Lex stared at me and said, “You don’t wanna know. Now, go.”
I jumped in the minivan and headed out of the parking lot to the small road that led to the Clearview Expressway, then quickly veered off to a dirt road and parked behind some bushes. I got out of the van, taking the money with me. I ran up a slight hill, where I found Denny laying down in the grass, looking at the parking lot I’d just left with a pair of binoculars.
“Did he open it yet?
“Nah, he’s doing something to it now. Must be some type of electronic unlocking device. I don’t know.” The story about Denny staying behind as an insurance policy was true, but after driving around playing hide and seek with that truck for two days, we wanted to know what was in it. So, we’d decided to stick around and see.
“You get all the loot?” he asked.
I tapped the bag. “I didn’t count it, but it damn sure feels heavy enough to be all there.”
“It better be. So, was he pissed about us upping the amount?”
“Nah, not as much you would think,” I said. “But he did say we need to lay low for a while. I ain’t never seen him act that way. Like, he was all shook.”
“Well, with that extra two hundred, we can do that.” Denny stuck his fist out, and I bumped it. “Oh, shit! He’s got it open.” He handed me the binoculars.
“What the fuck?” I mumbled as I watched one, two, three women step out of the truck.
“What’s going on?”
I handed the binoculars back to him so he could see.
“What the fuck?” Denny said. “Is he on some human trafficking shit? That truck’s full of girls.”
“I counted three, but there are more getting out?” I asked.
“I got eight so far,” he replied, still peering through the binoculars. “A few of them are running away from him.” Denny laughed.
“Heads up. There’s another car approaching,” I said as a black Jeep Cherokee with tinted windows pulled into the lot. “Must be his buyer.”
“I don’t think so,” Denny replied. “The guy in the Jeep’s getting out. White guy in black camouflage. He’s got a AK—oh, shit!”
Suddenly, we heard rapid gunfire, and even without binoculars, I could see the three runaways falling as they were gunned down. I’d played my share of video games and even shot a couple of brothers in real life, but I’d never seen anything like this before.
“What the fuck! He–he j–just shot three of them,” Denny stammered.
I snatched the binoculars to get a better look. The gunman pulled out a handgun, then walked over to each of the fallen women and put a bullet in their heads to make sure he’d finished the job. He pointed at the truck, and the rest of the women scurried back in. He then turned to Lex, who looked like he was going to shit on himself when the man approached him. I zoomed in with the binoculars to get a good look at this sadistic son of a bitch. Whoever the fuck he was, he looked like something out of the movie Natural Born Killers.
“What the fuck is he doing?”
“It looks like he’s talking to Lex.”
Lex was now down on his knees with his hands clasped, pleading for his life. Lex said something, and then the man lowered his gun as Lex reached into his pocket and handed over his phone. The man studied the phone for a minute and gave a satisfied smile. It looked like old Lex might be okay—until the man raised his handgun and shot him in the head.
I watched him fall backward and then lowered the binoculars. “Fuck.”
“Rome, let’s get the fuck outta here, man.” Denny looked scared shitless. Not that I was feeling very courageous.
“We’re not going anywhere until that motherfucker is gone,” I said with finality. “Now, stay down. The last thing we wanna do is bump into him on our way out.”
Denny nodded his agreement.
I lifted the binoculars and couldn’t see the gunman. I almost started to panic because losing sight of him could be dangerous. Then I realized he’d closed up the truck and was in the cab. I heard the truck rumble to a start, and within a minute, it disappeared from the parking lot.
KD
41
By the time I’d swallowed the third shot of bourbon, I was feeling quite nice. It was only ten in the morning, but I’d been sitting at the airport bar for an hour and had no plans to leave any time soon. My eyes were glued on the TV screen, where some broad on the news was talking about three women and a man being killed under the Throgs Neck Bridge. What the dumb bitch hadn’t mentioned was that those girls were worth a hundred and twenty grand a piece, and they belonged to me.
“Morning, KD.”
I turned around to see Slick pulling out the bar stool beside me.
“Well, if it ain’t Superman just flown in to save old KD’s ass. I gotta tell you, I’m mighty impressed with the work you did last night finding that truck. Mighty impressed. I would have never thought to put GPS on the trailers and the trucks.”
“Just doing my job, boss. You did put me in charge of loss prevention.” Slick grinned with pride.
“Speaking of losses, what the fuck happened? Why did you kill three of the girls?”
“Sorry, boss, but I had no choice. They were out of the truck, running away. I needed to get the situation under control. Better we lose three than the whole load, right?” Slick replied in no uncertain terms. “There’s a million niggers, spicks, and chinks for you to sell on the black market, but you would be screwed if the cops got a hold of that truck.”
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize he’d done the right thing.
“I can’t argue with your logic, but more importantly, I appreciate you looking out for my best interests.” I motioned for the
