Reaper's Fee by Marcus Galloway

it. “What the hell?” he said as he took a quick look behind him and then around to either side.
    Barrett charged outside, still holding his gun. “You scared the shit out of me, Nick. What the fuck were you thinking?”
    “And that’s coming from someone who’s always telling me to watch my cussing?”
    “Where the hell have you been?”
    Nick didn’t answer right away. Instead, he cocked his head to one side and held up a finger like an overly dramatic actor playing to his audience. “You hear that?”
    “My ears are still ringing.”
    “The posse’s on its way.”
    “You’re not getting me twice,” Barrett said.
    As if on cue, the sounds of more hooves pounding against the snow could be heard rumbling through the air.
    “You led them back here?!” Barrett said.
    “I lost ’em a while ago, but they’re combing this whole mountain. I thought I’d swing by here and get you out of here. I didn’t think you’d fire a shot to let ’em know we’re here, though.”
    There were plenty of things Barrett wanted to say and not one of them was of the friendly variety. As he quickly gathered his few possessions and saddled his horse, Barrett felt his heart slamming against the inside of his ribs as if it was trying to escape his chest.
    “You got the money?” Nick asked.
    “Yes, now let’s get the hell out of here!”
    Nick snapped his reins and got his horse moving past the shack toward a smaller trail he’d found the night before. As he rode down the narrow strip of dirt, which occasionally disappeared beneath the snow, he was smiling wide enough for his teeth to freeze. With the wind stirring again and the horses making their way down the narrow pass, Nick couldn’t hear much of anything else. He still knew the posse was coming after him, though. Lawmen all put the same stench into the air, just as much as the one lying face up in the street when Nick had ridden away from that bank.
    The path down the mountain may have been narrow, but it wasn’t exactly treacherous. It led them down to a winding pass that would eventually link up with the trail leading to Denver. It had become second nature for Nick to avoid the main trails, so he turned away from that one and kept riding until he found a spot that suited him.
    Barrett followed, but couldn’t keep from squirming. Between trying to steer his horse through the darkness and shifting to get a look behind or around him, he rarely sat still long enough to allow his eyes to focus. He saw Nick’s horse slow to a stop, so Barrett followed suit and climbed from his saddle as soon as he was able.
    “Are they gone?” Barrett asked.
    Nick swung off of his horse’s back and strutted up to him so he could clap his friend on the back. “There’s no way in hell them laws are gonna find us. Now let’s see that money.”
    “We should wait until morning, or maybe until we’re far enough away to—”
    “To hell with all of that,” Nick cut in. “I went through all this trouble, so I want to see the money.”
    Knowing better than to argue with him, Barrett fished out one of the two bags he’d been given by the bank manager and handed it over to Nick. “There’s another just like it, but I’m not getting that one out until we can split it up.”
    Nick pulled open the bag and stuffed his hand inside like a kid reaching for the last cookie in the jar. When he took his hand back out, his fingers were wrapped tightly around a fat wad of cash. “Now this is what I call a perfect job.”
    “Perfect?” Barrett asked. “I wanted to buy off that crooked drunk so he could make sure there weren’t any law around that bank. Instead, you went ahead and approached the deputy I specifically told you could be trouble.”
    Nick shook his head and slowly flipped through the money. “That was a small town, Barrett. The law was gonna be there no matter what. This way, we cut their numbers down by one and drew everyone out so you could waltz right out of there with the