[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.“I gotta pass you something.It’s in my left hand.A name and number off his caller ID.I can’t chance using a phone.Have Holly check it out.Heard him on the phone.Sounds like a pickup.”“Christ, first I’m used.Now I’m working?” Broker’s right hand shot out and seized her bare arm above the elbow.Hard.“Ow.”It felt good to touch her, to feel her move.“Pass it to me when I grab your hand.”“Hey!” Shuster lurched up alert on the porch and called out.“Talk is okay.Grabbing is not okay.”“…Turned into a regular little whore.Don’t care who you give it to…” Broker’s voice rose as he pulled her in close and they tussled, twisting her wrist with his good hand, feeling her insert the folded paper into his injured palm.Turning, he winced with pain as he slipped it in his pocket.He released her wrist and raised his hand, palm open, as if to slap her.Nina’s expression was suitably indignant and furious from a distance but, close in, there was a smirk, possibly even erotic, in her eyes.“God, I love it when you talk dirty,” she said under her breath.“You’re enjoying this, whoring for George W.,” he said between clenched teeth.She whispered right back.“Oh really? What about that sleazy little cunt Jolene Sommer you fucked last year?”“We were separated,” he yelled, suddenly on the defensive, feeling the force drain from his raised hand.Should have never never told her about Jolene.“Asshole!” she shouted back.On the porch, Ace turned to Gordy.“I think I just won a hundred bucks, ’cause you can’t fake that.Uh-uh.Those people are definitely married.”Nina stepped inside the arc of Broker’s swing and slapped his face.Stung, Broker recoiled, recovered, and grabbed a fistful of her short hair and wrenched her head to the side.Then he held her at arm’s length as she swung at him, a haymaker windmilling in midair…Shuster came off the porch fast, athletic; he stepped between them and announced, “You’re outta line, fella.”Broker reached around him to get at Nina.Shuster shouldered him, holding his hands up, all defense, not aggressive, trying to be reasonable.“I said, you’re outta line.”Broker turned his attention to Shuster.He blinked, his face worked.His breath came in a rush.All his anger flashed like chain lightning, and he had to ground it somewhere or he’d just burn up right there.Before he realized it, he had squared off.Shuster’s hands came up.But they were still open and signifying calm.“Man…”Broker changed up the speed, his hands a blur.He feinted right with his shoulder and fired a left jab, very crisp and fast, that piled into Shuster’s right cheek—BIGMISTAKE!!!!!!!The force went out of the punch and his whole nervous system cringed and scream-balled up like a spider in a flame.His knees buckled, his good hand shot to protect his fiery left hand.Shuster blinked, surprised, raised his hand to his face.Now Gordy trotted forward and muttered to Shuster.“Step back, Ace.You can’t be mixin’ in this.You got that DUI, remember? They’ll throw you back in jail.”Gordy came straight ahead and Broker resigned himself to taking a punch for Delta Force, Donald Rumsfeld, and Homeland Security.Goddamn shit!Gordy let fly, a powerful but sloppy overhand right.Like he was driving an engineer stake into hardpan.Jarred, seeing a starburst, Broker took it high on the left cheek and temple.Broker staggered back, shook his head.Gingerly he tested his cheekbone.Unbroken.He’d have a black eye.A sore neck.Shuster restrained Gordy’s cocked right fist.“That’s enough, Gordy.Let him go,” he said.Gordy Riker bounced, doing a huff-and-puff number with his shoulders.Broker did a modified Charlie Chaplin pratfall, tripping as he stepped back.He fell on his butt on the damp trap rock.Gordy hovered—porcupiney, short-fused, mean.Then, when Broker didn’t attempt to get up, Gordy swaggered back to the bar.Shuster walked Nina protectively back toward the porch, then stopped and came back to where Broker sat unceremoniously on his rear end.“You don’t gotta listen to me but I’m going to give you a little advice.I just been through a divorce myself, and one thing I learned is people need a little space.”Broker glared at him, all the while muttering deep inside how, granted, his left hand was under the weather and how maybe he should get up and introduce this hayseed to his right hand.Instead, he reflected that the ability to defer satisfaction was a sign of maturity; so he played his assigned role and remained on his butt.Shuster joined Nina and Gordy and they went back up the steps into the saloon.Broker dropped his eyes and stared at a tiny procession of black ants picking their way through the pebbles.Maybe you could stick around.Yes, dear.Broker grimaced and felt a puffy bruise swelling up below his left eye.He looked up and down the deserted highway.Just the green fields, the low gray clouds.Across the road he saw a rusting Bobcat sitting in weeds in what had once been a parking lot.A fading John Deere logo painted up on the front of a large washed-out yellow pole barn.Weather-beaten letters spelled SHUSTER AND SONS EQUIPMENT.Thought he saw the shadow of someone standing in the doorway, watching.When he looked again, the guy was gone.“You’re asking a lot,” he said under his breath as he slowly got to his feet
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]