Act of retaliation from salesperson with woman going round Rhode Island (8)
I believe the answer is:
reprisal
'act of retaliation' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'salesperson with woman going round rhode island' is the wordplay.
'salesperson' becomes 'rep' (sales rep).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'woman' becomes 'sal' (short for Sally).
'going round' indicates putting letters inside (some letters go around others).
'rhode island' becomes 'ri' (US postal abbreviation).
'rep'+'sal'='repsal'
'repsal' placed around 'ri' is 'REPRISAL'.
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for reprisal that I've seen before include "hitting back" , "Act of revenge" , "Tit for tat" , "Retaliation for an injury" , "comeback" .)