"Jacquelyn Hooper - Home On The Range" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hooper Jacquelyn)

"But it don't hurt your aim any, does it?"

Paladin stared at her, his eyes narrowed to thin slits. Rae returned the stare.
Her mouth was twisted into something not quite a smile, not quite a leer.

"I'm tired of your smart mouth." Paladin cradled his altered barrel under his
arm, then walked through the trees. "I'm calling Ev."

"Like hell you are."

When he was sure Paladin had gone, Chris walked over to Rae. She was putting the
shotgun back together with the new barrel. He watched her, standing as close to
her as he could without getting in her way. She had a weirdly intoxicating
smell, a combination of musk, electricity and gun oil.

She finished the gun, and turned toward him. "You know better."

"Do I?" He took the shotgun, and laid it against her workstand. He put his hands
on her hips.

"He'll be right back. Ev lets him squeal, then reminds him of my service
record." She moved close to him, blowing lightly in his ear. "That man hates
that I know what I'm doing."

"You got a long record. That'll count for some time."

They kissed. Chris had always managed to move their relationship along, stealing
the seconds they had together and making them count. It was painstaking work
that required all his concentration to set up. Sleeping with Rae would not mean
ending weeks of frustration on the New river Territory job.

It would be the end of years of frustration. Paladin had bought him as a virgin.
To do the job right, he'd said, he had to stay that way. Natives ate up purity
like you wouldn't believe.

The sound of crickets in the clearing became dead silence.

Chris and Rae parted from their embrace. Paladin was standing calmly next to the
control box, drinking from a flask in one hand, and rubbing a chunk of
magnetized metal over the atmostat with another.
Chris sighed. "I'm sorry. Next stop?"

"Maybe." She picked up the shotgun, aimed, and fired it above Paladin's head.
Shot broke tree branches, bringing a rain of water and leaves down on Paladin
and the control box.

"Are you out of your mind?" Paladin asked. He brushed himself free of rain and
twigs.