Chapter 3

Control thy passions lest they take vengeance on thee. ~ Epictetus

If Erin Strauss was honest with herself, which rarely happened, because the truth always hurt, she craved some green. Grass, leaves, shamrocks, hope. Something that reminded her of life, instead of the hopelessness that was a permanent fixture in the valley she called home.

The whole place was damned and she was trapped in it. The only thing that could make it bearable was ruling it. Faking power was better than admitting one was a slave.

And one thing that allowed her to think she was more than a prisoner was buying the bull pen. The Saloon that had once been her home. Her refuge.

It gave her shivers to know that she had been ahead of David Rossi at least for once. She knew he would have loved to own the bull pen, to run the place and the girls. And first and foremost he would had loved to rub it in that he owned the place where they had met all those years ago.

A mortgage of the past.

A constant reminder of what was never really over and forgotten. Because tigers like them didn't change their stripes.

Knowing him he would have offered her a job in the Saloon, just to make her furious. He enjoyed reminding everybody in the city that she, Erin Strauss, had been nothing more than Emily Prentiss' predecessor before Sebastian Strauss married her.

He also loved to drop hints of their common past, her skillful services, as he liked to phrase it. A part of her actually enjoyed his insults, because one day, she would tell him something that would eliminate the dirty grin from his face. She was patient enough to wait for the one perfect moment to break his heart. Erin had learned to be patient.

The one thing he never mentioned though was Sebastian's fatal weakness for alcohol. He, who had been 20 years older, had proposed to her after half a bottle of whiskey had loosened his tongue and Erin was sure, he had gambled away the gold mine after a bottle he had shared with Rossi. Rossi's rotten luck was that someone had shot Sebastian before he could sign the deal.

She imagined he was furious, because he couldn't get his hands on something that was so close and yet out of his reach.

Erin had no alternative to keeping the mine in her possession. Without it, the ranch was lost. A great part of the cattle hadn't survived the last summer and she couldn't sell her flock of horses for the price she had hoped for.

Rossi had ruined many deals she had planned and now she thirsted for revenge.

Adding to her misery was that it had taken her weeks before she had finally found a new foreman. Many men had applied for the job, but most of them had been out of question once they had entered her door. She needed a strong man and the only strong one that had asked for the job, had raised the small hairs on the back of her neck. Ian Doyle had been perfect, but her instinct had warned her about him. Something about the man was dangerous. And she preferred to feel safe with her choices.

In the end her choice fell on a woman. Kate Joyner was a tough woman, who had grown up on a ranch. She was as strong as a man and smart like a snake. She would make sure, the workers on the ranch would respect her. Erin had no doubt about that.

She looked up from her desk when she heard the sound of hooves and voices from the outside. Through the window she could see three horses;, one was ridden by the useless Deputy Sheriff La Montagne while she'd never seen the other riders beforehand. Both were tall, good looking and though they wore a badge they didn't look like normal Sheriffs. That could only mean one thing.

"Marshalls," she mumbled and straightened up. So, the Sheriff didn't know how to deal with the brutal killings and had called for help. She smiled sadly. She really liked Jason Gideon, but she understood his wish to stay away from her. Another part of her past, she wasn't proud of. But there was no way, she could have stayed with this dreamer. She had felt drawn to him, but there had always been the young, dashing Rossi who had chased her mercilessly and in the end, her adventurous side had beat her wish to live in peace. She had fallen and Gideon had sensed it, before she had found the strength to tell him the truth. The rest was a sad, humiliating piece of history.

Marrying Strauss had been her way out of the misery of standing between two men. And now she was avoiding one and fighting the other. It was the life she had chosen and sometimes she hated it.

As the three man dismounted their horses they were greeted by four big dogs with their teeth bared, growling dangerously.

"Careful," Will warned them. "The beasts are as dangerous as they look."

"Yes, like my gun," Morgan gave back and reached for his revolver.

"There's no need to use a gun," a loud, female voice yelled at them. Surprised, the men turned their heads and Hotch was the one who saw the woman approaching them. She was tall, blond and though the sun blinded him, Hotch saw she had clear, blue eyes.

"Billy, Bongo. Stop it!"

The dogs instantly stopped growling and sat down. Morgan, who still had his hand on his revolver didn't pull his hand back. His eyes were on the dogs, as if he expected them to attack once he looked somewhere else.

"Are you Mrs. Strauss?" Hotch asked and earned a clear laugh.

"No. My name is Kate Joyner. I'm the forewoman on this ranch. Miss Strauss is inside the house," she answered, and stretched out her hand. He took it and gave a rare smile.

"My name is Aaron Hotchner and this is Derek Morgan." he pointed at Derek. "We're Marshalls and we investigate the deaths of several young women in this valley."

"I see..." Kate nodded slowly. "I heard about those deaths. Cruel."

"Indeed."

For a few moments Hotch just looked at Kate and it seemed he couldn't take his eyes off her. Kate, not at all intimidated by his intensive gaze, returned the look. Morgan who impatiently wiped the sweat from his forehead cleared his throat.

"Can you please tell us where we can find Miss Strauss, before we melt away?"

"She's in the house," Kate repeated. "I'm sure she heard you coming. Will you follow me?"

"You follow her," Will said quickly. "I need to go back to town."

"No problem, man," Morgan said. "We'll find our way back."

"You want me to give you a job?" David Rossi's eyes narrowed, as they checked out the appearance of the man in front of his beautifully handcrafted walnut desk.

"You owe me a chance." Ian Doyle grinned shamelessly, as he addressed Rossi.

"I owe you nothing." Rossi declared and rose. His height wasn't as impressive as Doyle's, but Rossi owned a natural daunting aura, which allowed him to meet everybody at least on equal footing. Together with his charming manner, little surprise that he possessed and controlled half of the valley – at least the part that wasn't owned by Strauss.

"Thanks to you, I still have to fight for the gold mine."

"I admit Strauss's death was unnecessary...," Doyle started, but Rossi's interrupted him.

"Unnecessary?" Rossi repeated glaringly. "It was murder. He was way too drunk to defend himself!"

Doyle sighed annoyedly. "I did you a favor... it's not my fault, you can't deal with the widow. You should either shoot or show her what men can do a woman. Shouldn't be a problem for a man like you!" Doyle grinned and sank down on his chair. "I could arrange something for you, if you want."

Rossi's dark eyes started to sparkle dangerously. Obviously satisfied with the reaction he had provoked, Doyle stretched out his feet and awaited the rancher's reaction.

"You won't go near Erin Strauss or the mine. Is that understood?"

"Does that mean we have a deal?" he asked back, instead of answering the question.

"You want to become foreman on my ranch?"

"Only until my business here in town is finished,." Doyle explained dryly. "I'll need just a few weeks. Then I'll be gone and you won't even remember I was here."

As much as Rossi hated it be blackmailed, he had to admit he didn't have much choice. The valley was his. The mine was his. Even Strauss was his and if he had to bear Doyle for some time to make it official so be it.

"I give you two weeks," Rossi said in a dark voice. "If you haven't gone then, I'll do you the favor to send you to a worse place than this valley!"

Shortly before the short break was over, George Foyet brought two more buckets of water for the horses. It was the last stop before they would reach their destination and the last part of their journey was the longest and most exhausting one. It would take 12 hours before they would have crossed the desert and entered the city. His two passengers were barely used to the heat and the trouble a trip like this included, but whoever decided to go to the valley had to be insane or needed to have a very good reason to go there.

The women didn't talk much, but that didn't mean they didn't tell him everything he needed to know about them. Both wanted to be something they obviously weren't. Both weren't rich or meant to be rich. They were insignificant and unimportant.

In his eyes both were whores. Useless tarts who] wanted to work in the BullPen, a place that had offered him a lot of prey over the last few months. Of course, he hadn't picked one of the whores that worked for Emily Prentiss and were well-known over the place. He had only taken the new ones. The beasts nobody cared for aside from the Sheriff who was a useless bookworm who liked to fuck his predecessor's widow. He was no match for him.

Foyet smiled and dug his hand deep into his pocket. His lucky charm was a coin. Crafted with a nugget out of the goldmine of Strauss.

"Head – Ashley Seaver, Number – Jordan Todd," he said and flipped it. It fell right to his feet and he smiled when he saw who was the lucky one. He had hoped the coin would choose her. He had a thing for the dark skin.

"Bye, bye Jordan."

**tbc**