Read Online Her Cowboy Avenger by Kerry Connor - Free Book Online

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    E IGHT YEARS AGO THERE’D ONLY been one bar in town. Matt had no trouble finding it on the edge of town just off the main street. There were no vehicles in the parking lot when he pulled in. It wasn’t even five o’clock, he realized. Maybe too early to expect anyone to be here.
    Sure enough, the place was almost empty except for one man seated—more like slumped over—at the bar, and one standing behind it. The seated man didn’t react to Matt’s entrance, though the bartender looked up. He appeared to be in his forties. Matt didn’t recognize him, which might not mean much. If he was hoping people wouldn’t remember him, there was a good chance he wouldn’t remember everyone he’d met in Western Bluff eight years ago. Still, something told him he didn’t know this man.
    With a nod, Matt walked up to the bar and slid onto a stool. “Afternoon.”
    “Afternoon,” the bartender said simply. “What can I get you?”
    “A beer’d be good. Whatever you have on tap.”
    With a nod, the bartender moved away. The man certainly wasn’t overly friendly, something that wasn’t going to help Matt with his mission. He was going to have to hope tipping well would open the man up. Reaching for his wallet, he pulled out a twenty.
    “You new around here?”
    It wasn’t the bartender who’d spoken, but the man seated a couple stools down from Matt. Matt glanced over at him, taking in the way he was hunched over the bar, the unsteadiness of his gaze. It may be early, but the man had clearly already had a few. Just as clearly he was in the mood to talk. Matt wasn’t about to rebuff the friendliest greeting he’d gotten yet in this town.
    “Yes, I am,” Matt said easily. “Just got in today.”
    “And leavin’ today, too, I reckon,” the man cackled, laughing at his own apparent joke.
    “What makes you say that?” Matt asked.
    “Not much to see around here. Why would anybody stick around?”
    “Looks like I’ll be here for a while, actually. Just took a job. The Weston Ranch.”
    Out of the corner of his eye, Matt saw the bartender, who’d started back with his beer, suddenly stop. The drunk’s eyebrows shot upward. He stared blearily at Matt for a few long seconds before reaching for his own drink.
    “Might not be around as long as you think,” the man said into his glass.
    “Why’s that?”
    The bartender dropped Matt’s beer down on the counter in front of him so hard some of it sloshed over the sides of the glass. He made no move to wipe it up. “Woman you’re working for’s probably going to be in jail soon.”
    Matt met the man’s steady gaze and returned it. He had no intention of being intimidated by the bartender any more than he had been by the deputy. The sooner word got out that he wasn’t going to be a pushover, the better.
    But the longer he held the man’s eyes, the more Matt registered that what he saw in them wasn’t anger or hostility. Just a cold matter-of-factness that somehow was even more disturbing.
    If that was the man’s attitude toward Elena, Matt really didn’t feel like throwing a big tip his way. Not to mention he had the feeling now that not even a tip could get the bartender to open up. His new friend a couple stools down, on the other hand, seemed like someone he’d like to keep talking.
    Matt set the twenty down on the bar. “Bring my friend here another,” he said, nodding to the other man.
    His lips thinning, the bartender took the bill and moved away again.
    “Why, thank you,” the drunk said, tipping his almost empty glass in Matt’s direction. “Name’s Roy Fuller.”
    “Matt Alvarez.”
    “See, Ben,” Fuller said to the bartender. “He’s not a bad sort. Besides, he’s new. Might not even know about Bobby.”
    “If you mean the murder, I know,” Matt said. “I met a local deputy. He tried to scare me off.”
    The drunk nodded so hard Matt almost expected his head to pop off his neck. “That’d be Travis. He and Bobby were tight. Always