there was a handful of men outside, waiting for her. One of the men was Mike. As her eyes adjusted again, she saw two more men approaching from the saloon. She grinned to herself. She'd been hoping to attract some attention. She began doing some stretching and limbering-up exercises. Some of them caused her shorts to hike up just enough to show slivers of her ass cheeks. She didn't say anything. She waited for one of the men to say something first. She caught sight of Mike leaning against the side of the barn, watching her, and knew that he wasn't going to be the first to speak. She finished stretching and, ignoring her audience, began walking towards the edge of town. She saw two stakes driven into the ground to either side of the dirt road that ran east into the woods. Each stake had a faded green ribbon tied around it. From what Will had told her, those stakes indicated the edge of the 'safe zone'. Inside of it, as she was, any woman was perfectly safe. Outside of it, she was fair game for any man or men who wanted to hunt her. She felt her heart start to beat a little faster and took a slow, deep and deliberate breath to calm down. She stopped just a few feet away from the stakes and stretched again, her arms over her head.

"Uh... ma'am?"

Alexa turned to look back. The men were standing just a little further away from her than she was standing from the stakes. "Yes?" she said.

"You know about the safe zone, don't you?" The speaker was one of the older men. He was about forty, she guessed, and only a couple of inches taller than she was.