Bounty on a Baron Read Free Page A

you’ve forgotten your promise of three years ago.”
    “Promise?” Rigger said, frowning. He was still upright in bed, stark naked, and the woman on the floor was gathering all the bedclothes around her—but not quickly enough to keep Decker from seeing all she had to show.
    “I haven’t forgotten,” Decker stated simply.
    Rigger thought a moment, then said, “Oh, that!” and smiled for the first time. “You don’t mean to say that you think I’m still angry over that. Come on, Deck. Put up the gun and we’ll have a drink and talk about old times.”
    “Not until I have your gun, Joe.”
    Rigger frowned. “You’re serious?” he asked.
    “Dead serious.”
    Rigger, whose face always held a deceptively placid look, even just before he killed, shrugged and said, “Well, all right, then.”
    He started to reach for the gun and Decker said, “Not you, Joe! The woman.”
    Rigger looked at Decker and said, “What is it, Deck? I know you’re not afraid of me.”
    “I have a healthy respect for you, Joe. I always have. I know what you can do with a gun.”
    Rigger withdrew his hand and said, “All right. Felicia, give the man my gun.”
    The woman on the floor—a busty brunette in her late twenties—said, “Joe, I ain’t got any clothes on.”
    “Come on now, Felicia, don’t be shy,” Joe Rigger said. “Decker’s an old friend of mine.”
    “A friend?” she said in disbelief.
    “Sure, from way back. Besides, it’s not like he didn’t already see all there is to see. Come on, sweet. Give the man my gun.”
    The girl stared at Rigger, then at Decker, then shrugged and stood up, dropping the bedclothes. Her breasts were full and her nipples dark. Her slim waist contrasted with her rounded hips. She moved slowly, almost seductively, around the bed, as if enjoying the fact that both men’s eyes were on her.
    Or was that what Rigger had in mind?
    As she started to slide the gun from the holster Decker said, “Bring the whole thing.”
    Obeying, she slid the holster from the bedpost and turned to him with it. Had he allowed her to approach him, with his eyes firmly fixed on her body, Rigger could easily have leaped from the bed onto him.
    “Put it on that table over there,” Decker ordered, pointing away from himself.
    She paused, then nodded and obeyed, walking away from him, but not so far that he couldn’t keep his eyes on both her and Rigger.
    “Now you can leave,” Decker told her.
    She looked at Rigger, who nodded and said, “Go ahead, Felicia.”
    “Like this?” she demanded, horrified at the prospect.
    Decker allowed her to dress, and then she moved quickly to the door.
    “Do you want her to bring reinforcements, Joe?” Decker asked as she paused with her hand on the knob.
    “Yes,” Rigger said, then smiled and added, “a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.” He looked directly at the woman and said, “And that’s all, Felicia.”
    She nodded and left.
    “Can I get dressed now?” Rigger asked.
    “Sure, Joe,” Decker said, holstering his gun.
    Rigger stood up and dressed, except for his boots.
    “We can go into the next room. It’s my…office.”
    “Lead the way.”
    “I’ve got some guns in there, but I don’t intend to go for any of ’em. As far as I’m concerned,” he said, leading the way, “this is a visit between two friends.”
    “You’ve got a funny way of remembering things, Joe.”
    In Rigger’s office there was a desk with two chairs—one behind, one in front—and a divan against one wall. Rigger sat behind his desk, and Decker took the chair in front.
    “If this is not a friendly visit, Decker, then why are you here? It’s not really that old threat, is it?”
    “Threats to kill a man don’t die of old age, Joe.”
    “Well, this one did. Only it died a young death, Decker. I decided not long after our last meeting that it was stupid of me to have threatened you.”
    “I never got word of that.”
    Rigger laughed.
    “I never thought you took me