Free Lone Star 01 by Wesley Ellis

could be gained? The man was gone, and had gotten nothing except an eyeful and a scare.
    Discarding the wrapper, she slid the flowing nightgown down over her head, and discovered that it was a size smaller than her figure demanded. She smoothed it out as best she could, the fabric like a lover’s clasp, squeezing her breasts and pressing around her thighs and buttocks. She continued trying to stretch the gown looser, as she stood in front of the wardrobe mirror, brushing her damp hair and pinning it up so she could sleep on it.
    Eventually satisfied, Jessica blew out the oil lamp on the bureau and climbed into bed. She was asleep the instant her head hit the pillow.
    She was awakened by Ki.
    She felt his presence at first and, opening her eyes, saw him moving through the connecting doorway into her darkened room, wearing only his jeans, his bare feet noiseless on the floor. When she sat up, still foggy with sleep, he put a finger to his lips as a signal for absolute silence, and pointed at the window with his other hand.
    Jessica froze, breathless. For an agonizing moment she heard nothing, and she realized it was probably sometime between three and five in the morning, in that predawn stillness when most everybody is sleeping their soundest, and those awake are at their most relaxed. And when Ki was at his most alert.
    Then, from below the window, against the side of the building, came a slight scraping noise and a soft squeak of stressed wood. Ki was beside the window now, poised motionless, staring intently at the drawn blind like a cat watching a mousehole. Gently, Jessica rose, slipping from the covers and easing over to the other side of the window. Ki gestured for her to back away, but before she could, the sash creaked slowly higher and the blind began to quiver.
    A hand raised the bottom edge of the blind. Whoever was out there then stuck his other hand underneath, gripping two dynamite sticks tied together, fuses sparking and hissing.
    Ki pounced. He grabbed hold of those two hands by their wrists and thrust them back out the window, leaning way out before letting go with a final shove. The dynamite went with them, and so did the blind, ripping off its roller to flap out like a flying tail.
    A startled howl, which had begun at the height of the window, was swiftly falling away and down. Jessica, peering out the window with Ki, saw a tall spindly ladder teetering in an arc away from the hotel wall, its legs firmly rooted in the alley below. The hunching silhouette of a man was perched on its top rungs, clinging helplessly as he was catapulted backwards toward the sheriff’s stone office.
    The ladder struck the edge of the building, toward the rear of the structure where the jail cells would be. The man was flung onto the roof, his howl cut off as the dynamite detonated with a terrific, brilliant flash. The hotel quivered, glass shattering, while down across the alley, the rear quarter of the sheriff’s office hurtled out, stone, beams, and masonry cycloning up and about in a blinding white cloud. The roof collapsed in the hole the explosion had punched, fire blossoming through the wreckage.
    By the suddenly sprouting incandescence, Jessica saw Deputy Oakes stumble out the front door, wearing long red underwear and nothing else. Other doors and windows were opening, the street swirling in a confusion of shouting men and women both dashing about, cursing and questioning, gaping at the ruined building that was now being consumed by hungry flames.
    Ki turned, surveying Jessica. “Are you all right?”
    She nodded, though she was still shaky, still dazzled by the glare, her head whirling from the concussion of the blast. “Somebody doesn’t like us,” she said, smiling weakly. “I can’t imagine who.”
    â€œAnd he knew where to find us. If I hadn’t been lucky enough to hear that ladder brushing up against the wall, he would’ve succeeded,” Ki added, slamming the