Free Buchanan Says No by Jonas Ward Page B

every night with
    h er. At your place. In your bed." Power smiled. "Don't
    just stand there , man! For crissake, do something about it.”
    It was Ruby that Weston turned to. "You bitch. You cheap, wh o ring bitch." Power pulled him around by the shoulder and hit him in the face with his balled fist. Weston stumbled backward and would have gone down ex cept for the table that braced him.
    " Now d o something else," Power told him. "Do some t h ing to me,"
    Weston shook his head and fear shone i n his face, bl ood began to flow from his lips.
    “ Then I'll tell you what you're going to do," Power s ai d. "You're going to leave Bella, leave it for good. You won't ever come within a hundred miles of this town. Understand all that?"
    Weston nodded, watched dumbly as Power took a folded document from his coat pocket.
    "Something else you're going to do is sign over that ranc h."
    "No ,” Weston said, showing some spark of defiance. " I’ll sell it to you."
    "You sold it to me last night. This is just a formality."
    He unfolded the paper, took it to the writing desk in the corner. "Come on , gambler. Write your lousy name."
    "It's all I have left."
    "You never earned it ,” Power told him harshly. "You inherited it. And you never did a damn thing with it after that. Sign your name, Boyd."
    Weston looked to his wife and she returned the glance impassively. He walked slowly to the desk and Power all but put the pen into his lax fingers.
    "Right there ,” Power said, and Weston scrawled his signature at the bottom of the transfer. "Now get the rest of your things and start riding."
    "I'm beat, Frank ,” he complained. "I haven't eaten for twenty-four hours. I need sleep."
    Power took him by the arm and hustled him across the room. "I said get your things and ride. You're lucky to be getting that much chance." He shoved the other man into the bedroom and waited threateningly in the doorway,
    Weston returned in a few moments wearing his black coat and flat-topped hat. Power dogged him back across the room to the front door. He pulled it open.
    "Stay clear of Bella ,” he said in his crispest voice. "Re member that."
    Weston went out of the room without another word and Power closed the door and locked it. He turned to the woman, his face pleased and arrogant.
    "What's next on the agenda?"
    "You didn't mention last night that you were stealing my ranch ,” Ruby Weston said.
    "That's a funny word to use to me."
    "It wasn't intended to be funny. Are you going to give me the place?"
    "No ,” he said ? "you're going to live here in town. Where the bright lights are."
    "And you?"
    I’l l be in town, too, But I'm also going to stock my new ranch ,”
    “W hat a nice future ,” she said. "For you."
    “ And you, Ruby ,” he told her, "You're in it," He was
    mov ing toward her and his voice grew huskier.
    "No," she said when he would have embraced her.
    "What the hell do you mean, no?"
    “I have the feeling I've been had ,” she said with cold anger. "I don't want to be manhandled on top of it."
    '"This is Frank you're talking to, Ruby ,” he said warn ingly, but her manner only became more aloof.
    "Good-by, Frank," she said. "Call on me when you h ave one of two propositions, A marriage certificate or a
    deed to the ranch with my name on it."
    I'll call on you tonight ,” he said, biting off each wor d. "When you've taken a good long look at the situa tion you're in."
    "My situation is all right ,” she said. "I won't want for anything in this man's town,"
    “ B u t you will," he told her. "Because I'll kill the man who comes near you." He swung on his heel then and stro de out of the room, straight-backed and furious.
    Chapter N ine
    The edginess was still riding Buchanan as he went south from Troy's to where his benefactor waited at the Happy Times . Knocking Mike Sandoe down hadn't been enough, W hat that slippery son needed was the full treatment,
    the chance to carry his arm in a sling for three months a nd learn some