Read Online A Bullet for Billy by Bill Brooks - Free Book Online Page B

holding up small stores to get supplies, and once a saloon for whiskey and a box of cigars. They even robbed a bank in Brazos but hardly gotmore than pocket change because all the money was kept in a large steel vault the banker said couldn’t be opened till the next morning.
    They camped out in canyons so nobody looking could see their firelight. They drank the whiskey till they passed out from it and smoked the cigars till they got used to smoking them.
    One night while thus camped, Sam said, “I miss Ma.”
    â€œI miss her too,” Billy said. “And as soon as we get a little extra money, we’ll send her some of it to help her along and let her know we’re all right.”
    Sam sometimes wept in his sleep.
    And once they got down near the border, Billy said, “Time you and me became full-fledged desperadoes.”
    â€œHow do you mean?” Sam said. “I thought we already were with all the crimes we been committing.”
    â€œWe stole things, yeah—whiskey, horses, and even a box of cigars, and robbed that bank in Brazos.” They both laughed at the fiasco of it. Billy continued, “And we come close to killing a man—which is the truest mark of a true desperado,” Billy said. “But we ain’t blooded yet.”
    â€œHow do we get blooded?”
    They were sitting their horses atop a rocky ridgelooking down on a small village below. And perhaps a mile or two beyond, if their judgment was worth a spit, lay the river that once you crossed you were in Old Mexico. The river shone like a wire in the fading light.
    â€œCome on, I’ll show you,” Billy said and spurred his mount down the slope, and Sam followed him on down.
    They rode into the village with their pistols plainly showing, and folks outside their haciendas stopped to look at them. It was just one dusty street leading up to small adobes on either side, ramadas with roofs made of ocotillo that threw down patches of striped shade. They came to a cantina halfway up the street, and Billy said, “Let’s rein in here.”
    They tied off their horses and went in without trying to hide the fact they were wearing pistols, and strode to the plank bar. A small, thin man with a horseshoe of gray hair stood behind the bar.
    â€œWe’d like some whiskey and a woman.”
    The man looked from Billy to Sam.
    â€œYou boys got a red cent to pay for the booze and pussy?”
    The man had a deep Southern drawl.
    â€œI guess we wouldn’t be standing here asking for it if we couldn’t pay for it,” Billy said, andslapped five silver dollars on the table. “What’ll that get us?”
    The man smiled enough to show he had buck teeth.
    â€œZee!” he called to a woman seated at a table by herself on the other side of the room. Near where she sat, a man sat with his head lying down on his table, snoring.
    She was a lot bigger than anyone else in the room, and she lifted that bulk from her chair and came over. She was wearing a loose, thin cotton shift that showed the outline of her breasts and the patch of dark hair between her legs when she waddled over.
    â€œThese boys say they want a piece of beaver,” and he pointed at the money on the bar. “What do you think, Zee?”
    She looked at each of them.
    â€œYou little peckers think you’re up to handling Mama Zee?” she said.
    â€œI reckon we’re about up for anything,” Billy said.
    â€œShit then, follow me.”
    â€œI’ll wait here,” Sam said.
    â€œHell you will,” Billy said and tugged him by his collar to follow the woman out back to a small shack that was barely large enough for a bed and a basin, which was all there was in it.
    â€œHow you peckers want it, one at a time or both together?” she said.
    â€œOne at a time,” Billy said.
    â€œStrip off your duds then, or if you’d rather, leave ’em on, but let’s get started because