33. Ike
33
IKE
I slammed the phone down, wishing it was an old rotary phone that would actually hang up on the person instead of just crack my screen. There wasn’t a goddamn person alive that could give me what I needed. No one wanted to touch the Irish. Either they were already working other angles or didn’t have the manpower to go after them.
My only option was to pay the fuckers.
Pressing my fingers to my temples, I massaged away the headache forming and knew what I had to do. The sooner this was over, the better for everyone.
I grabbed the phone and dialed the number Shawn gave me.
“I was wondering when you would call. Tell me you have my money.”
“I do, but this isn’t Shawn.”
Silence greeted me for a moment. “Who is this?”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m handling the deal. Meet me at the bar?—”
“Whoa, hold up a minute. You don’t set the terms. I don’t give a fuck who you are. We do this my way or there’s no deal.”
“Do you want your money or not?”
“I would say the only reason you’re doing this is either for Shawn or his pretty wife. Either way, I don’t give a fuck. But that means you need this to go right. So, we do things my way. I’ll send you the coordinates to a private airfield. You’ll meet me there in six hours. If you don’t show, the deal is off.”
“Six hours isn’t enough time to gather that much money.”
“Then you shouldn’t have called before you had it. Six hours. Don’t be late.”
I hung up and turned to Rae. “Did you get anything?”
“Got it. Not that it’ll do much good if we’re not meeting them there.”
“It pays to have a backup location.”
“How are you gonna get that much money?” she asked, cocking her head at me. “Not that it’s any of my business, but that’s a lot of money to leave lying around.”
I had the money. I didn’t need to worry about that. I just didn’t want to hand it over to thugs like the Irish.
“Let me worry about that.”
As I started to walk around her, she stepped in my path, chuckling as she shook her head. “You don’t really think you’re going alone, do you?”
“I thought that was pretty fucking obvious.”
“And I thought maybe you had some common sense. If you go alone, how do you know they won’t just shoot you?”
“Why do you care?”
“Who says I do?”
“Well, you’re standing in my way. That suggests you’re worried about me.”
“It suggests that you’re good at your job, but maybe you could use a little help.”
This was going to go on and on until she got her way. Rae didn’t back down to anyone. “Fine. You wanna come along? Be my guest.”
“I’ll grab the minivan.”
I chuckled, grabbing her wrist before she could leave. “The minivan?”
“Yeah.”
“For what?”
“For everyone else.”
“No,” I shook my head. “There will be no minivan and there will be no one else. There is no fucking way I’m showing up to deliver money to a bunch of thugs in a minivan.”
“A tricked-out minivan,” she corrected. “With a machine gun that pops out the top.”
“And despite how cool that is, I still say no.”
“Too fucking bad.”
“It’s my op,” I growled.
“It’s my minivan.”
“That’s fine because I’m not taking your damn minivan,” I snapped.
I spun around to leave and found myself surrounded by Dash, IRIS, Fox, and FNG—in other words, the craziest of them all.
“What’s wrong with our minivan?” Fox asked.
“Yeah. You got a problem with it?” FNG asked.
IRIS stepped forward. “Something you want to say to us?”
Fucking hell, these guys just wouldn’t let this shit go. The headache behind my eyes was rapidly progressing to a migraine. “Fine. If it’s that fucking important to you, we’ll take the fucking minivan.”
Dash shrugged. “Well, I don’t want to take it if you’re going to be mean about it.”
I tossed my hands up in the air, already tired of this shit. “I’m out of here. I have to get the money.”
“Ooh, can I come with you?” Fox asked.
“No,” I tossed over my shoulder.
In the five minutes it took me to get out to my car, I was already considering suicide. I couldn’t take a trip with any of those guys, let alone five minutes in a minivan with them. It was only Isla that was keeping me going.
I headed out of town to my house and was just about to pull into my driveway when I heard crunching coming from the back seat. I turned around and cursed under my breath when I saw a blanket on the floor covering a lump. I slammed on the brakes, making whoever was under the blanket slam into the center console.
“Fuck, that really hurt!”
Fox. Of course, it was him. I ripped the blanket off and grimaced at the yellow stains on his fingers. “Don’t you ever get tired of eating those?”
“Don’t you ever get tired of breathing?”
“What the fuck are you doing in my car?”
“Uh…” He sat up and looked around. “Oh, is that where I am?”
I hit the gas and finished the drive home as he climbed into the front seat, almost kicking me in the head. I was so fucking tired and all I wanted to do was sleep, but there was shit to do. Arguing with him just wasn’t worth it.
“So, I finally get to see the digs of the big bad IKE. So cool.”
I rolled my eyes as I turned down the driveway.
“Classic, but nice. Could use a little decoration. Maybe some yard work. Then again, I didn’t take you for a very Christmassy sort of guy.”
I put the car in park and headed up the back steps, trying to tune him out along the way.
“You know, I once knew a guy with a house like this. Except, his one was only one story, and it was in town, and it was blue. Oh, and it was really rundown.”
“So, it wasn’t at all like this.”
“Well, pretty much. I mean, it was a house. Same general shape.”
I couldn’t really argue with that. I headed to the office and was about to go for the floorboards when Fox followed me inside. I stared at him expectantly.
“Leave.”
“Me?”
“Do you see anyone else?”
“Oh, shit. You need to get the money. And you don’t want me to see your stash. I gotcha. No problem. I’ll wait out there. And don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone you hide your cash under your floorboards.”
“What?” I snapped.
“In the corner.” He pointed to where I kept the money, but there was no fucking possible way he could know. The wood blended perfectly.
“How the fuck did you know that?”
“Well, your toes were pointed in that direction. And your desk inadvertently blocks it. Not all the way, but enough that it doesn’t draw attention to it, but it doesn’t completely hide it either. Plus, there are no pictures on the wall big enough to hide a decent wall safe, which leaves the floor since you’re not stupid enough to hide money in your desk. Oh, but the really obvious point, which I’m sure you picked up on, is the fact that you twirled your finger when you walked into the room.”
“I did what?”
“You twirled your finger.”
I glanced at my finger, then back at him. “And that told you where the safe was.”
“Totally.”
I didn’t even want to know. It was ridiculous and completely nonsensical. I walked over to the corner, grabbed a hammer out of the drawer from my desk, and started ripping up the floorboards.
“Grab a bag out of the closet.”
“Any one in particular?”
“I don’t care.”
“Would you prefer blue or black?”
“Fox, I don’t give a shit.”
“I would think blue would put them more at ease. Then again, black feels more elusive, which might make them feel like they’re in charge, therefore, giving you the upper hand.”
I ground my teeth and pulled up the last of the floorboards, then opened the safe.
“You know, I think we’ll go with black.”
“Great, just give me the bag.”
“You know, you seem a little tense.”
I was normally so calm and collected, but five minutes with this guy was enough to send anyone over the edge. I counted out all the money I needed and started stuffing it in the bag.
“I would ask why you have all that money stashed in there, but I guess it’s for situations just like this.” He chuckled, leaning against the wall. “Yeah, I remember those days.”
I slammed the safe shut, then spun the dial and looked up at him. “What days?”
“You know, the days when I used to get into a world of shit.”
“That still happens.”
“Not really.”
“Didn’t you just swim through the ocean with a shark fin on your back like a year ago?”
“What’s your point?”
I zipped the bag closed and threw it over my shoulder. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
From my location, I could see them arrive. Everything was in place. All I had to do was make the exchange and all this shit would be over.
“Alright, that’s them,” Dash said, looking through his binoculars.
I slowly turned my head to face him. That’s why I didn’t work with these guys. They were always pointing out the obvious. Rae was fine, but the rest of them—blowing up shit, fighting with umbrellas, throwing knives at people. It was downright uncivilized.
“Don’t follow me.”
I opened the door and got out, grabbing the bag from the back. I slid my sunglasses on as I walked across the tarmac toward the SUV that parked in front of the plane. Three men got out, and from the pictures Rae pulled up, they were exactly the men I wanted to come today. The top brass. The guys who ran shit and knew what was going on. If anyone else had shown up, I’d be screwed.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t alone like I hoped I’d be. Shadows followed me like a bad case of head lice. Fox and Dash each stood behind me, but I knew Rae was out there in the distance covering my ass, which was all I really wanted.
“You got the money?”
“All seven hundred fifty thousand.” I tossed the bag on the ground at their feet and waited for them to retrieve it.
They smirked, but it was the guy on the right who bent forward and retrieved it. Unzipping it, he searched it and nodded. “Looks like it’s all there.”
“Then our business is concluded,” the boss said.
“I don’t want to hear another fucking thing from you, and if Shawn comes to you for any reason, turn him away,” I said pointedly.
“If he comes to us, he’ll get a bullet to the head,” he laughed. “Maybe you could relay that information to him.”
My fingers itched to pull my gun and shoot all three of them, but this needed to be done. I paid them. It was over.
“Pleasure doing business with you.” He tipped his hat and they turned around, heading toward the plane.
“I can’t believe you handed over all that fucking money,” Dash sighed.
“No kidding. I could have gutted them all,” Fox grunted. “I have a new shawarma recipe I want to try.”
“Don’t say that shit,” Dash snapped. “I hate it when you talk like that.”
“You know I don’t actually cook humans.”
I ignored them and watched as the men got on the plane. Now that they were gone, there was nothing more to be done. I turned around and headed back to the minivan, as shitty as it was to drive one.
“Hey! Seriously, can’t we stop them?” Fox shouted. “I can throw a grenade or something!”
“A grenade to stop a plane? Let’s at least go for a rocket launcher or something awesome like that,” Dash argued.
The plane started to taxi down the runway as the guys argued about what was better to take down a plane.
Rae came climbing out of her hiding spot, brushing the dust off her clothes. “I can’t believe you did that. You actually handed over all that money.”
“There wasn’t really a choice.”
“I hope she’s worth it.”
“Worth every fucking penny.”
Fox groaned in the background. “Well, that’s it. There she goes, along with all that mon?—”
The plane exploded and I grinned, opening the door to the minivan and leaning against the frame. Rae narrowed her eyes at me from the other side of the van.
“Did you plan that?”
“Plan what?”
“To blow up the plane?”
“Is that what happened?”
“What about the money?”
I walked around to the trunk and pulled out the blue bag Fox had left at my house, then tossed it on the seat and unzipped it, showing her the seven hundred and fifty thousand inside. “You mean this?”
She shook her head in confusion. “How the hell did you pull that off?”
When I got inside without a word, she shook her head.
“Nope, you’re not getting off that easy!”
“Should we leave them here or take them home?” I asked, jerking my head toward Fox and Dash.
“IKE—”
I spun the wheel and turned us around. “What the hell, let’s leave them here.”