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man and that made him a very dangerous man. “I guess that makes me an asshole then, but I’ll be one with half of three thousand dollars.”
“No, you’ll be one with half of nothing,” Jess replied.
“How do you figure that?”
“Because you’ll be dead.”
“You sound awfully sure of yourself for such a young punk.”
“You’re about to find out if you plan on pulling that pistol.”
“You planning on using that double-barrel you got there?” asked the man who had stood up first.
Jess glanced at the shotgun. He knew that Andy had cocked his double-barrel. He had heard him cock it while he was talking with the other two men who were still standing at the bar. “No, I only use that when I’m dealing with four assholes. For two assholes I only need this,” Jess replied as he motioned his head down towards his pistol. “So, which one of you want to be first?”
Jess hardly had gotten the words out of his mouth when both men went for their guns almost simultaneously. The one on Jess’s right, the second man to stand up, was faster and Jess hit him with the first shot, square in the middle of the chest. He dropped to the floor. Jess fanned the second shot, which found the other mans stomach not more than a fraction of a second later. He stumbled backward and sat himself down in a chair, his gun dropping to the floor.
“You son of a bitch!” he yelled, “you gut shot me! I swear I’m gonna kill you for that!” Jess cocked his head slightly and smiled at the man. Then he stepped forward and picked up the man’s gun. “You’re going to need this, aren’t you?”
Jess handed the gun back to him. The man was literally dumb founded by this. Jess walked a few steps backward from the man and slowly put his pistol back in its holster. Andy and the two men at the bar were watching this but they couldn’t believe what Jess was doing. Andy raised the shotgun up above the bar just in case.
“Well,” Jess said, “I guess all you have to do is cock that hammer back and shoot me. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?” The man’s eyes went wild.
“You son of a bitch!” The man yelled as he pulled the hammer back to shoot Jess. He never got to pull the trigger. He never even heard the gunshot that killed him. Jess fanned the shot and hit the man right between the eyes. The man’s brains sprayed over onto the next table behind him and then he fell backwards in the chair, dead as the floor he landed on.
“Holy shit!” One of the two men at the bar said. “It’s time to get the hell out of this town.” The two men hurried out of the bar and headed for the livery. They got their horses and rode out but not before they told a few men about what they had just witnessed. Jess walked back to the bar and Andy got him a fresh beer.
“Well, that ought to slow them down a bit, now that they know you won’t hesitate. Those two were pretty good gunslingers. It won’t be more than an hour and everyone in town will know what happened.”
“That’s the plan, Andy,” replied Jess as he took a long sip of beer. “That’s the plan.”

Chapter Three
T
    HE TWO MEN WHO HAD BEEN watching Jess from across the street had seen some of what had taken place in the saloon. They had
    been thinking about trying to collect the blood money on Jess, but now they had some serious reservations about it. The other two men, who had left the saloon after witnessing the gunfight between Jess and the two men at the table, stopped and talked to them on the way out of town. The two men who had been watching from across the street headed for the livery and mounted their horses. When they rode up to the saloon, they stopped for a moment. Jess was still standing at the bar, watching them through the door. One of the two men stared at Jess, and for a moment, Jess swore that the man was going to dismount and challenge him right then and there. Then Jess saw a change in the man’s eyes and knew that there would be no challenge. The man looked