Lady of the Gun (37 page)

"He won't hurt me, Rosie.
He was a little . . . well, more than a little threatening yesterday, but he apologized today. That's what he was doing just now, apologizing."

"
He threatened you?" Rosie's eyes grew as big as saucers.

"I guess it was silly. He thinks he's in love with me and
was insisting I marry him. When I refused, he became a little too aggressive."

Tears began to slip from Rosie's eyes. "I'm so sorry,
Cass," she whispered.

"Rosie? What's wrong?"

"I should have told you sooner."

"What?"

"It's Ramsey. He's the one who's been beating me."

”
Ramsey?" Cass repeated. So Brett was right.

"Yes," Rosie sniffled.

Cass looked down at Rosie's stomach.

Rosie noticed where she was looking and nodded. "Yes,
he's the father."

"Oh, Rosie," Cass whispered
.

"It isn't what you
think, Cass. I don't love him. I hate him."

"Then how could you ..."

"He raped me. And it wasn't the first time."

Chapter Eighteen

Cass looked at Rosie in horror. "He raped you? Why didn't you tell Brett?"

Tears ro
lled down Rosie's cheeks unheeded. "Ramsey said he'd kill me if I told anyone but now I’m pregnant.  What am I going to do?”

Cass's anger grew ho
t in her chest. "We're going to report Ramsey’s crimes to Brett. He’ll arrest the bastard'"

"
No!" Rosie wailed. I’m afraid of Ramsey. You have no idea what he's capable of. I wouldn't have told you this much if I didn’t think he might to the same to you. I just couldn't bear the thought that he might hurt you."

Cass shook her hea
d. "Dear Rosie, don't worry about me.  I can take care of myself," she said, patting Rosie affectionately on the knee. "And once Brett arrests Ramsey he won't be able to get to you."

"
His father will get him out of jail.  He covered for him before, years ago."

Cass
lowered her eyelids slightly. "When?"

"The f
irst time he raped me."

"I thought you
meant he'd raped you more than once since his returned to Twisted Creek," she said.

"No," Rosie said. "The f
irst time was the day your family was killed." Her head fell forward in sorrowful racking sobs.

"You must be mistaken, Rosie," Cass said
quietly. "Ramsey had been gone a week already when my family was murdered. He'd left for college, don't you remember?”

"No, he didn't go, Cass. At
least not then. The day your family was killed he came knocking on my window. He was so nice when he wanted to be. He told me he was sorry he'd been mean to me all the years we were growing up. He said it was because he'd always had a crush on me but didn't know how to approach me." She looked up into Cass's eyes, her own puffy from crying. "I wanted to believe him, Cass. I always thought he was handsome," she sobbed. "Even when he was so mean to me. But when I went with him, he took me just outside of town and he . . . he . . " It was so horrible the first time, Cass. It hurt so much."

Cass knelt in fr
ont of Rosie and pulled her into her arms. "Oh, Rosie, you've been through so much," she said consolingly. "Why didn't you report it then?"

"I did, but Sheriff Jackson was so busy getting the posse
together to go after your family's murderers that he barely listened to me. Then, afterward, he didn't believe me. He believed, like everyone else, that Ramsey had already left town." She leaned back and stared hard at Cass. "It was Ramsey, Cass He was still in town that day. I even went to Hunt, hoping he would help me, hoping he'd let everyone know Ramsey hadn't left for college yet. He just laughed at me and called me a slut. He told me his son wouldn't have touched the likes of me without an invitation."

Cass remembered that Ramsey had called her a slut the
day before…his father's word. "It's time this stopped, Rosie. We're going to put an end to Ramsey's crimes once and for all. I'll tell Brett what Ramsey has done to you. I promise he'll take care of it, and he and I together will make sure Ramsey never touches you again."

Rosie stared hopefully into Cass's eyes. "I ca
n't even remember what it feels like to not be afraid," she said, her voice still full of tears.

Cass took her arms from around Rosie's back and patted
her knees for a moment. Standing, she turned toward the door. "You stay here and don't open the door to anyone, understand?"

Rosie nodded
.

"Good.
I’ll be back with Brett," she said. Crossing to the door, she looked back at Rosie's pitiful face. Rage roiled inside her at what Ramsey had done to Rosie's life. Leaving the tiny house, she headed straight for the sheriff's office. She couldn't wait to tell Brett about Rosie. And to think Ramsey had raped her all those years ago. Her anger made her footsteps heavy in the dirt street. And if Ramsey was still in town when her family was murdered, he'd probably known all along that his father was involved. "You acted so innocent,"' she fumed out loud through clenched teeth.

Brett was waiting patiently for his breakfast when Cass
came crashing through the door. The look on her face drove any thought of food from his mind. "What's wrong, Cass?" he asked, standing up and moving around the desk toward her.

"It's Rosie, Brett. Ramsey raped her
.”

Brett stared at Cass as what she'd said registered. "That
son of a bitch," he cursed.

"And he's been beating her, threatening to kill her if she
told anyone."

Brett clenched
his fists. "I'll ride out to the Lazy T today, right after I get Rosie to sign a report. I'll arrest that bastard."

"And that's n
ot all, Brett," Cass said, touching him on the arm. "She told me something about the day my family was murdered."

"Does she know who did it?"

"No. But Ramsey was still in town then."

"I thought you said he'd been gone about a week by
then."

"I thought he had. Everyone thought he'd gone back east
to college. But according to Rosie, he paid her a visit on the day my family was murdered. He lured her out of town and raped her for the first time."

"She was just a kid," he said.

Cass nodded. "And when she told the sheriff what had happened he wouldn't believe her. Brett, Rosie's been living with this for five years. Now he's back and treating her even worse than before. He's the father of her baby," she said sadly.

"Let's go talk to her. I'll bring the paperwork wi
th me to her house. As soon as she signs it, I'll go find Ramsey."

"He's in tow
n," she said.

"How do you know?"

"I saw him. He spoke to me."

"Fine. He'll be that much easier to get to."

They left the office and went straight to Rosie's place. She answered the door with tears still dripping from her eyes. "I'm afraid, Marshal," she admitted. "I don't know if I can do this."

"You have to, don't you see that, Rosie?" asked Cass.
"It's the only way you'll ever be free of him. He knows he can victimize you, so he'll keep doing it."

Rosie
turned around and went back to the chair she'd been sitting in earlier. "My life is such a mess. Even if you do stop Ramsey from hurting me, what am I going to do? I'm pregnant and I'm not married."

Cass touched Rosie on the shoulder. "People will understand
when they know what happened."

"No! You can't te
ll anyone. I'd die of humiliation." She paused for a second. "Maybe that's what should happen. I'd be better off dead."

"Rosie, don't ever say anything like that," Cass pleaded
. "I've lost so many people in my life. Don't make me think I might lose you now that we've become friends again after all this time."

Rosie let her gaze drop.
“I’m sorry. I just feel so helpless."

"You won't be helpless if you make a report and sign it.
You'll be the one with the power, Rosie. You have the power to put this man behind bars for a long time for what he did to you," Brett told her.

Rosie hesitated for a few seconds while she thought about
it. "It would be nice to feel safe again," she said softly. "I guess I could stand everything else if I knew he wouldn't bother me again. All right. What do I have to do?"

Brett explained the procedure to her, then started w
riting down what she told him. As Cass listened to the horrible story again, she wondered why she hadn’t realized how dangerous Ramsey could be.

A few minutes later she felt her stomach growl again.
She'd completely forgotten about food while talking to Rosie, but her appetite had come back with a vengeance. "Brett?" she said. "I'm going over to the hotel to get us something to eat."

Brett looked away from Rosie to Cass. "
Sounds good."

"
Breakfast or lunch?"

"How about a thick roast beef sandwich?"

'"Mmmm. I'll get two. Rosie would you like something?"

Rosie sniffed. "No, thank you, Cass. I haven't been very
hungry lately."

"You've got to keep up your strength. You're eating for
two."

Rosie thought for a minute. "If they have some soup, I
suppose I could eat a little," she said.

"Soup it is," Cass answered, heading for the door. '"I'll
be right back."

On her way to
the hotel and food once more, her boot heels dug deep into the dirt in the street as she hurried.

"Cassid
y Wayne?"

Cass stopped abruptly, hearing the threatening tone of the
voice behind her. Turning slowly, she looked at the man who had spoken. "Who wants to know?"

"The name's Bobby Fleet. I understand you killed my
little brother."

Cass's blood ran cold. "I didn't want to. He forced my
hand in a fair fight."

"It doesn't matter. Henry was just a kid, and now he's
dead. You killed him. Now I'm gonna kill you. That's how it works. Miss Wayne."

"It doesn't have to. Like I said, I didn't want to kill him.
He left me no choice. You and I still have choices. We don't have to do this."

"Henry challenged you because he heard you were fast.
He wanted to make a bigger name for himself. I'm going to kill you because he was my brother. You see, it doesn't matter what the reasons are, everything evens out in the end."

Cass sized up this gunfighter while he talked
. He was quite a bit older than Henry had been, and he was reportedly a lot faster. She watched his eyes, hard eyes that never left hers. He didn't blink incessantly as Henry had. He wasn't nervous. His arms hung loose at his sides, his right hand poised over his gun. Her heart slowed until it scarcely beat within her chest, the calm coming over her. She was going to have to kill him.

"You ready to die, Miss Wayne?" he asked.

"Are you?" she returned.

"I ain't t
he one gonna meet the Lord today. You are."

"I doubt it's the
Lord you'll be meeting," she answered, "but you can say hello to the devil for me."

"You're funny, Miss Wayne. Real funny. I wonder if
you'll think it's funny when my bullet splits your heart in two."

"That's not going to happen, Bobby I'm as fast as you've
heard, maybe faster. I didn't want to kill your brother, and I don't want to kill you, but I will if you force me." She watched the way he stood, relaxed, sure of himself. She noticed the slight smile that turned up the corners of his mouth.

"You know, you're real pretty. It's gonna almost be a
shame to kill you," he said. "I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do to you than shoot you."

Cass knew he was trying to rattle her
. It was a ploy one gunfighter would use against another in an attempt to make his opponent lose his concentration. "I doubt you'd be capable of doing anything that would impress me much," she returned, playing his game.

"You might be surprised. I know you're gonna be surprised
when my bullet kills you."

"Likewise."

He took a step to the side, slowly trying to get the sun where he wanted it.

Cass simply backed up, refusing to give him the advantage.
She noticed that he was squinting a bit. Good, keep the sun in your eyes, she thought. "Did you teach Henry to shoot?" she asked.

"Why?"

"I just want to know what I'm up against. If you taught Henry and I beat him, I can no doubt beat you. It makes sense," she tried a little rattling of her own.