Texas and Tarantulas Read Online Free PDF Page A

it.
    Mahon couldn’t just show up at the Jacek ranch and knock on their door. He’d be found out. It’d be best if the cops found the skeletal remains they were looking for, too. That way they wouldn’t be back sniffing around any time soon.
    It was a good thing he was patient. Bored, but patient. Mahon decided to get out for a while, see if any new gossip had turned up. It meant immersing himself in what he thought of as a human tide. He felt like a boulder that tide rushed against, battering at him with their talking and gaiety, their scents and vitality.
    Even so, he learned things from them—mentions of places that piqued his curiosity, movies he dreamed of seeing, books he longed to read. Right now, he’d love to go take a dip in the Frio river, get wet and cool off, but he couldn’t. There was a state park not too far off he wanted to explore while he was in the area too—if only it weren’t so damned hot, and if he had the time, which he wouldn’t. He had a job to do then he was to leave. This wasn’t a leisure trip. It never was when he was given a job.
    He wondered what would happen to him when he became too old and slow for the tasks he performed. It was when he had those kinds of thoughts that the pathway for others opened up as well—questions about what he did, who he did it for, things he couldn’t ask anyone else about, not just because he had no one to discuss things with.
    Mahon was alone, always alone, even when he had his cock buried deep in another man. There was only sex then, not anything that touched that loneliness entrenched in his bones.
    “It’s the way it must be.” He’d said the words so often, they meant nothing. Why did he waste his time with them?
    There’d be no more sitting around letting himself question things. Mahon needed to trust in what he had to do and those who sent him to do it.
    The problem there was, independent thoughts kept seeping in and he was only supposed to think what he’d been taught, do what he was told. It was how he’d lived his life, except for small detours only he knew about.
    “Enough.” Mahon put on a pair of shorts and a tank top, some dock shoes that went okay with the clothes. Mahon checked himself over in the mirror. He looked presentable, though big as always—and hairy. Maybe he should put a T-shirt on instead. No, it wasn’t like he had a hairy back or shoulders. His chest was just kind of pelt-like. Fuck it. People could deal with it.
    With a ball cap and sunglasses on, Mahon was ready to go. He left the RV park in his truck and drove to his favorite restaurant in Uvalde. A small, run-down looking Mexican food place, it had authentic homemade flour tortillas worth slapping a man for. Not that such a thing was necessary. Five bucks got a person a twenty-count bag of the delicious tortillas.
    There were also a lot of people in the place talking about everything. Mahon was fluent in several languages—they just came naturally to him once he spent some time studying them, unlike math, which had always been an issue.
    He listened to the conversations around while he was there and learned that the search party may have found something. There was a lot of excited chatter but no real details. If he was lucky. He’d be able to leave in a couple of days, maybe three, max.
    He didn’t think about what he was supposed to do. It was better for him not to. This job had him questioning his orders when he shouldn’t be. He’d heard nothing about shifters being here, and almost everyone had kind things to say about the Jacek men.
    Mahon laid out some cash on the table for his bill then got up to leave the restaurant just in time to see Bill come stumbling in. The man had all the grace of a drunk goose, and he sounded like one when he laughed. It was awful.
    There was no chance of Bill not seeing him. Indeed, the guy’s face lit up with a huge grin and Bill waved frantically.
    Mahon didn’t want to cause a scene. He also didn’t want someone