Next morning.
The door to the boardinghouse opened and Heyes walked in followed by Curry. Their shirts were damp from sweat, clinging to their chests. Chyenne's eyes widened as she sat at the kitchen table, her gaze fastened at Heyes and his body. He certainly knew how to wear a pair of pants, and with the shirt clinging to his taut muscles and chest, she had to gasp quietly for air.
"I swear I'm out of thumbs" Curry said slumping down on the chair next to Chyenne's, displaying his thumbs to her.
She giggled softly at the sight of his thumbs.
"Did you hit anything besides them? " she asked smirking at him, taking his hands in hers, drawing them up to place one small kiss on each of the thumbs.
Looking as content as ever, he gave her a broad smile.
"Knowing the reward, I might hit more fingers from now on " he chuckled.
Heyes looked glumly at them, standing by the sink. Chyenne had gotten her beautiful face back, and her body was healing fast, and god knows he was aware of it. His whole being was aware of it.
He was also very much aware of the friendship developing between Kid and her, and he hated the fact that he was jealous of the Kid. To him these things came natural. He had some sort of natural magnetism that seemed to draw all types of women in his direction, or was it his good-hearted nature?
Anyway, Heyes felt himself tongue-tied in her presence, not a thing he is normaly used to. Being the man with the silver tongue it was down right scaring.
Chyenne stood up, bracing herself, trying not to seem to eager, as she stepped over to Heyes, looking him in the eye.
"Well, Heyes. Are you hurting anywhere?" she smiled a little,"I'll tend to it. "
For a moment he got completely lost in her green eyes, and time seemed to stop.
Hell yes! My lips are hurting really, really bad..he thought, as a small dimple showed while he shook his head slowly.
"No, Chy " he almost whispered, breathing in her scent, realizing she had taken a bath earlier, "I'll try and hit some fingers next time!"
Chyenne looked at him, a little stunned. He had called her Chy before and it had felt right at the time, now it felt even better. If she believed hard enough, it sounded almost like he cared for her. But she was still puzzled by his reaction towards her. She couldn't for her life figure out what she had done, to deserv such reaction. She thought she saw lust,want, and desire in his dark, almost black eyes, or was it something else? Could she be wrong?
She gave him an unsure smile back, turning to sit back at the table.
The second later she felt his hand grab her arm, turning her back to face him.
Curry watched, slightly amused, knowing that his friend and partner had fallen hard for Chyenne. Too hard in fact. What he saw, was a man fighting back his feelings so hard, it made him illogical.
Curry suspected his friend was beginning to crumble, in fact he knew he was, as he saw how he looked at her, almost consuming her with his eyes.
The tension in the kitchen as it was right now, had topped the scale, big time!
Chyenne found herself staring straight into his glowing, brown eyes. For a fraction of a second she was absolutely sure her heart stopped beating. She was also very aware of his firm grip around her arm. She felt woozy, she couldn't breath.
For Heyes it was different, he felt frustrated and mad. Why was she tempting him? She was, wasn't she? She obviously prefered the Kid's company, and not his. He stared at her, taking in the beautiful face, her scent, he leered at her body...the body of a goddess.
She was wearing another dress Millie had bought to her some days ago, this one a more modest model , and it snug around her body very nicely, very nicely indeed.
"What?" she finally managed to croak out. She was absolutely sure he could hear her heart beat.
He wanted so much to kiss her, to tell her that she was in his thoughts from the moment he woke up till the moment he went back to sleep, heck, she even was in his dreams at night. The nights he could get some sleep.
Instead he had to tell her, give her the bad news, about the man she had killed. Him and Kid had decided it was about time to tell her, to make her aware of the danger she was in, IF ever the Whitey Bunch found out her whereabouts.
"We have to tell you something "
Chyennes heart sank in her chest. WE have to...not I have to.
She pursed her lips and lowered her eyes to the floor. Of course, now it was gonna come. They wanted her to leave...that was it! Right now she was just a burden to them. She knew who they were, and she knew that they couldn't waste their time, caring for her. They had done enough as it was.
She was all healed up and everything. Off course, it made sence.
Heyes put his indexfinger under her chin, lifting it up, looking back into her eyes, giving her a warm smile. He had to put his jealousy to the side for a moment.
"Chy...c'mon, cheer up!It's not the end of the world, it just complicates things. A little."
Now she was confused.
"What?"
He let go of her chin, and quick as a snake, placed his hand on her waist, as it was the most normal thing to do, still holding her gaze. She became very aware of the location of his hand.
"Well Chy " he started, "The man you killed has been found and identified. It's James Canton."
Chyennes jaw dropped, her mouth was moving, but nothing seemed to come out.
Then she finally found her speach and hissed:
"What? Was that James Canton? Nooo!"
She looked back at Curry, hoping he would tell her it was all wrong. But he just nodded seriously to her.
"Sure was James " he started, then he looked inquiring at her, "You know who he was?"
Heyes spun her back and looked questioning at her.
She smiled a sheepish, unsecure smile back at him, shrugging her shoulders.
"Yeah...you know, being a sheriff's daughter, and all?"she said apologetically, not really wanna reveal the ugly truth, "I've heard of him!"
"Uhu?" both of the men said in unison, both of them giving her stares that made her shudder.
"Care to tell us exactly how?" Curry demanded, his eyes fixing on hers.
"No. Not really" her eyes started to water as she thought back all those years ago, when he had raped her, stabbed her and beaten her senseless, "It hurts too much!"
Heyes removed his hand slowly from her hip.
She squirmd a little before sitting back down on the chair next to Curry. Her pulse speeded in her veins.
"Hurts too much?" Heyes said with and edge to his voice, beginning to understand.
She looked back and forth between them before deciding that she would tell them what happened.
"James' worth quiet a bit. Who got the reward?" she started out, fearing this more than anything.
Heyes was the first of the two to speak. He smiled stiffly at her, even though his inside was beginning to shake with rage.
"Old man Jenkins, he was the one who found him "
Chyenne nodded in approval, terrible aware of their stares.
"Good. Good for him "she mumbled, peeking at them both, seeing reactions on both of them.
They had tensed up quite a bit, Curry sat more rigid and straight in the chair, and Heyes' eyes had gone from dark to completely black.
Then she continued." When I was fourteen, I had visited my aunt way back west. I had such a great time in California. I just loved it there .On my trip back, one of the stages were held up " she paused to take a breath, looking at them both from under the mass of her dark hair, " I don't know if I had started to sort of...endowed in some areas, cause I've never looked at myself as a, you know, woman, lady, whatever...but the leader seemed to see things I didn't " Chyenne bit her lip and clamped her hands together, this was her nightmare and she was about to tell them all about it.
"He just took me, dragged me into the woods " she blinked back a tear, " God I was scared. I was just fourteen years old and knew nothing about, you know...THAT! When I didn't do what he wanted me too, he started to beat me up. He smacked me around real good, so I wouldn't make too much resistance, you know, for him to get what he wanted." she took a deep breath, realizing this was still hurting her inside, "But I sort of woke up during his 'rape' and started to fight. That was when he stabbed me with his knife "
She waited. Waited. For anything...something. But they both just looked at her. To her it seemed they regarded her like something the cat had dragged in, something below average, below standards, even for outlaws. Oh Why did she tell them? Could she be feeling more miserable than she did now?
Knowing she was past the point of no return, she continued speaking, observing them intently.
"I guess he must have gone on for at least an hour, repeatedly beating and stabbing me. Eventually I felt no pain. I just shut down. I felt dead!" Chyenne stole a look at Heyes, he met her eyes for a second then he turned away.
A cold chill went through her body as he did that, and she was sure she had alianated him forever. What man in his right mind, would care for her or want to touch her after hearing what she had said right now?
Tears were threatening to flood her eyes as she continued, this time it was just a whisper."Then after what seemed an eternity, a man suddenly appeared from nowhere, he shot my attacker in the leg and sort of let his anger out on him too. Then he helped me, took care of me, doctored me up. He's my hero...and I love him for it, but I have never seen him since then "she sat with her head bowed down, "And when I was attacked again, now, I actually thought I was reliving my nightmare, cause it was him, James Canton...all over again "
There was a dreadful silence as she had said that last part.
Heyes glared out the window. He was soo mad he was seething. The only thing wrong with this picture now, was that James Canton was dead. That meant that he could not take his anger out on the fella...HE could not kill him. The only thing good with it was that the rat had been sent to hell, and the irony of it, by this delicate woman and not by another outlaw or a sheriff.
He'd been done in by his former victim.
Chyenne felt her heart break into small pieces as she met the cold, dark stare of the man she realized she had fallen in love with. Now he would surely never wanna talk to her ever again, she knew she had to pack the little she had got from Millie and then leave. She was clearly not welcome anymore.
"I'm soo sorry . I really am " she whispered meakly, knowing where this was leading."They are gonna come here, aren't they? His gang? You know them?" she began to mumble incoherent.
Curry looked baffled at her and grabbed her hand, looking straight in her eyes.
"Chy, you have nothing to be sorry for, it's not your fault, you're a victim " he softened the grip a little, " The Whitey Bunch? Yeah...we do know who they are, most definitely!"
Heyes had stood quietly and watched as Curry made his speach, but now he pitched in.
"You see, that Whitey Bunch, when...and I say when they are coming here, because I know they will, they are well versed in the outlawing. They may spot us right on, or if we are lucky, not at all " he felt his anger fade away some as he spoke, trying to keep to the subject and not look to much at Chyenne, "but, their main purpose for coming here will be you!"
She felt her eyes water and she fought it back fiercely, she was not gonna cry. That's not how she wanted them to remember her, whimpering and sniveling, pathetic.
"I'll leave " her voice almost eluded her, " right away, I don't want to be causing any trouble for you."
She removed Currys hand from her arm, avoiding his blue eyes as they searched for hers, then she walked into the bedchamber with her head high, closing the door after her.
Heyes ran his hand through his hair and shifted his stance uncomfortably. Curry raised his brow at his friend, giving him a questioning look.
"Well?" he wondered, waiting for mr Silver tongue to go into action.
But he just stood there.
"What?" Heyes replied inquiring.
Currys lips formed into a small but pretty detectable smile. He rubbed his bristled chin and then he leaned his elbows at the table.
"Now, this is your call, Heyes! You go talk to her "
Heyes jaw went slack.
"ME?" he pointed with his thumb on his chest, "Why me?" The thought of having to face her alone, in the bedchamber, made him sweat with fear. He wasn't sure he was gonna be able to control himself."Why can't you talk to her?"
Curry smirked at him, almost chuckling at his partners frightened stare.
"Sometimes you even amaze ME " Curry admitted, "Are you both blind AND stupid?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Heyes said and glowered at Curry. He wasn't used to be called blind and stupid, in fact he opposed it.
"Aww, Heyes," Curry shook his head , bewildered that his partner couldn't see what was right in front of him, "She wants YOU to come after her, she wants YOU to do the talking. For heavens sake, can't you see it? Or are you to god damned scared of your own feelings, that it clouds your eyesight?"
Heyes mouth moved, his lips twitched, but nothing came out.
He tried again.
"Huh?" was all he managed to form with his mouth, and it was not even a word.
Curry frowned, his partner and the so called notorious outlaw Hannibal Heyes was totally paralyzed.
"Do you want her to leave?" Curry challanged him.
Heyes was brought back to the moment, he shook his head, staring down at his own feet.
"No, damn it. You know I don't want her to leave " he grumbled, "I just don't know what to say "
"Now that's a first!" Curry smirked and grabbed his hat, "Just get that silver tongue of yours to work, and it will sort itself out. I'm going out...for a while!" he smiled at Heyes," I'll be back later, much later!"
Heyes looked up, and before there was any time to object, he saw his friend head out the door. The hint couldn't be more clearer.
He braced himself, drawing his hand through his hair and he gulped down the enormous boulder he had in his throat.