Billy’s share

 

I can tell from their eyes that they are cheating me.

But I picked up the thin pile of bills and stuff them into my pocket, hoping neither one of them wants all I got instead of some, and pull out a revolver to get it from me.

I keep thinking: It’s only money.

Plenty more to get if I can figure out where to look.

And maybe I should keep think like that, but this idea starts bubbling up in my head that I’m forgetting Billly’s share, and like a fool I stop, and ask for it.

Billy’s dead, the mean little man with narrow eyes tells me as he stares up at me from his seat at the table where the rest of the money is stacked.

A dead Billy doesn’t get a share, he says

What about his wife, I ask, and get a look so mean from the other man with a scar for a mouth that I’m sure I’m going to die any minute.

No crook ought to marry, this man says, enough broken widows in the world already.

Besides, the first man says, the haul isn’t big enough to split four ways.

I say five Gs won’t break no bank, but it’ll pay Billy’s widow’s rent for a while until she can get a new man to take care of her.

Billy might have gotten himself killed but he made sure we got our money first.

The man with the scar laughs and said I should leave the widow’s address so he can go take care of her later.

Both scum bags laugh

I try and figure how far across the table I can get before I get a bullet in my chest.

Or whip my own gun out before they get theirs aimed at me.

Never mind, I say and turn, and duck just as their two guns pop and the wall where I would have stood gets puckered with bullets.

My aim is better and I hit scar face in the scar so he drops straight dead.

Then I hit the other one in the chest and head and keep shooting until my magazine is empty and he is most definitely dead.

Somebody somewhere elsewhere in the building stirs.

Somebody will class the police, I think as I make for the door.

I stop. I go back to the table, picking up those bills not covered in blood, stuffing this into my pockets as well. I figure I’ll go see the widow and give her Billy’s share.

I figure, too, she might be grateful enough to let me stay.

 


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