“I’m sure I will.” He started for the steps and then turned back. “What time does Crystal’s open?”
“Eight o’clock, senor.”
“Thanks.”
There were five hours before Crystal’s Palace would open. Decker took the time to walk around town, enter some of the shops and get something to eat. Keeping his ears open, he found out several things.
First, Red Moran had managed to get himself appointed sheriff. Old habits die the hardest. He wondered if Moran had plans to rob the bank.
Secondly, many of the townspeople didn’t like Moran, or the woman called Crystal. They resented the fact that they had opened a successful business and were not turning any of their profits over to the town.
Decker didn’t know if he agreed with that. It certainly wouldn’t make a man popular in town, but why should he turn any part of money he’d earned over to the town, unless it was willingly?
Still, the fact that Moran didn’t seem to have many friends in town, and that he was sheriff, started Decker to thinking.
Moran was clean in Mexico, and Decker would have to take him all the way back to the Rio Grande at gunpoint before he could turn him in. If, as he suspected, Moran’s situation in San Louisa was leading to where Decker thought it was leading, he’d soon make the same move here that he had made in all the other towns.
He’d try to rob the bank.
If Decker could catch him in the act, then he’d be able to turn him over to the law here in Mexico and let them provide transportation to the United States.
All he had to do was wait for the itch. And judging from the length of time Moran had been here, and his present situation, he should start feeling it just about now.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Try as he might Red Moran couldn’t reach the itch. It seemed to be right at the center of his back where he couldn’t reach it from any angle.
The Palace wasn’t due to open for a couple of hours yet, and he was in the sitting room alone. He was looking for something to use to scratch it when he saw Gloria come in.
“Gloria,” he called, “come here a minute.”
Gloria was the newest girl in the stable. She had just come to Mexico from the United States. She was blonde and full-figured and she was the first girl Moran felt tempted to try himself. He hadn’t been with another woman since he and Crystal had met, but that had been by choice. Now Gloria was here—younger than Crystal, and obviously eager—and the itch was starting.
“Yes, Red?” she asked. She had made no secret of the fact that she wouldn’t mind warming the boss’s bed.
“I’ve got an itch I can’t reach,” he said, realizing that the statement had two meanings—both of them correct.
“I’ll be happy to help, Red.”
“Right at the center of my back.”
“A little to the right.”
“Maybe if I put my hand under the shirt it would…feel better?”
“Maybe…”
She pulled his shirt out of his pants from behind and slid her hand beneath it. When she touched him it seemed to burn his skin. She ran her fingers across his broad back lovingly and then used her nails to scratch him. As she did so she pushed her crotch up against his buttocks, and he could feel her heat right through their clothes.
“Oh, yeah, that’s the spot,” he said, closing his eyes as she scratched.
Suddenly, her hand was gone and he opened his eyes. Crystal was standing in the entrance to the room, glaring at both of them.
“I was just helping him reach an itch, Miss Crystal,” the girl said.
“I’ll bet you were, Gloria.”
“I have to go upstairs now and…take care of something,” Gloria said. She eased by Crystal carefully and left the room quickly.
“What was that all about?”
“She was telling the truth, Crys. I did have an itch that I couldn’t reach.”
“I’ll bet. And little Gloria was the only one who could reach it, right?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “If you had come in instead of her, you’d be scratching it.”
“Don’t bet on it!” she said frostily, her arms folded in front of her.
“Don’t start acting like a wife, Crystal. We’re not married.”
“That’s right, we’re not; we’re just partners.”
Moran almost pointed out that it was his money that started the Palace, and that he could run it just as well without her, but he thought better of it.
“Look, honey—”
“Don’t ‘honey’ me, Red,” she said, turning around to leave the room, “just don’t ever ‘honey’ me.”
After she left he tucked his shirt back, realizing that he was experiencing more than just two kinds of itch.
Over the past couple of days he was realizing that he was getting the itch to move on. Once he had thought he would be able to settle down in San Louisa, but things had changed. Most of the townspeople disliked him, and he knew that the town council was starting to lean the mayor’s way.
He was tired of being sheriff, tired of living here, and he was even getting tired of Crystal.
It was time to leave.
He figured he’d leave Crystal the Palace, and maybe even some money. She’d be able to make some more in no time. Just as he’d be able to run the place without her, she’d do fine without him.
And then there was the Bank of San Louisa.
Every day that he passed it he thought about going in and robbing it.
Chapter Thirty
That night when Decker entered Crystal’s Palace, he was amazed at how the inside looked. He’d seen fancier places, but for a town like San Louisa, this was pretty fancy.
Already there were men waiting for a free girl, and he was also surprised to notice that there were no drinks being served. Perhaps that would be their next step.
He had not seen Red Moran on the streets of San Louisa the whole time he’d been there. Moran didn’t seem to be taking his duties as sheriff all that seriously. He was sure, however, that he would be seeing the man here, tonight.
“Good evening, sir,” a woman’s voice said.
He turned his head and found himself looking into two of the greenest eyes he’d ever seen. The woman had pale skin and red hair, and a full, firm body fitted into a low-cut green dress. The cleft between her breasts was smooth and creamy.
“Welcome to Crystal’s Palace,” she said. “I am Crystal, your hostess.”
“Thanks for the welcome.”
“This is your first time here, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I should tell you that there is a membership fee before you can enter.”
