He shook his head. “Don’t come running to mewhen things get hard. This is awful work.”
“Why not stop, then?”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t get it.” Hegrabbed my upper arm. “There is no out. Once you’re in, you’re inuntil you die.”
“I don’t get it. It’s just a job.”
“Oh, I see. Let me guess, Viktor told youwhat a good job this was to get you through college. And whatexactly do you want to do with your life?” He was speaking throughhis teeth with forced restraint, and I cowered slightly under thepressure of his touch. If I hadn’t been wearing a coat, his nailswould most likely have broken the skin. “I’m going to be the headengineer for BMW.”
He laughed, a wretched sound in thedarkness. “And I was going to be a lawyer.” He started to pace, hisfists balled at his sides.
“So—be a lawyer.”
“No. They won’t allow it. Or if they do,I’ll just be their lawyer, doing all their dirty work. No. The onlyway you or I will be engineers or lawyers is if the Pakhanneeds us to be. And even then, he’ll choose exactly what we do withour studies, and he’ll own us. Forever.”
I let my eyes go wide and said, “You’reexaggerating.”
“Not one bit. I tried to tell you. Whydidn’t you listen to me?”
“Say what you want. I’m not scared.” Ijutted my chin out.
“You should be. Let’s go.” He pressed hislips together and shook his head, a deep sadness shadowing hisface.
Our phones beeped. Mikado said, “We’reon.”
It turned out that Mikado and I were quitethe pair. It only took us three minutes and twenty seconds to getme in the driver’s seat.
“Impressive, Amber. Now, press your fingeron the button on the last message and follow the directions.”
“Aren’t you coming with me?”
“I have another car to pick up.” His eyesdarted away from me. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow, but act aswe always have. We are not friends.” He walked away. I drove out ofthe parking lot.
Once on the main road, I followed thedirections as they were spoken to me from the phone. I was led to asemi with its back doors open and a ramp attached. Two men stood oneither side of the ramp. I drove straight in, turned the car off,and hurried out.
Once I was out, they lifted the ramp, andthe truck rumbled away. One of the men pointed to a subway hole,and without a word, I walked toward it. To my surprise, I gotanother text that sent me to another location. I guessed Mikado andI weren’t finished with each other after all. As I rounded thecorner to arrive at my assigned location, I took a stutter step.Mikado wasn’t standing there; it was Jericho. He spotted me andmoved toward me.
“Guess you were expecting someone else?” Hehad a smirk on his face.
I braced myself for his pompousness. “No. Imean, yes. I was just with Mikado and figured—”
“Never assume anything, and nevertalk about prior or future assignments with anyone. Maybe I washere for some other purpose.”
“Sorry. I—”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s a rookie mistake. I’mhere to make sure you don’t make any more of those.”
His soft demeanor and voice surprisedme.
“What is the code message they gave you atthe bottom of the text? That’s what you’ll say to anyone you thinkis the contact you’re supposed to meet.”
I pulled the phone out and scrolled throughthe message. Sure enough, at the bottom of the text was thestatement, Crazy how there aren’t any stars out tonight. Andthen another, presumably the reply, Only in this neck of thewoods.
So, I repeated the first phrase to him, andhe responded with the other phrase. “At that point you’ll move intoposition for the lift without another word passing betweenyou.”
I scanned the area for the car listed andspotted it right away. It helped that Jericho was headed for italready. I walked purposefully, but without haste. No one wasaround. No one. The bratva had an amazing handle on theiroperations.
Once in the car, driving it to the pickuplocation, he spoke again. “Do you always play hard to get or justwith me?”
I had a choice, I could own up to it orpretend with a bit of sass that I didn’t know what he was talkingabout. I went with my gut, which told me he liked sass. “I don’tknow what you’re talking about. If I thought someone like you wouldwant little ol’ me, don’t you think I’d jump at the chance?” Ispoke in monotone and looked him straight on.
“I think you and I are going to get alongjust fine.” He nodded. “Definitely.”
I snickered. Definitely a sass kind ofguy.
We drove the car inside a truck. This timethe two guys standing near the ramp jumped inside when we exited.They raised the ramp, and the doors to the truck shut behindthem.
“Why are they staying inside this time?” Iasked as we walked to our next lift.
“They’ll relocate for the next car. Whilethey wait, they’ll reassign the VIN number, remove the plates, andput the new title information in the glove box. Great, efficientsystem, don’t you think?” He raised his eyebrows.
I nodded, trying to look contemplative,which wasn’t hard because I was processing everything he wassaying. They probably sent vory to hit up the localjunkyards to get VIN numbers from cars that were similar to theones they were stealing. As far as a forged title, that was anothermatter.
“Now, let’s talk about how you hook up tothe computer system. You’re wasting about ten seconds doing it theway you are.” He then went on to explain how he shaved off that tenseconds.
“I guess you’re the man I’m supposed to askif I have any questions. Are you the official trainer?”
He chuckled. “You could call me that.”
“Well, I don’t want to call you anythingthat you really aren’t.” I turned pointedly to him. “What are youexactly?”
“Someone you want on your side.” His voicewas serious, deadly.
We’d only walked a block when he said, “Now,try to do what I told you to do when hooking up the computer thistime.”
I’d been
