“What’s your section chief got against you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m doing my job too well.” She started to say something else and then stopped.
Bagger quickly picked up on this. “Spill it. Come on, maybe I can help.”
She sighed. “Well, believe it or not, the man wants to sleep with me. Only he’s married, and I told him to back off.”
Bagger nodded his head. “The bastard! It’s always the same crap. The ladies don’t put out, they get pushed out.”
Annabelle was staring down at her hands. “This screws my career, Jerry. Portland! Damn it!” She hurled her phone against the wall, where it broke in half. Then she slumped in a chair. “Maybe I just should’ve slept with the guy.”
Bagger started rubbing her shoulders. “No way. Guys like that, you do it once they keep expecting it. Then they get tired of you, or get a new honey. Then zip, it’s Portland for your sweet ass anyway.”
“I just want to nail that little son of a bitch so bad.”
Bagger looked thoughtful. “Well, maybe that can be arranged.”
She looked up at him warily. “Jerry, you can’t put a hit on the guy, okay?”
“I’m not thinking about that, baby. You said he might be pissed because you’re doing your job
“I bring in too much money, then all of a sudden people start looking at me to move up. I start moving up, then all of a sudden I’m a threat to his job. Believe it or not, Jerry, there aren’t a lot of women doing what I do. There are some who would love to see another female in a section chief slot. If I keep bringing in people like you and flood our overseas operations with ‘finessed’ cash, it hurts him and helps me.”
“Hell, only in the government sector do you get dinged for
“What are you talking about?”
“Our next run at El Banco.”
“Jerry, I’m being reassigned. My associate and I are on a plane tonight.”
“Okay, okay. But here’s the deal. Until you leave you can do one last run, right?”
Annabelle seemed to consider this. “Well, yeah, I mean, I have the authorizations. But even a million bucks in
“I’m not talking a measly million.” He looked at her. “What’s the largest single amount you’ve ‘finessed’?”
She thought for a moment. “Most of the wires are one to five million. But I did fifteen million in Vegas. And twenty mil from New York, but that was two years ago.”
“Chickenshit.”
“Chickenshit? Right!”
“Tell me, what would really hurt this guy?”
“Jerry, I don’t know. Thirty million.”
“Let’s make it forty million. And let’s make it four days instead of two.” He figured quickly in his head. “So that’s twenty percent interest instead of ten. And that comes to eight million to yours truly. A nice piece of finessing.”
“You’ve got forty million in cash?”
“Hey, who do you think you’re talking to? And we had two championship fights here in the last week. I’m flush with green.”
“But why are you doing this?”
“Eight mil in four days is nothing to sneeze at, even for a guy like me.” He gave her neck a rub. “Plus, like I said, you’re growing on me, lady.”
“But I’m still going to Oregon. I can’t disobey orders.”
“Okay, you go to Oregon. But then you think about getting out and coming back here. I’ll even give you ten percent of the eight and set you up nice.”
“I’m not looking to be your kept woman, Jerry. I’ve got a brain.”
“That you do, and I’ll put it to good use. Along with the rest of you.” He ran his hand down her back. “I’ll call down to the boys.”
“But like I said, I leave for Oregon tonight by private plane.”
“I understand that.”
“What I’m saying, Jerry, is there’s no way you’ll have your money back before I leave.”
He laughed. “Oh, the hostage thing? I think we’re past that, sweetie. You’ve made me one point six million and counting, so I think you’ve proved yourself.”
“Only if you’re sure. Forty mil is a lot of money.”
“Hey, the gig was my idea, not yours. I’ll handle it.”
She stood. “I’ve run a lot of these ops, Jerry, and to me it’s just a job.” She paused. “Everybody else they just
