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

like he had a secret.

Luca saw the woman crammed between him and Benj, wearing a face like she was on her way to a firing squad.

“So she knows?” Luca said.

“Maybe. We’ll find out. We left her boyfriend a message.”

“What if he doesn’t care?”

Razvan shrugged.

“Then we push further out and flush them.”

Costel sat up in the truck bed and said, “Why not do that now? We’re already here.”

Razvan turned and muttered something to Benj, something about how it was easy for them to suggest such a thing, then told them, “Three men isn’t enough. The further out we go, the easier it will be to see us coming. They’ll be waiting for us.”

Luca picked something up in his tone, in the way he squinted through the windshield instead of looking over at them.

He was trying to save face while admitting he needed the men from Chicago.

Luca nodded, helping him.

“Hey, if anyone else has to get shot, it might as well be a city boy.”

Razvan smiled again, liking the idea, and said, “You two stay here in case they come chasing after us or try to slip out. They probably don’t even know we have her yet, but they will as soon as he calls back.”

“Hundred bucks says he doesn’t,” Costel said, and dropped back into the bed.

Luca said, “Give us Mihail and the machine gun.”

Razvan shook his head.

“I need them. I’ll check in every twenty minutes. You see anything, call me.”

He pulled away and headed toward town with Mihail following.

Luca waved at Mihail, who wagged his tongue and gave him the finger.

Luca rolled his window back up and sulked through the windshield.

So the three of them—Razvan, Benj, and Mihail—needed more men to search for the thieves, but if they came roaring up the road he and Costel were sufficient?

He hoped they did show up.

Let him and Costel drive back to the compound with the four assholes slung across the roof like the deer they saw around town or stacked up in the bed like they used to do back home with the people going into pits.

Like Pavel and Grigore were, in the truck parked out at the compound now.

Let Razvan and the crew from Chicago suck on that for a while.

Luca stared down the road, willing the thieves—wherever they were out there—to come his way.

They had a plan.

Or, according to Bruder and the others, something close enough to a plan to get moving.

Connelly stood next to Nora’s car and called her phone on speaker.

The other three men watched the road and fields and listened to the ringing.

She answered after the second one.

“Adam?”

There was engine noise and airflow, telling him she was on speaker too.

“Hey, what’s up? Are you okay?”

“I—”

Razvan cut her off.

“Hello, asshole. You know who this is?”

“Uh, no,” he said, playing stupid. “Nora, what’s going on?”

Razvan said, “You’re not talking to her anymore, you’re talking to me. You know what’s going on, and so do we. We talked to the farmer you ran into north of town.”

Connelly looked around to see if Bruder was giving him an I told you so face, but he still gazed out at the horizon, watching.

“I know you have my money,” Razvan said. “And I know you’re still here. And now you know I have your woman. Here’s the deal: Bring me my money, you get her back unharmed. Do not do this, you do not get her back, and she gets harmed. Very much. Now, where are you, and where is my money?”

Connelly paused.

They’d all agreed to string it out for as long as possible—maybe the Romanians weren’t certain about anything—but if it became clear they knew the situation, continuing to play dumb would just waste time they didn’t have.

“Okay, you have a deal. Money for her, and I drive out of town with her.”

Razvan laughed.

“I did not mention what happens to you and your friends.”

“No need,” Connelly said. “I just told you what happens. And my friends are gone.”

“Oh? They left you and my money behind?”

He didn’t sound convinced.

“They didn’t like how things were going.”

“Better to live to steal another day, eh?”

“Something like that,” Connelly said.

“Well, they didn’t drive out of town, I can promise you.”

Connelly didn’t say anything.

Razvan said, “They are on foot? If so, we’ll find them. Would you like to take a turn with the knife, let them know how you feel about being abandoned?”

“The money for Nora,” Connelly said, getting back on track. “And she and I drive away.”

“Okay, okay, we’ll discuss your friends when we meet. Where are you?”

“I’ll come to you.”

“Why is that?”

“Because we’re meeting on the highway, east of town. I’m tired of being boxed in.”

“I see.”

Razvan was quiet for a moment, then said, “No. You’ll come to our compound.”

“Not a chance.”

“Then she’s dead. And so are you, eventually. You have to know we’ll find you.”

Connelly looked at Bruder.

They’d expected something along these lines and were ready for it.

Bruder nodded.

Connelly told Razvan, “Okay, okay, fine. Your farm.”

“Compound.”

“Whatever. But listen up—I have explosives tamped in with the cash. I see anything that looks like a trap, or you do anything I don’t like once I get to the meet, I blow the money.”

Razvan processed that.

“With you standing next to it?”

“If the alternative is letting you go to work on me, hell yes. And there’s enough boom in here to flatten everything for fifty yards, so I’ll probably take you with me.”

“Hm. All of this—losing the money, willing to explode yourself—all of this for the woman?”

“I’m not interested in your opinion on it. Are we doing this or not?”

“All business, I like it. You know where the compound is, I assume?”

“Yes,” Connelly said.

“You can be there in ten minutes?”

Putting him on the spot, trying to gauge where he actually was.

“Make it thirty,” Connelly said.

“Half an hour, then.”

“Who am I going to run into between here and there?”

“Depends on where you are,” Razvan said, teasing.

“I don’t want anybody shooting at me.”

“My men will know to bring you, no shots fired. I’ll tell them about the explosives too.