Diamond in the Rough. Diana Palmer

police chief turned and went back out into the other room. He caught Tarleton by his arm, jerked him to his feet, and handcuffed him while he read him his rights.

      “You let me go!” Tarleton shouted. “I’m going back to Billings in two days. She lied! I never touched her that way! I just kissed her! She teased me! She set me up! She lured me into the back! And I want that damned cowboy arrested for assault! He hit me!”

      Nobody was paying him the least bit of attention. In fact, the police chief looked as if he’d like to hit Tarleton himself. The would-be Romeo shut up.

      “I’m never hiring anybody else as long as I live,” McGuire told the police chief. “Not after this.”

      “Sometimes snakes don’t look like snakes,” Graves told him. “We all make mistakes. Come along, Mr. Tarleton. We’ve got a nice new jail cell for you to live in while we get ready to put you on trial.”

      “She’s lying!” Tarleton raged, red-faced.

      Sassy came out with John just behind her. The ordeal she’d endured was so evident that the men in the room grimaced at just the sight of her. Tarleton stopped shouting. He looked sick.

      “Do you mind if I say something to him, Chief Graves?” Sassy asked in a hoarse tone.

      “Not at all,” the lawman replied.

      She walked right up to Tarleton, with her green eyes glittering with fury, drew back her hand, and slapped him across the mouth as hard as she could. Then she turned on her heel and walked right back to the counter, picked up a sack of seed corn that she’d left there when the assault began, and went back to work.

      The three men glanced from her to Tarleton. Their faces wore identical expressions.

      “I’ll get a good lawyer!” Tarleton said belligerently.

      “You’ll need one,” John promised him, in a tone so full of menace that the man backed up a step.

      “I’ll sue you for assault!” he said from a safe distance.

      “The corporation’s attorneys will enjoy the exercise,” John told him coolly. “One of them graduated from Harvard and spent ten years as a prosecutor specializing in sexual assault cases.”

      Tarleton looked sick.

      Graves took him outside. John turned to McGuire.

      The man in the suit rammed his hands into his pockets and grimaced. “I’ll never be able to make that up to her,” he said heavily.

      “You might tell her that you recommended raising her salary,” John replied.

      “It’s the least I can do,” he agreed. “That new employee of yours—Buck Mannheim. He’s sharp. I learned things I didn’t know just from spending a half hour talking to him. He’ll be an asset.”

      John nodded. “He retired too soon. Sixty-five is no great age these days.” He glanced toward the back, where Sassy was moving things around. “She needs to see a doctor.”

      “Did Tarleton…?” McGuire asked with real concern.

      John shook his head. “But he would have. If I’d walked in just ten minutes later…” His face paled as he considered what would have happened. “Damn that man! And damn me! I should have realized he’d do something stupid to get even with her!”

      “I should have realized, too,” McGuire added. “Don’t beat yourself to death. There’s enough guilt to share. Dr. Bates is next to the post office. He has a clinic. He’ll see her. He’s been her family physician since she was a child.”

      “I’ll take her right over there.”

      Sassy looked up when John approached her. She looked terrible, but she wasn’t crying anymore. “Is he going to fire me?” she asked John.

      “What in hell for? Almost getting raped?” he exclaimed. “Of course not. In fact, he’s mentioned getting you a raise. But right now, he wants you to go to the doctor and get checked out.”

      “I’m okay,” she protested. “And I have a lot of work to do.”

      “It can wait.”

      “I don’t want to see Dr. Bates,” she said.

      He shrugged. “We’re both pretty determined about this. I don’t really think you’d like the way I deal with mutiny.”

      She stuck her hands on her slender hips. “Oh, yeah? Let’s see how you deal with it.”

      He smiled gently. Before she could say another word, he picked her up very carefully in his arms and walked out the front door with her.