Thawed Out & Fed Up by Ryan Brown

Author:Ryan Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2011-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

17.

I figure twelve Colt cylinders were emptied into the door before it was kicked through.

While Lily Blanca screamed, six hostile cowboys charged in, scraped me up off the floor, and flung me headlong through the window. My skull broke the glass easy enough, and the boardwalk overhang cushioned the fall some, but it was still a jarring tumble down to street level.

Good thing was, the pain was minimal on account of the whiskey I’d been drinking with considerable aggression.

I tried to stand, but a swift kick to the back of my thigh kept me down. I looked up to find Denver Mack standing over me. He was still stripped to his long johns, but he’d put his boots back on. There was dried blood on the bridge of his nose where I’d hit him with the rock.

I was about to bid him hello when an unseen fist slammed into my left ear. I jerked my head around. Also standing above me now, his eyes red with drunken rage, was the guard I’d pistol-whipped outside Lily Blanca’s door.

I shook my head to clear it. “I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name earlier,” I said.

The cowboy’s tongue raked chaw from one cheek to the other. “I’m Spittoon Miller.”

I asked Spittoon Miller how the knot on his head was.

In response, he punched my other ear. Both rung loud enough to drown out all other noise.

I clambered to my feet and saw that the saloon had emptied, save for Tilly, who was still on her high chair behind the bar, and Cal, whose nose was pressed to the front window. Everyone else had circled around me on the street. The town was aglow in torchlight.

I found Duke leaning against the wall just outside the saloon doors, arms folded, eyes on the ground, looking disinterested.

Red Danyon appeared through the batwings pulling Lily Blanca in tow. Tears were running down her face. Her makeup had smeared. There was blood on her lip. When she struggled against his grasp, he yanked hard on her hair to still her. Cactus Bob came out right behind them.

Red Danyon appeared to be speaking to me, but as my ears were still ringing like church bells, I couldn’t make it out. I told him to repeat.

“I said no one goes up to see my whore but me.” He gave Lily Blanca’s hair another hard yank. “Ain’t that right?”

“Not only that, Boss, but he clobbered me with my own gun,” said Spittoon Miller.

“He broke my goddamn nose!” added Denver Mack in a pinched voice.

“Well, me and the lady have sure learned our lesson,” I said to Danyon. “What say you unhand her?”

“He ain’t learned no lesson, boss,” said Denver Mack.

Spittoon Miller concurred. “Maybe we oughtta just beat it into him.” He put a hard fist into my stomach.

My body folded. I fought to keep the booze from coming back up. By the time I made it upright again, Duke had stepped down to street level. He now stood against the hitching post a few feet away from me, casually putting flame to a hand-rolled.

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