Read Hyenas for Free Online

couch.”
    “Ha!” Smoke Stack said. He looked at us and our guns like he was looking at kids with suckers. “You ain’t so much.”
    “We got guns,” I said. “That puts us way ahead of you. We took yours away from you. And you know what? We might not give it back.”
    Smoke Stack looked at Donny. “Who are these guys, kid?”
    “I tell you, I ain’t had nothin’ to do with them.
I tell you, I don’t know these guys.”
    “They know you,” he said.
    “Actually, we know who he is,” I said. “He doesn’t know us, and we don’t know him. But we have a nice photograph. And we know this: You are planning to pull a heist, and the kid here, you want to get him in on it, and then when it’s over, you’ll pop him, and we’re not talking about with a wet towel.”
    Smoke Stack let that revelation roam around in his head for awhile. It went on for so long you could see it cross behind his eyes, like someone moving past a window. I glanced at Donny. There was something roaming around in his head as well. Suspicion I hoped.
    “What the hell you talking about?” Smoke Stack said.
    “That doesn’t sound all that convincing,” I said. “The part where you try to act like you don’t know what’s going on, and you’ve don’t remember how you clowns shot your last wheel man and left him in the woods for the ants.”
    “What’s he talking about?” Donny said, looking at Smoke Stack.
    “They don’t know nothing,” Smoke Stack said. “They’re just talking air. Don’t pay them no mind. You really don’t know them, then just keep your mouth shut.”
    “What they like to do,” Leonard said, looking right at Donny, “is they hire some dumb ass to drive their car, and then they kill him and split it between themselves.”
    “What, for one less split we kill a guy?” Smoke Stack said.
    “Yep,” I said. “And, hey, you fellas, what makes you think one of you isn’t next? Were you all in on the previous job? Are there some bodies in the woods somewhere?”
    I could tell from the way a couple guys looked at Smoke Stack that I had hit a chord.
    “You guys don’t listen to this shit,” Smoke Stack said. “And you, Donny. Ain’t I treated you right? I been more of brother to you than your own brother.”
    “You mean you’ve kind of let him do what he wants,” I said, “because at the bottom of it all, you don’t care about him. He’s just a pawn. It’s tough being a father or mother or big brother, cause they got to tell you stuff you don’t want to hear, make you do stuff you don’t want to do. But you, you can just tell him everything’s all right, even when it isn’t.”
    “I ain’t got to do nothing,” Donny said. “My brother, he ain’t much of a man.”
    “And Smoke Stack is?” I said. “Your brother works his ass off for you. Butt wipe here steals what he wants and hangs out. Not a whole lot of manly in that.”
    “I could snap you like a stick,” Smoke Stack said.
    “No,” I said. “No, you couldn’t.”
    “You talk tough with a gun,” Donny said. “I’ve seen what he can do. You ain’t so tough.”
    “What?” Leonard said, grinning at Donny. “Smoke Stack? Tough? With some drunk, maybe? Some poor guy half in the bag. You think he’s bad because he has muscles and tattoos and cigarette breath. Hap here, on his worst day, could turn him inside out and make him say how much he likes it.”
    “Ha!” Smoke Stack said.
    I went over and gave Leonard my gun. Now he had one in either hand. I took off my jacket, hung it over the door knob of the door I’d kicked open.
    “Why don’t I show you that he’s not so tough,” I said.
    “That’ll be the goddamn day,” Smoke Stack said.
    “This is, in fact, that day,” Leonard said.
    Smoke Stack grinned at Leonard. “I get through mopping the floor with him, you’re next, nigger.”
    “Oh, don’t make me wet,” Leonard said, then he waved the guns at the others. “All you assholes, except Smoke Stack, and you