Disclaimer: Found in part one.

"Mr. Larabee! Here's the telegram about Mr. Standish and Mr. Wilmington!" Bill Perkins, the telegraph operator yelled to Chris Larabee as he walked past the telegraph, realizing the importance of the message he held in his hands.

"What is it, Mr. Perkins?" Chris Larabee asked hoping that they'd gotten some word on the telegrams that JD sent out. He wasn't prepared to leave the town unprotected until he was positive that Buck and Ezra should have already been back. And if he found out that they were laid over in some town having a good time while everyone else was back in Four Corners worrying about them there was going to be hell to pay.

"I got this telegram about Mr. Standish and Mr. Wilmington, I think that it's important." Bill stated somewhat nervously, it wasn't really that he had any reason to be nervous but Bill was anything but a brave man, standing at only five foot seven. He was only thirty-six and was already bald and he was forced to wear thick steel rimmed glasses because he was as blind as a bat. If the truth were told, Chris Larabee made him exceedingly nervous. So Bill just wanted to give him the telegram and get on with his day.

"Thanks," Chris said abruptly as he took the telegram from Bill's hands and began reading it. Bill wasted no time and had quickly scurried back into the telegraph office. As he did the only thing Chris could say was, "Oh, shit."

~*~

"Buck, please Buck, talk to me!" Ezra fairly pleaded with the only partially awake man.

"Ezzraaa-go-away," Buck slurred wishing that the gambler would just leave him be. He could barely breathe and the pain was almost unbarible. He wished for unconsciousness but he?d been doing that for the past ten hours and so far it hadn't helped. The whole damn ride he'd been at least semi-conscious for every excrutiatingly painful bump along the rough trail. He still didn't know where they were headed, part of him really didn't care anymore. Before now Buck had never known how someone could wish to be dead. However now he had some understanding of that because that?s exactly what he wished for, Death. Pure and simple that was all Buck wanted. The pain he was currently experiencing was more then he could handle. It felt like someone had lit the inside of chest on fire and every time he took a breath it was as if a thousand knives were stabbing him.

"Shut up, you two!" Cordwell yelled, not really caring what they were saying just tired of listening to their incessant arguing back and forth and concern over each other. People caring, God that makes me sick, Cordwell thought to himself. "We're almost there and the two of ya's is gonna want to practice keepin? yer mouths shut cause I don?t see as Mr. DeCapri's gonna let ya talk."

Ezra involuntarily shuttered at the mention of the man?s name. Hate is a strong word and Ezra rarely found himself truly motivated to use it but whenever he thought of his former stepfather only two thoughts came into his mind: Fear and Hatred. Sometimes the fear was more prominent and sometimes it was the pure hate that seemed to seep right into his blood stream, but Ezra was trying with all he had to make it the hate because the he believed that the fear he felt would eat him alive while driving him to insanity if he didn't replace it with something soon. Ezra felt frozen as if he were in some twisted warp of emotion that he had no control over. He felt terribly paranoid and he could no longer take stock of what his actual emotions were. He was just trapped in his horrid memories of DeCapri and his sordid childhood. It was like he was a helpless victim in a dangerous game where everything and everyone had control of him except himself. The psychological turmoil Ezra felt was powerful. More often than not Ezra sincerely believed that his sanity hung by the thinnest of threads. He was equally certain that those threads were Buck Wilmington. Ezra was single handedly keeping the man alive. He was the only one who would answer and soothe Buck's desperate, confused cries for help. Ezra continued to claim responsibility for Buck's injury and therefore felt it his duty to care for Buck for as long as he could.

"Riders commin' in!" Stevens shouted.

"Looks like DeCapri's men come out to meet us, jist like he said they would." Cordwell said sounding terribly pleased with himself as he stole a glance at the prisoners and gave them a sadistic glare.

Five riders reached Ezra, Buck, Cordwell, and Stevens. "Howdy fellas," one of the new arrivals greeted Cordwell and Stevens. "Where's yer boss?" he questioned remembering the man who had accompanied Cordwell when they'd first been hired for the job.

"Well, he 'ad a b-" Cordwell began.

"Well that feller who got shot, he done killed 'im," Stevens blurted, he received a murderous glare from Cordwell, although he certainly didn't understand why.

"Well," another of DeCapri's men began, "He looks like he's been adequately punished." He then addressed two of the men who had ridden in with them. "You boys," he gestured with his hand, "Head on back to Mr. DeCapri and let 'im know we're just about there. Then y'all make the proper arrangements, just like Mr. DeCapri said this has got to be perfect or Mr. DeCapri will kill us and y'all know he will, if we screw this up. So git on."

"Do we got to git them in to Mr. DeCapri tonight?" Cordwell asked, gesturing with one hand toward their captives.

"Sorry to say so but yeah. He wants 'em by t'morrow sos we're gonna hafta ride through the night and hopefully we jist might git there by dawn."

"Well, what-a-ya say we pick up the pace some? I don't know about you but I'd like this here trip to be over sooner rather than later."

"Yeah, I reckon that sounds like a right good idea."

~*~

"Are you sure, Chris?" Vin asked as they walked toward the jail where everyone had been told to meet.

"Yeah, Vin, I'm sure, hell it makes sense. They both wanted to get home as soon as they could, hell they made sure everybody knew it too."

"Ah, hell, Chris," Vin looked down, forlornly, " they were runnin' ahead a schedule, they shoulda bin here day before yesterday. Besides there ain't nothin' but desert between here and Twin Deserts. Hell, they went straight through there. Can't blame 'em none. Ain't nothin' in Twin Deserts but desert and ain't nothin from there to here but desert."

"I know Vin." Chris said, wishing that they'd acted sooner. By now anything could have happened to Buck and Ezra.

~*~

In the jail

Chris and Vin were, surprisingly, the last to arrive.

"Well, brother, do we know the whereabouts of our missing sheep?"

"'Fraid not Josiah but we do know that they shoulda been here the day before yesterday."

"What!" JD exclaimed. Feeling all sorts of emotions running wild through his head. The most prominent of which were anger at Chris, Vin, Nathan and Josiah for not listening to him sooner. It was rare for JD to feel anger at any of these men particularly his idle, Chris. "I knew-"

"We best start lookin' for 'em." Nathan deadpanned the obvious and rare eruption of anger by one JD Dunne. He was far more concerned with finding the ladies man and that stubborn, pain-in-the-ass southern gambler.

Josiah ignored the whole situation with JD and asked a terribly obvious question. "How do we know that?"

"Well Josiah," Chris began, "We've gotten back a telegram from Twin Deserts from the Sheriff there saying that Buck and Ezra were there. It said that he remembered cause, and I can hardly believe it, but for once instead of starting trouble they stopped it, by stopping a robbery of the general store in town."

"So, where do we start looking Brothers?"

"Well," Vin began, "I think we should head towards Twin Deserts and see if I can pick up their tracks."

"Let's go," JD said with atypical enthusiasm, despite the situation.

"We'll meet back here in fifteen minutes." Chris stated, "Then we ride."

"There it is fellas," DeCapri's man, Sherwood, said happy to be done with there all night trip.

"Good, let's git there I'm tired," Cordwell responded sounding equally happy to be done with the whole mess that was Standish and Wilmington.

~*~

"WHOO!!" Vin let out a thrilled whoop at finally finding the trail.

"Vin you find the trail?" Chris questioned, wondering what on Earth Vin was seeing cause he sure as hell didn't see anything. But then again he wasn't a good tracker on a good day and the thought of today was not conducive with the thought of a good day. Chris hadn't slept for worry over Ezra and Buck. They'd gotten up a four-thirty and had been riding by five.

"Yep, I got it. From the looks of the trail they took off in a hurry. Come on it heads west."

Vin dismounted Peso and walked around for a moment looking more closely at the tracks.

"Well fellas, it looks like they were getting shot at. Then Buck was pulled off his horse by a man on another horse while Ezra went over yonder," Vin gestured with his hand where Ezra had gone, "By that tree. Then some more men came and got off their horses and held Buck. From there it looks like the first man went over to where Ezra was, still on Chaucer," Vin continued walking plotting out the story while everyone sat listening to the relatively detail story Vin was able to put together by simply looking at marks on the ground. That, to anyone else, would mean nothing. "And then Ezra was pulled off his horse,. . . oh son of a bitch?"

"What is it Vin?" Chris questioned suddenly very concerned for the gambler if Vin?s reaction of whatever he saw was anything to go by.

"Well, it looks like Ez got pulled off his horse and then the fella that done it to him never let 'im off the ground. Looks like he just beat the shit outta 'im until somebody," Vin turned around to look at the tracks, "picked 'im up of the ground and put ?im on his horse. Damn, there's blood."

"Is there a lot?" Nathan questioned.

"Quite a bit Nate, we best find those two real quick, who knows what's happened to 'em by now."

"What I want to know is who the hell took them, and why," Chris stated with clear frustration and anger in his voice.

~*~

"Yes, Mrs. Standish can be found in Denver. Mr. Tracy here is the letter. Now I expect that she will receive it promptly."

"Of course, sir."

"Excellent, now be on your way I want her here as soon as possible. Do you undestand?"

"Yes, sir."

~*~

The men quickly pulled Ezra and Buck from their horses and dragged them into Carlton DeCapri's mansion. The house was dark. Everything about it was dark, the coloring, the lighting, and the furniture alike. They were taken to a dark room in the upstairs and locked in. The windows and door were aligned with bars and there was really no chance of escape.

She read the words over and over and every word stung her mind. She didn't doubt what she had to do for a moment. She simply feared for both Ezra and herself and tried to think of what the quickest way to get to them would be. Stage Coach really was the only method of transportation in the territory. She romoved the directions that had also been inclosed in the letter.

She packed almost nothing and headed out to try to catch the noon stage with the knowledge that her precious son, the only thing left in the world that she actually loved, had already been beaten and tortured by this man, her ex-husband as a child and had now experienced beatings and torture at least three times due to her reluctance to remove herself from bed. Guilt ran rampant through her body. She only prayed that her son would survive this.

~*~

They rode in complete silence. Though all the men found it deafening no one broke it, nothing seemed appropriate or worthy of being spoken at the time. They rode secure with the knowledge that Vin had the trail, which was, according to Vin getting fresher and easier to follow as time passed, they only hoped that it would lead them to the fairy tail ending they were all hoping for.

~*~

Pain. It was the only word he could recognize within his tortured mind.

Buck Wilmington could no longer comprehend or think about anything else but the endless pain he was enduring. He wished for an end but his thoughts could carry him only so far as to recognize that that would end the pain, he could no longer convince himself of any reason to want to live or any reason to fear death, it took too much effort to even attempt to do so. So he didn't bother. His memories were even becoming vague in his pain hazed mind, so much so that he could no longer clearly remember what had happened to him.

~*~

Ezra Standish had come to the conclusion that anticipation is worse then any torture. It was not knowing what was going to happen next that was making him so crazy. The fact that had no control was also getting to him. As a gambler, con man, and lawman he almost always had control of his situation. Losing control meant losing the game, in any of the three professions. He should have known that the moment he heard DeCapri's name he'd lost the game. Ezra could retain no control when he thought of DeCapri. He no longer had control of anything including himself save at rare intervuls. Buck could no longer retain any semblance of consciousness. The man looked like death itself. In the amount of time he guessed they'd been gone any hope of being rescued in time was gone. Ezra now faced a terrible truth within the dark recesses of his troubled mind. The game was lost.

TO BE CONTINUED