Bullets Are My Business (9781101616413) Read Online Free

ask. The gun barrel doesn’t bother me. I answer my door the same way, if I bother to answer it at all.
    Jacks lowers the gun and extends a hand. I grasp it and we shake. He motions for me to step inside. I shake my head. “No, man, you better follow me. I made quite the mess this morning.”
    â€œLemme grab my jacket,” Jacks grumbles. I can tell he hasn’t had his first elixir of the day either. Jacks and I seem to be cast from the same mold. The only real difference is the side of the law we’re on. Once you get past the title, our jobs are pretty much the same. Which is exactly why we have to help each other out. Like I said, he knows the score. Hell, we both do.
    Jacks steps over the woman lying under the blanket on the floor. Jacks isn’t ever looking for the right girl, he’s looking for the “right now” girl. Apparently, he found her last night. All I can see is a nice set of legs and the smooth skin of her back. She has a tattoo of angel wings but I get the feeling that they’re supposed to be ironic. He grabs his jacket off the lamp and tugs it on, stepping over the woman again on his way back to the door. He reaches into his pocket and takes out a nameless fifth of something. He brings it to his lips and takes a long drink. He extends the bottle to me. I accept it gladly and I feel like a baby suckling at its mother’s teat. My body is filled with joy as the unknown liquor warms my throat and moves down toward my toes. This makes any day good to be alive. I hand the bottle back to Jacks.
    â€œHey,” he says to the woman on the floor, “I want you gone by the time I get back. This is our good-bye. Hit the bricks.”
    â€œFuck off, prick,” comes the muffled, half-asleep response. Jacks flips her off and closes the door behind him. “Fuckin’ broads.”
    â€œYou’re telling me.”
    â€œSo, what’d you do this time?” Jacks asks. He doesn’t sound surprised. He knows that this is nothing more than routine.
    â€œI killed people,” I tell him. “I killed a lot of people.”
    He nods. “How many is a lot?”
    â€œSix.”
    â€œSix?”
    â€œTechnically five,” I revise. “Six is a foreshadow.”
    â€œOne of the guys upstairs is still alive?”
    â€œHe was as of five minutes ago.”
    â€œHow long do you think that’ll stick?”
    â€œDepends on how cooperative he is.”
    â€œWhat happened?” You can tell Jacks is a cop from the never-ending barrage of questions. I only choose to answer them because I know they won’t incriminate me.
    â€œSix guys came in like gangbusters and tried to ambush me. One shot up my chair,” I explain. “So I took care of them.”
    â€œI’m hoping that the chair wasn’t your only reason for taking them out,” Jacks replies, “because that chair was revolting.”
    â€œI loved that chair.”
    â€œWhat about the one that’s still alive?”
    â€œWhat about him?”
    â€œWhat are you going to do about him?”
    â€œI figured I’d get some information out of him.”
    I open the door at the top of the stairway and we enter the hallway. Jacks glances down and steps over the bodies strewn about the floor as he walks to the doorway of my apartment. He looks inside and clicks his tongue at me. “I thought you had a challenge for me, Levi. This is a cakewalk, pure and simple.”
    He takes his phone from his belt and starts punching numbers.
    â€œI’ll make a few calls and this’ll be cleaned up. Bodies gone, walls spotless, carpet brand new. Gimme twenty minutes and it’ll be like this never happened.” That’s why I keep this guy around.
    â€œI knew you could do it.” I clap him on the back.
    He shrugs. “Have I ever let you down?”
    I enter the apartment as Jacks makes his phone calls. I find the goon who’s still alive.