Thick as Thieves Read Online Free PDF

silence that followed Declan’s speech, as the smoke and sorrowful music pressed closer, or while Carr sipped at the coffee he’d ordered to replace his unfinished beer. Or maybe, on the heels of another failure, another firing, adrift once again, Carr had been a buyer from the start.
    “Maybe you could do with a bit more caution yourself. How do you know I won’t go home and call the police?”
    “And tell them what? My name? My phone number? You know as well as anyone how disposable those are. And besides, I do my sums, Mr. Carr—I think I know you better than that.”
    Carr shook his head. “Fucking Teddy.”
    “Don’t go blaming Teddy, either—not too much anyway. Yes, he tells me some things—I expect it for the fee I pay him—but I do my own leg-work besides. So I know about your unfortunate disagreement with your client, and the nice right cross that put an end to your career with Integral Risk. I know about your housing problem, as well. And I know about your brief period of service to your country—very noble that—and how they tossed you out on your arse after all that training. Decided you’re not the kind of glad-handing wanker Langley likes for their agent-runners. Imaginative bunch up there, eh?
    “And I know how Teddy recruited you to IR after that, and bounced you around the region a bit, before setting you down in Mexico. And I know that you send a check once a month to your old dad up in Massachusetts. Stockbridge, is it? It’s not everything about you, I’m sure, but it’s enough to give me some comfort you won’t be running to the Garda. You’re too smart for that, Mr. Carr.”
    The smile was there, and the furry, conspiratorial chuckle, and there was only the briefest gust of icy air—like walking past an open freezer—when he met Declan’s blue gaze. Carr found the implicit threat comforting somehow—a kind of corroboration.
    “Many people get killed in your business?” Carr asked finally.
    “I won’t say no eggs get broken, but we try to avoid it. And truth be told, these aren’t altar boys we’re dealing with. They’re dead-enders—hard boys, or so they fancy themselves—bad insurance risks on the best of days.”
    “I was wondering more about your own guys.”
    “When it comes to me and mine,
safety first
is my motto. I’m pleased to say I haven’t lost a man yet.”
    “
Yet.
”
    Declan shook his head. “If it’s risk you’re worried about, I can’t change that—it is what it is—but if it’s crime that gives you pause, then I’d ask you to think about who it is I’m robbing. They’re pricks, every one of ’em—none worse in the world. I’m no Robin Hood, but the fact is I hurt ’em where they live—square in the wallet—which might be more justice than they get from anyone else.” Declan smiled again, more broadly this time, impossibly charming, and then he drained his beer. “So what d’ya say, Mr. Carr, you want to run off with the circus?”
    Safety first … haven’t lost a man yet
. Carr shakes his head, banishingthe echoes of Declan’s voice. No, Carr thinks, you hadn’t lost a man until four months ago, when you lost two—shot full of holes and burned to a crisp on the side of the Trans-Andean Highway. And too bad one of those rigid cinders was you.
    Then Bobby is shaking him, whispering urgently. “The fuck’s the matter with you? You don’t hear that?” Bobby points toward the reception area, where the voices are coming from. Carr wipes a hand across his face and listens. They’re muffled and indistinct, but he can make out two men, talking and laughing.
    “
Chingada
!” Mike’s voice is low and harsh. He’s standing, clenched, in the door of Lucovic’s office, and he’s holding a Glock.
    “What are you doing with that?” Carr whispers.
    “Scratching my ass,
cabrón
—what the fuck you think I’m doing?”
    Carr shakes his head. “Stay here, both of you, and put that thing away.”
    “Time to pack up?” Bobby