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.The Lincoln sailed onto the grass beside the road.The driver fought thewheel, missed the tree, but went over the edge of the incline, down the hill,clattered and bumped and slid into the weeds and slid again, this timesideways into the trees at the bottom.The Lincoln hit the trees with a solidwhack and a crunch, and the sunlight caught taillight fragments flying intothe air.I could see all this because Jim Bob had driven the pickup after them.Hehadn t let off a bit.We bumped and bopped, striking our heads on the roof,lurching toward the dash, and finally we skidded sideways to a stop justbefore the hill got really steep and dropped off toward the trees where ourroad partners had collided with a patch of wilderness.Jim Bob jerked the door open, grabbed the shotgun, and yelled, Showtime! Leonard and I got out quick.I slid in the grass but managed to keep myfooting and get my gun drawn without shooting myself.We hurried down the hilltoward the Lincoln.The driver, a fat man in a black suit, and two other water buffaloes in blacksuits were staggering out of the car.One of them, the guy from the backseat,had his gun, a nine millimeter, drawn.The car door was open behind him, and Icould see King Arthur sitting in the backseat, or at least I assumed it wasKing Arthur.I had seen his likeness on cans of his chili.Way he was sittingthere, you would have thought he was waiting on a bus.The man with the drawn gun lifted it and Jim Bob fired the shotgun, sprayeddirt in front of the guy.Jim Bob said, Mine s bigger than yours.Toss it! The man tossed the gun.The other two and one of them was on the far side of the car, having exitedfrom the front passenger side had their hands in their coats, and Leonardand I pointed our guns at them.Jim Bob said, You guys lose the hardwarebefore it gets you hurt. They looked at one another, eased their weapons out of their coats and droppedthem.Jim Bob said, You, on the other side there, mosey on around here where I cansee you good and make sure you ain t got a bazooka in your sock. The man, who was large with hair so thin and gray on the sides he lookedcompletely bald at first glance, came around slow-like, his teeth, wet fromsaliva, shining like greased piano keys in the sunlight.King Arthur, wearing a white Stetson, a gray cowboy suit with gray bootsdecorated with red chili peppers, slid out of the Lincoln on our side, stoodand looked at us.He was about five-ten, a solid one-eighty, had a lined brownface with a anteater nose.He had a cleft chin deep enough to hide a dried peain, and shit-ass eyes.King reached inside his jacket, slowly pulled out a pack of cigarettes, showedthem to us, lipped one, put the pack back, and nodded toward one of thebuffaloes.The one that had been in the backseat with King looked at us, slowly reachedin his pants pocket, produced a lighter, and lit King s cigarette. Driver s ed, boys? King Arthur said. Let s cut through the crap, Leonard said. You know who we are? Yeah, I do, King Arthur said, puffing on his cigarette. Troublemakers.Andlook what you ve done to my car. I don t think you ll be reportin it, Jim Bob said. Might toss a little toomuch light on you. King Arthur smiled. You thought that was the case, you d have gone to thepolice.How come you didn t? You been puttin your shitty noses in my businessfor a while now. Page 88 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html So you do know us? I said. I know all kinds of shit, King Arthur said. You re all connected to themqueers got killed. Here s the deal, I said. We re gonna put it to you straight.We re out tocause you some grief.But right now, this is more personal.Three of yourgoons and if you re missing a couple you might check a cabin in the woods broke into my house, sacked it, roughed me up, took me out to this shack, anda guy workin for you, one Big Man Mountain The wrestler? King Arthur said. You know who, I said. This Mountain, he hooked a cable and battery and alittle hand-cranked generator up to my balls, and gave me a few volts.Fortunately I m still here, thanks to some help. Don t mention it, Jim Bob said. What I m here to tell you, I said, is very simple.We could kill you rightnow, and I think that would most likely be a good idea, but it s not mystyle. It s my style, though, Jim Bob said, so keep in mind, King, things couldchange at a moment s notice. I gave King Arthur a look hard enough to drive a nail.I said, I m going totell you straight out we re going to nab your ass.You can count on it.Legal-like, if possible.But let me make this clear, and I suggest you openyour eyes wide and put on your glasses and use binoculars so you can see whatthe fuck I m making clear.You screw around me or Jim Bob or my brotherLeonard, my girlfriend and you know who she is because Big Man Mountain did I will kill you. If I don t do it first, Leonard said. Don t forget me, Jim Bob said. This is your one and only warning, I said. You boys got me wrong, King said. Yeah, I said. You re an innocent fella.That s why you have threebodyguards. King nodded. All right.I ain t so innocent, but I got bodyguards mostlybecause I can.I like the looks of it.And now and then, I get a littletrouble.I got some deals goin here and there outside the chili, but I ain tnever had to shoot nobody.Or have nobody shot. Course, with you boys, Imight make an exception.I don t get it.All this over some fuckin grease? King Arthur dropped his cigarette in the grass, put a boot heel to it
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