Love of a Bounty (Sequal to Unexpected Romance but can stand alone)

Chapter Four

Tessa stayed gone nearly an hour and when she returned he was dressed and stretched out on the bed seemingly fast asleep. Tessa sat down in the arm chair and closed her own eyes only to jump and nearly let out a scream when she felt his breath on her face.

"Have a good lunch?" he asked with a grin as he stepped away from her. She took a second to make sure her heart was not going to blow up and then nodded.

"Yes." she said. He looked around.

"You didn't bring me any?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No."

"Well why the hell not?" he asked as he walked over and sat on the bed. Tessa shrugged.

"I just figured you ate already." she replied. He nodded and looked out the window at the dusty street below. He wasn't wearing his hat and Tessa looked at his face lit up in the bright sunlight and realized that she didn't even know his name.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Richard." he replied.

"Ya got a last name Richard?" she asked. She saw him smile though he was still looking out the window.

"Helms." he replied. Then he looked over at her.

"What is your name?" She blinked a couple times and then started picking at the small tear in her pants.

"Tom Bradshaw like I told you." she replied.

"Horse shit. You are no more a Tom than I am a Sally." Tessa bit her lip to keep from laughing at the thought of this man being named Sally and then shook her head.

"That's my name." she said. "Sorry you don't believe me." Richard sighed and decided to give up on getting her real name for now. Why she was so determined to pass off as a boy he didn't know but it seemed like she'd made her mind up.

"So where's your parents, Tom?" he asked. Tessa shook her head.

"Dead." she replied. "Where are yours?"

"Dead." he said. "But I'm a bit older than you. What happened?"

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Thirty-two and getting older every damn day." he replied. "What about you?" He knew that it wasn't proper to ask a woman how old she was but since Tom wanted to be a man he figured the question was alright.

"Twenty-two." He nodded. That's about what he would have guessed.

"What happened to your parents?" he asked.

"That's kinda personal don't ya think?" she asked. Richard shook his head.

"We're sharing a room and gonna be riding together for a while. Wouldn't hurt to know the guy I'm riding with." he said.

"My mama died shortly after I was born. My pa raised me and he was killed about two months ago." she said. Richard nodded. He would bet his life he already knew who had killed her pa.

"Trigger Jones killed your pa?" he asked. Tessa wondered how he knew that. Suddenly she worried that maybe he knew Trigger and she realized that she had trusted him without knowing anything about him. What if he was just messing around with her and was going to take her to Trigger and hand her over to him?

Richard could see the fear on her face and he knew the direction her mind was taking.

"Calm down. It wasn't hard to figure out what happened. I've been around a while and I know damn well you ain't no regular bounty hunter. I also know that Trigger Jones is a cold blooded murderer. Your pa was killed and now you're gunning for Trigger. Don't take a genius to put two and two together and find out ya get four."