Bullet Number Two
By Hannah Tinti, first published in Tin House
A man en-route to meet a criminal partner stops partway along his journey at a motel in the Four Corners, where he meets a woman and her baby. During the night, they wake to gunshots.
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Plot Summary
Hawley's mother dies, and Hawley drives his car through the desert to meet an old partner in Colorado. The partner has a scheme to rip off a casino, and has invited Hawley to join. Hawley crosses into the Four Corners and stops at a motel to spend the night. He checks into the motel and notices a couple of men playing poker in the back room behind the front desk. They invite him to join, but Hawley declines the offer. Hawley gets settled in his hotel room and then hears a knock on his door. A girl around twenty with a baby tells him she's locked out of her room and there's nobody at the front desk. She saw his light on and is hoping he will let her crash in his room. Hawley and the girl, named Amy, lie down in Hawley's room to get some sleep, and when Hawley wakes Amy is kissing him. They are kissing each other when they hear two quick pops outside. Hawley reaches for his gun and tells Amy to quiet her baby and lock herself with the child in the bathroom. Hawley watches as a car parks between his car and Amy's. One of the men who was playing poker in the back room earlier exits the car with a handgun. Hawley figures he has killed the other men and is now coming after them, since the man knows Amy and Hawley have seen his face. The man checks Amy's room first, and when he exits, Hawley shoots him in the shoulder. The man fires back and hits Hawley in his side. Hawley shoots the man dead as he tries to get into his car. Hawley gets Amy and the baby and they check the front desk and find the other men there, dead. Hawley is bleeding from his bullet wound, and Amy says there is a doctor on a reservation ten miles away and she will drive him there. Amy says she will go back and get his car for him, and Hawley hopes that when she returns, she won't have taken all of his money. Amy starts to sing to her baby, who is crying, and Hawley drifts off.