EDGE: The Killing Claim by George G. Gilman

Author:George G. Gilman [Gilman, George G.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
Published: 2016-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Polly Webster began to tremble and wail as her brother did his knuckle-cracking trick and started along the landing in a slow, shuffling gait.

Edge brought up the rifle to aim it at the big man from his hip and the German shepherd whined softly—confused because he sensed a dangerous situation and had been ordered to stay out of it.

"I'll kill you, Max." the half-breed warned evenly.

"You don't scare me, mister. I told you that, al­ready."

"A mem that's as big as you and as mad as you sure scares me, feller. Killing you is the only way I know to stop you."

"You don't scare me."

"I'm impressed. But you shouldn't get yourself killed for a lie."

Polly curtailed her crying to demand in a croaking voice: "Stop this, Max! He's right!"

The big man kept on coming. "I warned him off you, sis. And if he's gonna kill me, he's gonna kill me. Let one filthy bastard get away with it and be­fore you know it there won't be no difference be­tween that Rita Cornell and you."

"But he didn't do nothing to me, Max!" she im­plored. "I was only pretending!"

The massively built man halted about fifteen feet along the landing from where Edge stood with the leveled Winchester. The half-breed, be­tween his saddle and bedroll, watched Max impassively, while the dog, just behind him, looked eagerly from brother to sister and back.

Edge, not daring to move his gaze away from the big man, heard without seeing as the woman struggled painfully into a half-slumped sitting posture, one shoulder against the wall. And reached for the towel to stanch the trickle of blood from her nostrils.

"What you mean, sis?" Max asked, coming down off the peak of aggression as his suspicious eyes shifted away from the half-breed's face for the first time in many stretched seconds. To look down and to the side at his sister. "You look to me like you got hurt real bad."

He cracked his knuckles, no longer wanting desperately to free his fist from the other hand and smash it into the unblinking face of Edge.

Polly Webster began to weep, but tears of mis­ery instead of pain now.

Edge pursed his lips and let out some pent-up breath. Then muttered, "Me and the dog are hun­gry, lady."

The weeping stopped and the woman began to speak, very fast. While the anger renewed its hold on Max, but was no longer directed at the half-breed.

"He turned me down when he first checked in, Max. I offered myself to him and he turned me down and insulted me. So I planned to get back at him. Waited for you to take your nap and came up here to his room. Pretended to be drunk. Was going to tell you he got me that way and —and—and then took advantage of me. Wanted you to come up here and beat the daylights out of him. To get back at him. For the way he turned me down flat when I all but threw myself at him.

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