Page 9 (1/2)

Chapter One

White Bear Lake, Minnesota, 1925

The steady tick of bugs hitting thethe streetla away the seconds Patience had never been one of Ty Bradshaw’s best virtues, not even when his life had depended on it during long stays in trenches overseas A product of the Selective Service Act, he’d been one of the ten thousand soldiers shipped to France each day courtesy of the US aro Unlike many other twenty-year-olds back then, he’d come home alive

Because he was lucky

That’s what he was counting on now Luck His experience using a ht come in handy, too That was up in the air He hadn’t needed to use a gun since he’d returned, and as far as he’d discovered, Roger Nightingale didn’t approve of gunfire at his resort, but the gangsters Nightingale associated with didn’t care where they burned powder They’d pu He knew that firsthand

Maybe he did have ave himself credit for He’d waited five years for this chance

Then again, e

Headlights turned the corner, and deep in the shadows, Ty stood stock-still Waiting Watching His s with the rush of blood flowing through his veins like an underground spring

The car slowed and pulled up to the curb, and Ty let loose a portion of his grin as the headlights lost their glow The long, sleek touring car put his Model T, the cheapest and most popular one Henry Ford ever made, to sha his of his plan into place, Ty’s pulse hitched up one ine went silent

Roger Nightingale had arrived A legal bootlegger—if there was such a thing—Nightingale was the man behind most of the alcohol in the upper Midwest Yet, in Ty’s eyes, “The Night” was a sh pillow The real McCoy Ray Bodine Ty had followed the trail Bodine had left of bottoero, and now to St Paul

With federal agents on his tail, Bodine had escaped New York by faking his own death Using an alias, he’d o the past year via front ents, and now they’d moved into St Paul—the headwater of the whiskey trade The vast northern woods and endless aysbooze—na’s dream, and Bodine wanted that more than a drunk wanted his next prescription The mob boss would have plenty of competition here, and not just from Ty Mobsters from all over had ties to St Paul, and alale Ty had coveted that infor down Bodine is what he was here to do, and he didn’t care who he had to put the screws to in order for that to happen

Palooka George’s birthday was co list of friends, and enesters far and ould attend the birthday bash Ty would be there, too, coh water

The Cadillac’s driver’s door opened—a red phaeton with four doors and a fold-down black roof New The red paint still had a showrooht cast fro streetlamp

A foot appeared, and a second one, covered with black patent leather shining as brightly as the paint on the car

With heels

Ty was still taking note of that hat e his lips to wash aside the histle itching to let loose A fine pair of legs Shapely, and covered in sheer silk stockings He bit down on his bottom lip as the woman completely exited the car The he way for plenty to be adaze roaood amount of air just to keep that whistle contained

Woular basis, but sa he didn’t ale was one classy dame The real cat’s meow