A/N: Hope you enjoyed the longer update last time! This one is just as good! Enjoy! :D
My favorite chapter so far, just saying! :D
"We gotta get back to town, Charlie. We can't look for her." Jackson said.
"Find. Charlotte." Charlie growled, "I don't care what happens."
"With our luck," Darden started, "She's either dead or Ben got her. She went the way he went. The way we're going."
Charlie looked down; he couldn't disagree with them anymore if so, they might suspect that he would have background ties to Charlotte.
"We'll stick with our plan. We'll take the long way then."
"The one with the good saloon?" Darden said, wide-eyed.
Charlie rolled his eyes, "Yes, the one with the good saloon."
There was a chorus of "Yeses."
Charlotte was too tired to run anymore, too tired to fight back, with words or nails.
"You have something to say?" Ben shifted on the saddle. "Are you hungry or somethin'?" He handed her jerky.
Charlotte weakly smiled, she started leaning towards his outstretched hand.
Ben smiled, "Don't faint again."
Charlotte looked at him, "I never knew I'd be seeing you again, later in my life."
Ben looked at her, bringing his hand back and eating the rest of the offered jerky. "I saw you before?"
"Yes." She answered; she couldn't yet look him in the eyes, her horse shifted forward.
"I'd like ya' to tell me a little bit more."
Charlotte bit her bottom lip, "Charlie," She started, "was my brother. I was the girl in the barn, the little girl he shot at."
Ben looked at her, "You can't even look at me can you?"
"No. I can't." Charlotte answered back.
"What happened?" He asked, directing towards her wrists.
"If it's alright with you, I'd prefer we don't talk." She said, gently spurring the horse.
Ben followed her lead, still asking questions. "Where'd ya' learn to ride like that?"
She stopped her horse again.
He stopped.
"Is this how you talk to every girl? Annoy them until they answer your questions?"
"Is it working?" He asked, smirking.
"No."
"Well, I try to answer every question of yours with another question."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Ha!" She said, "I asked a question."
He smiled even wider, "I got ya' talk some more!"
Charlotte stopped smiling, "You're good. Very good, too good."
"I'm also bad. Very bad, too bad." He mocked.
She did a sideways glance, and swiftly went to looking straight out again. He was looking at her, watching her every expression, her every move. He acted like an animal, waiting on her every word like the every move of a mouse. Waiting, waiting to pounce on it.
"Do I scare you?" He asked, now looking forward.
"And, Mr. Wade, why would you ask that?"
"Well, for one, you don't look at me when you talk to me,"
Charlotte noted that he said 'when you talk to me' instead of her late husband. It would've been, 'look at me when I talk to you.'
"You talk to me like you think you're above me." He added.
Charlotte shook her head, spurring her horse again.
"Don't you have a southern drawl?" He asked, still following.
"No. I'm not going to give you the luxury of letting you listen to it."
"It's ok, I like this accent more." He smiled.
She knew what he was doing, trying to get her to talk in the drawl.
"It's not going to work." She growled.
"I had to try." He said back, "Wait. Stop."
She didn't stop.
Ben didn't know her name he bit back on having to call her miss but he had to, "Miss! Stop! Please!"
Was Ben Wade begging her to stop? Wow. She thought, but she pulled back on the reins, again.
She heard him jump off his horse and come up next to her. "You have to get off your horse."
She pointed her chin up, "And if I don't?"
"I'll be forced to pull you off." His hand already reaching for her.
Charlotte scoffed, quickly flinging her leg over on the opposite side he was standing, and jumping off on the right side of the horse.
You're either looking above me or below me. Ben thought, his curiosity towards her was astounding. He never truly saw what her face looked like, it was a mere shadow. "What's your name?"
"Prince." She answered back, her hands on the saddle.
"What's your first name?"
"So why'd I have to get off of my horse?" She asked, ignoring his question.
"Charlie's horse." He corrected, "Who are you?"
"My name is Charlotte Lee Prince. My older brother is Charlie James Prince. When I was little, my mamma' used to call him James and me Lee-lee. My mother's dead. My father's dead." Charlotte didn't realize this, but she was walking forward away from him.
"Wow." Was all Ben could say, "So I can call you Lee-lee?"
"Are you my mother?"
"No, I don't know how she lived, raising two of ya'. I can barely handle Charlie." He smiled.
At the moment, Charlotte wasn't in on his humor.
"You also used a bit of your accent there."
"Jesus, you are observant."
"I also noticed you're gimpin'." Ben pointed out, he started following her, carefully ten feet behind her however.
"Everyone seems to notice that, so that one doesn't count." Charlotte was finally warming up to Ben.
"Well, what happened?" His voice was rough, but almost showing compassion.
Charlotte jumped; he was no longer ten feet away from her. He was now at least three inches. She could feel his breath against the back of her neck.
Charlotte slammed her eyes shut, inhaling deeply, trying to make herself remember the memory she shoved down in her mind.
"I remember, a gunshot…" She started.
"Go on." He said, she could now feel his hand against her back. It was warm, but the feelings it gave her were the burning uneasy panics of adrenalin in her stomach.
"I…can't." She stopped, falling forward, but catching herself by flinging her leg out. She then decided that it was better just to sit anyways.
"Can you ever not faint around me?"
"I didn't actually faint." She corrected him, "Besides, I like the ground, it's squishy."
"Ya? That's because you're sitting in horse shit."
Charlotte bit her lip, bloody hell. In the act of sitting the way she was, she felt something against her leg. Right away she remembered. Her gun. One had fallen out in the saloon, the other she had from Charlie's horse. So technically his gun. But she had put it in the garter around her leg while escaping from them. She wondered what they were doing now.
Just then, the whole reason why Ben made them get off their horses came. He drew out his gun, that Charlotte completely forgot he had, and shot three times. Click, bang, click, bang, click bang.
Click…
It wasn't his thumb that pulled back on his gun, but Charlotte's. She eyed the three men who were listening in on their whole entire conversation, now dead. But she didn't care, she had Ben Wade at gun point. There was nothing he could do. His back was facing her, there was no way he could turn around and shoot her. Ben Wade wasn't that fast.
"You're right Mr. Wade." Charlotte started, "You are good, very good, almost too good. You are also bad, very bad, almost too bad."
Ben let out a quick breath, she played me, he thought. "You're good." He said, smiling, dropping his gun with his arms raised a bit. "I didn't think you'd have the backbone to do this. Where was that gun anyways?" He chuckled deviously.
"Wade, before I fainted, my plan was ta' kill ya' and Charlie. Who says I can't just do it now?"
He smiled, "You're southern accent, very nice. So I guess this calls off any future dates?"
"You're damn right."
"Charlotte." It wasn't Ben's voice.
"Charlie! Oh thank God!" Ben called out, putting his surrendering hands down.
Charlie had his other gun pointed at Charlotte, walking behind her, "Ben, you can turn around now."
Ben turned, grinning ear to ear, he grabbed Charlotte's hands, handing Charlie his gun.
"Let go of me." Charlotte growled, trying to rip her tiny hands out of his large rough ones.
"Like ya' said, sweetheart, I'm too good."
