Lisa smiled. “You inviting me to your poker game?”
The man frowned and started to walk straight toward her with the obvious intent on taking physical action. Realizing that she wasn't going to talk her way out of this, she stepped back and grabbed her pistol, drawing it out of it's holster. The men were slow to respond, and it looked like Lisa was going to have her gun pointed at them before they good even start reaching for theirs.
Just as her gun let the holster, a hand grabbed her wrist. Lisa was no slouch in a fist fight, but her arm was in the perfect position to be pulled behind her back. Startled, she dropped her pistol just as an arm was pulled across her neck. Her neck was held tightly in place as her arm was pushed forward into her back.
“We don't like it too much when strangers come into town and start pulling guns on people, Miss.” The voice was cool and gentle, but confident and refined as well. “Mind explaining to me what you think you're doing?”
“She was trying to skip out on the toll, Mr. Daniels.”
“Bullshit,” said Lisa, “ I was just defending myself from these men.”
“So you have paid the toll?”
Lisa was silent for a moment, trying to work out her response. Her silence, however, had said everything that Mr. Daniels needed to know. “Go see if you can find the sheriff, Greg. I'll put her in the back room while we wait for him to arrive.”
The man who had stepped forward looked annoyed, but nodded to Mr. Daniels and walked off. The other two men followed as Lisa was brought into the saloon and forced down a short hallway and into a small room with a bed and a chair.
The two men who had followed Mr. Daniels helped him sit her down and held her arms as he tied her hands with some coarse rope. Once her hands were tied, each one of the men tied one of her ankles to a chair leg while Mr. Daniels took off his coat.
“You boys can go now. I have some, questions, I'd like to ask the little lady before the sheriff shows up.
The two men, looking disappointed, left the room, closing the door behind them. I'm sorry about this, miss, but I'm afraid that you would have been raped if I hadn't stepped in. In fact, I'm going to have to ask you to do a little acting for me." |