Lottery 1
Devine’s phone vibrated, he looked at the caller I.D. and sighed. “Yeah boss” he answered. “No. I was car jacked.”
“Car jacked?” Lou questioned. “You didn’t take the back road?”
“I took the back road, I always take the back road.” Devine complained, “It was an unfortunate accident.”
“I’ll say it was unfortunate, the matching bookend is gone. We need something to hold our books in place. What kind of sloppy driving are you doing?”
“It was easier to let it….” Devin started to explain.
“You’re slipping up in your old age Devine. You can’t take a punch in the face anymore? You used to not go down without a fight, and no one got one over on you. Well you better return here with the package unharmed, or you won’t be returning anywhere ever again.” Lou warned Devine as he hung up.
Lou looked up at Aston as he walked in the room. “So, Devine is carjacked, and you’re Mary Poppins. We’re never going to see any of that money without a Stymes. You better hope Lucy feels like paying a ransom over kids that aren’t hers.”
Aston said nothing, it was the best he could do given he had no other options. At least he did something, unlike his counterpart who obviously just rolled over and gave up. “Devine is getting soft in his old age. When are you going to cut him loose?”
“You want to run the Shop now?” Lou warned him. “Get out of my sight. I’m going to start recruiting new blood, this place is in desperate need of a transfusion”
Jerard pulled over for the night in a small abandoned town. He got out to relieve himself on the side of the old bank, built in 1905 it said. He thought about the man in the trunk, how he probably had to go too. Then he thought about how silent it was.
He took a deep breath and walked to the back of the car and unlocked the trunk. Slowly he opened it.
Steven looked up at him and didn’t utter a word.
Jerard saw he was too late in the bathroom department, what was needed now was a new pair of pants. He looked around the inside of the trunk and saw there was no weapon. “A’ight. I’ll let you out now.”
“You believe me?” Steven asked. “You saw the reports?”
“Naw, I ain’t seen nothin.” Jerard helped him out. “I ain’t got no phone.”
Steven fell on to the ground, he had been in the trunk too long and couldn’t stand on his own being tied up.
Jerard helped him sit up. “I ain’t got nothin to cut these ropes either. Sorry about that.”
“No, it’s ok.” Steven said as he took a deep breath. “I’m just grateful to be out.”
“Yeah I’m sorry about that.”
Steven shook his head, “It’s alright. I understand.”
“You ain’t got any money on you right now, do you? I could go for some food.” Jerard hoped.
Steven shook his head again. “He took everything I had. All my identification and cards.”
Jerard got up and started rummaging through the car to find something sharp enough to cut the ropes with, but he found nothing. He walked back to Steven, “I’m gonna go see if I can find a knife and I’ll be back to take care of you.”
“Take me with you!” Steven yelled as Jerard got in the car and left.
Jerard looked back at Steven sitting on the ground. He wasn’t coming back, he had his shot to get the border and he wasn’t going to loose time. He let the guy out of the trunk, he did his good deed. The guy wasn’t going to die in the back of the trunk anymore. He had a fighting chance to survive now.
Jerard kept telling himself that over and over and he sped down the roadway.