Page 48 of Effortless

“Damn,” Lou muttered.

“He got picked up by the cops?” Tom asked, both pissed and concerned.

This could be attention they didn’t need.

The two foot soldiers nodded. “Yeah. It wasn’t an easy boost like we thought—guess the trucker thought something was up.”

Or the three idiots weren’t careful enough.

This was a problem Tom didn’t need at the moment. Only two weeks into running this crew on his own, and already, his guys were getting picked up on the street like fucking thugs. He couldn’t really afford to lose a guy, considering how much work they had, but the twenty-something-year-old would be replaced soon enough. They couldn’t be seen with someone getting picked up by the cops—it was bad for business.

“Your contact with Joshua ends now,” Tom said, heading for the office in the warehouse. “All of you. No contact at all. Pass the word around. If I find out any of you are hanging out with him after he gets released—if he even does—you’re done. You’ll be lucky if you get a proper fucking grave. Don’t test me.”

“Got it, Skip,” came the collective reply.

Tom hadn’t fully closed the door before the conversation started up. They likely thought he couldn’t hear him.

“Little boss needs to relax,” Dale said.

“You guys know how this works,” Lou replied. “You get picked up, then you’re dropped. That’s all there is to it.”

“What, sucking Tom’s dick now, Lou?”

“Fuck off, Terry.”

“That why you were doing the grunt work today instead of helping us, or what?”

“Keep pushing him,” Lou warned, “and keep pushing me, asshole. See what happens.”

Tom closed the door. Lou had his side of things handled, and there wasn’t much more he could do without possibly causing his friend more issues with the guys. Nobody needed that shit.

Pulling out his phone, he saw the rest of Camilla’s text he hadn’t gotten the chance to read, plus her newest one.

I might get it done, she said.

Tom couldn’t help himself, but that wasn’t anything new where she was concerned. Tell me more, he typed back.

Tom handed over a stack of cash to Adriano, and the older man slid it into the machine on the desk. The bills slipped through the counter, and came out in a neat pile on the other side. A number lit up the screen.

“You’re about ten thousand short,” Adriano noted.

“Might have helped had those bunch of idiots not fucked up the heist last week, not to mention the fact I lost a guy altogether.”

Adriano hummed under his breath. “Josh still in lockup?”

“Seems so. Can’t afford the bail, I guess.”

“You’re keeping the rest of them far away from him, right?”

“Best I can.”

Tom had gotten wind that one of the guys from the crew paid a visit to Joshua, but nothing more. He only let it slide because the guy was upfront about it, and his motives. Apparently, Joshua’s girlfriend was skipping town, and dropped by to let the other guy know. After that, it was all radio silence.

“I get why the cash is short,” Adriano said as he glanced up at Tom from his seat behind the desk, “but that doesn’t excuse it, Tommaso. That’s the thing about this business—your father expects his dues, regardless if you’ve hit your bottom line or not. Figure something out with the guys, or make up the difference owed on your own. That’s how it works. Got it?”

He didn’t like it, but he understood.

“Yeah, I got it,” Tom said.