Champion of the World by Chad Dundas

Author:Chad Dundas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-06-09T10:13:15+00:00

Part III

ONE FALL TO A FINISH

She slept in fits and when she woke he was still there, sitting in a chair with his forearms resting on the tiny table. Seeing him in the purple light of morning, the sheer bulk of him making the cabin seem full to bursting, Moira knew neither of them had been thinking quite straight the night before. Her ears had still been ringing from the gunfire, her mind buzzing from the encounter in the road when Taft followed her into the cabin and locked the door behind them. She hadn’t expected him to do that, but she also couldn’t very well send him back out into the night with those men. Instead, she had just gone to the table and lit a cigarette while Taft stood in the doorway looking at the meager clutter of their quarters. She could tell it amused him they were living this way while he and Carol Jean had their own room in the lodge.

“I hope you haven’t gotten the wrong idea about me,” she had said.

“I’m sorry?” he said, taking two steps inside to stand with his hands on the back of a chair. “You think I came inside hoping to look after more than just your safety, is that it?”

When he smiled she could see the scar tissue shining in his brows and a little triangular dent in the middle of his nose. They had not known each other long—maybe they still didn’t know each other at all—but something seemed familiar about him. He was confident and easy in his manners, the kind of man who was used to getting what he wanted from women.

“Well,” she said, “I’m sure I didn’t mean to imply anything untoward.”

“What did you mean to imply?”

“Fine,” she said, “maybe I was being unpleasant. Maybe I think you resent it that my husband was hired to be your coach. Maybe I think you might like the idea of getting over on him by having it off with his wife.”

He laughed, a clapping sound so loud in all the quiet that they both glanced out the window toward the lodge to see if anyone had heard.

“In that case, it wasn’t me who had the wrong idea,” he said. He pulled out the chair and sat. “I was out for my walk. It seemed like you were having trouble with those men, so I stopped to see about it. That’s all.”

She stayed on her feet, leaning on the opposite wall just to put some distance between them. “Who is Dr. Paulson?” she said.

“Who?”

“Outside,” she said. “Mr. Eddy said you’d better shape up if you want him to continue covering for you with Dr. Paulson.”

“Oh,” Taft said. “Nobody. Just a doctor who’s helping me with my comeback. It’s not easy for a big fellow like me to try to get back into wrestling shape, you know. These old bones.”

“There’ll be more hell than a little over it if you stay in here tonight,” she said.

“I should bid you good evening, then,” he said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.