Jailbreak (26 page)

I said, dryly, “I bet.” I turned away. I said, “You stay here and look at the house. I’ll be back to fetch you in half an hour.”

I found Norris in the barn. He was staring at a stack of newly gotten in hay. I walked up to where I was just behind him. I said, “Taken an interest in cattle ranching, have you, Norris?”

He didn’t turn around. He said, “Not so you’d notice.”

I said, “Where is this money coming from for this paddle-wheel steamer to New Orleans? And then the honeymoon? You figure out of family funds?”

He turned, stiffly, and then said, “I think you have forgotten that I have some money of my own. Just as you do, just as Ben does. The money that will be spent will be mine. Mine personally. Don’t come to me with anymore of your bullying questions, Justa Williams.”

I turned and started for the barn door. “Just so we had it straight. I meant it back there in Mexico when I told you you was going to pay for every cent this family business was out because of the way you fouled up that deal.”

He said, coldly, “I understand that. And I appreciate your attendance to business. I even appreciate you getting me out of jail. I might not have been able to do it on my own.”

“Fine,” I said. “Thanks for getting the house ready. And . . . well, thanks for Nora.”

I was about to step out the barn door when he called to me. “Justa?”

I turned. “What?”

“Can I come to the wedding?”

I regarded him for a moment. Then I scratched my left ear. Finally I said, “Yeah, I guess so. And if you don’t fuck up between now and then you can be my best man.”

What the hell, he was my brother.

When it comes to Western fiction, acclaimed writer
GILES TIPPETTE hits the bull’s-eye every time . . .

Saloon owner Wilson Young doesn’t need the law to
take care of business. But when he takes a train down
to Galveston to look up a gambler who owes him a
fat debt, he gets paid with a bullet in his chest. After
getting out of the scrape alive—barely—Young heads
back to San Antone to mend up. And plan his revenge.
And draw on his outlaw past to settle a score—one
bullet at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visit us at
www.kensingtonbooks.com

Acclaimed western storyteller
G
ILES
T
IPPETTE
brings his unique brand of justice and revenge
to the Arizona territories
...

 

 

 

When a man of few words rides into town, his shirt
soaked with blood from the bullet still lodged in his side,
the people of Sunshine, Arizona, don’t exactly open
their doors to the stranger. Saulter’s not looking for
trouble, just a place to rest up and heal. But Sunshine’s
not as warm as the name suggests, and neither are the
locals—they intend to kill the U.S. President. And
Saulter’s presence is very much in the way ...

 

 

 

“Spine-jarring, bullet-biting intensity.”-
Houston Post
“Tough, gutsy, and fascinating.”—
NY Newsday
“Impressive authenticity.”
—Booklist
Visit us at
www.kensingtonbooks.com