Big Red Tiquila - Rick Riordan Read Online Free PDF

new silver BMW had pulled up over the lawn and parked sideways
across her driveway. A well-built blond man in a disheveled Christian
Dior suit was sitting on the trunk, waiting.
    He’d put on a few pounds since high school but it
was definitely Dan Sheff, former water polo team captain for the
fighting Alamo Heights Mules, heir to the multi-million-dollar Sheff
Construction empire, jilted ex-hunk of Miss Lillian Cambridge. By the
angle of his tie it was fairly easy to see that he’d gotten a
little too happy at happy hour. It was also obvious he was not there
to welcome me to town.
 

    7
    "I want to talk to you," he said, meaning
me.
    Dan was speaking clearly enough but he was listing
slightly to port. Lillian had otten out of the car first and was
standing in front of him with her hands out. It was hard to tell
whether she was trying to hold him back or catch him if he fell.
    "I think I’ve got a right to talk to him,"
Dan told her.
    “ This isn’t fair, Dan," Lillian said.
    “ You’re damn right."
    She was trying to corral him back toward the BMW, but
he wouldn’t move. He looked at her and for a few seconds his
expression wavered between angry and injured. He put out his hands.
    "Lillian—"
    "No, Dan!" she said. “I want you to go."
    The Rodriguez brothers next door were out on their
porch, drinking beer in their tank tops and swim trunks. They watched
us, grinning. One circled his temple with his finger and said
something in Spanish I couldn’t catch. The other one laughed. I
touched Lillian on the shoulder.
    “ I can talk to Dan if he wants," I said.
    She looked back at me, her face incredulous. "Tres,
no. I mean, you don’t have to do that. Dan, leave now."
    She pushed him back. He wobbled a little but didn’t
fall over.
    “ I’rn not leaving until I get my say," he
said.
    Dan and I looked at Lillian.
    "I don’t believe this," she snapped. She
gave us both a withering scowl as she retreated toward the house,
then slammed the screen door behind her. One of the Rodriguez
brothers opened a new beer.
    “ I just want to know something." Dan rubbed
the side of his face with two fingers that had gold rings the size of
walnuts. “I want to know what makes you think that you can come
back to town after ten fucking years and act like you’re Christ
Descended. You ditch this town, you ditch Lillian, you run away from
the whole fucking scene, and then you come back and expect everything
to be waiting for you just like it was. You ever heard of burned
bridges, Navarre?"
    Sheff was getting warmed up now, almost sober. As he
talked he got faster and angrier, slapping one hand into the other to
make his point. His perfectly combed hair had come unraveled, one
little curl hanging down in his face Superman style.
    "You want an answer?" I said.
    "Some of us stayed in town, man. Some of us
don’t run away from people we care about. We’ve been building
something, Lillian and me, for six months now. `What the hell gives
you the right to come out of nowhere and stomp on that now?"
    I thought about what to say to that. Nothing came to
mind.
    "You’re pathetic," Dan said. "You
can’t make a life for yourself out there, go someplace else and
leave us alone. You don’t get another chance here."
    I exhaled, looking over at the Rodriguezes, who
seemed highly entertained, then back at Dan.
    “ Pathetic might be a little strong," I said.
    “ Fuck you."
    "Lillian called me, Dan," I said, trying to
keep my voice even. “Not the other way around. If you were building
something, I think it was collapsing way before I got here."
    In itself, that didn’t strike me as that much of an
insult, but there were at least two months of pent-up anger in Dan’s
first punch. I admit I wasn’t ready for it. It caught me square in
the stomach.
    You don’t ever want to fight an emotionally
distraught person, especially one who’s in good physical shape.
What they lose in coordination they gain in power and
unpredictability. When he hit