“I gave him his chance,” Hogg said. “I asked him, did he wanna come along and help us on another job. You heard me, I asked him three goddamn times. If he’d come along with us, I wouldn’t of harmed a hair on the motherfucker’s head. Wouldn’t of liked him no more than I did, but I wouldn’t’ve of shot him. ’Cause then he would of been doin’ it ’cause he wanted to do it, and maybe it would have come to him that’s why he was doin’ the other one. But reasons, man? I ain’t got time for shit like that. I’ve let a couple of motherfuckers like that go—more’n a goddamn couple. And I was always sorry. So I give ’em a chance. Give ’em two or three. But I’m not gonna put my ass out for some crazy motherfucker like that to string up—with his goddamn reasons!”

Denny grunted. “You didn’t ask him three times. You only asked him twice.”

“Only asked him twice?” Hogg looked at Denny and frowned. “Well, goddamn, ain’t that somethin’! I usually ask the motherfuckers three times. I really do.”

The nigger and the wop came up behind me, laughing about something that must have happened in the brush. Especially the nigger.

I glanced back at them.

“Hey, cocksucker,” the wop said, and put his hand on my shoulder. “Goddamn …!” My shirt was soaked. “Goddamn, cocksucker …” He shoved me away, but he was still laughing. “You’re a goddamn motherfuckin’ mess!”

The wop’s boots crutched the gravel siding. The nigger’s bare feet shushed the small stones.

Ahead, Hogg, with one bare foot and one boot, went shush, crutch, shush, crutch, shush, crutch, up to the cab door. He climbed in behind Denny, then leaned out and called:

“Hey, you like that, cocksucker? You like that, drinkin’ up that last good pint? How you like that, huh? Come on, you goddamn little wet-faced, two-bit skunk turd! Get your ass on up here—all of you. We got work to do!”

As the nigger and the wop stepped around me, I looked back down the road: under the roadlight, over gravel and asphalt, blood glistened like a sunburst.

6

“Here you go, boy.” Hogg picked me up over the hedge and set me down beside him on dark grass.

Ahead, Denny leaned forward to see in the lighted window. His back was to us. In the faint light, his elbow swung.

There was a grunt; dead leaves crashed. Dago had vaulted over.

“Goddamn …!” Nigg whispered. “Will you keep it down, huh?”

The wop steadied himself on the nigger’s shoulder. “Okay, okay.… Let’s go, huh?”

“We’re goin’, don’t worry,” Hogg said.

We walked over the grass toward the house.