“That’s my business. All you have to know is once you do this me, you, and your dumb-ass boyfriend are square.”

“It wasn’t our fault…”

“We’ve been over that already. I don’t care.”

“It’s not fair!”

“Is it fair you didn’t deliver what I paid for? We’ve been over this already.”

“They have cameras. What good is it being square if I’m in a prison for the rest of my life?”

“You’ll be alive. It doesn’t matter anyway—you’re not going to prison. I’m going to disable the cameras. There is no reason on earth for anyone to connect you and that asshole behind the counter. Random murders don’t get solved.”

“Are you sure there isn’t another way?”

“Yeah.”

“I just don’t know if I can kill somebody.”

“Then you should have stayed out of the crime business. You can’t go into a dirty business and expect to come out clean. It’s part of the game. No one made you play.”

She could dispute that. She hadn’t exactly chosen to be a sex worker, which is what ultimately led her to this place, but she knew he wouldn’t care.

“I’m not going to ask again. Trust me, he’s got it coming.”

She swallowed hard; he could tell she was thinking about turning the .22 caliber revolver he gave her on him. He tapped the pistol he was carrying on his leg, a much bigger S&W .40 with an extended magazine, to let her know if she decided to start shooting, he was going to shoot back. At this range, the extra bullets and firepower wouldn’t matter once he got off the first shot, but she wouldn’t really be thinking about that as she looked at the big gun.

She got out of the car and put the gun in her purse. He followed, sticking his own pistol in his belt and covering it with his shirt. The two of them walked into Big Time Booze and Brews. She was supposed to walk straight to the counter but veered off and picked up a bottle of tequila.

The guy behind the counter looked up. She stopped when she recognized him.

He recognized her too.

“This isn’t some chance meeting, is it?” he asked her.

She wanted to say yes, just play it off, even though they both knew Big Booze and Brews was in the wrong neighborhood for her, but she was too slow. By the time she formed the words, it was already too late. He knew she hadn’t just walked in to buy a bottle of tequila.

“You need to get the fuck out of here,” he told her.

She went for the gun in her purse.

He went for the gun under the counter.

She was faster, but her bullet took out a bottle of Angel Tears whiskey while his hit her in the chest. She took out another bottle of top-shelf bourbon, and he put another bullet in her chest. He fired twice more as she fell, taking out the window in the front instead of her.

Even though she was on the ground, he was aiming to shoot her again when he saw the other man in the corner of his eye.

He was turning to tell him the girl on the floor was going to kill him when he saw another person he knew, and the S&W aimed his way. There was another exchange of gunfire. This time the man behind the counter put his shots into the inventory while taking a slug to the head.

The man with the S&W only needed one shot; taking a hollow point bullet to the temple wasn’t something a person got back up from. He fired a few more rounds anyway, putting a bullet in the dead man’s shoulder, another in his face, and a few more at random spots around the store. He wanted it to look like a shoot-out between a bunch of squirrely amateurs and the single shot to the head screamed professional.

Even though he thought such things were beneath him, he emptied all the cash out of the register. He also took the gun from the man behind the counter. If he were a low rent thief, he would most definitely steal the gun, another S&W .40, though without the extended magazine.

He took the girl’s gun and purse too. She had a death grip on the pistol, and she was clutching it really tight, so it took some twisting. She grabbing the tequila actually worked out. It made her look like an innocent bystander who got caught in the crossfire. He went to the back and pulled the hard drive from the security system.

It hadn’t gone exactly as planned. He hadn’t figured his old partner would be so quick on the draw, but it had worked out well enough. All the people he wanted dead were dead.