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Cardiff was silent and unmoving as if he could feel the energy change in the air.
His black-haired friend had moved toward the window, fear turning his face a dark shade of red. “This ain’t got shit to do with me, man.”
“Who are you?”
Jack was dead, and I knew Cardiff and Butch, which meant one man was missing.
“The name is Rizzo. Mark Rizzo, but everyone calls me Rizz.”
“And Richard, where is he?” He had to be here somewhere.
“Behind you, asshole.” His words came first, followed by the press of cold metal to the nape of my neck. “You want to die, or you wanna get the fuck out of here?”
I smiled. “That’s your first mistake. Dick.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” Amusement colored his voice.
“You talk too fucking much.” Wannabe tough guys always did.
He pressed the gun into my neck, trying to push me forward, but I didn’t budge. “Tough talk from the guy with a gun to his head.”
“And that’s your second problem.” I took a step forward and turned on my back foot as I pulled the gun from my back holster, pressing the barrel right between his eyes.
“Don’t tell a man what you plan to do. That shit’s only in movies.” Then without hesitation, I pulled the trigger, and the still warm blood splattered on my face a moment before his body collapsed to the floor.
“Oh shit, what the fuck! What the fuck, man?” Rizz trembled with fear and disbelief.
Butch took a step forward, and Virgil made his presence known. “Take another step and join your friend in hell.”
Butch froze mid-step and nodded.
Cardiff folded his arms and grunted his disapproval. “You’ve made your point.”
I laughed. “I haven’t even started making my point.” I looked at each of the men still standing and grinned. “Butch is the reason for this. I want you all to remember that. Okay?”
Rizz nodded first, sending a hard glare at his friend. Cardiff nodded reluctantly, and Butch notched his chin high in defiance. “That bitch is the reason for this.”
I nodded and turned back to Cardiff. “That makes this easier for all of us, I think.”
“What?”
“What happens next, obviously.” I hadn’t fully decided what I would do until this moment. “Dick is dead, so he’s not an option. One of you will get to survive the day, and it won’t be Butch.”
“Now wait just a goddamn minute,” Butch protested but didn’t dare move with Virgil right behind him, big, imposing, and deadly.
“I need one of you,” I began and aimed my gun at Cardiff and then Rizz, “to go to the police and tell them you shot my mother. With a half-decent lawyer, you’ll get charged with aggravated assault, do a few years and live out the rest of your years in peace.”
It was a generous offer, I thought.
“Fuck that,” Cardiff snorted. “Butch can do it; he’s the reason we’re here.”
I shook my head and smacked my lips, and took a step toward him, tapping his temple with my gun.
“You don’t listen too fucking well, do you? Butch is as good as dead already.”
I nodded to Virgil, and he reached behind him to the old school stereo and turned the music back up. When he was done, he pressed his gun to the back of Butch’s head and pulled the trigger.
“Oh shit, man!” Rizz was in the middle of a full-blown freak-out.
I kept my attention on Cardiff, even though I already knew how this would play out. “Well?”
He shrugged as if none of this mattered to him, as if seeing two of his men killed didn’t matter to him. “Mitchum is the one who beat your whore up. Kill him and get the fuck outta my house.”
“Ah, but you see, Mitchum is not an option either. He’s already dead.”
“I’ll do it,” Rizz shouted. “I’ll fucking do it. You want me to go to the cops and say I shot your mama, right? You ain’t gonna kill me after?”
I shook my head. “No. Consider this a favor for letting you live.”
Rizz nodded, hands shaking and eyes full of fear. “Okay, I’ll do it. Today.”
Satisfied with the answer, I nodded. “You have until five o’clock, or I’ll find you and everyone you give a fuck about and put a bullet in them. Got it?”
“Yeah, man, I got it. Crystal clear.”
I turned my gaze back to Cardiff. His shoulders sank in relief. “You should have stepped up sooner.”
He smiled. “You got what you came for.”
“Not quite,” I told him and pulled the trigger. More warm blood sprayed across my face, and I turned to Virgil. “Now I got what I came for.
“Five o’clock, Rizz.”
Virgil came to my side, and we walked out of the small house and into the desert sunshine.
“Your face is covered in blood. That’s the kind of shit people remember.”
We slipped into the dark green sedan waiting across the street, and Virgil started the engine. “Wipes are in the glove department.”
