The Old Man's Back in Town by Ann Charles Read Free Book Online

to Buffalo?” I asked.
    “Let’s just say that good ol’ Buff had a little accident.”
    It sounded like he was in the back east corner of the room, near the pool table and old juke box. “If you hurt Buffalo, I’m going to rip off your balls and stuff them down your throat right after I fill you full of hot lead.”
    “I always loved it when you talked dirty to me, baby.”
    I crawled over Brunhilda, slinking toward the other end of the bar, and ran my hand up the wall to where one of the two lights switches was located for my over-the-bar lights. If I were going to shoot, I needed to see where so I didn’t hit Buffalo by accident. Again.
    One of my knees popped as I stood up. Damn it!
    “I can hear you moving, baby, and I saw that shotgun when you snuck in here. Why don’t you just put the gun down and you and I can have us a nice little walk down memory lane.”
    I took a deep breath, aimed the barrel in his direction, and flicked the light switch on.
    There he was behind the pool table, next to the juke box, right where I’d pictured the rotten bastard. I pulled the trigger.
    A boom echoed through the room. Followed by a volley of shots as he ducked behind the pool table, popping up to fire back with what looked like a Glock.
    I squatted on the floor, covering my head when the huge mirror behind me exploded, coating me with glass shards.
    I had to get back behind the bar, take cover. Flicking off the lights again, I scrambled blindly through the darkness in a squat run toward the swinging doors.
    Shots rang out so loud that I couldn’t tell from where they’d come. I heard something whiz by my ear and winced. Wood splintered close by.
    My boot connected with something that felt like a rolled up carpet.
    Brunhilda yipped and barked when I tripped over her.
    Another shot fired, and pain flared through my head just above my ear as I stumbled. My shotgun went off as I fell flat on my back onto the floor, jerking free of my hands in recoil.
    I lay there, staring into the darkness, my ears ringing as I struggled to hear. My head throbbed on the left side like a son of a bitch.
    Something warm pooled in my ear, trickling down my neck. I touched it—too thick and slippery to be alcohol. Blood. It was blood. My blood? That would explain the burning pain on the side of my head. Was I shot?
    I coughed on the gunpowder burning the back of my throat.
    “Montana,” Joel called. His voice sounded miles away, like we stood on opposite ridges. “Montana!”
    Relief made my limbs feel like Jell-O. Thank the heavens, he was still alive.
    “Montana, where are you?”
    I heard footfalls on the wood floor.
    Several more shots were fired.
    “No, Joel!” I screamed. He was going to get himself killed trying to get to me.
    I struggled to my feet, but my head felt like a helium balloon, floating away. I swayed to the left.
    A shot rang out, winging my shoulder, stinging like hell.
    My boots slipped on the blood or peanut shells or both. I teetered to the right, the blackness swirling around me, and fell, that throbbing left side of my skull connecting with something hard on the way down.
    I lay there for several heartbeats, my cheek on the gritty wood floor, pain making me nauseated.
    The front door crashed open.
    Lights flickered on overhead.
    There were several shouts and then the sound of scuffling, wood breaking, grunts and groans.
    A pair of scuffed up cowboy boots filled my vision.
    Then I closed my eyes and let the black Nevada night blow me away.

    Cottontop Flats, Nevada
    December 26th
    Should auld acquaintance be forgot
    And never brought to mind…

    I opened my eyes, blinking in the flickering glow of the light from the television secured to the wall at the end of my hospital bed. Someone needed to change the channel and get that damned depressing song off the boob-tube. It was making the side of my head throb.
    I tried to swallow. Criminy, my mouth was dry. My throat felt like it’d been bored out with a