Read Online Southern Men: Ballad of a Texas Rose by Carla Kane - Free Book Online

his hand to shake hers.
    ‘Thank you, your honor,’ Clara said, holding his strong hand a little longer than was appropriate, a private moment passing between them.
    ‘You better get out there,’ he said, nodding towards the doors, ‘the people need their hero.’
    Clara smiled and turned to face the onslaught of reporters. She wasn’t a hero, just someone who’d been in the right place at the right time.
    After the press conference, Mary and the rest of the Prudence people invited Clara to dinner with them. They’d booked out a whole Steakhouse and they wouldn’t take no for answer. Suddenly Clara felt very tired, all the work she’d put into the case building up on her, but she knew there wouldn’t be an excuse good enough in the whole world for the people of Prudence so she agreed to follow them there.
    The atmosphere in the restaurant was great, after all, most of the diners had just found out they were about to become rich after spending their whole lives in poverty, fighting a case that had started with their grandparents, for some of them. It was quite a thing to behold.
    Not long after dinner, Clara excused herself without much fuss and slipped away. She’d always wondered what it would be like to be a hero but really now that she was experiencing it she’d discovered that it wasn’t for her. She just wanted to be treated like anybody else. But to the people of Prudence she was an archangel now. They were even talking about erecting a statue. That was the last thing Clara wanted.
    She’d had a couple of glasses of wine at dinner (they’d insisted) so she took a cab back to her apartment across town. It was dark by the time she got there and she slipped the key in the downstairs lock and then made her way up the stairwell towards her fifth-floor apartment. As she stepped towards her door, she realized that something wasn’t quite right. The door was already open.
    Maybe she’d left it that way this morning? It wasn’t exactly unheard of and she had been in a rush. It was possible, but something still didn’t feel right about it.
    Clara pushed the door open as quietly as she could, shivering at the eerie creak it made as it moved inward. Inside her apartment was dark. She pricked her ears but there wasn’t a sound to be heard. It was almost too quiet. She stepped inside.
    Her bedroom door was open and though the lights were off she could see as she passed that it was pretty much as she’d left it that morning. She pushed open the living room door and looked around. It was empty. Or so she thought.
    She turned on the light and immediately heard the sound of a gun cocking. Ace Cooper stepped out of the shadows.
    ‘You little bitch,’ he hissed, his voice consumed now with evil and hatred, ‘why couldn’t you just mind your own business?’
    Clara froze in shock and stared at him. She couldn’t believe her eyes. ‘Ace,’ she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice, ‘listen to me. Think very carefully what you’re doing here. You were in trouble before but if you do anything crazy now, you will actually go to prison. Maybe for the rest of your life.’
    ‘You think I give a shit about that?’ Ace demanded, ‘I ain’t got no life anymore anyway. You took that from me. They’re forcing me off the company. I’m going to have to pay those fines out of my own damn pocket. I’ll be ruined.’
    Clara stared at him, the guy had obviously flipped. All she could think of to do now was try keep calm and somehow talk him back to rationality.
    ‘Think about what you’re doing here Ace,’ Clara said, ‘think about how much worse things could get. Think about what this will do to your son.’
    ‘Shut up!’ Ace barked and motioned for her to sit down. ‘Now the way I see it, you owe me. The lawyers I have ain’t worth a shit, so I want you to tell me how to turn this thing around. And then I’m going to kill you.’
    Clara felt very cold all of a sudden. The man was insane. All she