A Lethal Lady
Chapter 30

-Tom..." Rouse looks at him closely, bites the inner flesh of her lips and holds back her real words. Bandits came onto Joy's land, and the old man was badly wounded.

The sheriff's expression changed drastically. He expected her to tell him another story, but it turned out that she came out with something else. She was a difficult woman, and after what they'd shared, Rouse still didn't trust him, even a little. -What happened? -Tom stands up, helps Rouse do the same, and they both begin to get dressed.

The sheriff notices that she's turned around to get dressed. Despite what they shared that night, she was embarrassed about him seeing her naked, and he wasn't about to let Rouse behave that way. He approached her from behind, and wrapped his arms around her waist. He wrapped his arms around the half-naked blonde, causing her to tense up.

-What are you doing? -He asked her, looking like an ice temple.

-It's no use turning around to get dressed, when I've already seen everything.

Rouse's heart palpitations were increasing, the man's shameless insinuations were going to scare her to death. She swallows, and tries to recover from the shameful insinuation.

-Get away from me, just because we did... well, what just happened tonight, doesn't give you the right to touch me without my consent," she tries to push him away, but Tom squeezes her waist tighter. -Rouse, you should know, what just happened is not like the favours offered by the women in the bar. I'm interested in this," she widens her eyes .Posted by Narugi.com

-You're just saying that to get what you want from me, but it won't work, sheriff. That cheap trickery doesn't work on me.

-I didn't seek you out for that reason," he whispers in her ear.

She continued to swallow, if she didn't get that man off her back she was going to end up losing that battle.

-This won't happen again, so you'd better get it through your head," Rouse pulls him back, but he refused to let go. They were practically struggling.

-I don't care what you say, Rouse.

-You're not thinking straight, sheriff. Your integrity's at stake, you'd better stay away from me, or you're going to do worse, and I'm saying that for the townspeople.

-I'm giving the orders here, and nobody else....

Tom turns Rouse around, bringing her face to face. He looks her in the eye as he holds her by the waist.

In the blonde's eyes he could see desire printed in her eyes, and a great desire for him to kiss her. She talked a lot, yes, there was no doubt about that, but her gaze gave her away.

-I told you I didn't come here tonight as sheriff.

-You're making a mistake," she replies, looking at his lips.

-It may be...

And with those words, the sheriff ended up kissing her, being answered in the same way by Rouse. She could say whatever she wanted, but her lips, her kisses and the trembling in her body revealed the truth.

He wasn't entirely sure, but he suspected that she harboured the same feelings he felt for her. That was the reason why she behaved so cold and distant, but at the same time so passionate. That constant fight they both had was exciting. Those kisses of hers said something else, and that was what mattered to him?

Why did he have to kiss her, every time he did, her whole body stopped responding to him, and he hated it, he hated that he had no control over his actions. It wasn't right that this sheriff was kissing her, what was more; what had happened between them was wrong. And it wasn't because she cared about bloody propriety, it was because....

Rouse reacted at that moment, what the f**k was she doing? Tom was the law...

Immediately, he pulls him apart, pushing him far enough away.

-Stop it! Enough of all this.

-Why? -Why? Tell me why.

-Be satisfied with knowing that we can't do this anymore, I'm not interested in you, sheriff. And I hope that this will at least pay off the debt I owe to the...

-I don't care about the damn debt," he walks up to her and takes her by the shoulders, "I won't take this as any form of payment, I know you did it because you wanted to, and you can't lie to me. Your whole body vibrates when I touch you. -You're wrong! -He lets go reluctantly. I used it to get you to let me....

-No, that's not why you did it," Tom grabs his chin. I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and I'm going to replace out what happened to you. We'll see what happens next.

She blinks, and remains silent. What could she say to him, nothing really. The best she could do at that moment was to keep quiet.

-Go back to the house, I'll be in in a moment to check on Joy.

-You should check his land, the old man has been lucky tonight.

The blonde took the dress and walked to the house, on the way she began to put it on, being watched by Tom, who finished dressing her.

Putting on her hat, she glances at the entrance to the house and notices that Rouse has already entered. He picks up his revolver and makes his way to where the old man's cattle were resting.

[...]

what are you doing rouse?because you have laid with tom. if he is the damn sheriff of this town. well you know righteous this man

The blonde walked to the old man's bedroom to check that everything was in order. While on the way, she kept thinking about the idiotic thing she had done. How could she let her guard down like that, she was an idiot.

When she saw that the old man had no fever and had stopped bleeding, she went back to his room and, for her own safety, locked the door. She didn't want to risk the sheriff bursting into his room and ending up doing something she would regret later. As he was already regretting it.

-Shit," he coughed, lying down on the bed. This makes it worse, I gotta get the hell out of here. I'm sorry for the old man, but I can't stay in this town.

He bites his lips as he stares at the ceiling...

-I'll be out of here in the morning, as soon as that sheriff leaves. He'll know how to take care of the old man.

He feels a small tightness in his chest for leaving Joy alone in that house, but what choice did he have? She had made a terrible mistake with Tom, and she was paying the consequences, that sheriff wouldn't leave her alone.

But then, why did her body shudder to know that he cared about her? No one had ever cared about her welfare, and that guy did.

She knew his intentions, but despite putting her badge and integrity at risk, Tom wanted to... protect her?

-That's not possible, how does he intend to do that? Everyone in that town looks at me as a suspicious outsider, starting with him.

That sheriff's integrity was at stake, and it was all his fault. If he lost the support of his people, she would not forgive him. It would all be because of her, and Tom didn't deserve a thing like that. Rouse sits up in bed, and thinks seriously about getting off that ranch before things get any worse. Besides, one way or another, he had to get away.

-I'll leave in the morning," she says, but unconvinced.

[...]

-But what the hell happened here?!

Tom walked among the corpses in the corral, where Joy kept her cattle penned up. Three guys lay dead and bleeding on the ground. The sheriff leaned over to one of them and looked him over carefully. He had a very accurate bullet in the middle of his eyes, Joy would never have been able to make a shot like that in the middle of the night. He was too old to hit a man, especially if he was riding a horse. The other two, too, had specific holes. They were clean shots, the gunman was a good shot. The sheriff stands up, and watches three horses roam the corral... they were good hairs.

-Billy!

So if he was going to have a lot of trouble with that guy, it was to be expected that he would take advantage of the town fair to take pleasure in stealing. Didn't the lesson he gave him do him any good? Next time he'd put him away...

The sheriff looks towards the house, and remembers that he saw Rouse searching the old man's land loaded with guns. Nobody lived in that house but her and Joy. The only person who could shoot had to be her. -But is it possible? -She frowned.

She would have to replace out that very night, so she retraced her steps to the house. He would make her confess the truth.

[...]

-You're an idiot, that's no woman. That's Tom f*****g Wesley.

-No boss, I know what I saw, it wasn't the sheriff who killed them. I saw a woman, it was a woman that attacked us.

-That's not a f*****g woman, that's the sheriff. You're an animal, you can't tell anything in the dark.

-Whatever it is, I know we hit the old man. He must be dying over there.

Billy in company of some of his men watched Tom from the darkness. They had just arrived at the old man's ranch when they noticed the sheriff. He was looking over the bodies.

Billy's eyes were on that sheriff, and if it had been up to him, he would have shot him in the back right then and there. But for now, that a*****e wasn't going to suffer, Billy wanted the whole filthy town he defended so much to see how he hanged his precious sheriff.

That's what Billy wanted, for everyone to know that he would be the new authority in that damned place. After hanging Wesley, his intention was to leave him hanging for at least a month, so that everyone would see what he was capable of when he made him mad. He smiles at the thought of what he would do to every single woman in that town, the decent ones, and the not... and he would start with that daughter of the woman in the hotel, she was just a little girl, but she would be the first to try.

Spit on the ground... by this time the sheriff had disappeared inside the ranch.

-Billy, why don't we kill that sheriff already? -One of his men draws his gun, but his boss immediately takes it away.

-Don't be an idiot, I'm the one giving the orders here. And I say it's not the sheriff's turn yet.