The Box by Jeremy Brown (ebook reader play store txt) 📕

some reason, just use a clean phone.”

“Oh,” Connelly said, “so right after we pull the job and shit goes sideways—because I’m guessing that’s the only way you’ll grant me permission to call her—and I call her from a strange number. That won’t seem odd?”

“Will it matter at that point?”

“It might.”

“No reason to tip our hand any more than necessary,” Rison had said, and Kershaw agreed.

So they’d kept the damn phone, and now Connelly reassembled the pieces and fired it up.

Rison was still in his camp chair listening to the police scanner and news, but his eyes slid back and forth between Bruder and Connelly, waiting for something to happen.

The phone made some noises.

Connelly looked at the screen and shook his head.

“Five messages. Seventeen missed calls. All of them from Nora.”

“So she’s still alive,” Bruder said.

“Or the Romanians have her, and the messages are her screaming for help.”

“We don’t have time to listen to all of them. Just call and see what happens.”

Connelly walked toward Bruder and the door.

“Where are you going?” Bruder said.

“I’m going outside to make the call. Is that okay?”

“I want to hear what she says. Put it on speaker.”

Connelly looked at him.

“You know, you can be a real prick bastard sometimes.”

Bruder just waited for him to make the call.

Rison said, “Sometimes?”

Connelly held the phone like a waiter holding a tray, with the speaker aimed toward the ceiling.

Nora answered after the second ring.

“Adam, where are you?”

She sounded like she’d been running.

Connelly said, “Hey, is everything okay?”

“No, I mean…I don’t know. Are you coming today? Where are you? Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

Bruder frowned at the phone, then nodded.

Connelly said, “Yeah, I’m on my way now. My phone was dead and I lost my charger, it’s a whole thing. Why, what’s up?”

“Something happened with the…you know. The rounds.”

“They didn’t show up this morning?”

“Oh yes, they did. They took it all. And I talked to some neighbors, they all got a visit. But now everybody is freaking out, the whole town is on lockdown.”

Connelly said, “Police? Did they finally get busted?”

They heard footsteps through the speaker and more breathing.

Connelly mouthed: She’s on the porch.

He could picture her pacing back and forth, doing laps and watching the road.

Nora said, “No, I don’t think so. Nobody I talked to has seen any police. It’s all the, you know. The group.”

Connelly smiled. He’d told her she needed to be careful about what she said on the phone, but she was taking it to the extreme.

“The Romanians,” he said.

“Shh, yes. They aren’t letting anyone out of town without getting checked. They have the four roads completely blocked.”

“So what happened?”

“I don’t know. But you might not be able to get here.”

Connelly looked at Bruder, who nodded again.

“I’m still gonna try.”

“Adam, I don’t know. I think something happened to the truck. The one with the money. That’s the only thing that would cause this kind of trouble.”

“Are they letting people into town?”

“I don’t know. Shit, I just don’t know. But they already don’t like you, and you’re from out of town. I don’t know if you’re safe here right now.”

“I’ll check it out. If it looks sketchy, I’ll turn around and call you back.”

“Okay. How far out are you?”

“Twenty minutes, maybe? But probably longer if I have to go through some stupid-ass Romanian checkpoint.”

“Please, please be careful. And don’t cause any trouble.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. And if you get too close and then turn around, they might think you’re hiding something and chase you down. So if you’re going to turn around, do it before they see you.”

“You got it, babe.”

“Okay. I love you.”

Connelly looked at Bruder, whose expression didn’t change.

“I love you too.”

He ended the call and Bruder took the phone out of his hand before he could put it away.

“Don’t smash it,” Connelly said.

Bruder put the phone in his jacket pocket.

If they had to carry a live grenade around, he wanted to be the one holding the spoon down.

“Get the truck loaded,” he said. “Let’s go see Nora.”

While Connelly was inside the trailer pouting and repacking his bag, Bruder opened the back of the white truck, then stopped and walked around to stare at Claud’s Honda.

Rison followed, looked between him and the Honda a few times, then said, “What?”

“I’m figuring out how much of the money we can put in there and still have room for us.”

Rison squinted at the Honda.

“Not all of it.”

“No. But if it’s enough to make us happy, we might be able to use the car to get close enough to one of the checkpoints without raising an alarm. Everybody but the driver ducks down. The Romanians see the car and wave it forward. By the time they see it’s me at the wheel, it’s too late. We go loud with the guns and floor it out of town.”

Rison said, “Yeah, but how many guys are at this checkpoint? Do they have chase vehicles set up? We blast our way through one level but end up in a high-speed chase in this piece of shit. Does it stall out? Does it only go up to fifty?”

Bruder thought about it.

Rison said, “What if you’re in this car and we’re behind you in the truck? You get us close, maybe even through, then jump in the truck and we’re off to the races. We won’t set any records, but at least we know what the truck can do.”

Bruder shook his head.

“We have to assume the truck is burned. The guys from the armored car saw it from behind, maybe even spotted the DOT logo on the side. If we roll up to a checkpoint in that thing we’re in a shootout.”

“Shit,” Rison said. “Then let’s just peel the logos off.”

“I thought about that. The Romanians will still be looking for a white truck full of men. If they see us, it won’t matter what’s on the doors. But if we run into any locals, the DOT charade might still be helpful.”

“Yeah…I can see that, I guess. So what are