Page 32 of The Taming of a Wicked Rogue

“You will not hurt her,” he said between heavy breaths.

The man swung at him, but Leo dodged the blow and responded with another hit to his face. The assailant writhed in vain against Leo’s hold, stretching his fingers frantically for his rifle, and Leo lifted his fist.

“Try it and I shall beat you until senseless.” He drew in a harsh breath. “I seldom have a taste for it, but I would quite happily see your blood spilled.”

The man lifted a knee, and Leo groaned when he struck him in the crotch and the pain seared through him. The assailant used the moment of weakness and pushed Leo back to reach for the gun.

The man stilled and his eyes widened. Leo frowned, following the man’s gaze.

“I do not wish to shoot you, but I will if I have to.” Rebecca stood by the rocks, her stance wide, then lifted the rifle, tore the powder and calmly poured the powder and shot into the barrel.

Leo groaned. “I thought I told you to stay.”

She lifted a shoulder and he saw her hands tremble around the weapon, despite her confident posture. “I thought you were dead.”

∞∞∞

SEEING LEO ATOP the shooter, alive and well, didn’t do much to reassure her, even when he flashed her a grin. All she could picture was lying with her nose to the ground and hearing that gunshot, then imagining Leo bleeding to death on the ground—all for her.

To think she had nearly lost him...

“I’m most certainly alive.”

She ignored his quip and gestured to the man. “I recognize you from the town. You grabbed me.”

Though he looked smaller now, Leo had moved to hold him down again, she recalled those thick, brawny arms covered in a matt of dark hair and the pale line of a scar slicing across a weather-beaten face.

The man’s gaze skipped between them, and Rebeccasaw the tension release from his body as he heaved out a sigh.

Leo eased off him and rose to standing but thrust a finger at him. “Move and I’ll let her shoot you.” He studied him for a few moments. “You’re Tom Bainbridge, are you not? From Tor Farm?”

He nodded and rubbed a hand across a bristled jaw and then pushed himself up to sitting, draping his arms dejectedly across his knees. His gaze lingered on the barrel of the rifle and his lips curled. “Let her shoot me. Her father ruined my life already.”

Rebecca narrowed her gaze. “You were shooting at me because of my father?”

“Yes.” Tom’s jaw worked and he spat on the ground to the side of him. “He took everything.”

“He took a lot of things from a lot of people,” she murmured.

“He took my wife.”

Rebecca grimaced. It did not surprise her. Her father had seduced many a woman that they knew of, and she had no doubt there were many more. How many of them had been whilst he still lived with them, she did not know, and she didn’t want to. She would do as Leo said and focus on the good moments of her childhood, unstained by the truth of her father.

“I am sorry for that but—”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Leo snapped. “He nearly killed you.” He glared at the man. “And he’s lucky I didn’t beat him to death.”

“He took my wife and promised her everything.” Tom shook his head and made a disgusted noise. “She died because of that bastard.”

Rebecca eyed the man for several moments. He cast his gaze down, but grief had taken its toll on him, making him appear older than she suspected he was, with hair that had grayed before its time and a heavily lined face. She’d seen this before, in the woman he’d illegally married after her mother. The utter defeat, the desolation. She could not help but feel sorry for him.

She handed the rifle over to Leo and crouched in front of him.

“Rebecca—” Leo warned, scowling.

She held up a hand and touched Tom’s arm gently. “What did my father do?”

The man’s head shot up and he cocked his head, eyeing her with a frown. Finally, he heaved out a sigh. “He seduced her and persuaded her to give him our life savings. It wasn’t much but we’d worked hard for that. Then when he left her, she tried to follow him.”

---