Double The Bounty

Chapter V

Brian Foxx was eating dinner when Brent Foxx walked through the door of the saloon.

“Hello, brother,” Brent said.

“You’re late.”

His younger brother, dusty from the trail, dropped his gear to the floor next to the table.

From behind the bar the bartender stared at the two men. He’d seen them together before, but it never ceased to amaze him. They were identical! Same hair, same freckles, same build. If Brent hadn’t been so dirty, he wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart.

Or was the dirty one Brian?

“I got held up,” Brent Foxx told his brother. “It’s good to see you, too.”

“Had to throw off a posse, you mean.”

Brent gave Brian one of his little-boy looks.

“You heard.”

“Did you have to kill somebody?”

Brent sat down and poured himself a drink from his brother’s bottle, then grabbed a piece of meat from his plate with dirty fingers and stuffed it into his mouth.

“I don’t kill unless I have to, Brian,” Brent said. “You know that. He was gonna draw down on me. What was I supposed to do?”

Brian thought that was bullshit, but he didn’t say so. There was no use in starting an argument, not now. He still had some talking to do first.

“Why don’t you get cleaned up and then come back and have something to eat?” he suggested. “We’ve got some talking to do.”

“Planning, you mean?”

“Yeah, planning.”

“When do we pull our next jobs?’” Brent always asked that question with such eagerness.

“We don’t.”

“Whataya mean, we don’t?”

“Get cleaned up and we’ll talk about it.” Brent was going to complain, but Brian said, “Go on.”

“All right,” Brent said, relenting. “I could use a bath.” Brent turned to the barkeep and said, “Sam, a steak that thick. Okay?” He held his fingers apart to indicate how thick he wanted his steak.

“You got it.”

Brent waved, then picked up his gear and went upstairs to his room.

Brian had decided while waiting for his brother that they were going to lay low for a while. This was the first time someone had gotten killed during a job, and that made it a special case.

Now all he had to do was convince his brother.