"Dammit, Collin, you know how much money I got in there? You know how much I pack around on me sometimes?"
"That's your business. You can use the bank and bonded messengers—they get along with dogs."
"Telling me how to run my business?"
"I'm telling you to give me that gun. You'll get the same police protection as any other citizen."
Neff sneered openly. "I'd a been dead thirty years ago depending on cops."
"I don't doubt that a minute. You're easy to hate, Erd. Are you going to give me that gun?"
"No."
"You like things the hard way, don't you?" Burns got back in the squad car and drove off. Neff spat a crater in the wheat-littered dust and got into his own car.
