Texas Outlaw (Rory Yates #2) - James Patterson Page 0,92

again, maybe you can’t. Do you want to take that risk? Or would you rather gamble on your son to end this once and for all?”

Carson is quiet for a moment. Gareth mouths the words, Do it.

“What about Ariana?” Carson says.

Rory changes the tone of his voice. “You didn’t find her body?” he asks.

Carson and Gareth look at each other but say nothing.

“She took a bullet while we were running away,” Rory says. “I stayed with her until she stopped breathing, but then I had to leave her behind. Your men were all over the area. I thought they would find her.”

“Who got her?” Gareth asks. “Me or one of my guys?”

“I don’t know,” Rory says. “But I blame you. That’s why I’m doing this. I want you to pay. I just need your daddy to give me his word that he won’t gun me down afterward.”

“You have my word,” Carson says. “A duel. Winner takes all.”

“I’ll see you two hours after sunrise,” Rory says and hangs up.

Gareth and his father stand in his office, grinning like hyenas.

Gareth says, “I’m going to kill that son of a—”

“Yes,” Carson says, interrupting him, “you are, but not in any stupid duel.”

Gareth glares at his father.

“I want you on that tower,” Carson says, pointing at the darkness on the other side of the window. “When he shows up, I want you to put a bullet through his brain. You got it?”

“I can take this guy,” Gareth says, his voice furious. “I’m not afraid of him.”

“This isn’t the fucking Wild West, Son,” Carson snaps. “I’m not risking my whole operation on some dick-measuring contest between you and that Texas Ranger.”

Gareth opens his mouth to argue, but Carson cuts him off. “You’ll still get to kill him, Gareth. Just my way. Not his. He doesn’t get to make the rules.”

Gareth seethes.

Carson says that at first light he wants Gareth to walk out to the derrick and get into position. At the same time, he’ll send out some teams into the open space to see if Yates was telling the truth about Ariana Delgado.

“I’m not sure that son of a bitch wasn’t bluffing,” Carson says. “This might be some trick. If he doesn’t show and we can’t find Delgado, it’s time to pack all the merchandise and get ready for a raid. We’ll haul out what we can, burn what we can’t.”

Gareth says that he doesn’t believe Rory was lying. “He’s a fugitive who aided and abetted a known felon,” Gareth says. “He knows this is his only option. If he could call in the Rangers, he would have done it already.”

Carson argues that what Gareth says would be true if the other Ranger was still alive. But if one Ranger has gone rogue and the other has gone missing, more Rangers will come. Which means the McCormacks need to resolve this today.

And the only way they can is by bringing the bodies of Yates and Delgado in on a platter.

“I still think I could take him in a shoot-out,” Gareth says.

“Look at it this way,” Carson tells his son. “Put the first bullet in his kneecap. And then put one in his balls. Torture him a little. Have fun with it. If you face off with pistols, you’ll have to kill him too quick. I’d like to see the bastard begging for mercy, wouldn’t you?”

As much as Gareth wants to prove his mettle against the Texas Ranger in a one-on-one duel, he likes even more the sound of making him suffer.

Chapter 95

WHEN I HANG up the phone, I check my battery and see that it’s almost dead.

I take a deep breath and look out at the stars, which feel incredibly close this high off the ground. It feels like I’m floating in outer space.

I’m not.

I’m sitting on top of the oil derrick overlooking McCormack’s property.

I spent most of the night walking through the green growth alongside the river with only the moon and the sound of the water to guide me. When I arrived at the derrick, sweaty and tired, I climbed to the top as quietly as I could. Through the blackness, I can see a few lights at what I assume is the ranch house. But otherwise, the whole landscape is dark.

When I proposed my plan to Ariana, I felt certain of two things.

First, I could bait Gareth into agreeing to the duel.

Second, his father would break his word. He would send Gareth out to the derrick to kill me from up here.