AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I kept my face serious just long enough to make him look queasy. Then I broke into a grin.
“Kiddin’, Dan. Jesus, lighten up.”
I went into the phone’s settings and fixed it so it wouldn’t turn off to save power. Now I just had to get it home and plug it in before it died on me.
“Alright, I’m good to go,” I said, careful to hold the phone so I didn’t accidentally switch it off.
Once we got back to my car, Dan cleared his throat. “So… about our continued arrangement…”
“Is five thousand good enough?” I asked.
He looked unhappy. “To sneak you into a morgue, unlock a stolen phone, bury a murder investigation, and get you a list of numbers from the phone company? No, it’s not.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but politely refrained. “Alright, Dan, what were you thinkin’?”
“Thirty.”
“Thirty grand?! Jesus fuckin’ Christ!”
“Something like this could end my career if somebody found out, Lou.”
I didn’t point out that just about everything he’d ever done for the Riders could have ended his career.
“I ain’t Bill Gates, Dan.”
“I’m not either. I got a kid in college, and another one in high school. Kids are expensive.”
“Shit, don’t blame me ‘cause you didn’t pull out in time,” I said.
He didn’t like that too much.
“I can’t do thirty right now. How about five up front, and another ten over the next three months?”
“Ten up front, fifteen next month.”
“This is highway fuckin’ robbery.”
“More like extremely personalized service,” he said.
“Yeah, if ‘extremely personalized service’ means takin’ it up the ass.”
He set his jaw and looked at me angrily.
“I meant me gettin’ taken advantage of financially,” I said, though really I’d meant it exactly the way he’d heard it: Buttboy for Hire Dan Peters.
He didn’t say anything, just kept glaring at me.
“Seven upfront, ten next month – ”
“Ten upfront, twelve next month.”
We haggled for a bit until we settled on 19 grand.
“Alright,” I said, pretending to relent, even though I’d figured we’d wind up here based on past transactions. “But I want those phone numbers as soon as they come in.”
“Soon as I get my nine grand up front.”
“You’ll have it by the end of the day,” I promised as I got in my car.
