The Terror of Living by Urban Waite Read Free Book Online

and thumbed two hundred out and then replaced the wad in his pocket. "Thirty percent sounds right to me." He handed the two bills to Hunt.
        Over the past twenty years they'd both gone on to bigger and better things, Hunt's standard 30 percent paying for his first date with Nora, a down payment on his house and property, and even a few young horses they had jokingly called their kids after they found out they couldn't have children. Nothing in his life had ever arisen that would make him think Eddie wasn't playing straight with him. There was no reason Hunt could think of to be worried about his welfare. Eddie had never had a reason to take his frustrations out on him. They were friends after years of doing business together, backyard barbecues, horse races, and bets. Hunt trusted Eddie because there was no other option and because Eddie had always played straight with him. Hunt could see how everything might change. He'd never messed up this bad, never screwed up, never been in the position Stone had found himself in, laid out and helpless, turtled on his backside in some foul alley waiting to see what would happen next.
        Now, Hunt heard the electric whir of his garage door opening - Nora letting Eddie into the garage. As Hunt went around the house, he was careful to duck his head below the frame of the garage window, taking his steps with caution so as not to upset the small line of garden pebbles they'd put in around the foundation for drainage. He felt for the Browning and brought it out, holding it in front of him as he went along the length of the garage. He'd never planned to hold a gun again in his life. But here he was, holding one, waiting for his friend, Eddie Vasquez, to duck beneath the garage door and walk into his house.
        The garage motor was still going when Hunt put the gun up against Eddie's back. Eddie didn't say anything, and Nora, standing in the light of the side door, raised a hand to her mouth as if to quiet a scream.
        "Be calm," Eddie said, his voice as cool and relaxed as always.
        If Hunt had played the part all the way through, he might have knocked Eddie right over with the butt of the gun. But it wasn't in the plan, none of it was, he was making it all up as he went. For all that had happened he had no reason not to trust Eddie. A lot of money was involved, a whole shitload of powder, and it didn't seem to make the most sense to piss anyone off more than he already had.
        "Didn't figure you for the gun type," Eddie said. They were standing there in the garage. The door settled down on its motor, and besides the dull rush of cars on the highway a half mile off, it was quiet.
        "Sorry about this, Eddie," Hunt said, looking up at his wife, Nora looking back at him, completely horrified.
        "Hunt," Eddie said, a note of caution entering his voice. "No one knows about what happened up there. For all they know, it was just the kid. I can blame it all on the kid and that's how it will turn out.
        "The kid should never have been there," Hunt said.
        "Two hundred kilos is a lot for one man to pack out."
        "I could have done it with an extra horse. No sense in getting the kid involved."
        "He's involved now, isn't he? Just be glad it wasn't you they got their hands on."
        "What now?" Hunt asked.
        "You need to relax is 'what now.'" Eddie lowered his hands. "Nothing is registered under your name, cell phone, truck, everything under a different name. Let's all go inside, you can put the gun away. We'll figure this out."
        Nora poured the coffee and stood leaning with her hip against the counter, looking the two men over. She had begun to say something and then stopped. If he ever made it out of this, there would be questions; Hunt knew that, but he couldn't do anything about it now, just clean it off and hope it didn't stink.
        "Look, Hunt," Eddie was saying. "It was dark. No one can say who you