Page 94 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“I reckon you better stop talkin’ before I decide to shoot you in the nuts instead of the head,” Grady said.
Tom blanched and lowered his hands. “You can’t be serious. Over that whore?”
Grady could feel Cole behind him, standing at the door and listening.
“What’d you pay him?” Grady asked.
Tom raised both eyebrows, balking at the question before he even answered. “What do you mean what’d I pay him?”
“You be callin’ him a whore. Whores be gettin’ paid, last time I checked. So, what’d you pay him?”
“It wasn’t that kinda deal, Grady,” Tom shook his head like Grady was an errant child in this scenario, or some old man on the land who just didn’t get it. “We made a deal. Young Jesse knew the score—”
“So.” Grady recrossed his legs and spat again. Then he looked back at Tom. Head on. “What you’re sayin’ is you struck a deal with a minor for sex.”
“It wasn’t—”
“Have you met my ex-wife?”
“What?”
“My ex-wife. She’s lawyerin’ in the city. I called her up on account of you.”
“Now, Grady, I think that there boy’s been fillin’ your head with his bullshit. He’s good at that, real fuckin’ good. He ain’t just a whore.” Tom looked fit to bursting now, and here was the insufferable prick Grady had always known lurked not too far from the surface with this one. “He’s got a real colorful imagination. You take my meaning?”
“What I take, Tom, is you lookin’ at a long stretch inside, gettin’ your ass pounded in the showers.” Grady looked over his shoulder. “You got my gun there, Cole?”
Cole came out, and Grady was pleased to see his face set and his fury on full display.
“Here you go,” Cole said as he handed it over. “I done loaded it for you.”
Tom put his hands back up, and Grady checked the barrel. Locked and loaded, all right.
“Hold up, now just fuckin’ hold up,” Tom was saying.
Grady lifted the shotgun and pointed it right at the center of Tom’s head.
“Whaddya reckon, Cole?” Grady asked.
“I reckon he’s a rapist fuckin’ piece of shit who sells young boys so he can make money outta useless cunts who don’t know no better!”
Grady looked at Cole from the side without moving the gun or his line of sight from his target.
“Good to hear you finally openin’ up,” Grady said.
Cole laughed, surprised. “Ah, fuck off.”
Grady nodded and looked back at Tom. “Your call, Cole.”
His finger pressed down on the trigger as he listened to Cole’s breaths moving in and out of his chest beside him. Tom’s eyes flicked from the gun to Cole, lips parted like he was about to speak, but nothing was coming out. Grady applied some more pressure on the trigger, just waiting for the word, his eye tracking a drop of sweat trickling down Tom’s forehead.
“He ain’t worth it,” Cole said.
Tom looked between them, so genuinely panicked, Grady thought he might piss himself.
“I dunno, I reckon I’d like to take the shot.”
“Tell him! Tell him, Jesse! Tell him it wasn’t all like that!” Tom shrieked.
