Chào các bạn! Vì nhiều lý do từ nay Truyen2U chính thức đổi tên là Truyen247.Pro. Mong các bạn tiếp tục ủng hộ truy cập tên miền mới này nhé! Mãi yêu... ♥

10 | no-good crowder

[ things heat up this chapter and then cool back down next chapter ]




✵︎




RAYLAN SAID WHAT?










[ season 2 — episode 6 ]




BAMBI sat at the interrogation table, looking at the two unfamiliar agents anxiously. Art was standing over her shoulder, monitoring the interrogation — Bambi was so grateful that it wasn't Raylan who was questioning her. She didn't know if she could feign ignorance as well around him for a long period of time. These two men were like a trial run before Raylan inevitably corralled her. 

"Alright, let's run back over this one more time," the older of the two officers said. "After hearing of the explosion at the mine, you rushed to the home of Ava Crowder and Boyd Crowder."

"Yes, because I was worried about my brother being hurt," Bambi insisted, which wasn't a lie.

The other officer spoke up accusingly. "You were worried about him being hurt because you knew he was conspiring to rob the company?"

"Of course, not," she said with a frown. "He's my brother, and I was simply worried about him."

"And when Mr. Crowder arrived at the home, he explained to you what happened?"

She nodded. "He informed me that that Kyle fellow made threats toward him and Ava. They threatened to kill them if Boyd didn't help."

"And it's not at all possible that he wasn't coerced and instead plotted the whole thing?"

"No, he said that Kyle approached him yesterday morning," she said with a sigh. "Boyd's really appreciated the company giving him this job. He'd never dream of doing this — of putting more lives in danger with an explosion. He turned around after being shot, really. I've seen the change in him."

"Well, regardless of a change or no, there's still quite a sum of money missing from the safe in the office," the older one told her.

That was where Bambi had to actually lie. Because the money was stuffed underneath a loose floorboard in Ava's kitchen.

"I thought it blew up in the explosion?" she asked, scrunching her face up.

"Most of it burned up. But not all of it," the young one explained.

"Boyd didn't come in with no money," Bambi lied. "And he explained what happened right away. Didn't try to run from y'all or anything."

"Miss Crowder, do you realize that we could charge you with felony murder if you're lying to us?"

"Felony murder?" she repeated, her mouth hanging open. "Don't go throwing words like that around to a girl that was only at the house tonight because I wanted to make sure my only brother was alive after hearing there was an explosion at his work."

The older one narrowed his eyes at her. "After everything your brother has put you through, you're really gonna lie for him?"

"My brother has made mistakes, but not the one you're accusing him of," she said stiffly, glaring right back at him. "And I don't appreciate you dragging me and my sister-in-law into it all either."

"Well, we're so sorry you don't appreciate us," he said sarcastically.

"Are we done here?" Art asked with a heavy sigh. "Miss Crowder seems least involved out of all of them. I think our time would be better spent speaking with her brother yet again."

"Fine," the younger one said. "Miss Crowder, you're free to go."

"Thank you," she said while getting up. Art led her out of the room and to the last place she wanted to be — in the bull pen where Tim was waiting, standing guard over Ava and Boyd.

Tim glanced at her cautiously before stepping toward her. "Bambi—"

She quickly turned to Art with pleading eyes. "Am I free to leave since I drove myself here instead of riding in the squad car?"

"Well, you certainly are," he nodded, noticing how Tim's shoulders fell. "Maybe say goodbye to Raylan. If you don't, he'll be walkin' around like a kicked puppy dog all day."

"Right, so saying goodbye to him is more for your benefit," she said teasingly.

"Well, yeah," he nodded. Then he looked over at Boyd. "Boyd Crowder, you're up again."

Bambi gave him an encouraging look before striding right past Tim, who couldn't follow since he had to stay next to Ava. Raylan had been glancing warily between Bambi and Tim, though he straightened up when she got closer.

"Well," Raylan sighed, "how was your first interrogation as a criminal accomplice?"

"Invigorating," she said, rolling her eyes as she perched on the edge of his desk. "Raylan, they really did threaten Ava, I think."

"And the money that's missing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You don't think he stole that?"

No. Bambi knew he stole it.

"If he did, I ain't seen it," was all she could say weakly while fiddling with the strap of her corduroy overalls. Raylan's eyes studied her face carefully before he nodded, giving in. "But also, I won't lose sleep over what Boyd's done this time — no use in lying to you about it."

Ironic, she thought.

"Well, I figure I won't lose any either," he admitted with a smirk before glancing over her shoulder at Tim, who had his eyes glued to them instead of Ava. "You feeling any better than you were the last time I saw you?"

"A little," she said with a forced, small smile. "Thank you for the things you said. They really helped. You can be very sweet when you want to, Raylan Givens."

"Don't go ruining my reputation with that information though."

"No promises," she said teasingly before hiking the strap of her tote bag up her shoulder. "Alright, I'm off. Got a few things to do since I'm already in Lexington."

"Yeah, like what?"

"Well, there's a teacher supply store just a few blocks away," she explained. "And I've gotta run to the bank up here — Daddy didn't trust the banks in Harlan or something, so our branch is up here."

"You signing some papers or something?" he asked, figuring she was still settling her dead father's affairs.

"A few," she nodded.

Bambi also planned to get some cash out. Now that she knew Ava's house was in jeopardy, she was going to fork over some of the small fortune that Bo left behind for Bambi. She knew at first, Ava would refuse, but if Boyd helped her in the argument, they could get the woman to accept it.

"I'll see ya, Raylan," she said with a wave, walking away from his desk. "Bye, Rachel. Y'all have a good day."

"Goodbye, Bambi," Rachel said while smirking down at her keyboard, noting that Bambi hadn't spared Tim a goodbye.




✵︎




Bambi knew it was awfully nerdy of her, but she was ecstatic over all the cool things she got for her classroom at the school supply shop. She couldn't wait to spend the afternoon decorating and organizing and labeling and rearranging her room. So much had happened that was out of her control, but refreshing her classroom would be fun and give her a sense of control. 

Now, she was in the bank and about to get in line for a teller — she was withdrawing a lot more than the ATM permitted to give to Ava. Only for someone to bump right into her.

Bambi reached out and caught the person before they could fall, only to laugh when she saw it was Winona, who'd been walking out of the line she was heading for.

"Hey, Winona," she smiled. "Small world."

"Real small. Real," Winona said while clenching her fist tightly, seeming a bit jumpy. If Bambi noticed her high strung behavior, she didn't point it out. "What are you, uh, you doing in Lexington?"

"Gettin' some money out," she said, nodding to the line. "And signing some property paperwork or something. I don't really understand it all, you know. But I was already in town 'cause Boyd got in some trouble."

"Ah," she nodded, not really seeming to care. "Well, it's been nice seeing you—"

Suddenly, the loud echo of a machine gun firing hit their ears. As people screamed, Bambi covered her ears and looked around, spotting three men with firearms who were shouting. They weren't even bothering to wear masks, so rather than cower away, Bambi took the time to look at each of them.

"Back away from the counter!" one with messy, light brown hair shouted.

"Anybody tries to trip the silents gets a bullet for himself and one for the guy next to him!" another with short, dark hair yelled while climbing on top of a table. "Everyone down!"

When Bambi didn't drop immediately, Winona grabbed the younger girl. Bambi huffed, so annoyed at herself for getting caught in this situation — this would never happen in Harlan because everyone had guns of their own. But the only armed one was a guard who was also on the ground, an old man with an oxygen tank standing over him, warning him to stay down.

"Easy, son. You don't want to die for somebody else's money."

"Get your ass away from that phone!" one of the young men shouted. Then he started shoving the tellers out from around their desks to join the others on the floor.

"Everybody move around front."

"Everybody on the floor! Do it! Now!"

"All right. Wallets and jewelry, people."

Bambi, still on her stomach, reached to remove her jewelry — a ring that was painted with clear nail polish to keep from turning her finger green and a necklace that'd belonged to her mother. Given her father's criminal ways, she didn't doubt that the gold and the sapphire stone were real.

Lucky for the robbers, she supposed. Then she also dug out her small, yellow, square wallet that only had ten dollars in it. She'd be able to call and cancel her debit card, but getting a new drivers license wouldn't be fun.

Soon, one of the men was grabbing her things and putting it all in his bag before moving on to Winona. But he didn't stop after grabbing her jewelry. No, he focused on how her tight dress hugged her.

"Ooh! Well, ain't you a piece," he said, leering at her. "Flip over, darlin'. Let's see what you got."

The man leaned over and forced Winona over, trying to step between her legs. Terrified, Winona brought her hands down to keep him from lifting her dress.

"Unh, unh, unh, unh, unh, unh," he said, his gun between her legs. "What else you got worth taking, huh?"

"Get off her, you ass!" Bambi couldn't help but spit, rolling over to push the gun away from Winona. "Don't touch her!"

He cut his narrowed eyes to her and now pointed the gun at her. "I'd best stay quiet if I were you, baby." She flinched as the barrel touched her forehead, her not doubting for a moment that he'd shoot her if he wanted to. Once he saw he made his point, he focused back on Winona — more specifically, her closed fist.

"Open your hand," he ordered, the gun back on her once again. "Open it. Open your hand."

Winona innocently opened her right hand, which was empty, and it just annoyed the man who knew she knew that wasn't the hand he was talking about.

"Other one. I won't ask again. I'll just break your fingers," he said, reaching for her hand and prying it open. Bambi watched as he took a measly hundred dollar bill from her. "Yeah. Thatagirl."

"Come on, man, let's go!" the other young man called to him, already finished along with the old man. Both were by the door and itching to go.

The one above the two women laughed at Winona's face before meeting Bambi's gaze. She glared at him hatefully, which hardly bothered him.

Before she knew it, he raised his foot, and her face felt like it'd been caved in as he stomped on her with a heavy boot. Bambi cried out and cupped her bleeding cheek as she rolled over.

"Come on, man!" his buddy said in a rushed tone, him finally listening and following after them.

The same one that kicked Bambi in the face stopped to shoot the guard in the leg, who screamed in pain.

"Let's go, fellas," the old man said, not sounding pleased. "Time to go."

As they left, Bambi whimpered while pulling her hand away, looking at the blood on her fingertips. Her jaw felt like it was on fire as she slowly sat up on her elbows, glaring at the door.

"I do hope Raylan shoots them."




✵︎




Bambi, for the second time and without her family, was back in the Marshals office. Tim wasn't there — before all the witnesses had even been brought in, Art sent him and Rachel off to find someone with a tie to one of the robbers. They'd identified someone very quickly, it seemed.

But Bambi knew a confrontation was coming giving that she was sitting in Tim's office chair, just a few feet away from Winona who was at Raylan's desk. Bambi was holding an ice pack to her already bruising face, which was throbbing horribly. It'd stopped bleeding but would look horrible for a week or two, probably.

Raylan was pissed. He was pissed at the robbers. At the bank security. At Winona. And really pissed at Bambi after watching her try to fight off the robber who touched Winona on the recovered security footage.

"I don't get it," Raylan said, first starting with his ex-wife and current girlfriend. "All the times I ran you through how to act."

"I told you it was instinct," Winona sighed.

"What to do if a guy breaks in to your home, what to do if a guy grabs you on the street.
What to do—"

"I get it, Raylan," she said, shaking her head. "I screwed up. But it's over now. Nothing I can do to change it."

He looked at her for a long moment before taking in a deep breath and turning on Bambi with a new fury in his eyes as he looked at her injury. "Goddamn it, Bambi Crowder, don't you ever do something so stupid ever again."

Bambi just innocently shrugged. "Didn't do nothing wrong. Just defended Winona's honor. He could've been planning a lot worse than robbing her."

"And he could've changed his mind and done that to you too!" he snapped. "Bambi, you don't ever fight back in a robbery. You could've been the one shot, not the guard."

"Well, it ain't the first time that'd have happened," she said stubbornly, glaring at him.

And as she scrunched her face up, it pulled at the light scab that was forming, making her wince as it began bleeding again. Raylan huffed as if he was incredibly inconvenienced before moving to grab a paper towel off the table behind him.

Bambi stayed silent as he sat on the corner of Tim's desk and held her chin with one hand while dabbing at her wound with the other.

"Ow," she whined, feeling miserable.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't of pissed him off, then this wouldn't be hurting," he said pointedly.

"Then maybe it'd be Winona," she huffed. "And I'd feel like shit for not trying to help her."

"And I thank you for that help, Bambi," Winona said softly. "But Raylan is right. It was dangerous and not worth it."

"I decide if my actions are worth it or not," Bambi said while looking back at Raylan, who still looked troubled. "I'm fine."

Raylan swallowed thickly, an unreadable emotion in his eyes. "What if he'd done worse?"

"I'm fine," she repeated softly, covering his hand on her chin. "Now, focus back on catching them. Like, what's all the drama going on in Art's office? Art looks spun up. Did he see something on the video?"

"Other than you getting your face kicked in?" Raylan asked, glaring at her. Because seeing that sight made him want to run out of the courthouse with guns blazing, searching for the man responsible.

"Apparently he recognized one of them," Raylan admitted.

"Which one?" Winona asked.

"Uh, oh, Frank Reasoner. The old guy with the oxygen tank. Turns out thirty years ago, he was on the ten most wanted list," he explained to them.

"For what, robbin' banks?" she questioned.

"Well, he is pretty good at it," Bambi muttered.

"Apparently, a lot of them. Got a place in Miami, one in Bahamas used to fly himself back and forth in his own King Air," Raylan said.

"What's he been doin' for the past thirty years?" Winona asked him, doing the math.

"Well, he's been doin' thirty years," he claimed.

"Really? Guess he ain't pretty good at it then," Bambi said with a sly smile.

"Got a compassionate parole back in june, emphysema. Wasn't supposed to make it six months," he explained.

Winona frowned at that. "Oh, I thought that oxygen tank was just for show."

Bambi didn't. After all, a thing like that would just slow them down needlessly.

"Stopped checking in with his PO officer a month ago, so he's our fugitive."

"What about the other two?" Winona asked.

"Haven't ID'd them yet."

"Hey, Raylan," Bambi said, making him hum as he looked at her. "The one who kicked me in the face? Punch him hard for me, yeah?"

Raylan grinned at her, and she loved the sight, thinking he looked so handsome when he was happy. "You got it, Darlin'."

A moment later, Raylan's grin fell as Tim walked into the room. He wasn't alone — Rachel had an older woman with them.

"I ought to hear this," Raylan said, getting up from his desk without explaining who the woman was.

As Tim passed, he looked at Bambi — more specifically, her bruised and cut cheek. She could see the fury in his eyes that was similar to Raylan's. But again, he was too busy working to come and talk to her about what happened.

Bambi was so conflicted that she didn't know if she wanted him to talk to her. He'd been plenty fine not talking to her for the last four days, after all. So, she just looked away from him, trying to ignore him like he had been her.




✵︎




Thirty minutes later, they were done questioning the woman who was apparently Frank Reasoner's wife, who wasn't aware that he'd planned to go back to bank robbing.

Since Bambi and Winona were a few of the ones to actually get a look at the robbers, they were held back at the station while other witnesses were allowed to leave. Now, the women were in the interrogation room, and Rachel was showing them a picture of one of the robbers. 

"Yep. That's him," Winona said as Bambi stretched her jaw, only to cringe when it popped a little.

"Who is he?" Bambi asked, wishing she had another ice pack.

"Bobby Green," Rachel explained, "carjacker. Did a few years at Lewisburg when Reasoner was there."

"Still nothing on the one responsible for this work of art?" Bambi asked while gesturing to her face.

"We figure he's a friend of Green's," she told her, apologetic that she didn't have a solid answer.

"Hi," Winona then greeted someone who came in.

Bambi's back was to the door, so she wasn't sure until Tim replied with a, "Howdy."

She eyed his arm as he reached past her head and dropped a folder on the table, which Rachel reached for. Then Tim casually leaned his hand down against the table right next to her. Slowly, Bambi looked up his body and saw that his focus was solely on Rachel and not her.

"What's that?" Winona asked as Rachel pulled out papers with a long list of numbers.

"Serial numbers from the bills they took out of the cash drawer," she explained. "We red-flag them, then if they spend them anywhere that uses the database, we do what we do."

Bambi just hummed, not really caring, but Winona had an odd look on her face, like it was troublesome. Tim misread it.

"Oh, I know. Big brother, right?" Tim asked, chuckling.

"You don't really expect to catch them that way," Winona assumed.

"No. Lag time's too long," Rachel replied. "Most places don't scan more than once a day. By the time we get a hit, the perp's usually long-gone."

"So it's really just red tape for the bank, then," she said.

"Actually, it's mostly for the secret service," Tim told her. "You ever hear of superdollars?"

"Naw," Bambi said, shaking her head.

"It's counterfeit hundreds from North Korea," he explained. "Whole Treasury Department's obsessed. You believe they make us scan every bill that goes into evidence?"

"Huh," Winona hummed, seemingly very interested.

Tim just grinned. "Pain in the ass."

Rachel looked at him pointedly. "Deputy Gutterson, I hope you're not suggesting that protecting the integrity of our national currency is a waste of your valuable time."

Bambi smirked down at the table as Tim shook his head. "No, ma'am, nothing I'd rather be doing."

She just hummed before getting up to leave, taking the folder with her. And a second later, Winona left as well, going after Raylan with a concerned look that the others didn't notice. It left Bambi in the room alone with Tim.

The silence was deafening for a moment before Bambi felt his gentle but calloused fingers on her jaw. He slowly turned her head up so that she was looking at him, his blue eyes fixed on her bruised face.

"Are you okay?" he asked lowly. "I tried to ask you earlier when we finished derogating Mrs. Reasoner, but you just ran to Raylan again."

Bambi wanted so badly to lean into his touch, having missed it over the last few days, but she remained as still as possible. "I'm tougher than I look, Tim," she said simply.

"You called Raylan instead of 911. Or me," he pointed out, which was the truth. Bambi had rushed to call Raylan as soon as the robbery was over.

"Well," she said, rolling her jaw, only to wince when it hurt a hell of a whole lot, "I wasn't so sure you'd pick up."

Guilt flashed across his face, which made her feel a bit smug, thinking he needed to feel guilty. His guilt also confirmed that he had been ignoring her and she wasn't just crazy.

"Right," she whispered. Then Bambi pulled out of his hold and got up out of her chair. "This had probably been really hard for you — being in the same room as me and all. So, I'll help you out."

"Bambi," Tim sighed as she walked past. "Please, let's just—"

"I've gotta go find some more ice or something," she cut him off. "Nice seeing you though. Shame it took all this for me to be able to."




✵︎




Bambi kept hanging around the office even though she didn't have to. Even when Winona went back to work. Even when Reasoner said over a video call that he wanted to turn himself over at Tate's Creek Bridge. Even when there was a call that the two young robbers showed up at a different bank, and Raylan was the only one left to go after them.

It left her alone in the office with Art and a few needless workers. He let her nosily watch over his shoulder as he went through a mirrored version of Reasoner's hard drive. They found lots of porn and non-incriminating things, as well as computer games. Including lots of flight simulators.

And that was when Bambi reminded Art what Raylan said about Reasoner flying his own plane back in the day. So, Art took off on his own to the closest airbase, but not without joking that Bambi should replace Raylan on the team.

At the end of the day, Bambi couldn't help but grin childishly down at the plastic, silver badge meant for children in her hand as she walked out to the courthouse parking lot. Art had given it to her jokingly before going off after Reasoner on his own. She was going to keep it on her and show it off to Raylan next time he got her involved in something Marshal related — she wasn't foolish enough to think there wouldn't be a next time.

She climbed up in her car and moved to buckle up, only to get a text from the last person she expected.

Tim 🔫💋
Bridge ambush was
a bust.
Meet me at my place
in twenty minutes?
Please?

Bambi thought long and hard about it, part of her just wanting to ignore him like he had been her. But she so desperately was hoping he'd give her some kind of answer. That he'd explain away all her concerns and fears about her somehow fucking things up.

So, twenty minutes later, Tim was letting Bambi into his apartment and leading her to the living room.

It was her first time being at his place — he always just came to Harlan. But it was neatly decorated with a few basic decorations. She thought it could've used a few picture frames and throw pillows, but they weren't there to talk about interior design.

"What?" Bambi asked Tim as he sat on the couch across from hers.

"I wanted to talk," he said simply.

She raised an annoyed eyebrow. "We're talkin' now?"

Tim sighed and rubbed his face. "I - I'm sorry I've been ignoring you. I just thought it was for the best, me and you getting some distance. But I shouldn't have just ignored you. You deserve an explanation."

"You want distance? Thought we had plenty of that what with living in different counties and only seeing each other once a week if even that," she muttered, crossing her arms. "But fine. How about I give you all the distance you need and never see you again."

"No," he said quickly, standing up and coming closer. "I was wrong. I was so wrong. Distance is the last thing I want. And hell, seeing you today just reminded me of how much I was aching to see you again. I've been killing myself without you."

"Yeah, well, sounds like you deserved the self-infliction," she huffed. "You hurt me, Tim. You acted like some middle schooler, leaving me wonderin' what I did wrong. What did I do wrong?"

Tim shook his head quickly and reached for her hands. "It wasn't anything you did."

"Well, I must've done something."

"Nothing like that. But then I got in my own head after Raylan said—"

"Hold on," Bambi cut him off quickly, narrowing her eyes. "Raylan said what?"




✵︎




Things were tense. So incredibly tense and uncomfortable inside of Raylan's motel room as Winona revealed she'd stolen two hundred thousand dollars from the evidence lock up and not just a single hundred dollar bill like she'd led Raylan to believe.

It couldn't have gotten worse.

And then it did with a knock on the door.

"Shit," Raylan swore, quickly standing up as Winona's eyes went wide like a terrified deer. He looked between her and the door and the bag of money. "Hide it. Now."

Winona scrambled to zip her gym bag up and then shoved it back under the bed as Raylan slowly approached the door, his hand on his gun, always expecting a threat. Only to flinch when a louder, harsher knock came followed by Bambi Crowder's anger-filled voice.

"Raylan Givens! Sorry if I'm interrupting your ancient, home-wrecking ass from fucking a married woman, but I need to have goddamn words with you!"

"Is that Bambi?" Winona asked, her eyes still wide. She'd never heard her sound so hateful. "What'd you do?"

Raylan looked at her and shrugged. "Do I look like I know what I did? Just—"

"Raylan! Your car is outside. Come out here before I slash your damn tires!" Bambi snapped.

A second later, Raylan slipped outside, shutting the door tightly so that Bambi wouldn't get a look at Winona. And there she stood, still in her overalls with her blood staining the collar of her t-shirt, a furious expression on her bruised face. But underneath it all, her eyes were shining, a sign she wanted to cry.

"Bambi," Raylan said in a cautious tone. With a careful hand aimed at her, he herded her away from the door and around the corner so that Winona couldn't hear. "Is this a social call?"

Bambi clenched her jaw and just glared at him, shaking a bit as she tried to reign in her anger and hurt. "Why would you tell Tim to stay away from me?"

Instantly, Raylan's face fell, realizing that Tim finally fessed up to what happened. Admitted to why he'd been so distant.

"Oh, shit," he murmured, his hands feeling clammy.

"Yeah, oh, shit," she muttered, smacking his chest. "I thought we were friends, Raylan! But what? I'm not good enough for Tim? Is it because I'm a Crowder?"

Raylan hated how her voice trembled and how her eyes watered even more.

"Because I thought - I thought you didn't see me like that — like how everyone in Harlan sees me," she said, sniffing a bit. "You're the only friend I got, Raylan. Why would you - why'd you tell him that?"

"It - it ain't because you're a Crowder," he said quickly. "It's the other way around. You're too good for him, Bambi. And he ain't good enough for you."

Bambi tried to hit him again, but he grabbed her wrist and backed her into the brick wall to keep her still.

"He's perfect, Raylan! He's goddamn Captain America," she scoffed. "So, that ain't an excuse. Tell me the truth right now, or I ain't never gone talk to you again."

Raylan's mouth hung open like he was going to speak, but no words fell out. He couldn't bring himself to say it — to say the real reason that he hadn't even admitted to himself yet.

And the longer he was silent, the more upset Bambi got as tears started to fall. "So, I was right. I'm a no-good Crowder that'll ruin his life," she said, her throat thick with tears. "A low life from a holler couldn't possibly be good for a U.S. Marshal with a bright future ahead of him. God, I was so stupid to think for even a second that you cared anything about me."

"Bambi—"

"No!" she snapped. "I'll go my way and you go yours — I'll save you from having any ties to Harlan and my family—"

"Bambi—"

"Leave me alone, Raylan," Bambi cut him off while pulling her hand out of his hold. She pushed him back by his chest and stormed past. "I'm so sorry that you've had to pretend like you haven't hated me this whole time—

Raylan acted quickly and without thinking — he'd kick himself later for not thinking — pulled her back against his chest. With his other hand, he cupped the back of her head, keeping her close, their noses brushing as he stared into her glassy eyes.

"I do not hate you, Bambi Crowder," he said in a low tone.

She could feel his chest heaving, brushing hers with each breath. His eyes searched her face before trailing down toward her parted mouth. Bambi sucked in a breath as he brushed his nose along her cheek before finally dipping down, his lips meeting hers in a kiss.

A searing, blinding kiss that made her knees weaken as he backed her against the wall, the cold bricks digging into her back as he held her impossibly close against him.

As Bambi finally reacted, she slid her fingers into his hair, pulling on it hard. He grunted into her mouth before his tongue darted out, pushing past her lips with ease as he deepened the rushed kiss. The hand on the back of her head moved to cup her jaw, his long fingers brushing her neck as he pulled her in completely.

That one kiss morphed into a second and then a third, Bambi forgetting completely why she'd come to Raylan's motel room in the first place as he forgot about who was waiting for him inside.

Finally, after two long minutes, they parted for air, Raylan pressing his forehead to hers. She was almost scared to open her eyes again, and when she did, he was already watching her with a guarded expression.

The thumb of the hand cupping her jaw moved to gently caress the bruise on her cheek from that morning as he studied every inch of her face from her shining eyes to her now-swollen lips that he was cursed to now know felt like heaven to kiss.

"I could never hate you," he reiterated in the softest tone she'd ever heard him use. He'd never sounded so gentle and caring before. "That's why I couldn't stand the thought of you and Tim together."

Bambi was frozen in place as he slowly backed away from her cautiously like she was a skittish animal about to attack. It was like she was stuck, only able to watch as he moved further and further away from her and toward his motel room.

With his hand on the door handle, he looked at her one last time, the shame on his face as clear as day.

"Good night, Bambi."

Then he was gone, leaving her with a confused head and a pounding heart and the taste of whisky on her lips.





Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro