Texas Outlaw (Rory Yates #2) - James Patterson Page 0,91

a school bus could drive through. The wood-paneled walls are lined with animal mounts—a bear, an elk, a lion taken on an African safari—that Carson killed when he was younger and still interested in hunting.

“What about Mom?” Gareth asks.

“Just how glad I am that she’s gone,” he says and smiles widely.

Carson has a bottle of scotch and a tumbler with two fingers in it. He pulls another glass out of a desk drawer and offers Gareth a drink. By way of answer, Gareth takes the empty glass and spits tobacco juice into it.

He doesn’t drink, doesn’t use drugs. Shooting is his drug. Especially when a person is in the crosshairs.

There is no high that compares to killing a human being.

“What’s that noise?” Carson says, annoyed.

Gareth doesn’t know what he’s talking about but then realizes it’s a phone buzzing. He checks his own pocket and finds that his phone is the one ringing.

“Who the hell is calling at this hour?” Carson says.

Gareth looks at the screen and sees that it’s a Waco number.

Yates.

Gareth answers and says, “Did you decide to turn yourself in?”

The other end of the phone is quiet, and for a moment Gareth thinks there’s no one there. Then Yates speaks.

“I let you win,” he says.

“What?”

“Not with the rifles,” Rory says. “You won that fair and square. Of course, you and I both know that contest was rigged because I hadn’t had time to sight the gun for my eyes.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Yates?”

“But with the pistols,” Rory says, acting as if he wasn’t interrupted, “I threw the game. I let you win.”

“Bullshit,” Gareth says, his stomach turning to acid.

He’s remotely aware of his father staring at him.

“You’re pretty good,” Rory says. “I’ll give you that. But you’re nowhere in my league. Not with a pistol anyway. Especially not in a real gunfight.”

Gareth’s heart is racing. He wants to reach through the phone and tear that arrogant asshole’s throat out.

“You think ’cause you shot a couple of guys in a bank robbery that you know what it’s like to kill?” Gareth says. “I’ve killed more…”

Gareth stops himself. He doesn’t want to admit to all the murders he’s committed, so many more than the twelve confirmed during his time in the army.

“You ever stood face-to-face with a man holding a gun?” Rory says. “Ever shot anyone who had any real chance of fighting back?”

He hates to admit to himself that he hasn’t. His army kills were all long-range sniper shots. Skip Barnes was, too. He also killed Rio Lobo’s former police chief, making way for Harris to take over, but he’d hit him in the head with a rock and drowned the old man in the river. And all their old employees, the ones who were told they would be bought out, to start over somewhere else, he’d slashed their throats while they slept and buried their bodies out among the pump jacks.

Sure, he’s killed a lot more people than Rory Yates has.

But not one of them knew what was coming.

Not one of them had any chance of shooting back.

“I’m happy to make you the first,” Gareth snarls into his phone.

“Good,” Rory says, “because I’m calling you out. No beer bottles this time. You and me, face-to-face. Two cowboys with two pistols. Nothing else. An old-fashioned showdown. A duel—to the death.”

Chapter 94

“IS YOUR FATHER with you?” Rory asks.

“Yes.”

“Put me on speakerphone.”

Gareth does, setting the phone on top of his father’s desk so both of them can hear.

“How much faith do you have in your son taking me down?” Rory asks.

“All the faith in the world,” Carson answers, grinning.

“Okay, then here are my conditions.”

Rory says that he’ll show up to the ranch two hours after sunrise. He and Gareth will have a duel. Winner takes all. If Gareth kills Rory, then it’s over, the McCormacks have won. But if Rory wins, Carson has to give his word that he’ll surrender. Turn his operation over.

“This used to happen on ancient battlefields,” Rory says. “Instead of two armies massacring each other, they sent in their best warriors—knights, samurais, whatever—to decide the outcome.”

“The difference,” Carson says, “is that you don’t have an army.”

“Not true,” Rory says. “I’ve got a bigger army than yours. I’ve got the whole Texas Ranger Division. And behind them I’ve got the DEA and the FBI and Homeland Security. They’re not here yet, but they’ll be coming if you’re not careful. You might be able to stop me before I can bring them all in, but then