Dakota Read Online Free PDF

acknowledged. “My guess? Ranch hands who don’t care if they never buck another bale of hay in their lives.”
    Lola took the cup and crossed the room to the coffee urns behind the table of roughnecks. She caught a whiff of booze amid the scents of charred steak and fried potatoes and wondered if the men were sweating off the previous night’s excesses, or if they’d dosed their morning coffee from the hip flasks she saw protruding from a couple of pockets. The Daily Express was spread out before them. One of the men flipped through it, stopping at the obituaries. Judith’s photo took up two columns. Lola had to remind herself, as she always did when she saw Judith, that her model’s cheekbones were the result of the near-starvation resulting from drug abuse; that such beauty came at too high a price to be admired. The men staring at her photo had no such perspective. “Damn,” one said, his voice low and appreciative.
    Another drew the newspaper closer. “Hey. I seen that girl before.”
    Lola jerked, then gasped as the hot coffee hit her hand. She redirected her cup beneath the stream and then busied herself adding the cream and sugar that she never used, as a way to linger within earshot. Joshua, mopping nearby, stroked the linoleum with infinite care. So he’d heard, too.
    “You have not,” another man said. “You’ve never been here in your life until today.”
    “Not here,” the first one said. His tangled reddish mutton-chops curled toward fleshy lips. A scratch clawed its way across his cheek. “Back in Burnt Creek. She’s one of them girls from the man camp—you know, the trailer.” He twisted a hand into his crotch and grunted. “Made me go back for more.”
    “She scratch up your back the way she done your face?” His friend was smaller, rabbity, with protruding eyes and teeth. His shoulders twitched in nervous laughter. “Either way, won’t be any scratchin’ to go back for now. This here’s an obit. Looks like you fucked her to death, Swanny.”
    “You couldn’t fuck that girl long enough to fuck her to death. The way she turned it on, it’s a wonder that’s not my obit. I damn near had to kill her myself just to get out of there alive.”
    Joshua’s hand slammed into Lola’s back, shoving her out of the way. She staggered and flung out her arms to catch her balance. Her cup flew from her hand. Coffee sprayed the wall. Joshua grabbed the rabbity guy by the scruff of his skinny neck and flung him aside. He planted his foot in Swanny’s chest and sent him and his chair backward. He reached down, seized the muttonchops and hauled at Swanny’s head and smashed a fist into his nose. Gouts of blood patterned Nell’s linoleum. The man came up fast, and Lola saw how much bigger he was than Joshua. Rabbit Face latched onto one of Joshua’s arms and someone else wrestled the other one behind his back. Joshua’s head whipped back and forth from the force of the bleeding man’s blows.
    “Stop!” Lola yelled. She took a step forward and someone straight-armed her and she hit the floor as Swanny resumed his methodical demolition of Joshua’s face. A sheet of soapy water fell over the scene. The knot of men drew apart and came up gagging. Nell stood with Joshua’s mop bucket in her hand.
    “Out of here. Every last one of you.”
    Swanny dragged a hand across his face and wiped it on his chest, leaving scarlet streaks. “This asshole jumped me. For no reason.”
    Lola clambered to her feet. Her hip ached where it had struck the floor. “Idiot,” she hissed. “That’s his sister.”
    The man jerked a bloody thumb toward Nell. “Her?” he said, his disbelief clear.
    Lola limped to the table and put her finger on Judith’s photo. “No. Her.”
    The men coughed and shuffled their feet and moved muttering toward the door. Lola and Joshua and Nell waited motionless until the last of the trucks had passed before the window. “Shit,” Nell said. “I forgot to make them pay. All