A.N - Happy belated Birthday to Amy! This chapter's for you :)

This chapter does contain a lot of sexual references - just implications mind. But please remember that we're dealing with a cat house here. I wouldn't write it if it wasn't necessary. xD

Chapter Three

My father's idea was crazy – there was no way it could work. Surely everyone at the cat house would recognise me? Would be looking out for me?

I am the Sheriff, after all.

It was for that reason and that reason alone, that I refused to shave for the next three days. If I did have to go through with this, I had to use whatever methods were available to me to disguise me.

Three nights after my father had suggested this crazy plan and I was walking into the saloon/cat house, a slight limp to my step. There was a big cowboy hat slung low on my head, covering my eyes and leaving only my stubble-covered chin open to anyone who was looking my way. My clothes, too, had suffered changes, my black trousers replaced with those of a baggy brown colour and a heavy work-man's jacket hung on my shoulders.

I was barely recognisable, even to myself.

Paul was the one who greeted me, shortly after my arrival. I looked up at him from under the brim of my hat in disgust – not that he saw me.

"Good evening, sir." He spoke quietly, yet pleasantly. "How can I help you?"

I made my voice higher than what it usually was.

"Bring me your finest," I snapped, slamming down a considerable amount of bills on the bar in front of me.

Paul's eyes widened at the amount of money.

"Right away, sir."

And before I could change my mind, he'd gathered the money and disappeared into the back room – in to what I could only assume was the cat house part of the business.

I sighed as I sat down on a bar stool heavily, my hands covering my face under my hat as I waited for Paul to return for me.

"Can I get you anything to drink?"

The voice that spoke made me freeze. It was her. Susannah. Susannah whom I hadn't seen in a month and three days. Susannah who worked in the saloon – a fact which I'd forgotten in my planning to shut the cat house down whilst posing as a customer.

Slowly, I removed my head from my hands and looked at her. She really was beautiful. Her brown hair was tied back on her head, curls falling down from the small piece of elastic she'd used as her eyes sparkled at me and her lips spread wide in a grin, hiding the small bruise at the corner of her mouth.

Jake was right – she was hurt.

"I'm alright, thank you." I muttered, forgetting to put my voice on. Not though it mattered with Susannah. She had yet to talk to me; yet to find out what my voice sounded like.

She shrugged, and moved on to the next paying customer as my eyes watched her, glaring with jealousy as I watched how she acted towards the other customers.

"Alright," I heard her say slowly to a clearly drunk man with no sense or dignity as he eyed her up so obviously that he had me clenching my fists in anger. "But only one more, then I'm cutting you off."

The man and the other men sitting around him, laughed at her words as if it was some big joke, eyes all glued to her as she walked behind the bar to get the man the drink he'd ordered.

A hand clamped down on my shoulder.

"Yeah," Paul's voice travelled towards me. "She's mighty fine, but she's my girl. Not part of the other business – in fact, she doesn't even know about it."

Despite the rage and anger that clawed at me at the thought of Susannah being 'Paul's girl', I also felt relieved that she wasn't aware that her – and it pains me to even think it – beau was involved in other, more shady, businesses.

The hand that was on my shoulder jerked me backwards off my stool.

"Come on," he ordered roughly, obviously annoyed at how much attention I was paying to Susannah. "I got a girl waiting for you in the back."

He shoved me in the direction he'd left when I first gave him my money.

"I'd watch out for them guys," I nodded in the direction of the men at the bar whose eyes were still on Susannah. "If I were you."

"I told you, she's my girl." Paul hissed at me. "Everyone here knows that, so mind your own business."

I wisely kept my mouth shut as Paul led me through the various back rooms, some of which were already occupied, judging by some of the noises I could hear escaping from the behind the heavy doors.

I winced as I recognised them, finding it hard to believe that men with wives and families could participate so eagerly in an act that I was saving for marriage – like any proper gentleman should.

Paul stopped before the very last door in the corridor and turned to me, eyebrow raised.

"This girl in here," he began. "She's the best – sometimes the one that I …" He trailed off, leaving me to finish his sentence.

I nodded, not knowing what else to do.

"Now, you should also know that she's only available for a limited time." He grimaced. "She's getting married soon."

My stomach felt sick. An engaged girl – somebody's fiancée – had been drawn in to the dark world of the cat house, where many a man of standard had met their downfall, growing attached to their –

Paul continued his reasoning, cutting off my thoughts.

"However, I'm pretty sure she'll be back afterwards, when she can of course." Paul smirked at me. "Her fiancé doesn't seem like the type to keep her … satisfied."

I laughed with him when he started to, unsure of what else to do.

"But the point I'm trying to make," he cut off abruptly, looking at me in the eye – or, at least in my case, the shadow where my eyes should be. "Treat her right. She has to look presentable tomorrow."

Technically, I could leave now. I had the proof I needed that behind the saloon was an illegal cat house, filled with customers. All I had to do now was walk in tomorrow, in broad daylight, and order this saloon to be shut down, and for Paul Slater to leave town.

I don't know why I stayed. Probably because I knew that if I were to shut down the saloon, and send Paul Slater back to Seattle, then Susannah would go with him. And I'd never see her again. Which is something that I couldn't think about.

"May I present to you," Paul's voice sounded once again in my ear as he opened the door in front of me. "Maria De Silva."

The door was pushed fully open, revealing my cousin to my gaze as she lay on the bed inside the room provocatively, covered only with a sheer gown. I averted my eyes quickly to the floor as I felt a small blush come upon my cheeks.

Yes, she was someone's fiancée. Mine.

I'd never been as ashamed to call her family as I was right then.

Never taking my eyes off of the floor, I turned to Paul and stared at his shoes.

"I'm sorry," I quickly squeaked out, rushing my words. "I can't stay."

Then I turned and walked away from the shameful sight my fiancée presented.

My fiancée. Maria was my fiancée, my cousin!

By working here, by sleeping with Paul Slater – at his own admission – she was disgracing the De Silva name … and making a fool out of me.

I would not allow it. This cat house was being shut down tomorrow and my marriage to her broken off. I froze. I had no excuse for breaking off my marriage to Maria - at least none that I could own up to. I would be just as disgraceful to my family by admitting that I was here as Maria was for working here. I could only hope that my father could see my reasoning – only, he wasn't a reasonable man.

My eyes fell shut as I remained standing in the middle of the corridor Paul had led me up not two minutes earlier, Maria's voice piercing through my mind.

"I have never gotten a reaction like that before, Paul!" She exclaimed. "Do you know how devastating a blow that is for me?!"

"Who cares?" Paul responded. "We got his money."

Maria's answer was lost to me as I resumed my journey back towards the bar, throwing off the jacket that weighted me down and revelling in the freedom of it before sitting back down on the same stool as before.

"Ah," Susannah's voice drifted towards me not a minute later. "You again. Things back there not good enough for ya?"

My head snapped up in shock.

"Paul said that you didn't know what went on back there, ma'am." I spoke quietly, my voice sounding even deeper then my natural tone, a big contrast to the forced squeaks of earlier.

"Please," she stated, leaning against the bar. "Of course I do. I'd have to be pretty darn dumb if I didn't. All these men coming in, paying handfuls of money and not returning until hours after closing. I'm a smart girl, after all."

I smiled at her and placed another bill on the table.

"I'll have a beer, please." I murmured.

"Why, Jesse De Silva!" She exclaimed in fake shock. "Don't you know that alcohol is a sign of evil and sin?"

I tilted my hat backwards and revealed my eyes so she could look at me and see that I wasn't hiding anything.

One of my eyebrows lifted.

"You're my step-brother's best friend," she reminded me. "I remember what you look like. A little bit of stubble doesn't change anything."

Her hand came up to rest on my chin.

"You're just lucky these guys are too drunk – and Paul too greedy – to have noticed."

I laughed.

"Yeah," I admitted. "Lucky."

She pushed my money back towards me.

"No, you can't have a beer." Her green eyes twinkled with mirth. "Since I assume you're here on business, I can't allow you to drink on the job."

Relenting, I pocketed the money yet again.

"How can you stand it here?" I asked her, the pain of Maria's betrayal already taking second place in my head as I finally got a chance to talk to Susannah Simon,

"Suze!"

I had a new reason to hate the man from earlier.

"Hold that thought," she told me with a smile, before walking over to him.

"I'll have another one." He slurred, money slamming down on the table.

"I told you," she reminded him. "That last one was your last. I'm cutting you off."

He stood up quickly, the bar stool falling over behind him.

"I said I want another." He hissed at Susannah, who kept her cool.

"Well I said no." She countered.

The man's mouth was agape, half open in drunkenness as his eyelids were heavy, threatening to fall shut.

"Bitch." He muttered, cocking back his fist ready to hit her. "Who are you to tell me what I can and can't do."

His punch missed her by a long shot, his co-ordination bad with his lack of soberness but Susannah didn't miss a beat, pulling back her own fist before letting loose a punch that knocked him out cold as the other patrons in the bar cheered her.

She came back towards me with a smile.

"Sorry about that," she shrugged.

"That's alright," I smiled at her. "It's good you know how to take care of yourself. Not many ladies do."

"Yeah," she whispered. "That's me. I'm an oddity."

"No you're not." I stated harshly, horrified that she could even think that. "Who told you that?"

I didn't have to think for long before discovering the answer, however. It was written clearly on her face.

Paul Slater.

This, my friends, is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Hehe.