Love Beyond Words (City Lights, #1)(79)

“Come on, David, let’s go,” Jesse said in a weary voice. He tugged at his arm but David pulled free.

“It has to stop. And I think I know how. I have an idea. One that will work for all of us.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Cliff narrowed his piggy eyes. “You have one minute.”

“What if…” David swallowed. “What if you had one big score? One final score that set you up for life and you wouldn’t have to worry about money ever again?”

“Well, that would be hunky-f*cking-dory, now wouldn’t it? You got some magic beans to sell me, Dave?”

Garrett sniggered like a bull. Jesse did not.

David closed his eyes. Once spoken, there’d be no going back. The plan was a good one, though, and David thought it would work. It had to work. The ordeal would be over and he and Julian would be free of Natalie and Cliff both.

“Julian’s latest book…Rafael Melendez Mendón’s book, I mean. He wrote another one. No one has seen it yet; it’s rough and hand-written. He says it’s his best one yet.”

“And?”

“I can get it.”

“Yeah? So?”

David blinked. “Then you…you’ll have it. I’ll give it to you.”

“The f*ck am I going to do with a book?”

“Sell it,” David said, confused, “on the…uh, black market.”

Cliff stared at him a moment more, and then burst out laughing.

David’s ears grew hot. “It’ll be worth millions! You’ll be set for life!”

“Dave, you crack me up. But you’re also one stupid motherf*cker, you know that?” Cliff leaned over his desk. “First off, how the hell we going to authenticate something like that? We’ll use the tried and true ‘Because Dave Thompson said so’ method? Secondly, that shit has to be fenced. Only I happen to be fresh out of fences at the moment, so that book would be about as useful to me as a pile of dog turd.”

David felt his sliver of hope melt away. “But…”

“But…that’s not to say your plan doesn’t have its merits. No sir.” Cliff laced his fingers over his protruding belly. “In fact I think it has potential.”

David looked up. “It does?”

“This is what we’re going to do: you’re going to give us this book and we’re going to ransom it back to Mendón for our millions.”

“What? No,” David said. “He might not pay. And even if he did, I’d have to tell him…No, he can’t know what we’ve been doing. Please, Cliff.”

“This is a bad idea,” Jesse put in. “We’re getting in too deep.”

Cliff ignored him. “Relax, Dave. Mendón doesn’t have to know shit. Tell him the place was robbed and the book was stolen.”

David wiped his nose, thinking. “He won’t know I was involved.”

“Right-o.”

“Then I tell him that the robbers have contacted me because they recognize what they have.”

Jesse snorted. “You think he’ll believe that? That a bunch of crooks out looking to steal the TV and grandma’s pearls also know who Mendón is? Ridiculous.”

David squared his jaw. “Cliff did.”

Cliff bellowed more laughter. “That’s right. Us seedy bottom-feeders know good literature when we see it, don’t we Dave?”

David wasn’t listening, his thoughts ran ahead a mile a minute. “Then I tell Julian that the robbers want one million dollars for the book’s safe return. I help negotiate the exchange, you get your money, and you leave us alone forever.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, snowflake,” Cliff said. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. One million dollars? What do you take me for?”

“Two, then.”

“Three,” said Garrett from his post in the corner. “One million for each of us. Unless Jesse’s too chickenshit, in which case, I’ll take his share.”

David shook his head. “He won’t pay that much, Cliff.”

“Jesus, Dave, do I have to think of everything? If he won’t pay it, you will. With his money. You have access, right? Tell him you couldn’t bear the thought of his precious book in our dirty little mitts and you impulsively—and out of love—” he sneered, “took it upon yourself to rescue his book.”

David thought this over. It could work. Julian would be mad but not for long, not when David’s intentions were so benevolent. He looked at Cliff. “And then that’s it? You won’t bother us again?”

“Scouts’ honor.”

What do you know of honor? David thought, but he was more relieved than anything. “Okay just give me a few days to plan it out. Make it look real. Okay? Deal?” He held out his hand for Cliff to shake, but the big man stared at it as if David had offered him a rotting fish.

“Get the f*ck out of here, Dave. I’m tired of looking at your goddamn face. Come back in a few days with the book or I’ll see you next month with… forty grand.” He leaned back and laced his hands behind his head. “You know. For my troubles.”





Chapter ThirtySeven