Nest of Vipers (9781101613283) Read Online Free Page A

use some help driving these Bramers up, can’t we, Julio?”
    Julio frowned. “I would rather go to Denver and make five hundred dollars,” he said.
    â€œJoe, go get your horse,” Brad said. “We’ll see how good you are at driving cattle.”
    Blaine laughed.
    â€œI’m better with horses,” he said. “But, I’m ready to try my hand at wrangling cattle.”
    Fifteen minutes later, Julio was leading the roped cow while Brad and Joe drove the bull and other cow through the sunlit town and headed for the road to Brad’s ranch.
    It seemed to Brad that Julio was jerking on the rope more than was necessary.
    Five hundred dollars was a lot of money, not only to Julio but to him as well.
    But, with Harry Pendergast, it would be blood money. And a bribe was a bribe, no matter who was paying it out.

FIVE
    The sun rose in the sky and was near its zenith when Julio rode into the valley. Caesar looked around as he followed the other cow. He swung his head from side to side as he surveyed the pasture with its lush carpet of emerald grass shining in the golden rays of the sun. His stance and attitude were aggressive, but he saw no enemy, no bull to challenge him.
    Brad looked toward the house and the corral. He stiffened in the saddle when he saw that the corral was empty and the gate open.
    The door of the house was open, too, and there was no smoke rising from the chimney.
    â€œWhere do you want these cows?” Julio asked.
    â€œJust let ’em graze,” Brad said. “They won’t go far.”
    â€œNice spread,” Blaine said. “That your house yonder?”
    Brad didn’t answer. He felt a crawling sensation on his back, and his stomach filled with a swarm of winged insects. He glanced over at the barn and the bunkhouse, then saw the silent cabin where Julio lived with his wife, Pilar.
    Something was wrong. The air still held its morning chill as the breeze blew down from the snow-capped mountains high on the skyline beyond the valley.
    Julio rode up to the head of the cow and slipped the rope from around its neck. Caesar and the two cows began to graze.
    â€œBoy, Brad’s sure in a hurry to see his wife,” Blaine said.
    Julio looked in Brad’s direction. A look of puzzlement etched itself in the lines of his face. He saw the empty corral, the open gate.
    Then he looked toward his own cabin. It was beyond the barn and bunkhouse. Pilar should have opened the door and come out, but the door was closed. The door to Brad’s house was open, but Felicity was nowhere to be seen.
    â€œI think he has a worry,” Julio said. “It is too quiet and there are no horses in the corral.”
    Julio turned his horse and galloped toward his log cabin.
    Blaine sat his horse, bewildered. Then he put spurs to its flanks and rode toward Brad’s log house. Something was surely amiss. He braced himself for whatever unknown events were yet to come.
    Brad swung out of the saddle before his horse, Ginger, had come to a full stop. He hit the ground at a run and dashed through the open door of his home.
    He stepped inside to glimpse an unimaginable horror. Coals glowed a pulsating orange-red in the fireplace. On the floor lay Felicity, sprawled on her back, a gaping wound in her neck. Brad rushed over to her and kneeled next to her naked body. He touched her bleached face and it was cold to his fingers. Tears welled up in his eyes and his body drained of energy as it went limp, as if all the muscles had suddenly vanished so that his body had become weak and useless.
    He sobbed as he lifted her head to his chest and pressed her cold white face against his chest. A darkness flooded his brain as he rocked back and forth, squeezing his wife’s lifeless body against his own as if he could infuse it with life.
    â€œOh, Felicity,” he whispered. “What have they done to you?”
    Blaine stood in the doorway, blocking the light. He saw Brad