“I’ll remember that,” Eli said after a long and thoughtful pause.
“Well. Good-bye,” I said, and closed my eyes. I didn’t hear anything. I opened them. He was still there.
“It was great,” Eli said, looking directly at me. “You’re unforgettable.”
Then he left.
By the time I returned home, two days later, the bullet holes in the Antelope dining room were all patched up. The gunnies had been buried. Prince Vladimir’s body had gotten to whatever funeral service Eli and his brothers and sisters had cobbled together. It was all over.
I was frail for a while. This was a square hit with a bullet, and you pay for those. No matter where the hit may pierce. I took to taking long walks into the country around Segundo Mexia. I rented a horse, and I rode, too. I could afford to rest up, for the first time in my life.
My mother spotted a few white hairs on her head, and she had a fit. Jackson laughed. Mom decided to blame me and Jackson agreed with her.
After two months I got a letter from Felicia. It was in this lovely handwriting, and I could tell it had been rewritten at someone else’s direction. Maybe Eli’s, maybe a teacher’s.
Dear Lizbeth,
It is very grand here. I have four dresses and no pants. I wear different shoes every day. Already once I have given blood to the tsar, may his name be blessed. A privilege I have not earned, but my cousin Franklin got sick, so it was my turn. I was very brave. It made the tsar feel much better. I go to school every day and now you can see I read and write. I am the only Mexican here. It would be nice if you could come to see me.
Your sister,
Felicia Karkarov
I smiled sometimes when I read it, and other times I frowned. It seemed silly and almost outrageous to think of making that long journey, a journey that would cost me a lot of money. I had the money at the moment, but I had to live, and I still didn’t have a job with another crew. I’d heard there was one forming up in nearby Celeste, by a newcomer named George Ramsey. Maybe I’d go see him.
I was getting that restless feeling, and I was tired of admiring my refrigerator.
Acknowledgments
My thanks to Taylor Anderson, weapons expert and expert writer, for his advice and time on guns, and to my Patrick, for his gentle corrections, too. Daniel Hale gave me help with the French dialogue—thanks, Dan! As always, my agent, Joshua Bilmes, and the staff of JABberwocky have given me all the support and guidance a literary agency can give, as have Debbie Deuble-Hill, Steve Fisher, and Kyle Loftus at APA, my book-to-TV and movie team, on the West Coast. My assistant and friend, Paula Woldan; my web maven Dawn Fratini; and my Twitter expert, Presley Bumgarner, have been constants in helping me. There are many more people I could and should thank—like Toni LP Kelner, aka Leigh Perry, and Dana Cameron, my friends and beta readers—but I have to leave someone for the next book.
About the Author
Photo copyright © Sigrid Estrada Photography
#1 New York Times bestseller CHARLAINE HARRIS was born in Mississippi and lives in southern Arkansas with her husband, daughter and three dogs. Their sons are out of the nest. She’s written four series and two stand-alone novels in addition to numerous short stories and a novella or two. Her Sookie Stackhouse books have appeared in twenty-five different languages and on many best-seller lists. They’re also the basis of the HBO series True Blood. Visit her at charlaineharris.com.
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ALSO BY CHARLAINE HARRIS
A Novel of Midnight, Texas series
Midnight Crossroad
Day Shift
Night Shift
A Sookie Stackhouse Novel series
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone
Dead in the Family
Dead Reckoning
Deadlocked
Dead Ever After
A Touch of Dead
After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse
The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion
Dead but Not Forgotten: Stories from the World of Sookie Stackhouse
(edited with Toni L. P. Kelner)
Anthologies edited with Toni L. P. Kelner
Many Bloody Returns
Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
Death’s Excellent Vacation
Home Improvement: Undead Edition
An Apple for the Creature
Games Creatures Play
An Aurora Teagarden Mystery series
Real Murders
A Bone to Pick
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
The Julius House
Dead Over Heels
A Fool and His Honey
Last Scene Alive
Poppy Done to Death
All the Little Liars
Sleep Like a Baby
A Lily Bard Mystery series
Shakespeare’s Landlord
Shakespeare’s Champion
Shakespeare’s Trollop
Shakespeare’s Counselor
Harper Connolly Mysteries
Grave Sight
Grave Surprise
An Ice Cold Grave
Grave Secret
Sweet and Deadly
A Secret Rage
Crimes by Moonlight: Mysterious from the Dark Side
(edited by Charlaine Harris)
Graphic Novels
Grave Sight Parts 1–3
The Cemetery Girl Trilogy
(with Christopher Golden)
Cemetery Girl: Book One: The Pretenders
Cemetery Girl: Book Two: Inheritance
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2018 by Charlaine Harris Schulz
Portions of this book were previously published within the anthology Unfettered II published by Grim Oak Press, in the short story “The Gunnie” copyright © 2016 by Charlaline Harris Schulz
Jacket illustration copyright © 2018 by Colin Anderson
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ISBN 978-1-4814-9492-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4814-9494-6 (eBook)
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Acknowledgments
Also By by Charlaine Harris
About the Author
Copyright