Chapter Ten
Jessie stayed behind the privacy screen, ready to fight to the death if she needed to. She was not going to let Gray take her by force, even if it meant that she died protecting herself. She threw her clothes over the screen and looked around for a weapon to use against him, but was surprised to hear the door open and close with a click.
Had he really left? It almost seemed too good to be true.
She listened for a while, the air feeling heavy with the sound of silence, interrupted only by the sounds of her breathing and the fading footsteps in the hallway. Slowly stepping toward the screen and peeking around it, she tried not to make any noise in case he was still in the room.
Gray was nowhere to be seen.
Relief rushed through her as she sighed, releasing the pressure she had been feeling in her chest. If he had left her alone in a room, naked, he probably didn’t mean her any harm.
Probably.
She needed to find a way to block the door and then escape before he came back. She didn’t know how long he was going to be gone, so she had to act fast while she had a moment alone.
Picking up the flimsy wooden privacy screen, she tested it to see how heavy it was. It was made of some sort of cheap wood and canvas, so it wasn’t heavy at all. She bit her lip to stifle a grin as she shuffled toward the bed.
She could wrap herself in the blankets and use the sheets to scale down the side of the inn to escape. They were only on the second floor of the building, so it wouldn’t be too hard to get down. She’d dealt with worse conditions.
Glancing around with desperation as she walked to the bed, she blew out a growl of frustration. The only things in the room were the stupid chair, the bathtub, and the bed. Nothing else was in this place, probably because it wasn’t meant to be somewhere people stayed long term. These small inns were made for people just passing through.
Stopping in front of the bed, she shifted the privacy screen to protect herself from view of the door if Gray returned, and then turned to pick up the sheets.
Her lips curled into a snarl, and it took everything in her not to scream in frustration. The bedsheets were gone! She huffed, and quickly decided on a second plan. She abandoned any hope of privacy the white canvas screen might provide her, and dragged the bed in front of the door, ignoring the sound of the iron scraping across the wooden floor. It was surprisingly easy to move, and she wasn’t convinced it would actually stop Gray from getting in, but it would at least slow him down.
She looked around for something to wrap herself in but was dismayed to find nothing in the room that she could use. There was nothing.
Admitting defeat, she decided she might as well take the bath. She wanted one so desperately anyway and with Gray gone, there was no harm. With the bed in front of the door, there was no way Gray would get into the room without her knowing about it, making a few moments of relaxation more tempting.
She sank into the bathtub and let out a moan of pure pleasure. Baths were something that were hard to come by in the West, and were too costly to enjoy often. She only did it when she landed a large bounty, or when she was just so dirty she couldn’t stand it any longer.
She let the warmth surround her and closed her eyes in bliss. Even if Gray was a huge pain in the ass, she was grateful for the chance to bathe.
Her mood soured as she thought about their last interaction. She roughly grabbed the soap off the side of the tub that the housekeepers had left. She lathered it up, pausing to inhale its sweet rose scent. It was almost enough to turn her mood positive again.
Almost.
Basking in the wonderful smell a moment longer, she finally got to work cleaning her hair. The brunette locks tangled in her fingers as she scrubbed her scalp with the wonderful smelling soap. Keeping the length was one of the few luxuries she allowed herself. One tie to being her true self instead of pretending to be a man. She knew it was foolish to keep it so long, but she couldn’t stand to give that one last piece of herself up.
She leaned back against the side of the tub until the water lost some of its heat and thought about Gray. She felt frozen in limbo from the mixture of emotions that he invoked within her. She hated him for using her past against her. For gaining her trust, and then using her deepest secrets to get what he wanted. He had shown that he couldn’t be trusted, even though a bigger part of her wanted to put her trust in him. He was her only hope of getting out of her situation.
He”d promised that if she helped him with distracting Casey, he would let her go, but she wasn’t so sure she could trust him with that either. Her best bet was to find her own way out of this situation and only rely on Gray if she had no other choice.
It was frustrating that she wasn’t allowed to leave now that she and Gray were in town. She had thought that once they arrived, there’d be no reason to keep her, and Gray would let her go. But he made things complicated for her.
A pit of worry settled in her stomach as she thought about his and Luke’s requirement that she dress like a woman so she wasn’t seen as Kid Aaron. When Gray had shown no signs of relenting in the restaurant, she’d known she needed to get away from him.
She had embarrassed her father when she ran away. He wouldn’t allow someone to make a fool of him. Her father was a ruthless man, and his pride meant everything to him. If he found her, she didn’t think he would make her marry their neighbor to pay off his debts anymore.
He would kill her.
She rubbed her neck, trying to relieve the tension that had formed there as she thought about her father. He couldn’t find her again.
Maybe Gray was right, and he wasn’t looking for her anymore? She snorted out loud at the thought almost as soon as it came to her mind. It was wishful thinking, and she knew it. Her father was merciless and would track her down until he found her. There were others who had crossed him when she was younger. And no matter how long it took him to get his revenge, he always got it. Even if it took him years.
She needed to have a plan in place for what she was going to do when she got away from Gray.
She’d have to go back to hunting for cattle thieves, for sure. Going after murderers clearly wasn’t something she did well. The first one she’d gone after, she had completely bungled. From now on, she’d pass on to trying to pursue them.
Everyone she went after wouldn’t be guilty of the crimes they were accused of, but the fact that Gray had been able to turn the tables and turn her into his prisoner didn’t sit well with her. She’d gotten lucky, very lucky, that he hadn’t decided to kill her in that moment.
But going back to hunting cattle thieves didn’t seem like the best thing to do either. She’d have to work at that for several more years before she could retire and live out her life in a small town with her own farm to take care of. She wasn’t sure how many years she had left in her with a life like this.
Her feelings for Gray knotted away at her confidence. She had no real options. Put her trust in Gray and possibly gain everything she wanted: true freedom from her father, and never having to hide again. But she wasn’t sure she could trust him fully.
Or put her trust in herself and continue with the plan she’d already made.
She felt a pit forming in her stomach at the thought, but she believed with everything in her that it was the right thing to do. She didn’t want to turn Gray and Luke in, but the money was too good, and she needed to take care of herself, first. It was her life, or theirs.
She was going to betray them and turn them in.