“Always playing the middle.”
“When I can.”
“I won’t worry about you, Stella. But I do want this girl. So I’ll get you the money, with one condition. That you’ll be right there with me when I make the snatch. Because I don’t trust you, understand? I won’t get burned by you again.”
“Fair enough.”
“When can we set it up?”
“Soon as you want, lover.”
“I need to get my hands on the money and a van. How’s tomorrow night sound?”
“Sounds good.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow, hear?”
Quinn hit “end.” He phoned Sue Tracy and got her on her cell.
“Sue, it’s Terry.” He cleared his throat. “Quinn.”
“Hey, Terry.” There was a rasp to her voice, and he heard a long exhale before she said, “What’s up?”
“Listen, I got a strong line on Jennifer Marshall. But I’m gonna need a half a yard to buy the last piece of the puzzle.”
“I can get it.”
“Good. I think I might be able to make a grab tomorrow night.”
“We can do that.”
“We?”
“Well, one person generally can’t do this right, Terry. I’ll bring the van.”
“Okay, then. Okay.”
“Hold on a second.”
Quinn heard a rustling sound and waited for Tracy to get back on the line.
“Tell me where and when,” she said.
“You all right?”
“I’m in bed, Terry.”
“Oh.”
“I had to find paper and pen. Go ahead.”
“I don’t know yet. What I mean is, I’ll let you know.”
“You been out tonight?”
“Well, yeah.”
“You sound like you been drinking a little.”
“Just a little.”
“I bet you drink alone.”
“I don’t like to,” said Quinn.
“Tell you what. We get this girl tomorrow, I’m gonna buy you a beer. You don’t mind sitting next to a woman when you drink, do you?”
Quinn swallowed. “No.”
“Good work, Quinn.”
Quinn sat there for a while thinking of the velvet sandpaper in Sue Tracy’s voice, the sound of her long exhale, the way his stomach had kind of flipped when she’d said “I’m in bed.” How “Good work, Quinn” had sounded like “Fuck me, Terry” to him. Well, he was just a man, as stupid as any other. He looked down, saw his hand resting on the crotch of his jeans, and had to grin. He was too tired to jerk off, so he went to bed.
STRANGE sat on the edge of the bed, Janine’s strong thighs over his. She moved slowly up and down on his manhood, gyrating on the upstroke, that thing she did that made him feel twenty-one all over again. One of his hands grasped her ass and the other was flat on the sheets, and he pushed off, burying himself all the way inside her.
“You going for my backbone, sugar?”
“A man can try.”
She gave him her hips. “Shit, yeah.”
“C’mon, baby.”
“I am on the way.”
She kissed him deep, her eyes wide and alive. She kept them open when they kissed. He liked that.
Strange licked and sucked at one of her dark nipples, and Janine laughed low. Quiet Storm was coming from the clock radio by the bed, playing Dorothy Moore. Strange had turned it up before undressing her, so that Lionel, in the
