Elmore Leonard: Valdez Is Coming

But he’s not looking at himself, Valdez was thinking, and it isn’t an easy thing to raise and fire a Colt at someone. So he jabbed at Tanner saying, “See if your gun is as good as mine. What do you think of something like that? You and I, that’s all, uh? What do you need anybody else for?”

Tanner stood stiffly, no part of him moving.

“Let me say it to you this way,” Valdez said. “You give me money for the Lipan woman whose husband was killed or you use the gun. One or the other, right now. Make up your mind.”

Tanner’s hand tightened on the Colt and his thumb lifted to the hammer. He could feel the move he would make and he was looking squarely at Valdez twenty feet away from him, looking at him dead center where the cartridge belt crossed his chest. The moment was there, now , but his gaze flickered to the stubby barrel of the Remington and lingered there and the moment was past. His thumb came off the hammer.

“Not today,” Tanner said. “Another time.”

Valdez shook his head slowly. “No, that was your time. You get one time, mister, to prove who you are.”

“I should have killed you three days ago,” Tanner said. “I should have killed you, but I let you go.”

“No” – the segundo started past him toward the horses, pausing to take the Colt from Tanner’s hand – “three days ago you should have started for Mexico.”

“Or paid the Lipan woman,” Valdez said. “It wouldn’t have cost you so much.”