Page 79 of Goose

“I was there last night,” I admitted. “It was very fruitful.”

I held my breath.

His eyes widened. “You were in Bakersfield last night?”

It could have been coincidental. I doubted it. My mouth went dry. I swallowed hard. Twice. “I was.”

He turned sideways. Now facing me directly, his eyes went from wide to thin. Paper thin. “How big of a job?”

“It uhhm. It was big. Really big.”

He lifted one eyebrow. The curious one. “Care to elaborate?”

The only way things would truly work between us was for both of us to be brutally honest with one another. Keeping secrets, regardless of the reason behind them, was a recipe for disaster.

“We’re going to have to reach an agreement,” I said.

“What kind of agreement?”

“I’ve never talked to anyone about my work,” I explained. “Well, short of my father, and he was my partner. Or, I was his. I keep to myself and do my thing. If I’m going to talk to you about everything and be honest, entirely honest, you’re going to have to do the same with me. That’s the only way things will ever be on the up and up between us. Agree?”

He looked away. “I don’t want to lie to you. I just. I don’t think I can tell you everything.”

If he couldn’t be truthful with me about his endeavors, I couldn’t trust him with the details of mine. “Then I can’t answer your question.”

He looked at me. “Are you serious?”

“You either trust me, or you don’t,” I said. “Whatever you say stays between you and me. I won’t jeopardize my relationship with you—or yours with your men—by letting anyone know what we’ve discussed. You’ll have to agree to do the same.”

He stared blankly.

“You’ve heard the phrase, ‘there’s honor amongst thieves’?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Do you know what that means?”

He shrugged. “Never gave it much thought.”

“The Omerta,” I explained. “The code of silence. One thief will never reveal the activities of another. Ever. To anyone. There’s honor amongst thieves. I’m a thief.”

He studied me for a moment, and then let out a sigh. “I went to dispose of a body last night. I can’t tell you where, but I’ll say it went well. We went to do a job after that, as a group. This job included cutting into a safe and taking the contents. The only problem was that after we spent four or five hours cutting into it, it was fucking empty.”

I gulped a breath. “What uhhm. What time were you there?”

“Got there about one in the morning. Maybe a little before.”

It wasn’t coincidental. It was fact. We were both at the same place, with intentions of doing the same job. I simply arrived long before he did.

“Huge house?” I asked. “Driveway about a half mile long, lined with palm trees?”

His filthy face went pale. He swallowed so heavily that I heard it.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” I said. “Sounds like we might have been at the same place at different times.”

He seemed mortified. “I know you weren’t there for the contents of the safe,” he said. “Because it was pretty obvious we were the first ones to cut into it. What were you after?”

His tone was flat. He wasn’t upset. At least he didn’t seem to be. Shocked? Yes. Upset? At least not yet. Overall, I was pleased.