The Outfit Read Online Free PDF Page B

front of the house. He picked it up and carried it back to the garage. The woman with orange hair was on the porch again, standing there, watching Parker with no expression on her face.
    Parker went into the garage and opened the suitcase on the workbench. There was an envelope in the side pocket of the suitcase, and he took it out and slid seven hundred-dollar bills from it and put them on the bench. Then he put the envelope back in the pocket and closed the suitcase.
    Chemy watched the whole operation, and nodded. "Good enough," he said. "Kent, open them doors."
    Kent opened the doors, and the woman with orange hair was standing there. Her face was flushed now, and she looked upset. She said, "Kent, that bastard raped me."
    Kent just stared at her. Chemy frowned at her and said, "Don't be foolish."
    "Godamit, I say he raped me!"
    Kent turned, looking shaken. "Parker. What the hell is this?"
    Parker shrugged.
    Chemy said to the woman, "Come off it, will you?"
    Kent shook his head, looking goggle-eyed at his brother. "Why would she say it, Chemy? If he didn't do nothing, why would she say he did?"
    "Ask Parker if you want. Don't ask me."
    Parker said, "She made me the offer and I turned her down."
    Kent looked ashen. "You're a lying son of a bitch!" he shouted. He reached out, got a wrench in his hand, and started across the garage towards Parker.
    The woman turned her head and screamed, "Judge! Here, you, Judge!" And whistled shrilly through the gaps between her teeth.
    "Leave the dog out of this!" shouted Chemy.
    "Don't do anything stupid, Kent," Parker said.
    "I'll break your head open, you son of a bitch." Kent was as white as the inside of a potato, and he shuffled slowly forward, the wrench held out from his body in his right hand.
    Parker turned his head, saying, "Chemy, you want me to kill your brother?"
    "No, I don't think so."
    "Then call him off."
    "I couldn't do that, Parker. I'm sorry, but I couldn't do that."
    Parker frowned. "Chemy, do you believe that bag?"
    "That ain't for me to say, Parker; I ain't the husband. I'm just the brother-in-law."
    "Then you'll keep out, won't you?"
    "Unless my brother gets hurt."
    Kent said, "I won't be the one gets hurt." He dashed in suddenly, face contorted, arm looping up and over with the wrench.
    Parker ran inside the descending curve, butting Kent in the face with the top of his head, kneeing him, chopping upward with the rigid side of his hand against the soft underpart of Kent's upper arm. Kent cried out as his arm went dead and the wrench fell to the floor. Parker stepped back and hit him twice, and Kent followed the wrench down and didn't move.
    The woman was screaming for the dog again. Chemy wasn't saying anything at all now, but he was leaning against the side of the Oldsmobile and looking on with an expression of regret on his face.
    Parker turned and strode swiftly to the side door. He grabbed up the shotgun and turned with it as the dog, lean and fast and silent, came loping on a long curve into the garage. The woman was screaming "Sic 'im," and Chemy was shouting for the dog to come back. But the woman's voice was louder and the dog kept coming. Parker had the shotgun by the barrels and he swung it like a baseball bat. The dog leaped into the swing. The wooden stock cracked against the side of its head and sent it tumbling away to the side, to crash into a pile of junk and lay still.
    Parker turned the shotgun around and said, "My best move is to finish the three of you."
    "I'm neutral, Parker," Chemy said.
    "No, you're not. That bag wants to see your brother get killed, Chemy. She sent him after me hoping I'd do it."
    The woman stared at him, openmouthed.
    "Shut up," said Chemy. "Parker never touched you."
    Parker said, "Can you convince your brother?"
    "Sure I can. Why should I?"
    "I don't leave loose ends behind me."
    Chemy thought it over, gazing down at his brother, unconscious on the floor. Finally, he said, "I guess I see what you mean. All right, I'll