Vanilla Ride Read online

  I lay there trying to sleep, my head turned, looking first at the dim outline of the photograph Brett had framed of me and Leonard and Cindy the Bear. It was on the nightstand. I rolled over and looked out the window. The moon had turned nearly full and it was very bright out and the light came through and fell onto the carpet and onto the end of the bed. I felt funny about that light, like if I stretched my foot out, it would move away. It was as if something inside of me had shifted and gone deep inside of myself, into the shadows, and no matter where I sat, stood, or lay, no light would, or ever could, shine on me.

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Joe R. Lansdale has written more than a dozen novels in the suspense, horror, and Western genres. He has also edited several anthologies. He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, seven Bram Stoker Awards, and the 2001 Edgar Award for best novel from the Mystery Writers of America. In 2007 he won the Grand Master Award at the World Horror Convention. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, with his family.

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK

  PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Copyright © 2009 by Joe R. Lansdale

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  www.aaknopf.com

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Lansdale, Joe R., [date]

  Vanilla Ride : a Hap and Leonard novel / by Joe R. Lansdale.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  “This is a Borzoi book.”

  eISBN: 978-0-307-27229-4

  1. Collins, Hap (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Pine, Leonard

  (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. African American men—Fiction.

  4. Drug dealers—Fiction. 5. Mafia—Fiction. 6. Texas—Fiction.

  7. Adventure fiction. I. Title.

  PS3562.A557V36 2009

  813′.54—dc22 2009008821

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  v3.0