Ruby’s got a business-proposal

The red-headed saloon-owner led Snake up the stairs and down a corridor, showing him the way to her small office. Once inside, Ruby offered Snake a seat in a cool, husky tone of voice, and then poured the young cowboy a large glass of bourbon, of which she had several bottles standing on a small, simple table next to the wall.

When she had supplied him with his drink, Ruby seated herself on the edge of her desk, just a few feet from where Snake was sitting, and leaned forwards to give him a good view of her ample cleavage. Even with Snake having had plenty of women since his first time with Miss Constance back in school, he now had a hard time keeping from sitting there as a dumb fool, ogling Ruby’s delicious chest.

“So, Cowboy, you seem to know how to handle that gun of yours.” Ruby said, breaking the short silence.

“Yeah, I guess I do.” Snake’s reply was concise and to the point, delivered by him with a steady, calm tone of voice. His mind, however, was busy repeating the two questions of why he was up here, and what in the name of lord almighty that his handling of the gun had to do with anything.

“Alright then. Like your bourbon?” Ruby asked him, eyeing the glass that he had still not brought up to his mouth to drink from. Snake took a small sip of it, and swallowed it down fast. He wasn’t too keen on bourbon, as it most often had a taste resembling that of fresh horse-shit, and hit your senses fast, getting you drunk and dumb.

“Oh, it’s fine.” He lied back at her.
“Good!” She said and then stood up and walked over to the table, grabbed the opened bottle and poured even more into his glass.

“By the way,” she said as she stood leaned over his right shoulder, her bosom taking up most of his view, “what’s your name?”
“Robert, but everyone calls me Snake.”
“Ah, especially the girls?” Ruby asked with a grin. Snake simply nodded his head in silent affirmation.

As half an hour or so passed, under which Ruby did most of the talking while Snake found himself drinking more and more bourbon, and felt how it became harder and harder to focus or think clearly.

Finally, Ruby asked him: “Snake, would you like to help out with a small matter?”
“Uh, depends on what it is…” The young man managed to reply.

Taking her time to pull out a cigarette from a silver box on the desk and lighting it, Ruby exhaled a thin string of smoke before looking at Snake again.

“Well, there’s been a gang of desperados who’s been moving up and down all the way from Central City to Miner’s Delight and back during the last few months, hitting stage coaches all along their merry little way. Recently, they’ve swung east and are holed up somewhere close to here. Two days ago, they struck again, robbing a Wells-Fargo coach just two miles east of the city. Shot up the shotgun messenger pretty bad and got away with a couple of hundred dollars in gold, and took one of the passengers with them.”

“Right, and what am I to do here?” Snake shot in, confused by her story.

“Just wait and I’ll tell you, cowboy. The passenger that was kidnapped was an old friend of mine, a glorious old bitch named Eliza Hill, who was coming here to help me run this modest establishment.
Now, those fuckers are worth 500$ out of the Territory’s pocket to the man that brings them in, whether they’re dead or not. I’ll gladly add another 300$ to that.”

“What? You want me to find the robbers and bring them in, besides saving your friend. And get 800$ in return for my troubles?” Snake asked, his intoxicated mind torn between the sound voice of reason that told him to get up and get the fuck out, and the voice of greed and lust, that started counting up what 800$ could buy him.

“That is precisely what I want. And to add a little extra incentive, I’ll let you get five fucks from my girls for no charge. What do you say, cowboy?”

Snake gulped and then downed the last of the bourbon, and sat silent for a few seconds, his eyes locked on the floor, before looking back up at Ruby again and forming his mouth into a wide grin.

“Hell, I’m up for it!”

Ruby returned his grin and then strode past him, opened the door and called for the girls to come up.

Sitting down in his chair, Snake was too drunk and too horny to ponder over what sort of mess that he was getting himself into.