Free A Hard Ride Home by Emory Vargas

squeezed him in response, responding eagerly the way he always did when Jesse pleaded. But Jesse really meant it this time; he didn't want to be here, not with the girls and Evelyn and the sheriff and everyone watching. He didn't want to do this.
    Warren took him by the jaw and held him still as he spoke at his ear. "You've been consorting with the sheriff."
    Jesse tried to nod, but Warren was holding him too tightly. "He's your son," he said helplessly, not sure why that was the first thing that came to mind.
    "Do you tell him secrets, Jesse?"
    "I don't—"
    "My man Curtis is riding out to Willie's camp tonight. Should I send him into Fairhaven? Check on the town?"
    "No."
    Warren's grip slipped down to Jesse's throat, softer now, his fingertips warm against Jesse's racing pulse. His thumb slid over Jesse's lips and Jesse closed his eyes, swallowing against the sour taste of bile.
    "They shouldn't test your mother's… hospitality?"
    "No. Please. Let's get out of here. Go be. Alone."
    "I didn't come here to be alone," Warren murmured. He bit Jesse's earlobe hard enough to draw blood.
    The others at the table carried on with their game. It was just a couple of Warren's thugs, Wild Jack Reuben and John Harley and some long-haired cattle baron, and they didn't even look up when Jesse swallowed back a cry.
    "I didn't tell him nothing, I won't!"
    "That's right." Warren released his throat. "You wouldn't hurt me like that."
    Jesse shuddered in a breath and wiped the blood off his ear with the back of his hand. "No, sir. I wouldn't."
    "Go on now," Warren said, voice loud and pleasant. He pushed Jesse off his lap and gave him a solid swat on the ass. "We've got business to discuss. You run along, clean yourself up."
    Jesse's legs trembled, his feet feeling heavy and numb in his boots as he walked across the saloon for the back room and the back door so he could get outside, out into the night, maybe hide in the barn or drown himself in the trough.
    Right as his breath caught on a panicked sob, he stumbled into a man and mumbled, "Pardon." Then he saw that it was Emmett.
    "You," Emmett said, flushed and drunk, heavy-lidded with it. He backed into the doorway, blocking it, arms spread and eyes hot.
    "Move!" Jesse said, hearing his voice go too thin.
    "Why din' you tell me?"
    Jesse shook his head and tried to push past Emmett, angling to duck under his arm and out the back door. He nearly made it, until Emmett moved with his momentum and fell out the door with him, dragging him and wrestling at him like a grizzly.
    "Tell you what?" Jesse yelled, raw and edging on hysteria. Emmett got him by the arm and twisted him around. He was too mad to hold still and kept struggling despite the hot jab of pain in his shoulder. "Thought you'd caught on to the whorin' when you had yourself a piece, Sheriff!"
    The breath kicked right out of him when Emmett propelled them both into the wall beside the door. Wheezing, Jesse got a hand free and tried to push back, earning himself a palm full of splinters.
    "Fuck," he grunted, trying to step on Emmett's foot. It seemed like Emmett was just pawing and swiping at him aimlessly until Emmett's fingers hooked into his trousers like he was trying to yank them down.
    "Don't." Jesse's limbs went heavy and cold. "You're drunk. Don't."
    There was no sense in fighting, but he kept talking, dizzy as Emmett fumbled at him.
    "Don't," Jesse said. "Don't. Not you. Not. No. Emmett. Please."
    Emmett stopped moving, his closed mouth pressing against Jesse's shoulder. He shook like he was laughing, but made hoarse sounds like he was crying. His palms shifted to the wall on either side of Jesse.
    The saloon door was still open, noise buzzing out into the quiet night.
    The moment Emmett stepped back, Jesse whirled and punched him with the sharp-snapping aim of cold rage, like the only thing left on Earth was Emmett's square jaw. It wasn't much of a punch, but it was solid, and when Emmett reeled back, he followed it with