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

pursed line. "Should there be something else?"
    Mitch sips on his beer. "Nope."
    " You mind if I take a look around your property?" Bud asks, after a pause. "See where she did the damage?"
    " I understand you want to find your wife," says Mitch. "But my brother needs to rest up in peace. I ain't let him had visitors since he came home from the hospital."
    Bud doesn 't answer for a minute. "And I suppose there'd be nothing to see outside, in the area."
    " Well, she didn't leave tracks, if that's what you mean." Mitch smiles as he lifts his beer bottle to his lips again.
    Bud takes out his wallet and leaves a ten on the table. "I hope your brother gets well soon," he says, darkness in his eyes.
    Mitch sits there alone in the booth and takes his time f inishing the rest of his Coors.
     
    "I just don't understand why you want to do this," Kelly says, lying in her bed with the sheet pulled up over her breasts. She's propped up on one elbow, watching Mitch put his clothes back on. "Nothing's happened. Nobody knows what you did, and there's no reason they'd go looking for anything at your place."
    Mitch pulls his jeans up around his waist, zips the fly, buttons them, and leans over for his belt on the floor. "I told you," he says. "As long as her widower's poking around, Cole and I aren't safe. And I don't want anything else bothering my brother. I already had to tell him about Bud, and I shouldn't have."
    " What's leaving going to help? Won't it just look like you got a reason to hide, if you run while this man's still in town?"
    Mitch picks up his flannel shirt and puts it on, leaving it open over his t-shirt. He stops and looks at Kelly for the first time since he got out of bed. God damn, is she pretty. So good-looking with her bed-tossed hair hanging over her bare shoulders, Mitch almost wants to strip and ride all over again.
    It won 't be easy to leave her behind, that's for sure.
    " We're not going to be gone forever," he says. "It's just for a little while—until Bud goes the hell back to where he came from and stays there. Shit, Cole's probably better off recovering someplace other than the house where the bitch nearly killed him."
    " Staying in some cheap motel, eating junk food and sleeping on a hard mattress that hasn't had the sex washed out of it in thirty years isn't what's best for Cole," Kelly says. "And you know that."
    He does. But he 's afraid Bud'll show up at the house any moment and hurt Cole just for fucking Ruby Jean. Mitch is so afraid, he can't stay here with Kelly for another hour because he needs to go home to protect his brother. He already feels guilty for taking the extra time away for Kelly, even though he called Cole from Black Moon before coming to her.
    " I have to get him out of here, Kelly," Mitch says. "I have to keep him safe."
    " You could keep him here, and he'd be safe," says Kelly.
    " I can't drag you into this any more than I have. That's not fair to you."
    Kelly sits up in bed and scoots forward. "It's not fair to leave me behind while you go off to God-knows where without knowing how long you'll be there! Christ, Mitch. I'm keeping your secret, aren't I? That's dragged in enough."
    " I know. That's why I can't ask you for anything else."
    " You're not asking. I'm offering. You want to lay low until Bud leaves town? You and Cole stay with me for a few days."
    Mitch blows air through his nose, setting his hands on his hips and looks down at the floor. Putting Kelly in the line of fire—whether Bud Wolfe 's or the law's—would be unbelievably irresponsible of him. If anything happens to her, he'll never forgive himself.
    " Mitch?" she says.
    " I'll think about it," he says.
    He shoves his feet back into his cowboy boots and kisses her hairline before he leaves.
     
    Rain 's coming down hard by the time Mitch pulls his truck into his and Cole's driveway. He can see it falling at an angle in front of the bright, white bulbs mounted on the eaves of his neighbor's house. His own house is