This Side of Night by J. Todd Scott

Author:J. Todd Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

HE ORDERED ANOTHER ROUND of beers for everyone except himself.

He kept talking fast, while he still had them under his thumb.

“It’s a nobody, a no one. No one is going to care. We clip him and we’re done.” Johnnie had heard the word “clip” on one of Zam’s TV shows and used it all the time now.

“Someone cares plenty, otherwise they wouldn’t be asking us to do this. And it’s not Terrell, Juanito. We’re going to have to travel,” Chavez said, but not as forcefully as he’d complained before.

“Fuck,” Ringo said, shrugging. “We’re only driving up the road. It’s just Murfee.”

“Right,” Johnnie added. “Just Murfee. And hell, we’re cops. We got every reason to be wherever we want to be.”

“Tell that to that Sheriff Cherry over there. Or to that deputy, Danny what’s-his-name,” Chavez said. “He’s a prick. You have history with him, right?”

Johnnie nodded. “We had a dustup, but it was nothing. He didn’t like something I said about some girl.”

“Let me get him in my sights,” Ringo said, faking a gun with his fingers and pointing it right between Johnnie’s eyes. “I fucking owe him, too.”

“Okay, I got it. We all got it,” Johnnie said. “But we’re not going to see Danny Fuck-off or any of the rest of ’em. We’re in and out before anyone knows we’re there.” But Johnnie honestly didn’t know how things were going to play out, had no fucking idea at all.

“You’re going to get it all squared away, right?” Ortiz asked, looking back and forth at everyone across the table. He asked it as if Johnnie could give him a sort of guarantee, as if he could promise that it would rain tomorrow.

Fuck it, fine.

“Right as rain.”

“What do you know about the . . . mark?” Roman asked. Since Rae had finished her set, his attention was now fully back on the table.

“Like I said, he’s a nothing, a nobody,” Johnnie lied, although the others had to know that wasn’t exactly true. Their mark had to be somebody, for all the effort. “He crossed our Indian friends or fucked up and failed ’em, and now they just want him taken care of. They can’t get any of their own shooters across the border right now to do it, so it’s gotta be us. If he’s even hidin’ out on this side.”

“What about your daddy?” Roman asked, leaning back in his chair, somehow flexing his arms at the same time. All those pills he’d popped had turned him into one big son of a bitch, and Johnnie wondered if he chewed up some Viagra, too, before throwing it to Rae all night when Johnnie was home playing husband to Zam and daddy to Johnnie Jr. and Antonio. Johnnie also couldn’t help wondering if Roman fucked Rae in that amazing ass, and the thought made his head hurt.

The veins popped in Roman’s neck, and he wasn’t stuttering so much anymore. He sure was fucking talkative now that Rae was off the stage.

Johnnie always thought Chavez would be the first to cross him, but maybe he had it wrong.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.