Richard woke the next morning when his hat was pulled from his face and the sunrise hit his eyes. He instantly realized that Tessa was no longer in his arms and he felt a moment of disappointment. Then he heard her laughter and his heart skipped a beat at the sound. He rubbed his face and sat up and saw that Horse had his hat in his mouth and was looking down at him with his big brown eyes.
"You damn flea bitten ass! I'm gonna sell your stinking hide in the next town we come to, to some business man making soap!" Richard said as he yanked his hat away from the stallion and put it back on his head. Tessa could see the smile on his face and knew he wasn't really angry at the black stallion.
"Breakfast?" she asked handing him a tin plate full of leftover snake and stale biscuits. He nodded and started eating. She poured some coffee into a tin cup and handed it to him. He took a drink and was pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted.
"You're gonna get me spoiled, Tom." he said. She blushed and smiled and poured her own cup of coffee.
"I figured we'd both be better off if I made the coffee seeing as how horrible yours tastes." she said.
"I'd say you figured right." he replied and took another drink. "How'd you sleep?" he asked her.
"Fair I guess." she replied. Truthfully she had slept better in his arms than she had ever slept in her life. She had never felt so safe and warm than she had wrapped up against him.
"How did you sleep?" she asked him. Richard shrugged.
"Fair I guess." he replied. Truthfully he had slept deeper than he ever allowed himself to sleep. The fact that she had been able to get up and make coffee without waking him proved that.
"Did you find your gun?" he asked. She looked down at her empty holster.
"No." she said. "I didn't want to wander off and have you wake up and yell at me the way you yell at Horse." Richard laughed.
"I'd yell at you worse. Horse get's special treatment cuz I like him so much." Richard stuck the last of the snake and biscuit in his mouth and stood up.
"Where ya going?" Tessa asked.
"Find your gun, brave heart." he teased. Tessa stood up and put her hands on her hips and he recognized the sign that her temper was rising. He fought to hide his smile.
"The damn thing lunged at me and I fell." she said defensively. "Not my fault the damn gun slipped."
"Calm down, sharp shooter." he said. He could hear her cursing under her breath as he walked away and started looking for her gun. He found it quickly enough and on his way back he stopped at the bush and looked at the snakes head lying there in the sand.
He cursed at the image in his head of her lying face to face with that giant rattler. He didn't know what he'd have done if he hadn't gotten to her in time. He walked back to camp to find that she had their bedrolls put away and was stomping out the fire.
"Here ya go, Wyatt Earp." Richard said tossing her the pistol. She glared at him as she put it in her holster.
"You think you're something don't ya?" she demanded. He shook his head as he jumped up on Horse.
"Nope." Was all he said. Tessa jumped on her mare and they started down the trail.
"I bet I can outshoot you!" she said before thinking. The grin he gave her when he looked over at her told her that her mouth had just overloaded her backside big time.
"Ya think so huh?" he asked. She nodded though suddenly she didn't feel so sure. He looked out over the horizon.
"See them crows flying around up there?" he asked. Tessa looked and saw the black specks up in the sky above them. She nodded.
"Yea I see them." she said.
"Can you hit one?" he asked. She swallowed hard and looked at them. She didn't know if she could or not but she certainly wasn't going to tell him that. She nodded and pulled her gun.
She emptied it into the sky and was disappointed when not a single crow fell. She stuck her gun back in her holster and looked over him feeling more than a little embarrassed.
"Guess I can't." she said. He nodded and pulled his hat down tighter on his head.
"Yea me neither." he admitted. Tessa felt anger flush her face but before she could reply he nudged Horse into a gallop and took off. She shook her head. This man was the biggest pain in the ass she had ever met and God help her but she loved him. She pulled her hat down tighter and took off after him.
888
They rode into a small town about sundown. There were no stables here so they just hitched their horses up in front of the small hotel and rented a room.
"Too late to get something to eat at the diner. Guess we're having jerky for supper." Richard said tossing her a piece.
"We going to the saloon?" she asked taking a bite. Richard shook his head.
"I'm going to the saloon." he replied.
"Well then I'm going with you." she said matter-of-factly.
"Saloon ain't no place for a woman." he replied. She put her hands on her hips and he sighed. He could tell by that simple action that he was fighting a losing battle.
"Well I ain't a woman remember?" she said. "My name's Tom and I'm your little brother." Richard sighed and started out the door.
"Come on then, little brother. Let's go get us a drink." he said.
"Stay close to me. This town is full of nothing but drifters and outlaws and there ain't no law to speak of around. We don't want no trouble while we're here." Richard said as they walked into the dark dirty little saloon and sat down at the bar. The bartender, a tall heavyset man with a thick white mustache and deep wrinkles walked up to them.
"What can I get ya?" he asked. Richard stuck some money on the bar.
"Two beers." he said. The bartender nodded and grabbed two dirty cups from under the bar filling them both to the top.
Richard and Tessa turned on their stools with their beers in hand and scanned the barroom. Richard took a big swig of his beer and looked at Tessa out of the corner of his eye. He didn't know if she drank or not but she took a small swig of the beer and he grinned.
"Take it easy there, Tom. You're awful small." he said. Tessa glared at him. This damn man seemed to live to make fun of her. She knew darn well that she needed to take it easy with the beer but she also wanted to prove that she was just as tough as he was. She took another bigger swig of the beer and wiped her mouth on her shirtsleeve as Richard chuckled.
Tessa saw a dark haired saloon girl eyeing Richard and felt jealousy spark in her. Then she reminded herself that Richard was not hers and that she was supposed to be his brother. The saloon girl walked over and waved her very impressive cleavage in Richard's face nearly pressing it against his nose.
Tessa's eyes flew to Richard's face and she saw that he was indeed looking at the woman's breasts. Richard cleared his throat and scooted back away from the saloon girl on his barstool. He took a swig of his beer and looked up at her heavily painted face.
"Looking for some company, cowboy?" she asked in a purring voice that Tessa was sure not many men resisted. Tessa tried to act like she wasn't paying any attention to the two of them but really her heart was feeling very vulnerable right now. If Richard accepted this whores invitation, Tessa knew her heart would break.
"Nope." he said simply. The whore ran her long painted fingernails down his arm.
"You sure? I can give you a real good time." she said. Richard nodded.
"I'm sure." he said. He could feel his temper rising. Dammit he wasn't interested in this whore and wanted her to leave and he could feel Tessa's eyes watching him. Richard had never had any interest in whores and he could still remember the way Tessa's soft body had felt in his arms the night before… No quick romp with this saloon girl was going to compare with how that had felt.
"Oh come on now…" The saloon girl said sitting down on his knee in her tight red corset and panties. "Don't disappoint me." she purred in his ear. Tessa gasped and covered her mouth with her hand when Richard simply put his hands on the whores bare legs and shoved her off his lap. Her backside hit the ground hard enough to thud. Richard stood up while the whore was still down on the ground sputtering in disbelief. He grabbed Tessa's arm and pulled her up from the stool.
"Come on, Tom, let's go play some poker." he said and led her through the barroom. Tessa's heart was safe for now at least. Sure Richard had not given her any indication that he was falling for her the way she had for him but at the same time he had turned down that saloon girl so maybe that meant something.
"You just threw that woman down on her ass." Tessa said as they walked. Richard nodded.
"She just didn't seem to be in a mood for listening so I thought actions might work better." he replied. They settled down at the only poker table in the small saloon and started playing five card stud. Richard was impressed by how good Tessa was and after she'd won a fair amount of money off of him he started to figure out her tells and began to win his money back.
He also saw that she seemed to be getting very drunk as she continued swigging down her big glass of beer.
"Tom, ain't you had about enough beer?" he asked. Tessa shook her head. Her brain felt all fuzzy and she wasn't thinking quite clearly when she said,
"Hell no! I'm just getting started." she stood up and made her way back to the bar to get another beer and on the way back to the table she heard some cowboys talking.
"Trigger's gonna get himself killed." one of the men said. Tessa's head whipped around. Perhaps if she didn't have so much alcohol in her system and her judgment hadn't been so clouded she wouldn't have done what she did next but she walked up to the table and cleared her throat.
"You men talking about Trigger Jones?" she asked. Richard heard her from the poker table and turned quickly to see her standing with her hands on her hips glaring at a table full of five drunk cowboys. He didn't recognize any of them except one and that was Franklin Jones.. Triggers younger brother. He suddenly realized that Tessa was drunk off her ass and going to get her foolish head blown off.
"Who's asking?" Franklin Jones asked.
"Tom Bradshaw." Tessa replied.
"Boy, what you want to know about Trigger Jones for? He don't need no young pups like you running around his heels."
"I don't aim to run around his heels, mister. I aim to blow his head clean off the way he did my pa's." The saloon fell silent and the other cowboys at the table with Franklin quickly stood and backed away. Franklin chuckled as he stood up and faced Tessa.
"You talk big boy. You want to get to my big brother I guess you're gonna have to kill me first." he said laying his hand on the pistol on his side. Tessa took several steps back and then took a wide legged stance with her hand on her own pistol.
Her drunken fog had cleared enough at this point to know that she was in some serious trouble right now and fixing to die. She could no more protect herself in a gunfight than fly but it was too late to back out now. This man would probably just shoot her in the back if she tried to turn and run.
Just then a throat cleared off to the side and Richard stepped forward. Franklin Jones looked over at him.
"Well I'll be damned if it ain't Sheriff Richard Helms." he said. Sheriff? Tessa thought. He'd never mentioned to her that he was a sheriff. Richard walked over to stand in front of Tessa, shielding her with his body.
"I ain't a sheriff anymore, Franklin. Now I just run around killing good for nothing scum like you and your brother."
"Is that right?" Franklin asked spitting a long stream of tobacco onto the wooden floor of the saloon. "Well let me settle my business with that fool headed boy and then I'll deal with you." Richard shook his head.
"Can't let you do that, Franklin. You need to learn to fight with men your own size."
"Like you?" Franklin asked. Richard chuckled. Tessa wondered how he looked so calm. Didn't he realize that even if he killed Franklin the other four cowboys standing behind Franklin would kill him?
"Richard, just leave." Tessa whispered so only he could hear. "You don't need to get yourself killed just because I was drunk and stupid."
"I don't plan on getting killed tonight." he whispered back and Tessa heard the anger in his voice. She knew he was angry at her for opening her mouth with these cowboys and she was angry at herself too.
"Answer me lawman." Franklin said angrily. Richard chuckled.
"Actually Franklin, I believe I'm a might bigger man than you are. You may want to choose someone a bit smaller." Richard saw Franklin's face flash red with anger and smiled. He already knew that Franklin and his four buddies were too damn drunk to hit the broad side of a barn and making them angry would only hurt their aim more.
"I hope you're ready to meet your maker lawman cuz you're fixing too." Franklin hissed.
"I told you I ain't a lawman any more, Franklin. Now quit running your mouth. If you're gonna draw than draw dammit." Richard had no more finished speaking than Franklin went for his gun. Richard was firing shots before any of the five men cleared leather and before any of them got a shot off three of them, including Franklin, were laying dead.
Richard hissed in pain as a bullet grazed his arm. Ok so maybe he'd been wrong about how drunk a couple of the guys were. He fired two more shots and suddenly the saloon was silent again.
"Anybody else got a problem with me or the boy." Richard asked holstering his empty gun and laying his hand on his second revolver on his other hip. No one seemed too eager to step forward. Richard turned to the bartender.
"Sorry about the mess." he said. The bartender shrugged.
"Shit happens." he replied. He had just gotten done cleaning up after the first gunfight of the night about an hour before the man and boy had gotten there. Richard grabbed Tessa's arm and drug her from the saloon. He didn't speak a word to her until they were locked in their room at the hotel.
"What in the hell did you think you were doing!" he yelled. Tessa was taken aback and took several steps away from him. She had never heard him yell. Even when she had stolen his horse and guns he had not yelled. He was a very scary sight with his scarred face and his blue eyes flashing with anger.
"I'm sorry." she gasped. "I drank too much and I wasn't thinking clearly."
"Obviously you damn foolish woman! You about got your damn head blown off in there!" he yelled angrily.
"Well why didn't you just let me get my head blown off?" she demanded feeling her own temper rise at being called foolish. "It had nothing to do with you and if I'd have been killed than you wouldn't have had to share the bounty."
"I don't give a damn about the bounty!" Richard yelled. "I damn near lost you tonight." Tessa stared at him in shock as he started gathering up the few belongings in the room.
"Come on." he said walking toward the door. "We have to leave. It ain't safe for us to stay the night here now." Tessa never got the chance to ask him about his last outburst because he was out the door and she was running to keep up with him.
They jumped on their horses and her mare barely could keep up with Horse as they galloped quickly across the dusty ground. The horses were wore out and nearly spent by the time Richard finally stopped beside a small river. Richard went about setting up camp. Tessa wondered how he could even see what he was doing in the dark.
He had a fire lit and was laying on his bedroll in less time than it would have taken Tessa to gather firewood.
"Richard, I am sorry." she said as she laid her bedroll out on the other side of the fire. He didn't reply as he laid with his hands behind his head looking up at the stars.
"You never told me you used to be a sheriff." she said finally.
"You never asked." he replied. Tessa was happy to hear that all the anger was gone and he sounded like his old self. Tessa looked over at him and that's when she noticed the blood on the sleeve of his white shirt.
"Oh my God! You got shot!" she exclaimed as she ran over to him and dropped to her knees beside him. He looked down at his arm.
"Oh yea." he said. "I forgot." She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind.
"You forgot that you got shot?" she asked. He sat up and grinned.
"Grazed, not shot." he replied. "It's just a scratch."
"It's going to get infected." she said. Richard sighed. He stood up and walked over to his saddlebags and pulled out the salve he'd used on his leg the other day. He took off his vest and shirt and looked down at the wound on his arm more closely. It really was not that bad. Barely more than a scratch. Tessa grabbed her canteen and walked over to him.
She tried to tell her heart to slow down and keep her eyes from roaming across his hard muscular body. She poured the water on the wound to clean away the blood. He handed her the salve and she got a little on the tips of her finger.
"I don't want to hurt you." she said.
"I'm tougher than I look." he replied. She rubbed some of the salve on his arm and he thought for sure his heart was going to bust right out of his chest at the feel of her tiny fingers on his skin.
"You need something to wrap around it." she said. He raised his brow.
"It ain't even bleeding." he replied. She rolled her eyes.
"You need to keep it clean." she scolded. Richard couldn't help but laugh. He picked up his bloody white shirt and ripped a strip of cloth off of it. He handed it to her and she tied it around the wound.
"Better?" she asked. He shrugged.
"It was fine to begin with, Doc." he replied, he pulled a clean shirt from his saddlebags and then walked back over to his bedroll and sat down. She sat down on her bedroll and they sat in silence for several moments.
"I don't like that you took a bullet over my stupidity." she said.
"I didn't take a bullet, it just scratched me." he reminded her. "And it wasn't cuz of your stupidity it was because Franklin Jones has been wanting to a bullet in me for years."
"So you know Trigger then?" Tessa asked. Richard shook his head.
"Nope. Never met him."
"Dammit. I was hoping maybe you'd know what he looked like. It would make finding him a heck of a lot easier."
"Don't you know what he looks like?" Richard asked. "Ya said the man wanted to marry you."
"He did, but if I ever saw him I don't know about it." she replied. Richard nodded and stared into the fire for several long moments.
"Why don't you just quit hunting after Trigger and go on home, Tessa?" he asked. Tessa glared at him.
"Because Trigger Jones killed my pa and I aim to make him pay for that." she replied. Richard shook his head.
"Killing Trigger won't bring your pa back from the dead and it won't make you feel any better about losing him."
"No but the money I get for his bounty will help me keep my pa's farm up and running." she replied. Richard nodded.
"There's gotta be an easier way to get money for the farm." he argued. Tessa stared at him for several long moments.
"Trigger wants me, Richard. He won't be satisfied until he has me. So I am to kill him before he ever gets the chance."
"He knows what you look like?" Richard asked.
"Yes. I don't know when he saw me but he did and he also stole a picture of me from me and my pas house before he took off running from the law." Tessa saw anger flash in Richards eyes.
"So you think the man is looking for you?" he asked. She shrugged.
"I don't know, but he has already killed once to try to get me if that tells you anything."
"Would it do me any damn good to tell you to go somewhere safe while I go after Trigger?" he asked. Tessa shook her head.
"I'm a grown damn woman and I will not just sit with my head in the sand while some man runs around fighting my fight. I was chasing Trigger Jones long before I met you and if you don't want to help me anymore then I'll just go back to chasing him alone."
"Calm down." Richard said. "I'm gonna stay with you. I gave you my word didn't I?" he asked. Besides there was no way in the world he could abandon her now. He was pretty damn sure he loved the woman. Not that he was in any hurry to tell her that. It always seemed that as soon as he fell in love with a woman he ended up losing them.
"Anyway you ain't a grown woman remember? You're just a boy named Tom." Tessa couldn't help but smile.
"Let's get some sleep Tom." Richard said as he lay down with his hands behind his head. Tessa sighed. This man confused her to no end. He teased her mercilessly, yelled in anger at the thought of losing her and then went right back to teasing her again. She lost a little more of her heart to him every second they were together and that worried her. He did not seem like the kind of man who had any intention of settling down and she was not the type of woman to be content to have a fling with a roaming gunslinger.
Tessa took off her hat and removed the pins from her hair letting it fall in waves down her back. She didn't know it but Richard was watching her from the corner of his eye and thinking that that was the kind of sight a man could see every day for the rest of his life and never tire of.