Everybody’s Got a Price by Heather Luby

I went to Galena to kill a 417 whore I’d never met for an even grand. That’s how I knew I loved my girl. My girl JoJo demands a price that guys like me line up to pay. Wart said this job would pay me enough to buy a ring and a ring buys a future. What he didn’t say was having me silence his side piece of tweaker ass was buying him a future too.

I didn’t have to break down her door. A layer of ex-football fat hides a pistol real easy under a coat and I gotta smile even grannies love, sweet like those hard candies they like to suck. I gave the whore a good chubby boy smile and she opened the door wide. The pistol grip slick with sweat and waiting. JoJo’s lipstick kiss still wet on my neck.

There’s a saying, best laid plans and shit. I got the shit part. Blood in my mouth, maybe mine, maybe not, and never enough spit to mask the metal of it.