Free THUGLIT Issue Seven by Michael Sears, Edward Hagelstein, Ed Kurtz, Joe Clifford, Christopher E. Long, Marie S. Crosswell, Justin Ordonez, Benjamin Welton Page A

next door to Mitch and Cole.
    Bud 's keeping to himself in a booth, nursing a beer in a tall, handled glass. Mitch orders Jack on the rocks at the bar, gets the bartender's confirmation of Bud's identity, and goes to join the man whose wife he killed. Bud flicks his eyes up to him when Mitch slides into the other side of Bud's booth.
    " Heard you're looking for me. Name's Mitch Rose."
    Bud straightens, t aking his elbows off the table.
    Mitch sips his whiskey, feeling as calm as he would talking to any old friend. "Ruby Jean Douglas truly your wife?"
    " That's right," says Bud.
    " You hear what she did to my brother?"
    " Rumor is she beat him up pretty good with a bat."
    " It was a club—and that ain't no rumor."
    Bud pauses, staring at Mitch with a wary expression. "Where is he?"
    " My brother? He's home, resting. That's where he's going to stay for a while yet. Turns out it takes a long time to heal from a beatin that bad. The movies are full of shit."
    Bud takes a drink. "I've been in town the last three days," he says. "I came as soon as I heard she's wanted for attempted murder here. I started chewing on it right away. RJ might be a no-good cheatin slut, but long as I known her, she hasn't been dangerous. She runs off on me two years ago, parks herself here, then tries to kill an innocent man? I asked myself, why would she go and do a thing like that?"
    Mitch watches him over the rim of hi s glass and doesn't say a word.
    " She wouldn't do something like that for no reason," Bud continues. "Then, I thought—maybe this man she tried to kill wasn't so innocent. Maybe he done something to her. Maybe he had it coming."
    " My brother didn't do a damn thing," Mitch says. "Except tell your wife, who nobody around these parts knew was married, that he didn't want to see her anymore."
    Bud stiffens. The movement 's so slight that Mitch wouldn't notice if he was any farther away or any less focused on the man.
    " So your brother was fuckin my wife," Bud says, voice even.
    " The way I see it, Ruby Jean was fuckin my brother," says Mitch. "After she got done with a handful of other men."
    " She try to kill them too?"
    Mitch pauses. "I don't know. I don't think so."
    " So what makes your brother different?"
    " Go ask Ruby Jean."
    " I would—if I knew where the hell she was."
    The men sit silent and work on their drinks. Mitch finishes his whiskey. Bud gets down to the swill of his beer. Crooked Still starts playing "Ain't No Grave" over the speakers, and Mitch hears it like Ruby Jean's singing.
    " So how exactly did she go?" Bud asks him, voice rougher and deeper now.
    Mitch blinks at him, brain tripping over the question for a second. "She ran out of my house, hopped into her car, and left. That's the last time I saw her. If my brother hadn't been pulp on my kitchen floor, I mighta chased her down."
    " I been by her place. Looks like she didn't take anything with her."
    " She's wanted for attempted murder," Mitch says. "I wouldn't come back here for lipstick and panties neither, if I were her. How'd you know she disappeared anyway? The wanted notice?"
    Bud nods.
    "I'm guessing you didn't know she was here."
    " You guess correctly."
    " You been looking for her since she left?"
    " I was waiting for her to come back."
    One of the waitresses—a cute blonde with short hair and a great rack—stops by the table to take Mitch 's glass. "Can I bring you gentlemen some refills?" she asks.
    " No more whiskey for me, sweetheart, but I will take a bottle of Coors," Mitch says.
    Bud just shakes his head.
    She leaves them and goes up to the bar to trade Mitch's glass for the beer.
    " Why'd you want to find me and my brother?" Mitch says to Bud.
    Bud doesn 't answer right away, picking at the edge of his cardboard coaster. "If you were the last ones to see her, you'd have an idea about where she went more than anybody else. And I wanted to hear from the source what was true."
    " Is that all?"
    Bud stares at Mitch with his mouth in a thin,