Chapter Three- Getting a Crew Together
Mac sat out on his back deck, drinking coffee.
It was great coffee, from South America, and for the cost of it he could have bought some well aged wine, if that was his thing. But he liked coffee. Expensive hand pressed beans drip brewed and sipped slowly.
Black, steaming hot, heaven in a cup.
Except, ever since he lost his job, everything he put in his mouth tasted the same.
Like piss.
He needed to get the hell out of this exile his brother cast him into. But that would mean turning on her, and that was not an option.
Anna walked out the door, dressed head to toe in black.
Mac perked up. "Who you been talking on the phone with for the last hour?"
Anna ignored the question and moved in front of his chair.
"You bored, Scorpio?"
He gave her a look that said, Do you even have to ask?
She said, "Well, dust off your tools of the trade. We've been commissioned."
Such a high class word for what they would be doing. Snatch and grab, con and scheme was more like it.
Whatever Anna had in mind, Mac was up for it. This kicking back lifestyle was spanking his ass, and not in a good way.
He stood up. "We gonna need more people?" His voice was hopeful.
Maybe this was a way to approach Robert again, keep it all business and not personal.
Anna shook her head. "Face it, Mac, he doesn't have any use for either of us, not now. You gonna be able to handle that?"
Mac studied her face. He had known her too long to start lying to her now. "Doubt it."
He paused, ran his hand through his hair. Thought of the wife that kicked him out, the brother who wouldn't even talk to him. The niece who wanted her parents and uncle to be anything but criminals.
Mac asked her, "You ever gonna tell him we aren't sleeping together?"
"That he could even think we would is the exact reason he will never know he was wrong," Anna said. "You want to keep slacking because Robert won't work with us or you want to get back to what we do best?"
Mac knew only working could give him any pleasure now.
With a glint in his eye, feeling the old rush starting to run through his veins, he asked. "So, what's the job?"
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LUKE called Robert, "Got the dame. How you doing?"
"Got The Hitter, The Kid and Romeo. But I can't locate J," Robert told him.
"You check the strip clubs?"
"Of course."
"Jake's?" Luke asked
"And every other dive bar in fifty miles. Yeah, that was fun. Met some nice ladies."
Luke said, "I bet. So after the viagra wore off, where else did you look?"
"The docks, the condo in Miami, I even called your darling daughter."
"He wasn't with her, was he?" Luke blamed his white hair on the three months Lulu dated The Jackal.
He could work with the guy or the guy could date his daughter.
But not both.
"No." Robert said "I got a man I know down in Nashville on route to Oakfield right now."
Luke said, "We're on the road, too. Carly is pissed. Although, I think she should be thanking me. I saved her from a life of conning toddlers out of their lunch money."
"So why is she coming if she's still ticked off?"
"For revenge," Luke said, he smiled as he glanced at her in the passenger seat. " The dish that is best served cold is still Sweet Caroline's favorite meal."
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DOWN IN OAKFIELD, a man kicked down a hotel room door, gun drawn.
The couple on the bed froze, untangled, and the guy cried "I didn't know she was married!"
"You did too!" the woman complained.
The intruder said "You," and pointed at Spinelli "have a job to do. Scorpio wants you on a plane within the hour."
Spinelli smacked the ass of his bed partner, "Catch you later, my sexy alligator. Papa got to go to work."
