Free Vegas Knights by Matt Forbeck

into the Bolthole like this –" I pointed at my arm "– we're bound to draw trouble. Let's try the other direction."
      I headed for the storeroom's rear door. As I reached it, I heard voices approaching the other side of it. I dove to one side of the door and hid myself behind some racks filled with cases of liquor. Bill followed right behind me.
      Gaviota entered first, with Misha dogging his heels. The big man prattled away, nervous about something.
      "It's just wrong," he said. "I don't care what the boss wants. I say we just feed 'em to the scorpions."
      "That's why you're just the hired muscle around here," Gaviota said.
      I hoped the men might just walk past us. Then we might be able to slip out the door before they realized they were missing. When they stopped dead in their tracks, though, I saw what they had seen, and I knew what we'd done wrong.
      "The door's open," Misha said. "They got out."
      "I can see that, you idiot," Gaviota said. "They ain't going to make it out of the casino though."
      I grabbed Bill by the arm and whispered to him. "Gotta go – now!"
      He waved me off. He was concentrating on something, but I didn't know what. He wasn't a powerful enough magician to make both those men disappear.
      Then he pulled his pistol from his pocket.
      "Where the hell did you get that?" I asked. I hadn't seen it since our first day here in Vegas, when it had gone off accidentally, but I was sure he hadn't been carrying it around with him the entire time since.
      Instead of taking the time to give me an answer, he pushed past me and stepped out from behind the rack of liquor boxes, his gun thrust before him. I rushed up behind him, trying to stop him, but I never had a chance.
      "Freeze, assholes!" Bill shouted in his best buddy-cop film voice.
      The two men stopped, held up their hands, and turned in our direction. When Gaviota spotted us, he broke into a grin and started to chuckle.
      "Isn't that cute?" he said to Misha, who didn't seem nearly as sanguine about Bill's weapon. "The kid's got a gun."
      Misha forced out a nervous laugh. His hands twitched toward the holster I could see exposed under his jacket.
      "This isn't some kind of joke." Bill cocked the pistol's hammer. "Get down on the floor – on your knees – now!"
      Gaviota smirked at us both. "Come on, boys. Play nice. It doesn't have to be like this. We came back down here to make you a deal. Don't ruin it with all this stupidity."
      "The only thing we want is the hell out of here," Bill said.
      Gaviota shrugged. "That's one option, but you might find the other one a lot more attractive."
      Standing behind Bill still, I edged toward the door that Gaviota and Misha had entered through. As I reached for the knob with one hand, I kept the other near Bill's collar, ready to grab him and run as soon as the bullets started flying.
      "You fellas oughta listen to him," Misha said. "Ain't many people get this kinda chance."
      "Whatever you're selling, we ain't buying," I said. Normally I might have tried to play cocky enough to stand there and parlay with those two, but the blood running down my arm had dampened my enthusiasm for that.
      "When the devil comes calling, a wise man at least listens to the offer," Gaviota said.
      My eyes opened wide. I stopped reaching for the doorknob and put a hand on Bill's shoulder. My father had often said that exact thing to me, right down to the letter.
      Bill glanced back at me, but I ignored him and focused on Gaviota, never forgetting the man had just shot me and thrown me into a cooler. "Toss your guns over here."
      Gaviota shrugged, then drew his weapon, placed it on the floor, and kicked it over toward us. He moved like he'd done this before.
      "You too," I said to Misha.
      The big man growled in disappointment, but he went ahead and followed Gaviota's lead. I scooped up both of the weapons. Gaviota carried a slick automatic pistol