Killing Halfbreed Read Online Free PDF Page A

lowered her gaze.  Disappointment erased her smile as quickly as a rainbow when its sun is gone.  Some situations left you with no way out.
    “You don’t care for me in that way, do you?”  Tears welled up in her eyes.
    “No, Jinny, I’m sorry, I don’t.  I’m flattered by your kiss, very flattered, but I’m just too old for you.”
    “You’re only 26!”
    “Yeah, and you’re 14.  I’m nearly twice your age.”
    “I think I’d better go to bed.”
    “Jinny, wait...”  It was too late.  She rushed from the room, trying to wipe her tears without me seeing.  I sighed, feeling like a fool. Why did the dad-blamed girl have to put me in that situation?  Even if she’d been older, I didn’t have time to mess around with a courtship.  I had to find my brother.
    I let myself out of the Logans' kitchen and headed back to the bunkhouse.  My thoughts lingered on her momentarily, but they were soon replaced with my quickly forming plans for a confrontation with Mitch Byrd.
     

 
     
     
    "What do you know about my brother, roach?"
    I'd caught Byrd by himself and now I slammed his wiry frame up against the side of the bunkhouse.  His yellow-specked, pale grey eyes flicked back and forth, fruitlessly seeking escape or help.                                                  
    He was short, but not stocky.  Besides his small stature, everything else about him seemed average.  He was balding and wore what remained of his dark brown hair slicked back against his skull.
    He held his hands in front of his face as if to plead defenselessness.
    "Look, pal, I don't know what you're talking about," he whined.
    "Somebody overheard you laughing about how you ‘surprised’ my brother.  Ben Talbot.  His name ring a bell?"
    "I never said any such thing."
    Smack !
    I punched him in the left eye, knocking him to the ground.  Holding his eye with one hand, he whimpered as he staggered back to his feet.
    "Listen, Byrd, I’ve got no qualms about beating the living tar out of you.  Start squawking!"
    I was calm, calmer than I'd been for a long time, but I fully intended to pound the truth out of him if I had to.
    "All right, all right.  Listen, okay... it wasn't anything bad, okay.  Oooof!"
    I throttled him in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him.  He gasped for air like a fish out of water.
    "Did you kill my brother, Byrd?  Did you?"
    It was a few moments before he could catch his breath enough to answer.
    "No...I...didn't.  You've...you got to believe me...I...I don't know...you're talking about."
    "You said you ‘surprised’ my brother.  What was the surprise?  Last chance."
    "Look...That wasn't about me.  I was just trying to...to impress the guy.  I was telling...a story I heard...heard it from somebody else."
    "Who?  Who’d you hear it from?"  He was breathing better now.
    "Some guy.  He was a...he was a drifter.  I don't know.  Haven't seen him for a long time.  Man...you hit hard.  He used to work here a few months ago."
    "What was his name?"
    “Don’t remember.  John, I think, didn't ever learn his last name.  He didn't work here that long."
    "Sure.  Bet his last name was Smith or Doe, huh?"
    "No, I swear! Look it wasn't nothing to do with your brother disappearing.  The guy was hooked up with rustling, okay?  He and some other guys were rustling, and he was telling me a story about how they surprised your brother once when they took some of his cattle.  That's all I know, okay!"
    "Why didn't you tell Logan about this?"
    "I...I...I don't know.  I thought the guy might kill me if I ratted on him.  He was one rough hombre and pretty good with a gun."
    "I think you're lying, Byrd.  You know a lot more than you're telling, and you'd better be careful.  I'll be watching from the shadows.  As soon as you decide the coast is clear, that’s when I’ll nail you."
    I walloped him a couple more times and left him to wallow in the dirt