Deception

by Dan Lawton

  Realizing that it’s way bigger than a rock, I throw myself to my knees and frantically start digging with my hands. The coarse soil and jagged pebbles cut into my dry, cracked hands, but I ignore the discomfort and push onward. A corner of a rustic wooden box slowly appears through the dirt, but it won’t budge upon my shaking it. I search for a handle to pull on for leverage, but I come up empty. I push more dirt off the top of the wooden panel until the entire top of the secured box is visible. I wedge my hands along the edges and try to move the box, but it still won’t budge. Before I can ask for help, Frank jumps across from me and gets himself in a position to help me hoist it up and out. I wedge my hands further down the edge of the box as far as I can reach, and we yank as hard as we can on a silent count of three. With each inch we pull the box upward, the sand caves in around the edges like an avalanche and the pressure is immense. My arms are shaking and my teeth are grinding, but with one final thrust the box pops out of the hole. I stumble backwards as we drop the heavy oak next to the now sunken cloudy gravel pit.

  The perspiration pours off my forehead, and I’m drained from the intense physical activity on such little sleep and malnutrition. The box must be double if not triple the size of the safe that’s in the wall, or what’s left of it, and it looks plenty big enough to hold what I think it does. I can feel the brass key poking into my thigh from inside my pants pocket, so I reach my hand in and twist it out. I grip it tightly and stare at the hole on the top of the latch on the lid of the box.

  You better fucking fit.

  My hand shakes as I bring the key to the lock and jam it in. The key fits like a glove, and I turn it until the crusted mechanism snaps open. I remove the lock and slowly open the lid, and I hold my breath until the light sneaks in.

  Stacks and stacks of Benjamin’s fill every square inch of the box. They’re piled to the top of the wood and lined across the bottom in a perfect linear pattern. The bills are banded together, in stacks of thousands or ten-thousands I’m guessing, and they look brand new.

  “We fucking did it,” I say before collapsing to the ground with a bevy of emotions.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  GEORGE

  The morning has become early afternoon and the three of us are back in the van, heading to the old police station. Alicia was able to push most of the blood to the grass on the side of the driveway with the hose, but obvious stains do still cover the cement, and probably will permanently.

  Alicia and I sit on the benches across from one another while Billy drives. Billy fills Alicia in on the final stages of the plan so everyone is on the same page. He summarizes again as we pull into the garage.

  “To recap,” Billy says as he turns to Alicia, “wait for my call-”

  “I know,” she interrupts. “If I don’t hear from you by ten o’clock tonight, I’ll leave. I got it.”

  Billy smiles at her. “Good, you were listening.”

  Alicia sighs and looks back and forth at Billy and me. “Be careful you guys.”

  Billy opens the back doors for her and she slides out, but not before placing her hand on mine. It’s subtle and quick, and I half expect to see a note in my hand, but it was no mistake. Billy helps her step out of the van and whispers something in her ear. She turns her face toward me as he kisses her cheek. She looks at me the entire time. The back doors close and Billy hops back in the front. He pops his head in the back as the garage door squeaks open.

  “Come join me up here,” he says.

  I crawl over the center console and into the passenger’s seat. I strap myself in as we pull into the street.

  “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this you know,” he continues.

  “No?”

  “No. I didn’t mean to involve you like this. I didn’t realize it was going to go this far. So I’m sorry for that. I just wanted you to know.”

  “I just want it to be over with.”

  “I want to do something for you.”

  I chuckle to myself. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  “I want to give you a cut of the money.”

  I jolt my head in his direction. “What?”

  “That’s right. I’ve think you earned a little something for your efforts.”

  I ponder this for a moment, not sure of his motive. “I don’t want the money. I just want to get out of here and start over with my life.”

  “It’ll be a little tough to start over without any money. Now’s not the time to be a tough guy, alright? Just say you’ll take it before I change my mind.”

  Something smells fishy about it, but I agree anyway just to shut him up, “Fine, if you insist.”

  “Good. I do.”

  I glance at the clock as we glide to a stop at the street light. The talk of the money makes me uncomfortable, like I’m an accessory as opposed to a victim, so I change the subject.

  “So, we’re down to six hours, what next?”

  “We have to head back to the house and get ready. But before we do, we have to make a stop.”

  ---

  We pull in front of a strip mall off of the main strip in the center of town and slide into one of the slanted parking spots across from the franchised electronics store. Billy opens his door and hops out of the van, so I do the same. I follow him into the store.

  It’s dead. The shelves are full and the store is mostly clean besides a few smudged fingerprints on the front doors and some dust on an endcap. A middle-aged man sits on a stool behind the counter, clicking away on the computer. Billy walks up to the counter and waits for the man to greet us. Joe is the store manager, as read from his name badge that hangs from a yellow lanyard around his neck. Joe looks up to us we wait impatiently.

  “Good afternoon, gentleman, what can I do for you today?” Joe says.

  I glance to Billy, as I too am curious of the same thing.

  “We need two phones,” Billy says. “And they need to be untraceable.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  BILLY

  It takes me a moment to gather myself, but once I do, we move with rapid speed. I’ve been hauling around a duffel bag everywhere we go, and I finally get the chance to use it for the purpose I bought it for. I grab the bag, unzip it, and pour the contents on the ground beside me. The tools that we’ve used to dismantle Snake’s house clatter together as gravity pulls them to the dirt. Carefully wrapping my fingers around two stacks of bills at a time, I pile them into the bag until the earthed box is completely empty. I flip the corner of each stack as I put it in the bag, wafting the smell of revenge as it seeps through the bills.

  When the last stack is squeezed into the bag, I zip it and toss it over my shoulder. It’s heavier than I would have thought, but the strain on my lower back is more than worth it. I direct Frank to gather up the items from the ground and I head in the direction of the van. We leave the box above ground with the note from the safe inside as a way to give the Zved’s the middle finger when they come looking for the money. The lock rests on the ground next to it with the key still engaged.

  Let them suck on that.

  Frank catches up to George and me as we approach the van. I place my arm around his shoulder and pull him forward and out of range for George to hear. His arms are piled with everything that was in the duffel bag before, and I immediately remove my gun from his pocket and slide it back into my holster.

  “Did you get everything?” I ask him as we walk ahead of George.

  “I think so, boss. My pockets are full too.”

  “We’ll head for Mexico in the morning, okay?”

  “Why not now?”

  “We all need a fresh start. We need some rest.”

  “What about Georgie?”

  “We’ll drop him off in the morning, then we’ll hit the road.”

  Frank nods and smiles, and I do the same.

  “We did good, buddy, we did good.”

  ---

  Back in the old police station, Frank, George, and I are in one of the offices. I’m s
itting in a chair in front of a table, Frank is nodding off in the chair next to me, and George is nervously tapping his foot, wondering why I haven’t let him go. I haven’t seen Alicia yet, and I’m looking forward to seeing her reaction when she discovers what I’ve found.

  I told her I would find it, and I did. I expect that she’s preparing a reward for me.

  I unzip the bag of cash so that some of the bills fall onto the tabletop for effect. I grab a single stack and count it: Ten-thousand even, just as I thought.

  I had promised Frank that I would let George go unharmed, but I still haven’t made a final decision about that. I had intended all along to let him go when we finished, but now I’m not so sure. He’s a whole lot smarter than I thought he would be, and I’m just not sure I can trust him to not go to the police. Or worse, now that Frank has babbled to him where we’re going next, what if he comes looking for us and the money? I’m just not sure that I can risk it. I’ll have to sleep on it.

  Behind me, the door creaks open and Alicia enters the room. The excitement in her voice makes me jump, and I turn to face her to gauge her reaction. She stares at the table in disbelief, and I think I can see the reflection of Independence Hall in her iris. She smiles at me, and at George, and I half expect her to come kiss me.

  She doesn’t.

  Now that he has his security blanket in the room, George suddenly has the balls to confront me. He wouldn’t dare if Alicia wasn’t here, and I don’t blame him. She’s been on his side the whole time, until now. I’m not blind, I realize this, but money talks, baby; she’s all mine now.

  I tell him that I’ll let him go in the morning, which may be a lie, or maybe not, and he flips his shit. He tells me that he’s leaving, both he and Alicia, and I wait for her reaction before I do anything. She glances at me and it’s obvious she wants me to step in, so I do. Just as they’re about to leave the room, I sneak up behind them and grab Alicia’s wrist. George turns to me as Alicia gasps, and I jam the barrel of my gun into his forehead. He looks at me in a panic, and I know I have him at my mercy. He’ll stay the night, and I’ll figure out what to do with him by morning. Frank is suddenly awake and alert, and he’s standing next to me.

  “Get him out of my face,” I say, then Frank grabs him and leads him away. I listen for the steel door to the holding room down the hall to open and close, then I pull Alicia inside the office and close the door. “You weren’t going to go with him, were you?”

  “Of course not.”

  “I didn’t see any resistance from you. It sure looked like you were going to go if I didn’t stop him.”

  “What was I supposed to do?”

  “So you were going to go with him?”

  She crosses her arms and looks away. I shake my head at her in disgust without her noticing. She brushes past me and approaches the table, then quickly changes the subject.

  “Look at all that money,” she says in admiration.

  I grin and suddenly don’t care about what she was going to do before. I turn and walk next to her, then put my arms around her waist. I slide my thumb along her inner thigh.

  “It’s all ours. You and me. Husband and-”

  “Please don’t.” She pushes my arm off of her and steps aside.

  “What’s your problem?”

  She shakes her head. I move next to her and pull her close. She refuses to look at me, and she clearly doesn’t want to talk about it. We have a long ride tomorrow, so we’ll talk about it then. I’ll convince her.

  “What about George?” she says.

  “What about him?”

  “Why didn’t you let him go?”

  I shrug. “I haven’t decided what I want to do with him yet.”

  “That was not part of the plan. You were going to let him go as soon as we got the money.”

  “I guess it’s a good thing I’m the one in charge then, huh?”

  Alicia is scorching now, and the vein on her forehead pulsates as it protrudes from her face. I’ve never found her sexier. I smile at her.

  “What are you smiling at?”

  “You.”

  “Why?”

  “I was just thinking. There might be something that will help me make up my mind.”

  She’s much calmer now, and attentive. “I’m listening.”

  Without saying anything, I slowly lean in and place my lips on the side of her neck. She doesn’t resist, which surprises me, so I caress her jawbone and earlobe with my tongue. She finally stops me as I work my way up and blow warm breath from my nose into her ear canal.

  “Billy, please stop.”

  I back away from her and look into her eyes. Her mouth doesn’t agree with the signals from her brain, and I can tell she wants it. I walk over to the door and lock it.

  Frank can have the front seat to himself tonight.

  My eyes meet with Alicia’s as I make my way back toward her. “Shut up,” I say with tenderness, then I force her to make love to me, finally, for the first time.

  ---

  It’s morning and I’m in a much better mood now. I wake Alicia and tell her to meet me in the van. She looks like hell, and she would tell me it’s because she was crying all night if I were to ask, so I don’t. She was crying alright, but I didn’t hear her say “stop” too many times, and none of those times were without the preceding “don’t”.

  I make my way down the corridor and to the holding area where George is being kept. I’ve decided that I’m going to let him go, and he has no idea the debt that he owes to Alicia for that. He literally owes her his life.

  I wake him as I enter the room and lead him out, then we head for the van. He joins Frank and Alicia in the back while I drive in silence back to Josie’s Bar and Pub.

  I think about the long drive to Mexico that’s going to start today, and what it is that we’re going to do when we get there. All of our documentation is in place and being stored in the glove box for safe keeping. It will take us just about a total of twenty-four hours on the road, four tanks of gas, two hotels, and lots of stops for grub. We’ll drive south on I-35 and ride through Wichita, Oklahoma City, and through the heart of Texas before we cross the border in Laredo. We’ll eventually make our way down to Cancun, we may fly, after a brief stop at a border town on the Gulf of Mexico. That stop is still to be determined. It would be quicker and easier to fly into Mexico, but they’ll never let us in with the kind of cash that we have on us. Plus, I refuse to let it out of my sight until it can be dispersed safely into numerous different banks and accounts.

  Once in Cancun, I have instructions to call a local in regards to a boat that he’s holding for me. I’ll wire him twenty-five percent once we cross the border, then I’ll pay him the remaining seventy-five percent in cash when we do make our way there. I’ll use the time on the road to convince Alicia to marry me once we get to Cancun and before we set sail, and I’m confident she’ll give in once she realizes that it’s either that or I leave the dock without her. I don’t really have a backup plan at this point, so I need her to pull through. Frank will be staying back in Cancun until I can figure out how to get him across the channel, although he doesn’t know that yet.

  I pull into the empty parking lot of Josie’s, and George’s car is still in the same place it was a few days prior. The only additions are a parking ticket and a boot on one of the tires. Maybe I’ll give him a few bucks to get that taken care of, or maybe not. I put the van in park but leave the engine running, then I get out and walk to the back to open the doors.

  “You can go,” I say to George.

  He gets up from his seat and hops out of the van. He looks relived to be free, and I’m not sure if I’ve made the right decision or not. If he was wise, he’d get a move on it before I change my mind. He reaches for Alicia, but she doesn’t move from the bench. I grin to myself and take pleasure in the fact that we finally get to break the news to him. Alicia starts to cry as George presses for her to follow, and I can’t help but roll my eyes. I’m looking forwa
rd to this continuous charade to be over with so she and I can start our lives together. She begins to tell him everything, but is cut off quickly once the attacks begin.

  I spin around and instinctively reach for my weapon, but realize that I have left it in the van. I duck and cover my head as I see a black van, similar in style to mine, trying to weave through traffic at the opposite end of the parking lot. The windows are tinted, and all I can see is the heavy shotgun barrel pointing out the window of the passenger’s side and an occasional shell being discharged onto the street. They’re warning shots from that distance, a trademark of the Zved’s, but they’ll become much more than that if they get here before we leave.

  We have to go.

  I pull George down next to me and tell him to get back into the van, but he’s understandably hesitant. It’s life or death, and I don’t have time to wait for him to make up his mind. I wait for it, and once the next shot blasts and the echoes are bellowing, I hop into the back of the van and crawl my way into the safety of the front seat. I slide the transmission into drive and give George one more chance.

  It’s now or never.

  Frank reaches his arm out for George, who eventually does grab it and is yanked into the van. I peel away, rubber burning and smoke clouding, as Frank slams the back doors.

  Using the skills I had learned at the academy, I weave in and out of traffic with a vengeance, and I know it’s not long before I lose the tail. How did they find us so quickly? I know they were snooping around the building the other day, but how did they know where we were going? They must have been following us. They have never seen Alicia before the other day though, and they certainly don’t know the association between her and me. That only leaves one possible reason: They have somehow found out my identity. I have a sneaking suspicion how, but I really hope I’m wrong.