Skin River by Steven Sidor

Author:Steven Sidor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2011-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

6

Buddy drove five miles over the limit, watching the configurations of headlights in his rearview mirror. Robbie slept in the Caddy’s backseat. They had switched cars at O’Hare, leaving Robbie’s Camaro in the long-term parking lot. If Red tracked them to the airport, he would assume the brothers had caught a flight out of town. He’d make a guess, thinking they would cross a few borders for security. But Buddy was heading back to Gunnar, and it wouldn’t take long for Red to find him there.

Let him come, Buddy thought. We’ll fight, and win or lose in my backyard.

Robbie didn’t want to chance going to his apartment to pack. Their only stop was at a bank, where Robbie emptied his safety deposit box. His savings, plus the cash they’d stolen from Red, which Robbie’s quick count put at a hundred grand and change, would finance a comfortable trip to the other side of the world. Buddy wasn’t going anywhere. Robbie knew only one way to get by, and that was bookmaking. Anywhere in the country, if he started bringing in real money, Red would track him down. Besides that, Robbie was a hometown boy. Getting him to pull up stakes was a pure fantasy.

Buddy turned off the highway every twenty miles or so, checking for a tail. He reached under the passenger seat and felt the pistol grip of the sawed-off. At close range the load of double-aught shot would cut a man in half. But you had better not miss, he told himself.

Buddy wondered what his life would have been if he’d lived straight. Those thoughts led nowhere. They didn’t lead to Margot. He’d gotten to her by taking his own crooked path. He knew he could continue keeping his past a secret from her. Fold up the facts and bury them deep. But where did that leave him down the road? One day they’d fold him up, put him in a box, and throw dirt on it. He’d lie in the ground forever with his bundle of lies. If she pulled through this, then he’d tell her about the way he had lived, the choices and the mistakes. Let her decide if he was worth anything.

Buddy drafted behind a speeding tanker hauling kerosene.

Stars salted the sky. The moon reflected on the Caddy’s waxed hood. Trees were missing from the landscape. Farmers’ fields lay planted on both sides of the highway. Buddy could smell the crops when he slowed for the exit ramps. Along a monotonous stretch of blacktop, he opened his window. Robbie woke up, shifted, and dozed again. Nervous sweat had dried into their clothes. The breeze whistled around inside the Caddy and chased away the stale air surrounding two middle-aged men.

Buddy reached for the radio knobs, tuned in a small college station playing classic jazz. The signal was weak, but he left it there. Slow music. The song faded. The hiss of a cymbal lingered and faded too. A kid’s voice came on. He had a good set of pipes.

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.