Rain Falling in the Pines
ShortStory 7,490 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"Two men in dark sunglasses stepped through the doors of the Monte Carmelo. They stopped and scanned the gloomy inside. Geshem-Nofel-Ba’oranim clocked them and kept to his booth. He knew trouble when it walked through the door looking for him. The two men were armed. Security, probably federal. That’s if Geshem was lucky, if it wasn’t someone he owed money to."
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.