“Reckon I have to,” I said. “You forgave me. After all the disappointments I gave you.”
I heaved myself out of the chair. We walked to this big window that overlooked the back pasture. We didn’t say anything for a moment and then Nora suddenly exclaimed, “Did I tell you? About our wedding?”
“No,” I said. “Did we have one?”
“The one Norris has arranged.”
I looked around at her. “What are you talking about?”
“Norris!” she said. She lifted her hands and her eyes, the movement of her hands making her breasts swell so that I wanted to rush back and try out that marriage bed in advance of its time. She said, “He spent all one day telegraphing from Galveston to our guests. They’ve all agreed to come back. And, Justa, guess what!” Her eyes were dancing like a schoolgirl’s. “He’s chartered a paddle-wheel steamer from Galveston day after tomorrow. We’re to be married on board with all the wedding party. Then we honeymoon in New Orleans! Honey, I’m so thrilled!”
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 . . .
DEAD MAN’S POKER
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.
PRAISE FOR GILES TIPPETTE
“Tippette can plot away with the best of them.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Like True Grit ... a small masterpiece ...
brilliantly written.”
—Newark News
“Spine-jarring, bullet-biting intensity.”—Houston Post
“Tough, gutsy, and fascinating.”—NY Newsday
“Impressive authenticity.”—Booklist
“His fiction is taught and gripping.”
—Houston Spectator
“Tippette can write rough and tumble action
superbly.”—Chattanooga Times
Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.com
Acclaimed western storyteller GILES TIPPETTE
brings his unique brand of justice and revenge
to the Arizona territories ...
THE SUNSHINE KILLERS
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 ...
PRAISE FOR GILES TIPPETTE
and The Bank Robber
“Like True Grit . . . a small masterpiece ...
brilliantly written.”
—Newark News
“Spine-jarring, bullet-biting intensity.”-Houston Post
“Tough, gutsy, and fascinating.”—NY Newsday
“Impressive authenticity.”—Booklist
Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.com
DON’T MISS THIS GILES TIPPETTE
WESTERN CLASSIC!
Jailbreak Page 25