White teeth flashed in a quick, dimpled grin, the kind that made J.C.

look ten years younger and heartbreakingly carefree. “You’re always running around getting shot at,” he explained mildly, “whereas I prefer to dig in and make my enemies beat their heads bloody at my door.”

“Uh-huh.”

Andrej nodded skeptically and absentmindedly kicked a stone across the path. He still thought being on the move was better than sitting in a corner. J.C. was a lazy fuck, was all. As if he’d read his thought, J.C. booted the stone back at him and they amused themselves with the age-old game of punting it back and forth without breaking stride.

They crossed the canyon floor unhurriedly, the stone skipping ahead erratically as they wandered past heaps of debris and the odd yellowed cactus patch. All those vehicles driving through had left a trail, dusty and desolate, too faint to be called a road, too prominent to be overlooked. The air was shimmering with heat. Everything was soaked in it, the ground beneath their feet burning even through the thick soles of their boots. Well, J.C.’s boots. He’d taken one look at Andrej’s Gucci loafers and immediately equipped him with more suitable footwear in addition to a ridiculous straw cowboy hat that was currently saving Andrej’s brains from frying. It should’ve annoyed him, this casual disregard for his clothing, but Andrej had to admit there was a peculiar freedom in losing all those tight creases and expensive accessories.

It didn’t take them long to reach their destination, but still Andrej was sweating like a pig by the time they came to a stop in front of a hole in the rock wall on the other side of the canyon. It turned out to be the entrance to what appeared to be a mineshaft, framed by sturdy timbers and secured by a crude metal gate. J.C. opened the old-fashioned lock and pushed against the

heavy wings with a flourish. They swung inward with the hair-raising screech of warped hinges to reveal a whopping five yards of rough-hewn stone corridor and an uninspiring, cage-like construction at the end that appeared to be a freight elevator.

Andrej cleared his throat and tried to muster some sort of enthusiasm.

“Wow. You… you dug a really big hole. You mining for gold now or is this going to be a bunker?”

“Both, kinda,” J.C. explained with a smirk. “The original idea was to create additional storage space underground. Doing that we found turquoise and copper.”

Turquoise. Copper. How thrilling.

J.C. chuckled. Figured, that he’d find Andrej’s lack of excitement funny. The man had a queer sense of humor.

“There’s good money in both, kid, believe it or not. It’s harder work than gunrunning, but you don’t get shot at as often, either, so I figure we’ll stick to it for now.”