"William W Johnstone - Ashes 30 - Tyranny in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

named Billy Bob was always spouting. She sighed. It was time to take
matters into her own hands before it was too late and Otis Warner and
his crowd screwed everything up beyond repair.

"Okay, Bettye Jean. You go on back to your dishwashing and I'll go out
back and ask him myself."

" 'Member now, don't go sayin' nothin' 'bout that Oster-man woman, or
you'll git a beatin'."

Claire's lips curled in a sneer. "Oh, I think Billy Bob's beating days
are over."

She left the kitchen, Bettye Jean staring at her back with a worried
look on her face. Claire went down the hallway to the Holts' bedroom and
opened the closet door. Leaning in a corner was a double-barreled
shotgun. Bettye Jean had told her Billy Bob always kept it loaded with
00-buckshot.

Claire picked it up, broke open the barrel, and checked the loads. Both
barrels full. She clicked it shut, put it over her shoulder, and headed
out back to where the hogs and chickens were.

"Here, chick, chick, chick," Billy Bob was saying as he scattered a few
meager handfuls of grain for the hens. A bucket of slops was next to his
feet, intended for the rather skinny hog in a makeshift pen a few yards
away.

"Billy Bob," Claire called to his back. "I need a ride down the road to
the gas station. I need to make a phone call."

Without turning around, he answered, "I ain't got gas to waste on you
and yore foolishness, woman. Now git back to the house and hep Bettye
Jean with her chores."

Claire's face flushed in anger. No one had talked like that to her in
ten years, and she wasn't about to let this inbred idiot do it now.
"I don't think so, Billy Bob," she said in a low, dangerous voice.

"You sassin' me, woman?" he said as he turned around, eyes widening as
he saw the long-barreled shotgun cradled in her arms.

17

"What you doin' with my scattergun?" he asked.

"Thanking you for your hospitality, you dumb son of a bitch," she said,
her eyes sparkling with excitement as she pulled the trigger.

The shotgun exploded, twisting her half around as the heavy load blew