Stop Angel! (A Frank Angel Western Book 8) by Frederick H. Christian Read Free Book Online Page B

matter of fact,’ Nix said urbanely. He selected a cigar
from the humidor that Yat Sen had brought into the room on
noiseless feet. He rolled it between his fingers, listening to the
crackle of the leaves. He sniffed it, and then nodded, giving it
back to Yat Sen, who trimmed it with a gold cigar-cutter and then
came around the table to perform the same service for Angel. The
cigars were fine Havanas, and the smoke curled lazily toward the
brilliant lights in the still air.
    ‘ So
that’s where you went to ground,’ Angel mused aloud. Nix
smiled.
    ‘ You’re
perspicacious, Angel. I’ll tell you the rest to save you guessing.
Old Tom Stacey—Victoria’s father—was not only the man who saved my
life. He was the very foundation of my fortune.’
    ‘ You had
nothing,’ Angel pointed out. ‘How come?’
    ‘ Good
management. Good fortune. And a little manipulation.’
    ‘ You
stole it.’
    ‘ Oh,
come, let’s not be crude, my dear fellow. I prefer to think of it
as long-term forward credit.’ Nix smiled like a man pleased with a
turn of phrase.
    ‘ Like I
said,’ Angel repeated. ‘You stole it. What did you do, sell dud
bonds?’
    ‘ You’re
quite close to the truth, actually,’ Nix admitted, leaning back in
his chair and stretching expansively. ‘But it wasn’t quite so
blatant. I really am not the blatant type, you know.’
    ‘ You
know what I said about rats,’ Angel reminded him, and was rewarded
by a quick flare of anger in the yellow eyes. But it lasted only a
moment, and Nix smiled his self-satisfied smile again.
    ‘ My dear
Angel, I know you are not a stupid man. You will oblige me by not
pretending to be obtuse. Do you wish to hear the story or
not?’
    ‘ Go
ahead. I’ve got no place to go at the moment.’
    ‘ I like
that “at the moment”,’ Nix purred, ‘but let it pass. So: the story.
Actually, it was almost childishly easy. I went to live with the
Staceys when I was well again.’
    ‘ Well?
You were sick?’
    ‘ I was
sick, all right,’ Nix snarled. ‘I had to cross half of Texas on the
dodge, Angel! I had to fight off a bunch of Comanches who put a
hole in my arm that caused this—’ He raised his iron hand and
slammed it down on the table, making the coffee cups jangle. ‘I was
three-quarters dead of hunger and thirst and loss of blood. If it
hadn’t been for Victoria finding me, getting help, I’d be dead
now.’
    ‘ No way
she could have known that,’ Angel said, sardonically. ‘I won’t hold
it against her.’
    ‘ Ah,
yes,’ Nix said, relaxing, smiling like a skull. ‘I remember you had
a penchant for mordant humor. That’s as well, for you’ll be in need
of it ere long.’
    ‘ You
were saying how sick you were,’ Angel said, impatiently.
    ‘ Yes,’
Nix hissed. ‘I was ill. But I pulled through. Do you know how I
pulled through?’
    ‘ Because
you’re such a wonderful human being?’
    ‘ Because
I wanted revenge, Angel!’ Nix said, ignoring the other man’s shaft.
‘I wanted revenge! I swore as I lay dying that I would survive,
that I would pull through. I wanted to live so that one day I would
be able to kill you!’
    ‘ Join
the club,’ Angel said. ‘There’s a lot of members.’
    ‘ I don’t
doubt that,’ Nix said, drawing in a deep breath. The angry light in
his eyes faded again, and Angel again noted the big man’s iron
control. ‘At any rate, I discovered that Tom Stacey was a poor
enough rancher and an even worse businessman. He was one of the
directors of a cattleman’s bank in Waco, and it was going to the
dogs. I soon showed him where he was going wrong, and how to put it
right. He was—grateful.’
    Angel nodded. Nix had obviously
chosen to forget that as Ernie Hecatt he had been a liar and a
cheat and a thief. He was proud of having helped to set the little
cattleman’s bank on its feet—no doubt so that he could rob it the
better. Not for the first time, Angel marveled at the capacity of
the human race to delude itself.