At the end of a bloody trail, Johnny Redd finds an incredible secret. While struggling with a bullet in his chest, he crawls along the ground until he finds himself surrounded by a maze of quaint carnival tarps. Inside is a world of color, costumes, false hair, nails, eyelashes -- and a man who dresses like a woman. It’s a world of trickery, deception, and lies. Johnny makes it just inside the tent when his strength fails and he faints dead away. When he awakes, he’s reminded of the bizarre reality that surrounds him. It’s that he learns he has been taken care of by a man – er. woman -- by the name of Frenchy Starr. The name rolls from the tongue of this fallen angel, this princess of darkness, this twilight queen. She’s a mystery, a dangerously beautiful mystery, and Johnny slowly becomes ensnared in the trap which she sets. After one night of incredible love, a jealous fan shoots Frenchy. Thinking her dead, Johnny’s heart is broken and he leaves in search of something to fill the hole she left in his heart. Enter Kit Dalton.

Carnival Cowboy

“Stop right there, Reno,” the sheriff growled. “Johnny’s under my protection. You can’t touch him.”


Reno looked first at Johnny, and then the sheriff. “Then it was all a lie? You don’t have a wire?”


“Oh, I got a wire all right, but I gave the proposition to Johnny. He wouldn’t take it because he was convinced that you wouldn’t rat on him. I had to prove to him that under the right circumstances you’d rat on your own fuckin’ mother. Now that I proved that, Johnny is ready to testify.” He looked over at Johnny. “Ain’t you, Johnny?”


“I’ll get you for this, Johnny. Why the hell couldn’t you stay dead?”


“I’m glad I found out what you’re really made of, Reno. The sheriff was right. You’re a dirty coward all the way through.”


“You just stay out of my way from now on, Johnny Redd.”


“Stop making threats you can’t stand behind,” the sheriff said as he jerked Reno around while he put him in handcuffs. “You’re goin’ to the gallows, you and your whole gang.”


Chapter 19