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"My ar, lost count

Benny sobbed, yelled "Okay What do you want? I&039;ll tell you already"

I stopped I eating good, nearly punched out What did I want?

"I&039;reen and confused

"You stay," I barked God damn stack of muscles Couldn&039;t he stoo of Benny "Stan What happened to him? Where is he?"

"I don&039;t know For God&039;s sake, Charlie I don&039;t"

"You ed at h, man He doesn&039;t know"

I swatted him away "You listen to ood Stan did what he did, and we did our job It was perfect And when so to ruin it, this rat bastard didn&039;t stand up He didn&039;t stand up for Stan or for you or for ivable sin"

"There&039;s a place, Charlie," said Benny "I heard soar and that killer of his"

"Mercury"

"Yeah A warehouse in Bithlo, out of the way I heard the about it I don&039;t know if Stan&039;s there, but they were talking about how out of the way it was, likeor soainst the shower tile He was covered with sweat and bruises A little ragged moan crawled out of him

For a second, I felt bad for hiive hiht about Stan, what I would do if I even found hiood Noas shit My hand veered toward the hot knob

At first, Benny was grateful He lapped at the water, let it soak him, run down his chin But the spray heated quickly Benny&039;s eyes got big with realization And then the hot hit hi turn it off" He hollered, twitched, tried to twist away fro me!"

"Come on," I told Lou

He went out ahead offor us to coet him He&039;d be a little pink, that&039;s all The hot water would run out soon, and he&039;d just be wet and prune-skinned But his pleas for mercy followed us into the hall

Lou looked at me like I&039;d just fucked his pet bunny up the ass, but he didn&039;t say anything He needed out for a while, so I thought of an errand for him

"Can you hot-wire a car?"

He nodded "I used to do repossessions"

"Get us soo out in the Suburban I&039;d like to be out of here before daybreak Try to be discreet"

"Okay" He looked at the bathroo to be okay here,anywhere"

"If you&039;re going to work hione"

I waved him away "Sure"

He left out the back

I putProbably the water had turned cold, orto do, so I went outside and sat in the front seat of the Suburban with the n I thought about turning on the radio but didn&039;t want to risk the noise

I closed my eyes, replayed the fiasco at the Laundroht I&039;d been at the Laundro e had flown out when the door had coht there on the floor I grabbed it, tore it open Three fat kilos of snohite powder I took a closer look at the wrappings The brown paper was a grocery bag froly The inside layer was the sports section of The Orlando Sentinel

I figured Shane&039;s band had been ferrying the stuff all around the state It looked like Benny had gotten little bro in on the act, and I resolved to take Danny&039;s Buck Rogers gun away froe

I slunk back into the house, back into the bathroom The water had turned ice cold, and I shut it off Benny&039;s weight had bent the curtain rod enough so he could rest his knees against the side of the tub His eyes were shut, and he maintained a low, steady whine, a whi he was in hell or awake for the real thing

I untied his hands, pulled him down His arms flopped dead to his sides like two sleeves full of Spaain I let him down on the floor, sat down next to him, brushed the wet hair out of his eyes

"Benny"

His head rolled toward

"Sorry, Benny"

His face scrunched "It hurts My ribs"

"I know I&039;m sorry"

"It hurts" His voice was a whisper, the hiss of a knife sliding into its sheath

"Bob&039;s dead, Benny, and I barely kno Guy Why didn&039;t you co if you&039;d just come to hed, and his whole body wracked He faded, and I thought he&039;d gone out on , rubbed my temples Ihis ribs, and he sucked breath I tried with a lighter touch I , internal bleeding He was groggy

"I hit you," said Benny "I&039;ar after Bob and I left yourthe books to Stan, and he said I&039;d better get them or be sorry"

"It&039;s okay"

"So I went to your apartment I waited in the shrubs, and when you cauess the joke was on rabbed the briefcase, but it was empty"

"Just take it easy"

"It&039;s cold" Benny&039;s eyes were glassy, unfocused

"It&039;s okay" I sat on the bathroom floor and pulled his head into my lap "It&039;ll be okay"

I pinched his nose between thuer, put my other hand over his le free, but there wasn&039;t o slack under my touch, and that was all

I pulled down the drapes in the ed him to the hall closet, and put him inside on the floor under the shelves I had to fold hi position with his knees up to his chest

I took one of the rags we&039;d used to tie him and wiped the place down, made sure I covered all the fixtures in the bathroom and all the doorknobs I didn&039;t want to leave any prints I circled the house twice, once inside and once out, to

Then I went to Shane He sat like a shrunken ball up against the stairs The duct tape isted and stretched where he&039;d tried to pull free Hethat had happened to his brother He looked at me like I was the devil I cocked his pistol, lifted it, aimed it at his forehead Shane was a loose end He shook Tears in his eyes I felt so had gotten so fucked up How did it happen?

I lowered the pistol

I fetched the package of coke, spilled half of it in front of Shane "If you call the police, you&039;ll have to explain that If I were you, I&039;d just get out of here, understand? Keep pulling at that tape, and you&039;ll get free Benny was just business He screwed up"

I couldn&039;t tell if Shane understood or not It didn&039;t ht was cool I huddled inside my jacket, and the tears came quick and hot down my face I let it out, putup and down I was asound of a wounded ani one of those updated Volkswagen Beetles It was electric green Lou opened the door, looked like a giant cliured it was the thing most opposite of a Suburban Inconspicuous"

"You&039;re a regular Jae up on blocks two houses over for when the Bug&039;s reported stolen"

"Good Helpout of the Suburban and ja I checked under the Suburban&039;s seats and went through the whole thing, but it looked like we&039;d gotten it all I wiped it doith the rag

"Anything new?" Lou asked

"I&039;ll tell you on the road"

"What about the kid?"

"It&039;s been taken care of"

He didn&039;t ask about Benny