El Paso, Texas- Eight A.M.

Bro and Sis sat parked on a hill staking out a house below. A day earlier they’d tracked a wanted fugitive to this dwelling near the Mexican border.

From the driver’s seat, Bro peered down through fogged binoculars while sweat covered his forehead. Their truck’s air-conditioner stopped working a week ago.

“What do you see?” Sis asked from the passenger side.

“Four dudes, a big one, definitely muscle.”

“Mhm, what about the bounty?”

Bro hesitated, “He's down there.”

“Of course he is because I told you he was in El Paso the whole time, hmph!"

“Yeah you did, Sis. Now pat yourself on the back and get ready because they're about to leave."

“Mhm,” Sis placed a nine-mm pistol on the passenger seat and stepped outside the old truck to stretch. “Good-god, this Texas heat! It’s not even nine-o'clock and I'm melting, ah!" She fanned herself.

"The heat ain't so bad if you keep still."

"I'd keep still if we had AC!"

Bro smirked, "I promise I'll fix it after this job."

"A promise is a cloud, fulfillment is rain."

"Rain would be great right now."

"Heh heh, put your armor on, Bro."

With their eyes fixed on the house, the twins donned bulletproof vests and holstered their nine-mm pistols. Bro took another look through the binoculars.

"They're on the move," he said.

"How many?"

"Four, the armed guy is driving."

"You get the bounty, I'll deal with the driver."

"He's a big dude, Sis."

"Don't worry, I won't hurt him."

Bro started the truck then crept down the hill. At the bottom, the bounty and three other men pulled away from the house in a small coupe heading toward the twins. With the car dead in his sights, Bro floored the gas pedal and crashed the truck headlong into the oncoming vehicle.

"Yaaah!" Sis shouted as the violent collision yanked the twins in their seat-belts. The impact forced the small car with the four men to spin in the middle of the road until it came to a dead stop. Glass and oil covered the street. But within a second, the driver's side door opened and a large man wobbled out with a gun.

"I got him, Bro! get the bounty!"

Sis leaped out of the truck charging at the armed man. As fast as a cat, she punched the pistol out of his hand then kicked the man's leg in. The big dude fell forward grabbing her belt, attempting to stop her next attack, but he failed. The fiery bounty hunter mashed her boot heel in the man’s chin, knocking him against the car.

Bro covered Sis with his gun pointing at the three others stumbling out of the vehicle. While his twin subdued the big guy, he ordered the remaining men to lie face down on the ground. One of them hopped up and charged at him. “Not today!” Bro grunted and forward kicked the man’s gut, dropping him to the asphalt. But in the distraction, the bounty got up and took off running back toward the house.

"Ah hell!" Bro chased after him.

Although an older fellow, the bounty sprinted like an Olympic runner. Bro pursued him as fast as he could. If the bounty were to get back in that house, the twins would lose the payment since the cops would show up and cut them out. Bro couldn’t let that happen. With all his might he leaped forward and tackled the legs of the fleeing fugitive.

The action sent the man, and Bro, tumbling to the concrete with a collective, "Oof!"

But the young hunter, now with scraped and bleeding elbows, jumped on top of the bounty with his handcuffs at the ready.

“No, no! Listen to me, I'll give you cash if you let me go!” the man begged as Bro manacled his arms behind his back.

“No need, fam. The US Marshals are going to pay plenty for you.”

“Plenty? I’m only worth fifteen!”

“Yup, that’s more than enough to fix the AC in the truck."

"Fix the AC? What the fuck?"

"I know, right."

Bro lifted the bounty and walked back to the crash scene. They reached just as Sis dropped the biggest guy with another kick before zip-tying him to the car.

“Jeez, I thought he'd put up more of a fight,” Bro said to her.

“Haha, he thought the same thing!”

“You wild, Sis.”

“I know, Bro. High-five!”

The siblings slapped-five in congratulations but moved in haste.

“That big guy's car we crashed is stolen. Let’s split before the cops show up!” Sis said.

“Copy."

Bro shoved the captured bounty in the back of the truck. But before they left he examined the front of the vehicle. Even after the massive impact, the ramming bar he’d installed on the grill wasn’t scratched.

“Heh, tough old truck.”

A moment later, Bro and Sis raced from the scene with the fugitive in tow. An easy fifteen grand in the bank.

One Week Later- Still in El Paso

After cashing in the bounty, the twins relaxed in El Paso for the rest of the week. On Saturday night they got dressed and hung out at a non-cowboy discotheque that spun house and bass music.

Inside the crowded hotspot, Bro stood at the bar scanning his phone while Sis danced away on the club floor. Glancing up, he shook his head at the gaggle of guys in a trance surrounding her. Wearing a skin-tight strapless blue dress that barely covered her ass cheeks, the nineteen-year-old Sis swayed to the beat while the males vied for her attention.

“Definitely your scene,” he mumbled while reading a web-link about a potential bounty.

“Hey, your girlfriend is popular!” A pretty blonde bartender joked with him.

“What?” He looked up, “She’s not my girlfriend, she’s trouble.”

“Haha, I’ll bet she is! So, would you like a beer this time, or another club soda?”

“Club soda is fine, thanks!”

“Pleasure is mine!" she winked at him.

Bro blushed and over-tipped the bartender. He appreciated her transactional flirting before returning to his phone with a grimace. A moment later, the raven-haired Sis bounced toward him with two male followers behind her. When she reached the bar she smiled at Bro before facing her pursuers.

“Hi fellas, you don’t have to chase me, I’m good!”

“Oh, we wanted to buy you a water since you were up here,” one said.

“Awww, thank you so much. But it’s ok, my boyfriend will buy it.”

"You have a boyfriend?"

"Yup!"

Without another word, Sis flung herself into Bro’s arms and kissed him square on the lips. “Hi babe!” she sang with an evil smile then buried her face in his chest.

Bro, forever a good brother, gently pushed her back, “Stop being weird.”

“Eat shit and die,” she whispered, hugging him tightly.

“Uh, well, ok we’ll see you on the dance floor!” one of the followers said before they vanished from the bar.

Bro glared at his sister, “Your entourage is gone, you can let go of me now.”

“No!”

"Sis, behave."

The bartender returned with the club soda and made eye contact with Bro. With his twin clinging to him, he glanced back at her with a blank expression. The bartender smiled. But Sis must have caught her gesture.

“Isn’t he handsome?” Sis asked.

“Yeah, he’s a cutie!”

“I know right, and no, I’m not his girlfriend! I’m his twin sister!” she yelped before biting his chin.

“Really, Sis?” Bro squinted while the pretty bartender walked away laughing.

“Shut up, Bro! Bullying you is fun!” She pinched his tit, then drank his club soda.

“Tch!” He reached for his phone, “I got that link you sent from dispatch.”

“Oh, good! You saw the price on that guy, right? He’s a hundred-grand!”

“I know, but Sis, he’s in Juarez, Mexico. And we don’t have any jurisdiction down there with our mail-order badges and fake driver’s licenses.”

"Don't give me that BS! Bruh, we’re real fugitive-agents, and these are official ID’s!” She waved her bounty hunter's license.

“Sis, we forged our age. We aren’t twenty one.”

“Who the hell cares? You know, you’re sounding like a real pussy right now because it’s not like we don’t know old Mexico!”

"You need to lower your voice," he glanced around. "And what I’m saying is back then we had support, now we’re on our own. And if we’re trying to do things legit we got no jurisdiction down there. So, if shit goes south.”

“Bro!” She grabbed his face, “It’s Juarez. Right over the border. We’ll be in and out, clean job. Like we always do.”

He stared at her. “I hear you, but this guy has a hundred-thousand on his head from the US Marshals and the DEA. Which means he’s a cartel member.”

“So what?”

“Means he won’t come quietly.”

“Do they ever?” she pouted, “Listen to me, the uni-semester is starting in February, and we still don’t have an apartment in the city. We’re still driving that beat-up truck, and we’re no closer to our goal of half a million to pay down on the life we want."

Bro hesitated, for his sister had plans: Clean money in the bank, and their own apartment at university. Deep down he also longed for these things, “How much do we have?”

“Two hundred total. We can pay for school, but no nice apartment,” she said.

“We need a new truck.”

“Yes, that too! And besides, it was you that insisted we make our money legit so we have no tax problems and all that. So I’m doing what you said, and I know exactly where in Juarez that bounty is!”

“I don’t know, Sis.”

“A midnight run, in and out. They won’t see us coming.”

“Hmm,” Bro turned away to stare at the young crowd dancing and drinking. Everyone living their best life. After a pause, he laid out an ultimatum. “Ok, we’ll go, but when we do we go heavy and wear tactical masks.”

“I wouldn't have it any other way, brother!” She smiled ear-to-ear then turned to the dance floor. “Wait, is that my song coming on?”

“They’re all your songs.”

“I know, right!”

When the bass dropped, Sis screamed then ran off to shake her ass, tight dress and all. Leaving Bro with an empty glass, and his own concerns about the job.

...

 

The Lee Twins- Illustrated by ReverieReine