Fire Wind Read Online Free PDF Page B

Funny how my mind leapt to the fact
that God must be involved somehow.
    I pushed on into the bar and immediately
became the focus of all eyes. It was a new experience for me.
    I was always looked on as a threat, but never
had I felt such instant hatred by so many. The silver star on my
chest carried a weight of its own.
    I made my way off to the side and sat down at
an empty table and the barroom scene soon picked back up into the
usual ebb and flow of a night dedicated to the usual
debaucheries.
    A barmaid came close to my shoulder and
leaning in close so that my cheek almost grazed her mostly exposed
chest she asked softly, “What can I be getting yuh handsome?”
    Her overuse of perfume was on the verge of
choking me and I didn’t care for the much groped view she offered.
I raised my eyes to hers and all the false joviality fell from hers
as her face reflected the need to escape from the unknown that I
represented.
    “Whiskey.” I said flatly.
    She nodded and hurried off quickly.
    Thaddeus sat down heavily at the table beside
me. His face was flushed from drinking and his demeanor was even
more jovial than earlier in the day. He was the happy drunk version
apparently.
    “How did the funeral go?” I asked
casually.
    He blinked at me before responding, “Ahhh
well…….well as you can expect for a funeral anyway.” He finished
with, as he floundered about with what to say.
    I nodded.
    I wanted him gone from my table. I didn’t
like him.
    My whiskey was set down before me without the
view this time and I said, “Thank you.”
    She nodded and hurried away.
    Thaddeus was talking about what I wasn’t sure
as I was intentionally doing my best to ignore him. I had something
else occupying my attention. Someone was watching me.
    Many people were looking at me off and on,
but this was different. I was being studied, even probed by some
unknown source within the room. I didn’t like the predatory feel of
it at all.
    Every nerve within me felt alive and
throbbing with the alarm I felt at the presence of the unknown
watcher.
    “Aren’t you going to drink that?” Thaddeus
asked blearily.
    I glanced to him, “No. I don’t have any money
yet. Would you mind taking care of this for me?”
    “Not at all my friend!” Thaddeus said
greedily, as he reached out and grabbed up the shot glass of
whiskey and brought it to his lips to slurp noisily at it.
    I missed the numbing affect the alcohol
would’ve had, although in truth it would have taken most of the
bottle to forget for a moment and enjoy peace from my memories of
the past. Now was not the time to drink though, if there ever was a
time for that.
    I stood up to leave and noticed Thaddeus
staring moodily at the chipped surface of the table. Perhaps not
the happy type after all.
    I turned to leave and that’s when I saw her.
She’d sat off in a booth to my rear out of view.
    Her eyes were calculation itself and her
beauty was far from the usual sordid prettiness common to these
saloon environments. She smiled and I sensed the predatory feeling
I had felt before all over again.
    She crooked a finger at me and I found myself
rather hesitant to move forward toward her. There was just
something different about this woman.
    She was to fine in appearance for the place
and yet she seemed at home here. I walked to her booth feeling
every bit the lackey for obeying her command, but I was
curious.
    “Welcome to my establishment Marshal. I trust
that you have found all in order?”
    Everything about her was eye-catching and yet
I found her off-putting. Why was that?
    Forcing myself to nod I said, “You run a
tight ship. I’ve noticed only a minimal amount of dealer fraud on
the part of your blackjack dealer and the whiskey smells genuine
and not the creation of a bar of lye soap dropped into a bucket of
swamp acid.”
    She laughed out loud. She had very white
teeth.
    Smiling again she showed me all of them as
she said, “You do paint a rather grim picture of establishments