The Russian Billionaire’s Secret(154)

“Okay, you know who she is, but do you know how she has been doing the actual matching?”

“No,” Tyson admits, grudgingly.

“And do you know how you can prove that the matchmaker set up my best customer with that hussy from Kentucky?”

“Again, no.”

“Then you need me, or else you would have already blown this whole situation sky high. After all, everyone in the county knows that you have got it in for the matchmaker. Well, I can give you what you need to prove who she is, and can give you what you need to prove that she is the one who set up Dandy.

“And what do you get in return for helping me?”

“Revenge. It’s as simple as that,” Sally answers before throwing the whiskey that Travis had just delivered down her throat. “Another, Travis.”

“Okay then,” Tyson says to her, “what can you tell me?”

“Well, first of all, you say you know who the matchmaker is…who is it?”

“I thought you knew?!”

“I do…I just want to know who you think that it is.”

“Fine. It’s Sandra Ammor, that bitch who works at the train station, sorting the mail.”

“Exactly. And how do you know?”

“That night in McCulloch street, after everybody left, I found…this,” Tyson says, pulling out the black notebook. “It has her name embossed on the cover, and there is information inside showing that she set up her brother with that whore from Atlanta.”

“Okay.”

“I can’t find anything about Dandy, though,” he said.

“Okay.”

“How do you know that she set up Dandy with the hussy from Kentucky?”

“Because she paid me to steal a picture of Dandy. There is only one, and he got it when he was riding shotgun for the rangers years ago. She didn’t say what it was for, but we all know that she’s posting pictures of the men in the county in marriage magazines. Why else would she need the only picture of Dandy, and he magically gets matched two months later?”

“You have a fair point,” Tyson agrees. “Do you have anything about Junior?”

“No, Mr. Abrams…I know about Dandy because she came to me to ask for the picture, and I could only get it because he kept it in his room, here in the Hanged Man. He, of course, brought me into his room regularly…until she showed up. He used to pay me very well too.”

“Are you really hurting for money? You are a whore,” Tyson spits at her, viciously.

“No, I’m not hurting for money, but he was paying me pretty well.”

“Well, I’m sure I can help you out there a little bit.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s go upstairs, and I’ll show you,” he says, completely ignoring the fact that he is a married elder of the church, and he gets up to go upstairs, but only after draining his mug of all beer.

Sally watches him go, and shakes her head. Draining her glass of whiskey once more, she heads upstairs to conduct some business.

Chapter 4

Junior’s Response

Dwight and Pauline Butler are sitting at the dinner table, enjoying their evening meal when they hear hooves approaching from a distance.

“Who could that be, this late?” Dwight says aloud to his new wife.

“I don’t know, baby,” she answers, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Things around the Butler residence have been especially worried since the events in McCulloch Street a few weeks ago. Dwight knows that the elder, Tyson Abrams, is crazy, and whenever he sets his mind to doing something, he pursues it with a vicious focus until it has been done, the consequences be damned. Dwight also knows that Tyson has set his sights on running Pauline out of town on a rail, and he controls a dangerous sect within the church community in Coleman County. If anyone could manage to discredit Dwight and make Pauline leave, it would be Tyson.

For now, however, he is enjoying his honeymoon as best he can, despite the ruckus and craziness in town. Last week, he officially married Pauline, the gorgeous widow from Atlanta. Unfortunately, however, they were unable to share the wonderful moment with anyone other than his sister, Sandra, his daughter, Emily, and Dandy Darby, who witnessed the union   before the Justice of the Peace. This has caused Dwight no small amount of frustration, because there was a large wedding party when he married his deceased first wife, Amanda. He feels that Pauline too is deserving of a huge wedding party, but instead she had to marry him in secret because of the actions and attitudes of one radical hypocrite.

Dwight opens the front door to determine who is approaching, and at once he recognizes the pinto horse that Dandy rides. He steps out onto the front porch of his ancestral home and leans against the roof support, watching Dandy approach.

“What’s going on, Dandy?” Dwight asks the younger man when he comes to a stop. Usually, Dandy would be home to Sarah Anne by now, so it must be important.

“I got a telegram today, ‘Wight. From Junior.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he and Ruth are coming back. He says that he’s going to sort Tyson out so we can live in peace.”

“Do you really think he can stop Abrams?”

“I don’t know, but I know that Tyson has never wanted a fight with Junior. I don’t know why.”