“Hey, Justin.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “Been looking for you.”
“You and the whole damn city.” He turned back to his drink and threw it down his throat. “I guess you heard about the bounty.”
“Yeah, I heard.”
“And you’re here to collect.” He laughed bitterly.
I squeezed his shoulder. “Doesn’t have to be hard, you know.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one that’s got to die.”
I glanced at German. He frowned at me and shook his head once like he didn’t know what to make of it. Justin was drunk, that was obvious, but he seemed resigned to his fate. I almost felt bad for the guy.
Except he was worth ten grand dead and it wasn’t like the world would miss a piece of shit like him.
“Fair enough, Justin,” I said softly. “How about you finish that drink then we go outside.”
“How about you just kill me here?” He grunted but threw the whiskey back. “Shit, you know what’s awful about all this? I don’t even got enough cash to afford the good stuff. Just this rotten garbage, you know what I mean? I steal from the Lionettis, right, but I don’t even get away with enough to live on, so I’m fucked. Can’t run, can’t stay, I’m just dead, dead man walking.” He laughed, his words slurred and heavy on his swollen tongue. “What the hell am I gonna do?”
“Come outside,” I said. “That’s all you gotta do, all right? I’ll do the rest. Doesn’t got to be hard on you, Justin.”
He looked up at me, his eyes watery and cold. “Shit, Luke. You were always all right, you know?”
“I’m a professional. Come on, let’s go before this gets any worse.”
He slowly stood up, swaying slightly. He was drunker than I realized. I moved to help him, but he suddenly shoved me hard in the chest, knocking me backwards slightly. It surprised me, which was why it worked at all, but then he was off sprinting across the bar. He made it three steps before German slammed into him from the side, knocking him sideways.
The bar went dead silent. I pulled my gun and held it up pointed at the roof. “All right, it’s fine, everyone, stay calm. My associate and I are going to take this guy outside and you should all keep on going like nothing’s happening, all right?”
“Who the fuck are you?” one of the old locals grunted. “Put the damn gun away. We all know Justin’s a dead sack of shit.”
“Bastards,” Justin said from the floor. German pulled him to his feet and he swayed. “You’re all a bunch of bastards.”
The local guy, a craggy old man in a brown shirt and jeans, spit onto the floor. “We won’t miss you, asshole. You owe me fifty bucks.”
“You owe me twenty,” another guy said.
“Fuck you all,” Justin said, flipping them off, then he tried to run away. This time German grabbed his wrist and yanked it around behind his back. Justin groaned in pain as German shuffled with him toward the door.
“Sorry for the interruption,” I said, waving to everyone. “Enjoy your evening.”
German wrestled Justin out into the rain. I stood in the doorway, glaring at the water. “Where to?” German asked.
“There’s an alley around the corner.” I nodded to the left. “Take him there.”
“God, oh, fucking God,” Justin said. “Please don’t kill me in some filthy alley. I want to die like a man, you know? Take me to the Schuylkill, shoot me in the head, let me drop into the water.”
“Shut up,” German said, applying more pressure.
Justin gasped in pain as German dragged him along. I followed them, annoyed at this situation, but pleased we caught Justin before anyone else. The alley wasn’t far and Justin didn’t put up much of a fight, especially not when he realized German was like a pit bull on steroids, while he was an old, washed-up, drunk asshole worth way more dead than alive.
I held my gun pointed down at the ground as German shoved Justin up against the wall. The alley was narrow with a dumpster toward one end and trash strewn on the ground. Puddles formed with strange, sticky liquids floating on their surface. I sighed and faced Justin as he cowered away from me.
“You got anything to say?” I asked. “Last words?”
“Tell my daughter I’m sorry.” He stared up at the cloudy, rain-strewn sky. “I wasn’t a good father, but I tried.”
“Didn’t know you had a daughter.” I held the gun up and pressed his against his head.
“She’s nice. Not like her old man.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Deserved better than me, but ah, well. That’s how it goes. Tell her I said sorry and I love her, and that she’d better get out of town.”
“I’ll do that.” I pulled the trigger.
Justin’s head exploded against the wall. Gore and blood splattered the brick and he crumpled down to the ground. Thunder rumbled in the sky and I snorted once, grinning slightly as I shoved the gun away and wiped blood from my hands. Even God didn’t seem to mind if this fucking asshole got killed.