Chapter 8, Part One

No Honor Ch. 8 Pt. 1: Bad Neighbors

Moon was perched on Shadow as always, and he was rollin' up smokes, just as casual as can be. He set hisself right across from the front door, and he pretended not to notice the people starin', as they passed him. He didn't even see me, 'til I walked right up on 'im.

"Mister Chatman", he said. "Well, I didn't have to wait long."

"What do you want?"

"I came to make good on our agreement, among other thangs."

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small pouch. It jingled, wit' loose coins.

"This is fer-"

"You put that away right now", I said.

There was people staring at us.

"Just keep your money, alright? I don't want it."

He looked really confused, and then after a moment, he wised up some.

"Oh, I get it", he said. "Bad timin' isn't it?"

"You damn right it is, and honestly, I don't know if there is a good time anymore... Did you hear what happened to the grocer?"

Another puzzled look, then he shook his head. I told him the story about Tom and he grimaced, then he lit up a smoke.

"That's terrible", he said. "But I had no way o' knowin', what Marco was gonna do. I reckon now he's gonna be a problem."

"Tell me you're not so stupid, as to go up against him alone 'cause I'll tell ya, he's got quite a few friends, and beatin' those odds ain't likely."

"He's got 30 ta 35 of 'em, by my count."

"That's more than enough to deal with you."

"You're right, it is. And no, I got no intentions o' tryin' ta take 'em all on. But Marco's puttin 'imself between me an' Larson, and sooner-a-later it's comin' to blows. There's nothin' I can do about that."

"Yeah there is", I said, "you can leave the damn thing alone! What sense is there, in stirrin' up shit, and gettin' us killed fer a man that's dyin' anyways?"

"Hold up", he said. "First off, dyin' ain't dead and wit' all due respect, I don't need no tips on doin' my job. I been doin' it fine long enough."

"You won't be doin' shit, you keep on like you are".

"And secondly", he said. "In case you ain't noticed, this town ain't no pleasant get-away. More people got killed last night than you know about."

Someone far behind Moon caught my eye, and as he stepped closer, my body froze up. It was El Hombre, an' he was lookin' tense.

Cater said, "There was this three-way shoot out, nothin' to do wit' me, and some hooker at the hotel got strangled."

"Carter..."

Hombre came up behind Moon, and to his right. He drew his pistol and Carter kept talkin', unawares.

"That's day and night here, and everyone knows that. And if you stay you damn well better believe it."

"Carter!"

He was raisin' that gun, wit' a shaky hand. Damn coward was gonna shoot 'im in the back.

"What? What is it?"

"Carter! Carter!"

He finally looked back and I finally broke whatever held me.

After I hit the ground, I saw Moon swing his right leg over the horse, and he musta pulled his gun but I don't know, I didn't see. But both men fired and both men fell backwards, and Carter hit the ground hard and screamed....

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