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  Gracie knocked on the door and then went inside. Ryan stood in the doorway seeing Doc closing up his bag.

  “Hi Gracie. Guess you heard that Maggie’s been damaging the stairs with her body.”

  “Will you listen to him,” said Maggie.

  “Sheriff, why don’t you and I go get ourselves a drink and let these ladies visit.”

  “If there’s anything I can do you let me know.” Ryan touched his hat to Maggie and left with the doctor.

  “Just how old is Maggie?” asked Doc.

  “I’m not sure. I’m guessing she’s not much younger than sixty.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Anyone else wouldn’t have survived that sort of fall but she’s one of a kind is our Maggie.”

  “That she is.”

  “And Gracie looks so well now. Maggie does love that girl. She told me that she wants her to take over running this place.”

  Ryan stopped in his tracks. Gracie running the whorehouse. Over his dead body.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Gracie sat on the bed holding Maggie’s hand.

  “Don’t you worry because I’m going to take good care of you until you’re up and about again,” said Gracie.

  “That might be some time and you don’t want to be with an old lady all the time.”

  “You’re not old.”

  “I’m sixty-five on my next birthday.”

  Gracie had never met her grandparents and didn’t or hadn’t known anyone that age but she wouldn’t let on. She wanted Maggie to think she was still young and useful around the place.

  “You know what Maggie? I’ve been thinking about business and I have some ideas on how you can make more money.”

  “Really, well I’m listening.”

  “You charge more money for certain things the men want. If they want to kiss the girls, that’s extra. If they want the girls to… well, you know put their members in their mouth, that’s extra too. And if the men want to put their mouths on the girl’s…”

  “Pussies,” said Maggie.

  “Yes, that will be extra.”

  After what Ryan had done to her when he’d put his mouth on her pussy it should in fact be the girls paying the men but she didn’t want to let Maggie know about what had happened in the barn.

  “Quite the business woman, aren’t you Gracie?”

  “I’m not done yet. I was thinking there could be women who want to make some money but don’t want to have sex with men so they could sit with them in the saloon and dance with them and the men would have to pay for it.”

  Maggie laughed so hard, she had to hold her leg. “Ouch, that hurts like hell. I like this idea and that’s why I’m going to allow you to run this place while I’m laid up like this.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you young lady. And when I’m gone from this life, this place will be all yours.”

  “Mine.”

  “I’ve no one else to leave it to and I know it will be in good hands with you.”

  Gracie laid her head on Maggie’s shoulder. Her running a whorehouse. She guessed her parents had never thought that one day their little girl would be doing that for a living.

  ****

  “Maggie, this is wrong, wrong, wrong,” said Ryan. Maggie moved gingerly on her walking cane and then sat down with a thud on the chair.

  It had been two months since Maggie’s accident and despite his protests Gracie had now taken over running the saloon and upstairs business. Business was indeed blooming with men coming from other towns not only to have sex but companionship of the women who they paid to drink and dance with.

  “Ryan Doyle I think it’s wrong, wrong, wrong of you not to have asked me for that girl’s hand in marriage. It will soon be a year that you’ve known her and still you’re dragging your feet. What else is a woman to do if she can’t be a wife and mother?”

  “Maggie, I vowed never to marry again and like I’ve always told you a better man will come along one day for Gracie.”

  Maggie lifted her cane at him. “Then so be it, she’ll be like me, an old maid running the whorehouse.”

  ****

  Gracie opened up the account books. Business had never been better and Maggie was on the mend. How better could things get? Well, apart from Ryan asking her to be his wife. It was probably never going to happen and they’d just stay as they were. She loved him and wouldn’t love another. Maybe she’d end up like Maggie. Nothing wrong with that.

  The door opened and she expected to see Maggie or one of the girls standing in the doorway but instead it was a man, a customer by the look of things. They weren’t allowed in this section of the property so she stood ready to direct him to one of the rooms. The stench of whisky on his breath and clothing hit her before she even got a few feet from him.

  “Is it the service of one of the girls you wish tonight?”

  “It is,” he slurred.

  In this state she wouldn’t let him near any girl. He’d be sent on his way to sober up.

  “Then may I suggest you come back tomorrow evening when you’ve had less to drink.”

  “I want to put my cock into some pussy tonight.”

  “We don’t allow men who are drunk to be with our girls.”

  “Then I’ll have you.”

  He grabbed her and she tried to get away from him. His breath was so bad, so putrid and not just from the drink. She almost was sick. He tried to kiss her and then inched up her dress.

  “If you don’t get your hands off me I’ll have to knee you in your private parts.”

  “I don’t think so whore, my private parts are going into your pussy.”

  He was on top of her and had her on the floor before she could fight back. One hand had her pinned while the other ripped the front of her dress exposing her breasts. He put his mouth down on one of her nipples and she tried to get free but couldn’t.

  Next thing she knew his hand was on her mound, his fingers beginning to bury themselves in her curls. She would not let this man rape her and violate her. Only Ryan Doyle would ever touch her.

  “Help, someone help me,” she screamed out. The music was loud in the saloon and she doubted anyone would hear her but she cried out again.

  “Please help me.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ryan knew that was Gracie’s voice.

  “You hear that?” he asked Maggie. “It’s Gracie calling for help.”

  “Last time I saw her she was in my office.”

  Ryan headed to the door and ran down the hallway.

  “Help me please.”

  Ryan burst into the room and saw the man on top of her. Thoughts of his wife flashed through his head. The vile man who raped her and caused her to take her life. Gracie wouldn’t suffer the same way.

  He took his gun from his holster and aimed at the man’s head but before he could fire the gun, someone else had done just that, grazing the man in the arm. He slid off Gracie and slumped onto the floor.

  “I didn’t want you getting into trouble again, sheriff. And Gracie, are you okay my girl?” asked Maggie, holding her gun.

  Gracie sat up, her dress ripped, her hair hanging around her face.

  Maggie sat beside Gracie as the man groaned and held his arm.

  “You could have killed me,” he said.

  “I intended to but I only have one damn eye and I’m a lousy shot.”

  Ryan walked over to Gracie, tears streamed down her face. “Did he?”

  Gracie shook her head. “He touched me, but no he didn’t violate me.”

  “I’ll take Gracie to her room and get her cleaned up and put her to bed and you get this animal out of here,” said Maggie.

  ****

  Gracie still shook as she sat in bed. If Ryan and Maggie hadn’t heard her and come to her aid, well, the vilest thing that could happen to a woman…she didn’t want to think about it. No wonder poor Ruth had chosen to take her life.

  Ryan stood in the doorway.

  “You okay?�
�

  Gracie nodded as he came in and sat beside her.

  “I hope you locked him up and threw away the key.”

  “I did,” said Ryan. “He’s from out of town and he’s leaving as soon as Doc’s stitched him up and he’s sober.”

  Gracie took a deep breath. “I know how your wife felt and I’m ashamed to say I’ve been jealous of her since the day.”

  “What day?”

  “The one where you told me you couldn’t think of me in the same way you thought of her.”

  “Oh Gracie it’s not how I meant it to sound. I meant that I loved her, but I’m in love with you. I guess I have been since the first time I laid my eyes upon you. It’s almost as if you and I knew one another in a former life.”

  She looked up at him. “You’re in love with me?”

  He nodded.

  “Then why don’t you marry me?” she asked.

  “Vowed never to again. I was a bad husband and bad man and I just keeping thinking someone fine and good is coming for you.”

  She put her hand on his face. “He already did.”

  He got hold of her hand and kissed its palm. “Gracie if anything would have happened to you, life would end for me.”

  She leaned over and kissed him. “So does that mean there’s something you want to ask Maggie?”

  ****

  “Well, of course you can have my girl’s hand in marriage. But only one condition that you don’t stop her from inheriting this place when I’m gone.”

  “The sheriff and the madam,” said Ryan.

  “You know that has a nice sound to it. I’m going to insist that’s what the place is called after your wedding,” said Maggie. “Now let’s go have a drink and plan out the best damn wedding Grantsville will ever see.”

  Epilogue

  Katy wiped her eyes. She loved a happy ending. Jennifer was going to love reading this. In fact, she was meeting her for lunch tomorrow after her and Connor went to the doctor’s to see their first ultrasound of their baby.

  The sheriff and the madam. She’d have to do some research and see if it did ever get named that. She’d sat so many times in the Old Mill tavern never knowing it was once a whorehouse run by a woman with one eye. And Gracie, she sounded so beautiful. Ryan sounded like a hunk of a guy. No wonder Cash was so gorgeous with those two as his great, great, great, great grandparents.

  Cash, yeah he was a lot like his ancestors. A man with a secret.

  She hadn’t figured out why he hadn’t kissed her. At first she wondered if he might be gay or married but there was something else and she couldn’t put her finger on it. She already had a vested interest in him and just like Gracie she was going to get her man.

  She pulled out her cell phone and already had his number on speed dial.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi Cash.”

  “Hi Katy, how you doing?”

  “I’m doing just fine. You know I’m heading to Las Vegas next weekend?”

  “Yeah, I remember. You want me to stop by your place and water your plants while you’re gone?”

  “No, I want you to come with me.”

  “With you?”

  “Yes, I hate going on my own.”

  “Okay, but I have to insist on separate rooms.”

  What is wrong with you? Katy mouthed at her phone. One step at a time. He’d agreed to come along and that was the main thing.

  “Okay, I’ll book two rooms. I’ll give you a call when I have all the details and flight departure times.”

  “All righty.”

  She put the phone down. He was going to share a room with her and a bed with her if he liked it or not. And what better way to seduce a man than to take him to Vegas to a sex toy convention.

  Katy smiled thinking of the advertisement about what happens in Vegas…

  The End

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  Other Books by Vanessa Devereaux:

  www.evernightpublishing.com/vanessa-devereaux

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  Evernight Publishing

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