The Day of the Guns Read Online Free PDF Page B

of her hips into thighs and calves of startling proportions, so that you could lose one important second of life.
    I knew she couldn’t see me, but I let her hear where I was.
    I thumbed back the hammer of the gun and it was the loudest sound in the room.
    “Here I am, Rondine.”
    She knew what I was holding. “Do I get it here, Tiger?”
    “Maybe. It depends on how much you’ve sweated.”
    Rondine walked toward me, her hand feeling for the furniture. She hadn’t adjusted her eyes to the darkness yet and it took a minute before she found a chair. Even in the dark, she sat down, crossed her legs with a graceful sweep that would have shown the whiteness of her thigh had the light been on, and in the dark I grinned, remembering that Cal had fallen for that same skin and had died for it.
    “I think an explanation is in order,” she said.
    “Forget it, kid. The past is the past.”
    “But ...”
    “No buts. So you laid a couple in my belly. You knocked off a friend of mine and I tally it up to my own damn mistakes for letting you live when you were an enemy. No soap, kid, no explanations. I can understand the past. I hate, I pick up the pieces and wait my time out. Now it’s here. You are as close to dying as you’ve ever been and you might make it.”
    “Tiger ...”
    “Shut up, doll,” I said gently. “It’s no time to explain. You have something going for you and before I knock you off I want to expose the whole bit. Then you go. Don’t even talk to me. The last time you did I wound up sleeping in a shot-up sack. Your boys really came at me.” 35
    “You asked for it. You endangered ...”
    “Your situation? Why, sure, honey, that’s what I’m here for.”
    “Tiger”
    “I said shut up. It’s my night to talk. Before, you always tried the great kiss and the roll in the hay to quiet me down, but no more, Rondine. How many times have I had you ... or was it me who was had? Twenty? We were great together. Lovers who could love in the middle of a war. Love conquers all, we said. Great, just great.
    “Everything went on the line for you, honey,” I said. “Integrity, life ... the works. I saved your ass and you tried to kill mine. For twenty years I’ve had it in the back of my head. All this time I thought you were dead, now it’s fine to see you alive. Now I can take you right. No bed, no kiss, no talk is going to take you out of this one. First I bust up your play, whatever it is, then I take you. I’m a pro, kid, all the way. I’ve been practicing for a long time and it’s my game right down the alley.”
    “Please ...”
    “Knock it off.”
    She could see me now, the rod in my hand and the expression on my face. There was nothing she could do and knew it. Very slowly she uncrossed her legs and sat there with her hands folded in her lap.
    I said, “Send the boys for me. I’d like that. The next time I won’t wait to have them prove a point. I’ll put them down one by one and you’ll be the last, the big one. Now get out of here.”
    She knew there was no use talking. She stood up slowly, looked at me, walked to the door and turned as if she were going to say something and thought better of it, then opened it, went out and it closed behind her.
    It was a hell of a date. I let the hammer down on the .45 and put it away.

Chapter 6
    I had laid out the trot lines, baited the hooks and now I had to wait. Somewhere people would be meeting and policy set. Action plans would be formulated with me as the target and the second-guessing would be going on. In that great cluster of buildings there would be worried people because they had to step on a snake or get bitten and couldn’t afford to lose.
    So I waited for two days, knowing nothing would happen yet because whatever was done had to be done deliberately and carefully and things like that took time.
    At nine in the morning on the second day a call came from the lobby that a Mr. Toomey was there to see me and I invited him up after he gave the