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trigger it, if needed. “You boy’s sure seem to be having a good time over there. Why don’t you let me in on the joke?” Both men turned to face Jess.
“Hell kid, you are the joke!” the larger of the two men said.
“Really? Me? Why, whatever do you mean?” Jess asked innocently.
“Hell,” the larger man spoke again, “Carter’s put up three thousand dollars on your head. Shit, my maggotriddled grandma would crawl her ugly ass out of her grave and back-shoot you to collect that kind of money. If that ain’t enough, there’s a few men in town who would shoot you just for your reputation and then there’s about a dozen more getting paid to shoot you and the first one to do it still gets the three thousand dollars of bounty on top of that. Now, I don’t know about you, Mister, but I find that funny. You’re going to be lucky to live till tomorrow.”
Jess took another sip of his beer and purposely took a minute before he replied, and when he did, he used his left hand to cock both barrels of the shotgun and looked straight into the eyes of the two men. “I have a question for the both of you. Do either of you want to try to collect that money?”
Everyone in the room stiffened. Jess figured that there was not a man alive that liked the sound of a 12-gauge scattergun being cocked and they liked it even less when it was being pointed in their direction. The two men certainly didn’t like it and the look on both of their faces told Jess everything he needed to know. They didn’t want any part of this. One of the two men who were sitting at the table slammed his glass down on the table. Not because he was done with it, and not because he wanted the bartender’s attention, he did it to attract Jess’ attention. Jess had been watching both of them out of the corner of his eyes. They didn’t want to be left out of this deal. After all, three thousand dollars was a whole lot of money just to kill one man.
“I know you two are there,” said Jess not even looking directly at them, which was somewhat of an insult in itself, “and if you want in, that’s entirely up to you.”
One of the two men sitting at the table stood up. The other man stayed in his seat. He was quiet and never looked up at Jess. Jess knew that this man was the more dangerous of the two and the one he had to worry about if he threw in. The way a man acted spoke the loudest and always said more than mere words ever could. “Just because you’re Jess Williams you think you can take four men at once?”
“The only thing better than killing two assholes in a saloon, is killing four assholes in a saloon at the same time. And, by the way, it wouldn’t be the first time.”
Jess could see the nervousness heighten in the two men at the bar. They could see that Jess was as calm as ever and they didn’t want any part of this no matter how much money it paid. They had heard of Jess’ reputation and while they weren’t the smartest two men in town, they were smart enough to know that dead men couldn’t spend money. Andy had his double-barrel cocked under the bar. He would throw in with Jess if it came to that.
“We ain’t having anything to do with this, Mister. You can count us out. We’ll be leaving town soon as we finish our beers.” Two men out, Jess thought to himself.
That left the two men at the table. The one was still standing and the other one, who was still seated, was now looking up at Jess. He seemed a little agitated at Jess’ remarks. “Mister, did you just call me an asshole?” he asked.
Jess took a drink of his beer and turned to face them directly. He let go of the shotgun on the bar. “I guess I did. However, if you’re not trying to collect the blood money on my head, then maybe I’m wrong.”
The man slowly stood up. This man was a gunslinger for sure. He had a six-gun in a low cut holster and tied down tight. Jess could sense this man was a killer. He spoke real quiet and sounded sure of himself. He was a confident