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

we gonna do with the car?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ll think about it while we work.”

They put the money into the truck bed first, consolidating it into the minimal number of duffels and stacking them against the front of the bed like sandbags.

Rison said, “Fourteen million?”

Like he wanted to believe it but wasn’t convinced.

“Feels like less,” Connelly said.

“How would you know?”

“It just seems like fourteen million dollars would take up more space.”

They looked at Bruder, who shrugged.

“Whatever it is, it won’t change just because we count it.”

That was unsatisfying to them, but they got back to work anyway.

The hard case with the explosives went in next, all three charges toggled on in the event they had to use the cash as a bargaining chip, and Connelly put the remotes in the middle console cupholders.

Then they started on everything from the trailer.

If any of the Romanians came after they were gone it would be obvious someone had been there, even if they swept every track and wiped every surface, but as with the Honda and blood and brains from Claud, the more questions they could leave unanswered the better.

They moved the gear out of the trailer like a bucket brigade, with Rison inside handing bags and boxes and gear to Connelly on the stairs, who carried it all to Bruder at the truck.

Connelly was standing in the doorway, waiting for the next load, when he said, “How are we gonna get to her place?”

“Carefully,” Bruder said.

“We have to cross the main road going east-west.”

That didn’t require any sort of response, so Bruder just waited by the truck.

Connelly said, “If we get spotted, they’ll come after us. I heard you guys talking about the truck being burned.”

He still hadn’t said anything new, but he seemed to require some sort of confirmation.

Bruder shrugged.

“You want me to go back in time and kill the guys at the bridge?”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. If they come after us, we can’t go to Nora’s. We can’t lead them to her.”

“Why not?”

“Because they can’t know she has anything to do with this.”

“She doesn’t.”

“You know what I mean.”

Rison appeared in the doorway with a stack of three cardboard flats full of soup.

He said, “Yeah, we know,” and handed the soup to Connelly.

Connelly carried the load down the steps and handed it to Bruder, who slid the flats into the covered bed and followed them in to find the best spot.

Connelly stood at the tailgate. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“What are we gonna do if they spot us?”

“Whatever we have to.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Bruder climbed out of the bed and looked at Connelly.

“Yes it is. What are you really asking?”

Connelly frowned.

“I’m asking what the goddam plan is.”

“But it’s not what you want to ask.”

They looked at each other, then Rison showed up in the doorway with another stack of flats in his arms.

“Hey.”

Nobody looked at him, so he dropped the stack at the top of the stairs and went back for another load.

Connelly finally asked Bruder, “Do we have to go to Nora’s place?”

“That’s it,” Bruder said. “And the answer is yes.”

“Why?”

“She said why on the call. She’s in the loop. She can give us real-time information about what’s going on in the town.”

“So you’re going to talk to her?”

“No. You are.”

Connelly trudged over to the steps, slid the flats out of the doorway and carried them to Bruder.

“And what, you guys are just gonna wait in the truck?”

“You said the barn has some space in it.”

“The barn? The old one?”

“You said they’d moved all the equipment into the new ones years ago. We’re going to put the truck in the barn and stay there while you talk to Nora. Find out how we can get out of town.”

“I can do that over the phone.”

“No.”

Connelly waited, then said, “No? That’s it?”

Bruder shrugged.

Connelly said, “I’m gonna need more than that, man. I know you’re in charge and all, but if there’s any sort of method to this madness, even if it’s half-assed, I need to know.”

“We can’t stay here, so we’re going there.”

“Why can’t we stay here? Wasn’t that the whole point of setting this trailer up? So we can lay low for as long as we have to, let everything settle down?”

“That was assuming the trouble would eventually settle down. That was stupid on our part. We should have known better after seeing how the Romanians operate. The longer they go without finding the money, the worse it’s going to get around here. We have to move.”

Connelly pointed under the trailer in the general vicinity of Claud’s corpse.

“That asshole’s dead, and nobody knows where he is. If anybody else comes looking, Kershaw will let us know. I’ll call Nora and tell her I can’t get into town, and she can keep me updated on what’s happening, thinking it’s to help me get to her. But we’ll use the info to get out of town instead.”

He spread his hands out: Viola!

“No,” Bruder said.

Connelly waited, clenching his jaw.

“Come on, dude.”

Bruder said, “What if the next people who come looking have ten vehicles with six guys in each one, with rifles and grenades? Where do we go? Into the woods, leaving the money here?”

“There’s always more money, man.”

“Not if we’re dead. I’m telling you, if we stay here, we’re trapped. We’ll lose the money and get killed. And if your face is still recognizable, guess who they’ll go see next?”

Connelly didn’t say anything, but he knew the truth.

“We have to move,” Bruder said again.

“And it has to be Nora’s?”

“I already answered that,” Bruder said. “Go get the soup.”

Chapter Twelve

Bruder keyed his radio and told Kershaw, “We’re coming to you.”

Rison led the way with the truck, Connelly in the passenger seat. The truck bed was packed and had the surveying gear closest to the tailgate, good enough for any cursory examination, but they all knew if it came to that, the guns were probably coming out.

Bruder followed in Claud’s car with the windows down, choosing the cold air over the stale smoke