Hello everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying the story because I'm really enjoying writing it! So here we go new chapter, I hope you like it and sure leave a review if you like, I love hearing what you have to say :) Thank you to everyone for reading, reviewing and adding to your faves I love you all :) xoxo

-Sailor

"Right, you guys go give Forrest this summons" I ordered two local hicks as I finished typing it.

"A what?" said Henry as he spat tobacco on the floor.

"A summons…and stop spitting that shit in my office" I growled shoving the letter in his hand.

"But…we don't do stuff like that here" the other piped up.

"Well it's a God damn good thing I'm here then isn't it?" I yelled causing a hush to fall over the bustling conversation outside the office.

They both glanced at each other and reluctantly walked out to their car, mumbling to each other. They've never served a summons on someone before; they really did have a law unto themselves. I rubbed my tired eyes watching them leave.

"Boss maybe you should take the rest of the day off" said John, one of my officers from the city.

"Yea…I suppose it's a good start" I said looking up at the hills that looked over Franklin. "But there's still a lot to do" I yawned.

"I know, but it can wait. I'll handle things here for the rest of the day" he smiled.

"Well close up early, give them a night off"

"No problem deputy" he said tipping his hat.

Even in the city, John was just as power hungry. A youngster who was out to prove himself at any cost, so I wasn't about to give him any more than he could handle.

I grabbed my coat and my hat and headed for the door.

"Don't forget now…another hour at the most and then send them home"

"Will do. Do you want me to walk you home or anything?" he smiled again showing me his perfect, pearl white, straightened, dentist enhanced teeth.

"Not at all" I snapped opening the door.

I closed the door, throwing my jacket around me and started the short walk to my hotel. I had to stop by the shop to get cigarettes so when I got into my bath I could have a smoke before taking a nap before I went down for my dinner.

I sat in the achingly hot bath and lit a cigarette. I could already feel myself falling asleep and Forrest immediately came into my head as he usually does when I get five minutes to myself. I felt myself flush with embarrassment just thinking about him. He was arrogant enough to think I wanted him…well I hated to admit it but I did, there was just something about him that I was drawn to and unfortunately it would appear he didn't feel the same way, well how could he? I was trying to destroy him. But that was my job, and my job was here long before Forrest Bondurant and it would be here long after he was gone…but still it was nice to imagine.

I could see him standing there inches from me, his smoky breath invading my mouth as he talked. His musty smell filling my nostrils along with his intoxicating aura, mixing together and making me dizzy. I don't know whether it was the fact I've been getting no sleep mixed with the home sickness for the big, lonely, empty, unforgiving city or what Jack had said but something inside me began to hurt and against my will, I felt a tear escape my eye and I sat in the bathtub quietly crying to myself until I couldn't cry any longer.

I got to the station the next morning, feeling well rested and prepared for the inevitable paper work that will come from the DA's office after that summons was served on Forrest. Except what I found instead was two cops with their faces beaten to a bloody pulp.

"What happened?" I snapped throwing my stuff on my desk before storming back out to where they were sitting, drinking tea and not working, I might add.

"Forrest sends his regards" the one with the tobacco mumbled, his mouth now swollen but not with tobacco.

My lip twitched hearing his name.

"Did you give him the summons?"

"I tried to tell you Deputy…folk out here don't respond well to threats from the law like that"

"You stupid hicks…" I whispered to myself, rubbing my temple. "Right…well get back to work"

"But we're injured" they both said in unison.

"So what! Get your ass out of that chair, get in that fucking car and get to the Bondurant place. If he thinks I'm gonna stand for this, he can forget it"

They both sighed angrily as they picked themselves up off the ground and out to their car.

"Wanted the day off because they have a few cuts and scrapes?! That's the best I've heard so far"

"I know boss, but these are country folk what can you do with them? They're not used to hard work" the guys laughed.

"Ain't that the truth" I said fanning myself with my hat.

Over the next few weeks, things were quiet again at least as far as the Bondurant boys were concerned. We managed to shut down two more stills. The net was closing in on the Bondurant's but it didn't seem to bother them. I continued to watch Forrest, I couldn't help it. I did it less often though, just when I found myself free in the evenings. He was still sitting outside with his tea and his cardigan with an added jumper because the weather was taking a turn. I would sit in my cold car watching him, as if waiting for him to spot me, come over and invite me in for some of his amazing coffee, but it never happened. Jack was still bopping around, his face was healing nicely and soon he looked like himself again. However, he was even more wary of me than before. Now when I saw him in town, picking up supplies for his bar he'd avoid eye contact and ignore me when I said hello. I was just trying to intimidate and mess with him anyway. It gave me a positive feeling knowing at least one of the Bondurant's was running scared of me.

I sat on the steps outside the station having a nice, quiet few minutes to myself when John came bursting out towards me, just as I was lighting my cigarette.

"Boss, I just had a great idea" chirped John as he bundled out of the door to me.

"What is it John?"

"I got in touch with some guys in the city…used to work with Floyd Banner"

"You're associating yourself with criminals? That's not good baggage to have if you wanna get anywhere in this business" I sniffed looked out into the dusty afternoon sun.

"They used to work for him…but I offered them some cash and they're willing to work for us now. They're known bootleggers and they said they'll go pretending to buy some liquor from them and then when the sale is made, we'll have them" he smiled clearly proud of his accomplishments.

"So it's a sting operation?" I said clearly dampening his whole well thought out scheme. "Good work Officer Paige" I said flatly taking a long drag. "So when do we set it up?"

"Well I wanted to get the all clear with you, but I'll get in touch with them now and tell them to contact the Bondurant's"

"Yes, but make it clear" I said pulling his shirt back down. "We're doing this by the book…none of their shit; I know what those boys can be like"

"Yes Deputy"

He ran back inside to make the arrangements. I have you now Forrest Bondurant.

We kept our heads down for the next few weeks while our boys in Chicago made the arrangements with Forrest. We backed off from the Bondurant's but still kept a car on them. But there was no more talk of how he bet up two of my men. That Monday we got word, they were coming on Friday night to meet with Forrest so we spent the week preparing. They were going to go to the station house to meet him and buy the liquor. Under no circumstances were they to bring anyone else with them. There as just going to be two of them. And absolutely no violence whatsoever, we were doing this thing by the book. I'll have my all my men in cars in the woods surrounding his place watching, with me in the lead car. If I even get a snifter of trouble starting, everyone is on orders to go in straight away and get those boys out. I knew their kind and trouble would have been the first thing on their minds, so I made sure to give them explicit instructions. If the truth be told, they were the last people I would choose to work with, I got a very bad feeling right from the outset, but we didn't have a choice. It was business, and it was necessary.

I kept my eye on Jack as well, just to see if the news had leaked down to his level. He didn't seem to know what was going on; Forrest obviously doesn't keep him that much in the loop. He seemed to have other priorities right now. I noticed he wasn't dressed in his usual filthy clothes that that whole family seem to live in. No, these days he wore a suit, not as sharp as the guys in Chicago but at least he looked clean. I also noticed he was starting to chase a girl. A girl I had heard was a preacher's daughter, yea good luck with that one Jack. But it gave me an idea, so I made sure someone was watching him 24/7, in case he decided he wanted to impress this girl.

Friday night arrived and the station was buzzing waiting for the evening ahead. I called everyone into my office to give them one last talk.

"Right, does everyone know where they're supposed to be? You know my signal for heading back to the station? What the orders are in case there's trouble? Wait for my signal before you go anywhere, clear?"

They all nodded so I gave orders to go out and get in the cars. I stayed behind in my office for a few minutes. I breathed in deep while loading my rifle. It's necessary.

We arrived at the Bondurant place and I saw the guys were already here. Everyone pulled up to their respective spots and waited. I sat in the passenger seat of the lead car that looked out at the Bondurant place from the side. I could see the front door and faintly make out the shadows of people inside. I pulled my coat up around my neck. The temperature was starting to drop here at night, suppose even Franklin can't escape the winter. Then just as that thought arrived in my head, a snowflake appeared on the windscreen.

"Is that…?" I started before another fell, then another, then another 6.

"Ah the first snow of winter" said the driver looking out his window.

Before I knew it, the whole windscreen was covered and I looked out seeing a thin carpet of snow covering the ground.

"For some reason I can't imagine it snowing here" I smiled.

"Deputy, it's just a bitta snow, why are you so happy?"

"Reminds me of when I was a kid, that's all" I said watching it fall on the windscreen again after he turned on the wipers.

Then after another ten minutes or so, it stopped. The grass could still be seen popping out but it left a nice white blanket over everything.

We waited as the darkness crept up and I was wondering what was taking them so long. They were probably in there, drinking their fill, typical, another reason why I don't work with these criminals. After another hour, I finally saw someone emerge. Except it was Forrest…dragging a body out? The driver twitched in his seat as I leaned towards the windscreen trying to make out what was going on.

"Don't move" I whispered. He signalled out the window to the surrounding cars not to move.

He walked back inside and emerged again, pulling another body out down the steps and throwing it just beside his car. It was our two guys. I knew this was going to happen, they probably started something and Forrest fought back. They had one job to do and they couldn't even do that.

"What the fuck?" I whispered.

"Deputy…what do we do?"

But I was still shocked, too shocked to speak and too busy trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Nothing, they might get back up"

"We're just gonna leave them there?"

"Give them five minutes"

And like I suspected, one of them twitched and sat up before pushing the other one until he got up. They both had bloodied faces and hobbled over towards our car.

"What the fuck happened?" I hissed, rolling down the window.

"That Forrest…I paid for a jar and he wouldn't give it to me"

The smell of alcohol off his breath was making me feel slightly drunk.

"How much have you had to drink?"

"Well we had to wait" piped the other spitting blood on the ground. I noticed he had a huge cut on his throat that was spilling blood.

"Why?"

"Cuz Forrest said somethin' about his brother arrivin' but he never showed"

I rolled my eyes and sighed angrily.

"Alright fine, head back to the station both of you and I mean it"

"Why the fuck we listening to you?"

I reached out and grabbed his shirt collar pulling him into the car. "Because I'm the one paying you lowlife sons of bitches cash, that's why" I sneered before pushing him back.

They looked at each other and dragged their limp bodies past the car and into the woods.

"You go with them, make sure they go back" I said to the driver.

"What about you?"

"I can fucking drive now go!"

He hopped out and disappeared into the blackness and John arrived at my window within minutes.

"What do we do Deputy?"

"I knew this was going to happen, working with those scumbags how could it not!"

"Deputy" he called again trying to get my focus.

"Right…yea…tell the guys to go back to the station. No point in them all hanging around here, nothing's gonna happen"

"What about you?"

"I'm gonna stay here just in case, I'll be back in an hour and we'll talk about the absolute disaster that was this sting"

I moved over into the driver's seat and rested my head against the headrest. John stood there staring at me for a minute but I just stared out the windscreen waiting for him to leave. He eventually walked away and I heard the engines of each of the cars starting and moving out. Then it started snowing again. I pulled my coat around me, rubbing my arms watching the snow fall on the window. It made me drowsy, that along with the heat of my jacket and scarf. I don't know how long I was asleep for but I was awoken by a car engine starting and saw my windscreen covered in snow. I turned on the wipers and saw Forrest standing on his porch looking out into the darkness, and something immediately hit me in the chest seeing him standing there. He looked to the right at his car and I noticed the bonnet was up, was that always like that? He walked over and examined it and I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I then thought I saw another person, couldn't be one of my men they were all gone. I got a horrible feeling so I stepped out of the car and took a few steps forward but still hidden in the shadows. He hunched down the other side until Forrest pulled the bonnet down, and then reached across grabbing his hands pulling him over the car. It was only now I noticed it was that scumbag. Before I could run to pull him off, the other one appeared behind Forrest grabbing his head and dragging a knife along his throat, from ear to ear. The blood spat from his neck onto his hands and I stood frozen on the spot, unable to comprehend what was going on right before my eyes. I covered my mouth to stop myself from screaming but I couldn't have anyway, my voice was gone completely from the shock.

"Fuckin' hill billy" one laughed before they disappeared back into darkness. Forrest collapsed in a heap on the ground, snow starting to lightly cover him. I raced over, trying to calm myself knowing that me panicking and crying wasn't about to help Forrest. His blood glugged and gargled out of his wound as he tried to stop it. The colour in his face was starting to drain, his lips looking thinner and paler. He lay clutching his neck as if trying to hold it together, struggling to breathe.

"Forrest!" I cried whipping off my coat and wrapping it around him. His eyes weren't focused on me though; it was like he didn't even know I was there. I lifted his head to rest it on my knees while I ripped my scarf off me wrapping it tight around his neck.

"Forrest! Forrest! I'm sorry" I wept.

I tried to stop the panic and regain myself so I could think straight. I needed to get him to the hospital. But Forrest was a big man…the car…but I didn't have the strength to drag him over to the car…no, leave him here and drive the car over here…but I don't want to leave him…but I have to…it's beneficial in the long run…I ran over and shakily stuck the keys in the ignition. The blood on my hands made it even harder to find the ignition. I revved the engine and raced over to him. I threw open the back door and dragged his body, leaving a trail of blood, to it before summing up all my strength and lifting him into the back. It wasn't easy, Forrest was a big guy but I had to, he needed medical treatment straight away. I sped towards the hospital all the while Forrest's gargled groans and moans rang in my ears as I heard his blood and life bubbling and slipping out of him. A panicked sickness struck me as I heard him trying to hold on to whatever life was left in him, and it was my fault.

"Forrest I'm sorry! This was my doing! My doing! I'm sorry Forrest!" I cried loudly all the way until we reached the doors of the hospital. I clutched his hand in mine all the way in until I couldn't go any further with him.