“It’s this little diner I found the other day when I was running for Harvey. The food is great. You are going to love it.”
One look around the old, overly simple diner and I eye Luke with a sigh. I can’t imagine this food is any good, and sure enough when our plates are set in front of us, I immediately have to push it away. “So listen, I know Harvey’s safe combination where he keeps one of his money keys. All we need to do is give me enough time to get in there to replace the key with a fake and then get out, without being detected. I don’t know how much money is in this one, but considering how much he checks on it, there is enough that we have to take advantage of this opportunity.”
“If Harvey finds out we stole his key, he will immediately sign our death warrants,” Luke says, vibrating with uneasiness.
“We need to make sure to replace the key with a phony and act as if nothing is amiss until we can get to that money and clean him out,” I say with happiness. “We have four days to clean him out, he goes to check on his money every Tuesday and Friday, but this next week he can’t go until Wednesday at the earliest. We have to move now.”
“I don’t know, Nick. I think if we stay with Harvey, then we are good forever. He has a lot of connections, and his power is growing every day. Why not stick with him and grow with him?” Luke remarks with a blind optimism.
I watch Elijah as he rolls his eyes. He is miserable and wants more than anything to stick it to Harvey. Not to mention his father needs even more care than what Elijah can afford right now. Luke rambles on with his usual abundant energy, barely paying attention to us as he watches the waitress pass by us. “Luke. Luke!” I snap until he looks at me. “Listen to me. We are going to do this, and it is going to be better. Trust me and I will take care of you better than Harvey ever will.” Once Luke calms and nods, I sit back and glance Elijah’s way, noticing his quick look away from me.
“I want to go my own way, Nicky. I would love to work together, but I think for the sake of our friendship. It would be best that we aren’t both trying to be the boss. We can help each other if need be, but … I need to go my own way,” Elijah says.
Despite his avoidance of my eyes, I trust Elijah more than anyone else, so I nod in agreement. “Okay, so let’s get this plan worked out.” Luke immediately dives in with his thoughts, aggravating Elijah to the point that he can no longer let it go. The two bicker, while I block them out and think of my own strategy. I concentrate on Harvey and become angry. I think of Connor, and my entire body tightens into a heated rage. I want him dead, and I want Harvey dead. In fact, I want to take them both down completely and take over. I daydream my revenge until something distracts me or rather someone distracts me. She walks in with little to no body shape at all. Her glasses are huge and beyond horrible, but the moment her eyes meet mine, I tremble. I tremble?
I try to ignore her and get back into the conversation at my table, but she sits down at the table beside us, and I can think of nothing else. She won’t even look at me, she just buries herself within her book and ignores the world around her. Pulling my plate towards me, I begin to pick at my food. I need salt.
“Excuse me, can I borrow your salt?” I ask the girl at the table next to us, smiling my best smile, of course. She grabs the salt and hands it to me without removing her book from her nose. Okay? “Thank you.” Pepper! Leaning over again. “Sorry to bother you again, but can I borrow your pepper too?” She grabs her pepper and hands it to me, only this time I graze her hand with my thumb. A smile instantly rushes to my face and I can do nothing to stop it. “Thank you,” I say, looking back up at her and her complete indifference to me. Sliding back into my seat, I stare at her stuffing a fork full of food into my mouth. Frustrated, I lean back towards her, “If you don’t mind …”
She looks up and takes the whole carousel of condiments and puts it in my hands, “There, you should be set now. Right?”
“It seems that way,” I say, cocking my head as I stare into her eyes with no reaction from her at all.
“Good, so then I guess you will be leaving me alone now.” She holds up her book, “I only have five chapters left. Please.”
“Sure, enjoy it,” I say sitting back in my seat, while she goes back to reading like I don’t exist at all. I look back at Elijah as he holds his hands out. “What?”
“What? We are trying to figure out our next move, and you are collecting condiments. Nicky, if you don’t like your food, you can get something else after we leave,” Elijah says with an exhausted frustration.
“Kayla, will you put that damn book down and eat your food before it gets cold,” our waitress says to the girl next to us.
“I would, but I don’t have any salt or anything. Oh well, I guess I will continue reading,” Kayla remarks with a smile, giving me a quick glance before returning to her book.
I quickly stand up and stare down at the beautiful blond waitress and cause her to giggle instantly. “My fault, I’m sorry. I am finished with it all. Thank you for your kindness, Kayla, is it?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. She will use any excuse to keep her nose in her books,” the waitress gushes as I glance down at her name tag. Braylin.
“You two are related, sisters?” Braylin nods. “I should have guessed the two most beautiful women in the place are related.”
“Oh please, go back and eat your waffles, Mr. Smooth.” Kayla huffs in disgust.
“It’s Nick actually.” I say staring down at Kayla as she rolls her eyes away from me. She is really starting to get on my nerves.
Kayla waves her hand and sticks her nose right back into her book. Before I can say something back to her, Braylin giggles again. “I am so sorry, she is … well, she is not very social. If there is anything you need though, Nick, I would be happy to get it for you.”
Smiling at the blushing blond, I say, “Thank you, Braylin, I think I am good for now, but don’t go too far, I may need you.”
“Oh, okay,” Braylin gushes, touching my arm and sighing.
“Oh my God. I may need you. Oh, I am so desperate to get into your pants before you figure out I am a complete loser,” Kayla mocks me before rolling her eyes again. I look down into her eyes, her beautiful eyes and try to change the annoyance’s mind about me, but she mocks my stare and turns away, “Do you mind? I have to hurry up and eat this crap so I can finish my book.” She is really annoying!
Sitting back down, I look over at Elijah and his crossed arms, “Are you done now? Can we get back to business, or do you need to get laid first?”
“What? I’m here, I’m listening.” After they both huff at me a few times, I try to get my head back into the plans. It is difficult, but they manage to come up with some solid ideas that I agree too easily, now all we have to do is execute them. Before I leave, I lean over Kayla and try again, “Goodbye Kayla,” I whisper, only to have a hand shoved in my face. I really do not like this girl at all. Her sister, however, is much more reasonable. I give her a wink as we leave, and she curls into a gooey mush. Yeah, she is much more reasonable. Even through the window, Kayla ignores me. Never in my life has anyone aggravated me so much.
~
Harvey’s party is crowded with disgusting animals all pawing the prostitutes that Harvey brought in for the night. It is the perfect time to make our move. My job for the night is to keep people in order. Luke’s is to keep people out, and Elijah wasn’t invited to do anything. All I have to do is find a way to get into Harvey’s office while he is occupied and then hand the key off to Luke who will hand it off to Elijah. Seems simple enough, except I have to go unseen, everyone needs to believe that I have never left my post. I didn’t tell Luke or Elijah that I am not going to follow our exact plan, in case they judge my approach wrong and to keep them from thinking I am crazy, or maybe in case I am. Crazy does run in the family.
Hours into the party, Harvey moves into his bedroom with three women. Others pass out or leave with women of their own. We are supposed to stand guard over the fe
w left, watch them, make sure they are not up to anything that Harvey would not approve of, and if necessary, escort them to a room of their own and stand guard. Eventually, all but one guard leaves with his charges, I don’t know how much time I have before someone comes back, so I take advantage of the situation while I can.
“George?” I say, slowly to the lone guard, making eye contact with him. Damn, I hope I know how to do this right. Focusing, I tune out the world around me, concentrate on him, and speak directly to his inner awareness. Once his eyes begin to focus and his pupils grow, I know I have him. “Stay right here and watch over everything, and I will be with you the whole time.” He nods and I slide my gloves on. Grabbing Luke’s pack on my way, I move quickly to Harvey’s office, taking care of the combination within seconds, removing the key, and replacing it with the phony even faster. I place Luke’s pack in its original place and take my position next to George. “George, are you okay? You look a little dazed?”
“I’m fine. Do you have to stand so close to me the whole time we are here?” I take a step away from him with a mocking smile. “I hate working with this jackass,” he mumbles.
Luke comes in after the last guest leaves. “I am going to grab my pack and change clothes?” he says.
“Make sure you do it in the guards’ quarters. You know Harvey doesn’t like people using his house for anything other than work,” Shane, the head guard for the house, exclaims with an attitude.
“Oh, come on,” Luke whines.
“Norton, don’t start with me. Just go do what you have to do and be back here to help clean up.”
“Fine,” Luke huffs making eye contact with me briefly.
Luke returns, and we all help clean up like servants, before we can leave, we are all searched thoroughly. We are searched mostly to make sure we didn’t take any of Harvey’s tacky artwork, but also in case something bigger happens to go missing, they can immediately eliminate us, which happens to be the case tonight, only no one knows it. They ask each of us if we saw anyone do anything out of the ordinary. I vouched for George and then they asked George.
“Jayzon was here by me the whole time,” he says with a shrug. Harvey knows the man detests me and would jump at the opportunity to accuse me. “Unless he is superman, he couldn’t have been able to get by me and back again.” George laughs, but Harvey simply puffs cigar smoke in his face. After more interrogation and searching, we are allowed to leave with everyone feeling at ease.
I return to Luke’s and find Elijah and Luke drunk, singing, and what seems to be dancing, but it is hard to tell with them. There is little I can do, but shake my head at them while I make myself a drink, I would hate to be left out of the joy. “Don’t get too excited, boys: we still have to move the money out in less than four days.”
Chapter 24
~Nick~
We wait until the early hours of the morning, when we know the watch manager is asleep, it helped that we spiked his coffee too. Moving in, we notice Harvey is not that careless. He has hidden guards posted around the area. We have to be careful, and somehow get in and get out without anyone noticing. What better way to be unseen, than to be the unimportant. We pay off the regular cleaning crew, borrow their van, and promise to clean up for them. We decide to dress for the parts, even adding in our own individual touches for entertainment sake. We look like three of the biggest morons in the world, and best of all completely forgettable.
We take out the security cameras and then try to figure out which one of the three of us has to do the actual cleaning, while the other two clean Harvey out. I come up with the short straws competition. Luke draws first and pulls the short straw from the start. He is disappointed, but Elijah and I are grateful that his dad taught us never to draw first, especially when all three straws are the short straw. We wave goodbye to our friend and his broom, before we go searching for the money. I know where Harvey’s storage facility is, and I know which bay, but he wouldn’t allow me any closer to know which unit exactly. We stop at the edge of the long hall and stare down at all the square, drab, green units.
“Okay, so now what?” Elijah says with a long sigh.
“Well, Harvey and his lazy ass aren’t going to walk far, and so it isn’t going to be in the front.” I walk slowly down the long stretch of bays, closing my eyes and waiting until it hits me. “Here.” I say turning to him with a smile. I hold out my arms as he looks at me with suspicious eyes, “It’s Harvey. He leaves his stench wherever he goes, and the smell can’t be mistaken for anything else.”
Elijah smiles, taking out the key, pushing it into the lock, and twisting with a wide smile. “Damn, Nicky, you’re like a bloodhound.” We raise the door, and our jaws drop. “And with this, I will happily buy you all the treats you want as a reward.”
We spend until dawn carrying out cash, and we still don’t get it all. We consider briefly about leaving some, but after returning to work for Harvey for a day we change our minds. The next night Luke again draws first, and Elijah and I are the ones to move the cash once again. Exhausted, we move out as much as we can, but without sleep, we have trouble seeing straight to finish it off, so the next night, we call someone in to help.
Ryan shows up the next day with a large truck, and parks it in a storage unit we rent out. He closes it up, and saves it for later that night, when we dress him up to match us, “What the hell is this shit? I look like an idiot. I am not wearing this,” He growls.
“You are going to wear it, and you’re going to like it,” I say as he crosses his arms with a scowl, and I fight to keep from laughing at his dorky appearance.
Elijah doesn’t bother to hide his laughter, “You know, Little Bite, I think you have found the perfect look for yourself.” Elijah pushes him around as he adjusts his clothes for him, trying to make them fit his skinny body, and frustrating Ryan even more.
“Okay that’s enough. Now show me this truck you got,” I say, pushing Elijah off Ryan, who leads us to the storage unit, holding up his oversized pants in the process. I have to continuously punch Elijah to keep him from laughing and saying something that will upset my brother anymore than he already is.
“He looks like a giant, grey penguin with glasses.” Luke says, forcing Elijah to dive into his arm to conceal his laughter.
Ryan raises the door, and I look into the unit and see a truck with a giant furniture logo on the side. I don’t bother to ask how he got it, I simply shake my head. “What? You said find something huge to move big items, so I found something,” Ryan says. “Don’t worry, Nick, I didn’t steal it. A friend of mine works at a furniture store. He is supposed to get this washed for them, so make sure you give me a few bucks to clean it up with when we are done,” he says as we round the corner to Harvey’s storage unit where Ryan’s jaw drops to the ground.
“I think we have enough to get it spotless,” I say, with a smile.
“This is nothing, Ryan, you should see what we cleared out yesterday.” Luke laughs.
“All right, let’s go!” Ryan claps his hands and yells.
“Oh no. You are not going to be helping us clean out the cash, you’re going to be cleaning up everything else,” I say as Luke smiles wide and hands him his cleaning supplies.
“That’s not fair, Nick! I just got here. Let me enjoy this too.”
“You will enjoy it, after we get it moved out. Now go get to work,” I say, shoving him on his way.
“And don’t forget to clean up the extra trash I hid behind bay six,” Luke yells at him. “I spent the last two days building that up.”
We work nearly until dawn, yet we still barely finish in time and by dawn we are downing caffeine and praying we don’t fall asleep at some point during the day.
“I think I will call and say I have the flu,” Luke whines.
“No! We have to all go in so he doesn’t suspect anything. Drink your damn coffee,” Elijah says, smacking Luke in the back of the head to wake him up. “You know what, Nicky?” I lift my head off my warm cup
and do my best to open my eyes to look at him. “For a rich guy, you look like shit.” He laughs.
“Get up and let’s go. We still have to figure out how to get this key back,” I say, pushing them both back onto their feet.
I manage a shower and dress properly, for my day with Harvey, but I can barely hide my yawns or my heavy eyes most of the day.
Harvey eyes me a couple of times and always with a grunt following. “What’s wrong with you, Jayzon? Did you find a woman you couldn’t stop fucking last night?” he says, walking away from me.
“Three … sir.” I say. Harvey turns to me fighting a smile. We move forward, and I catch Luke leaning against a wall with his sunglasses on, so I smack him awake again, causing him to jump. “Wake the fuck up,” I whisper to him.
“I am so tired, Nick. I think I am starting to see things.”
“Oh yeah, do you see that naked girl over there?” He stands up straight, wide eyed and searching hard. “You look fine to me.”
“That was cruel, Nick.” Luke shuffles his way back to Harvey as we follow him around for a good part of the day, hoping to replace the key while he is with one of his whores tonight. The only problem, Harvey changes plans and decides he needs to make a drop at his storage unit. Luke and I exchange glances a few times on our way back to the unit. It takes some balls to steal the amount of cash we did, but it takes some really huge balls to accompany him to the crime scene with his key in your pocket. Luke begins to sweat, and I am afraid that even if I figure a way out of this mess, that he is going to give us away by the amount of guilt written all over him. Once we get there, I pull him to the side and say, “Stop sweating.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that? He is going to know, and he is going to kill us, and leave our bodies to rot in his storage so he can laugh at us forever.”
“Stop over dramatizing.” Looking around, I decide I only have one option. “Distract Bryan for two minutes, and I will take care of the rest. And don’t ask me how.”