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Jacket.
Why was he wearing a jacket? It was summertime in Texas. And that’s when I noticed the sweat on his brow and—
“Gun!” I cried out as he pulled a pistol from his pocket and swung it toward South Paw. I lunged for Mia to try and protect her, knocking her to the ground in the process. South Paw leapt from his stool and reached into his leather cut for his weapon.
But it was too late. The gunman already had a draw on him, and with a single shot a small hole appeared on South Paw’s forehead, and the back of his head exploded.
His body slumped to the floor.
Customers screamed, drowning out Louis Armstrong’s warbling voice on the jukebox.
Pandemonium ensued.
We were sitting ducks with no weapon to wield.
The gunman pivoted to face us.
He pointed his gun directly at Mia and then—
Bang!
Half of the gunman’s skull blew apart as he was shot from behind.
His lifeless corpse collapsed against the bar and then he slid down and fell to the floor.
Viper lowered his pistol but didn’t put it away.
I whirled to look at Mia. Her arm was bloody, and a broken bottle lay next to her on the ground.
“You’re okay,” I said to her. “Viper got him.”
Nodding, she scrambled up from her spot. “South Paw,” she murmured.
I grabbed a clean rag and handed it to her so she could put it on her arm and then I ran around the bar to South Paw, but it was already over. He was lying on his back, his glazed eyes open with a small hole in his forehead and a pool of blood on the ground beneath his skull.
“No…” I whispered as I kneeled next to him. I touched his shoulder and gave him a futile shake, but South Paw didn’t stir.
“Sutton, are you okay?” Viper asked. When I didn’t reply, he snapped, “Answer me!”
I couldn’t find the words, so I shook my head.
“Mia?”
“I’m okay. A bottle broke when I fell. My arm is cut,” she said as she came to crouch next to me. Mia reached out and covered South Paw’s eyes. When she withdrew her hand, his eyes were closed. Almost like he was sleeping.
Only he wasn’t sleeping.
He’d never wake again.
Not an hour earlier, he’d been standing upright, cracking jokes, enjoying a night off with his whole life ahead of him.
Now he was dead.
Mia grasped my hand in hers, linking her fingers through mine in a silent show of solidarity and comfort.
“What a Wonderful World” came to an end on the jukebox, and it fell silent.
I couldn’t stop staring at South Paw.
