Read Online Rough Men by Aric Davis - Free Book Online

friend.”
    “Acquaintance,” interjected Isaac. “We knew him a long time ago. It’s been a while.”
    She didn’t care enough to respond beyond sliding off her stool and walking into the back. A stereo clicked on playing AC/DC, and the girl returned a couple minutes later.
    “Sorry, no dice. Says he’s busy.”
    “Tell him Will Daniels is here to talk to him.”
    She sighed. “Is that name going to mean anything to him? ’Cause he gets mad pretty easy, and he’s got a bad hangover. Might be you want to make an appointment, hope for the best.”
    “Tell him Will Daniels is here to talk to him.”
    She smirked at him. “If that’s your hard look, you might want to work on getting a new one. I’m going to ask one more time, and when I come back and tell you he said to fuck off, you two are going to fuck off.”
    She disappeared into the back of the store again and was back faster this time.
    “Jason says to come on back.” She was smiling, and his stomach dropped to his feet. Will’s bravado had been stripped cleanby her Sicilian smile, and the pistol under his coat may as well have been back at the house for all the good it would do him should he fumble to retrieve it.
    She led them down a short hallway that had a door on either side of it and another one at the end. They walked through the door on the right, and the girl left them in the room, closing the door behind her as she left.
    Sitting on a stool was Jason. Next to him, on a steel cart, were a pair of tattoo guns, and next to them was a different kind of gun, a revolver. Will stared at it with a lump in his throat before turning his attention back to Jason.
    His old friend had a stomach that was stretching his shirt taut, the kind of belly earned by cheap food and cheaper booze. He had on an American flag bandanna, and coming out of the bottom of the back of it was a gray braid that lay over his right shoulder and hung almost to his belly. His arms, hands, and neck were covered in tattoos, gray ones that looked like the kind from prison and colored ones that looked like the kind that weren’t. His ears bore two large hoops, silver and thick as pencils, each holding silver beads at its center.
    Jason did not stand when they entered, nor did he offer them a seat. “Will Daniels,” he said. “And is that your brother with you? Older, right? I don’t recognize you, but the same family is in both faces.”
    Will thought about that statement, his eyes poring over Jason’s familiar and yet foreign face.
    “Yeah,” said Isaac, “I’m his brother.” He extended a hand and said, “Name’s I—”
    “I don’t give a ruddy fuck what your name is,” said Jason. “I’m curious about why in the fuck you’re here, and once I figure out why, I’m going to run you out of my fucking shop, all right? I have a feeling I’m going to be amused for about thirty seconds, tops.” He turned his attention back to Will. “C’mon,
William.
Spit it out, author-boy. Why are you slumming with your old buddy?”
    Will was taken aback. Jason had obviously made some effort to follow his life. His books had sold well, but not that well. Yet Jason knew enough to know he’d published them under
William Daniels
, not
Will.
    Will collected himself as best he was able and got on with it. “I’m here to talk to you about my son.”
    “Bad start, Will. I’m already bored.”
    “My son was killed a little less than a week ago after being involved in a bank robbery.”
    “All right, I think I know the one,” said Jason, who winked at him. “Much better start. Now I’m interested.”
    “He was killed in an abandoned barn, shot in the head, and then burned to death with some of the evidence.”
    “No honor among thieves, right, Will? That’s nothing new there, just how it is. Like when I got penned up and you walked. Just how it is.”
    There it was. “I wasn’t there when you got busted.”
    “You were there enough other times,” Jason growled. “And we