High Risk by G.K. Parks (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

“I don’t know. Maybe they would drop the locked boxes down one of the manhole covers and recover them later.”

“If they pick the wrong manhole, it’d end up in the sewers or washed out to sea,” Brad said.

“Maybe that’s why they wanted to speak to the station agent.” Unfortunately, we didn’t know if they had taken anything from her booth or if they’d gotten additional intel. “Unfortunately, this is nothing more than speculation. We have no proof. We have nothing, except loads of farfetched conjecture.”

Brad shrugged. “On the bright side, that’s not our problem. That’s Voletek’s.”

Thirty-two

“How long are we supposed to wait?” Diego asked. “She cut me. Eventually, the cops are going to connect me to the liquor store.”

“You didn’t murder her.” Carter rocked back and forth on the edge of the double bed. “I did.”

“I was there. It doesn’t matter if I pulled the trigger or not, it’s felony murder. And she’s a cop. They won’t care who killed her. They’ll come for all of us.” Diego turned to the third man. “We need to grab as much cash as we can and go. The longer we wait, the more likely it is they’ll find us.”

The third man hung the last uniform on a hanger and closed the closet door. “We wait as long as it takes. The news hasn’t mentioned anything about it, which means the cops are still investigating. They probably don’t have any idea what’s going on. If they did, they’d be asking for people to call in tips or they’d already have your face plastered on every wanted poster in the state.”

“I need a drink.” Diego opened the mini fridge and took out a bottle of bourbon. He wanted whiskey, but this would do for now. “Just tell me again when we’re moving on the truck.”

“We have to wait. It should arrive on schedule. So we stick to the schedule. Changing the play is what got us into trouble in the first place.” The third man glared at his two accomplices. “If things had gone down the way they were supposed to, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”

“That’s not my fault,” Carter said. “I had nothing to do with that.”

The third man stormed toward him. “You keep saying that. It makes me think you got something to hide.”

“I-I don’t.” Carter swallowed the bile that rose in his throat, but that wasn’t enough. He got up and ran into the bathroom where he proceeded to heave.

“Jesus,” the third man shook his head, “what is wrong with that guy? He needs to grow a pair.”

“This isn’t his life,” Diego said. “He’s not like us. We shouldn’t have involved him.”

“You’re the one who said he could handle it. That he deserved to be a part of this.”

Diego downed a shot. “Hey, man, if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have gotten any of that intel. We wouldn’t have known about the night watchman or the uniforms or the trucks. His hard work is what got us to this point. He deserved to get a piece for providing us the intel.”

“His intel is why we’re in this fucking mess.”

“Is this a mess? Or is this what you wanted all along?” Diego poured another shot and knocked it back. “Admit it, you got off on watching that cop bleed out.”

“So? What’s your point?”

“Do you even care about the cash? That’s why I’m doing this and why Carter agreed to go along with the plan. But you promised him no one would get hurt.”

“And you knew that was bullshit from the start.”

“Yeah, but,” Diego shook his head, “you’re enjoying it a bit too much.”

“They deserve to pay. You know what they did to me. It’s about time I get even.”

*       *       *

“Liv?”

“Hmm?” I opened one eye, surprised to find Gunnie curled up in a ball on the couch beside me.

“I have to sleep there. I don’t need a dog on my bed,” Brad said.

I moved my arm from where it had been resting on top of the puppy and winced. “But he’s the perfect size to keep the pressure off my shoulder and neck. Plus, it’s my couch. You really should go home and get some sleep in an actual bed.”

“Like you’re doing?”

I sat up, and Gunnie let out a little grunt, wiggling his body backward to lie in the warm spot my shift in position created. “I wasn’t sleeping. I was just resting my eyes.”

“And drooling on my pillow.”

“Sorry.” I wiped the corner of my mouth and flipped the top pillow over to hide the evidence. “I’ll get you a new pillowcase.”

He waved his hand dismissively at it. “At least it was your drool and not the dog’s.”

“Did anything pan out on our theory?” I stared at the whiteboard, but Brad had flipped it back to the profiles. “What did Voletek say?”

“He and Lisco reached the same conclusion, but they don’t have proof either. We have to ID these bastards. Until we know who they are, we have no way of knowing when or where they might strike.”

“Or why.” I sunk back onto the pillow and stared at the board. “Gravelly Voice made it sound personal. He wanted to hurt me because he’d been hurt.”

“Do you think he’s a victim of police brutality?”

“It’s possible.”

Brad sat on my coffee table and leaned forward, studying the board. “Blondie’s the weak link. He’s not a criminal. At least he wasn’t before the team hooked up, or he’s new and never worked with this crew before. Either way, Gravelly Voice doesn’t trust him. He wouldn’t have forced him to try to kill a cop if he did.”

“If Roberts and Ainsley didn’t arrive when they did, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. That’s what distracted Gravelly