Straight poker, no talking. If one of the other players wanted to check, call, raise , or fold, they would tap on the table with the appropriate number of fingers. There was no limit on the betting amount. This was straight, in your face, all or nothing, poker. And Apryl had been getting her ass handed to her again, and again, and again. The small fortune of coin she had made on an easy bounty was getting smaller by the hand. She was down to her last pile of hundreds as the betting settled on the second player, but she had three-of-a-kind in her hand. The ace of spades, the ace of clubs, and  the ace diamonds, all nestled neatly together next to a three of diamonds and a seven of clubs.<br/><br/>The man across from her was some drifter in a broad brimmed hat that looked as if it was about ready to disintegrate. He kept staring her down, to the point it was getting obnoxious. They had already settled the trench coat issue because they thought she would try and hard cards, her of all people. So she was sitting there, in her baggy shorts with the opening along her thigh. A multitude of green belts hung from her tight brown halter top and the loose tan net top. Her steel toed boots tapped impatiently against the floor. Across the bar on a hanger was her empty red trench coat and her own matching broad brimmed hat.<br/><br/>That was her whole problem with card games, she was just to damned honest to be any good at bluffing. If this hadn’t been silent poker, she’d have already felt his curiosity and told him what her hand was despite how many times she had told herself it was rude and bad form to reveal your hand before the round was complete! Apryl was honest, too honest, anyone who asked her for information got it, whether it be an opinion, a fact, a secret. No, Apryl had no secrets, kept none. It was almost as if she was forcibly compelled to tell the truth in swift order to anyone who asked her any question whatsoever.  This sucked whenever she tried to play cards, even now she was tempted to break the rules and let everyone see her hand. But she was a woman of rules, if a game had rules, they must be followed. It was the simple matter of following rules that allowed her to play poker and even profitably so every once and a while.<br/><br/>A tall glass of clear liquid on the rocks was brought to the table and Apryl down half of it in one gulp. Water on the rocks. One more sip and she stared at the reluctant player, one vicious red eye, one soft eye of a deep blue. The matter of whether one was fake was cleared up early tonight, she had been asked, and truthfully explained that they were real eyes and that was the way she was born.<br/><br/>The stalemate between the two players continued. He raised the bet. Now it would be time for the third player to make a decision. She felt close to making a killing on this hand. Today was her lucky day, she just had to keep her cool and think about something else besides her cards, something disgusting. The man with the gold guns who bragging up a storm did the trick. What a loon, wouldn’t a gold revolver would be useless as a weapon. The first bullet would shred the barrel, or the first few explosions of the gunpowder would cause the thing to distort and lose tolerance in the chamber and the barrel. Maybe he meant gold plated guns, but she couldn’t see something that gawdy actually functioning better than normal weapon, even if it was just a plating. Gold just wasn’t for weapons, and she found it hard to believe a Wilson like that would be made.<br/><br/>Back to the standoff as the third player was ready to make a bet and put her all in.<br/><br/>That’s when the damned lights went too dim to see.  Card game called on the count of Magnificent. It was just a damn excuse to bail when she was on the verge of winning most of her hard lost coinage back! It was too dark to see the cards. It sucked! It sucked! It sucked! The pot was split back evenly as the group disbanded. The guy who tried to slip a few extra bills in his pocket got a knife in his hand.<br/><br/>“I lost my winnings, don’t even try to steal any more!” she growled.<br/><br/>The knife came out and back into her holster as she gathered up her money and looked toward the stage. Really, she had just lost a couple of thousand for this. Apryl rolled her eyes and frowned as she watched magnificent tease the men into a beastly mob. She pocketed the remains of her money, and sat down. At this rate, there was enough to make a payment on some of her debts with enough left over to buy a jar of beans, maybe. She would stay put at the Dead Horse at any rate. As long as the man with gold in his guns and shit in his head was buying drinks for the ladies, she could order the most expensive brand of whiskey every now and then, stock it in a flask, and sell or trade it later. Cheers to the idiot!<br/><br/>It wasn’t a long period of brooding at a table before Apryl heard the cock of a hammer, followed by another but slower than the first. Apryl's attention shot towards the bar, but the crowd was in front of her and she couldn't see the action. With that, she squinted and put her hands in her ears. A shot rang through the bar, followed by another. Soon, everyone’s attention was on two people as the crowd parted and stilled enough for Apryl to see. There was some bum bleeding all over the floor, and a woman in a black duster who had just sat a wad of bills on the bar counter.  The lady stood out like a sore thumb as the obvious choice for the shooter, even to those who hadn't seen it. She was walking away as if nothing had happened, or at least attempting to. Apryl doubted she'd get very far if the man had any friends here, or if anyone else was just plain trigger happy.