by Paul Lederer
‘That was the reason they were trying to run me off? So that he could have the job?’ Quinn almost laughed. If it hadn’t been for his perverse nature, after the beating the men had given him he would gladly have stepped aside in Las Palmas. All the man had to do was ask for the job.
‘Is that settled, then?’ the sheriff asked.
‘I suppose so,’ Tom said. ‘Though if I ever see those men again …’ he glanced at Alicia, small and hopeful as she stood beside him, ‘I’d like to thank them.’
‘I don’t get you,’ the sheriff said, shaking his head as he walked them to the door of his office, ‘but no matter, you came through like a champion on your first run.’
Tom halted, turned back to face the lawman, and then smiled thinly. ‘That wasn’t my first run, Sheriff. It was my last run.’
Back at the hotel, they took the time to eat again in the dining room. Across the room, they saw Lily Davenport in close conversation with a man they had never seen. He appeared tall, strong and a little arrogant. Well, maybe she had found her hero this time.
‘While you were washing up,’ Quinn told Alicia, ‘I ran into Sabato again. No appeal was filed for Jody Short. The execution is in the morning. Sabato has fixed it so that you can be there.’
‘No,’ Alicia said with surprising softness. Her eyes were turned down, her lips only slightly parted. ‘I do not wish to go to it. I know that this is the reason for my long journey, but I have decided, Tom Quinn – I have decided that from now on I will celebrate life and not death.’
‘I think it’s healthier,’ Quinn commented. Their coffee was arriving and they removed their hands which had been touching each other’s from the table so that the waitress could serve them. When the woman was gone, Alicia requested:
‘Tell me again about the Yavapai range, Tom.’
He shrugged with one shoulder. ‘There’s not a lot to tell, really. It’s at altitude high enough so that pine tees grow there. I have a small creek running practically past the front door of my little cabin. It’s peaceful, quiet, a lot cooler than it is down here on the flats. It’s not much to look at, I suppose, but it suits me.’
‘Then,’ Alicia said, again reaching across the table to take both his hands, ‘it will suit me as well.’
About the Author
Paul Lederer spent much of his childhood and young adult life in Texas. He worked for years in Asia and the Middle East for a military intelligence arm. Under his own name, he is best known for Tecumseh and the Indian Heritage Series, which focuses on American Indian life. He believes that the finest Westerns reflect ordinary people caught in unusual and dangerous circumstances, trying their best to act with honor.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2010by Owen G. Irons
Cover design by Michel Vrana
ISBN: 978-1-4804-8760-4
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
PAUL LEDERER
WRITING AS OWEN G. IRONS
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
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