in her vagina, and not permitted to leave the room, Harrison had spent the night in the claustrophobic bathroom without his phone or computer. That night had been the longest and most boring night of his life. Even in prison he’d have found something to do to amuse himself. Instead, he had to listen to the three other men’s grunting and their women’s exaggerated moans.
“Ah, so Harry do like women,” Vlad said and lit his cigarette. “Good. Vlad will buy Harry a woman when job is kaput. Tell Vlad. Blonde, brunette or redhead?” The Russian laughed and slapped him on the back. “Maybe Harry want all three, eh?”
Vlad was either fucking with him or the man was clueless. When the job was kaput , Harrison worried he and his brother would be, too. Whoever Vlad and Santiago worked for wasn’t going to allow him and Mickey to go back to their neighborhood, to their crappy jobs at the restaurant, to their crappy lives. And he’d prefer crappy over dead.
“I couldn’t handle three women,” Harrison said, deciding to play along. He couldn’t let the Russian or Santiago know about his doubts and needed to maintain the charade. “But if I had to choose, a redhead would be nice.”
“Ah, Harry like them fiery.” Squinting as smoke drifted in his face, Vlad took a long drag on the cigarette. “Me? Vlad prefer your California girls. Blonde, tan, big titties,” he said and grabbed his own big pecs. “But we no talk about Vlad. Yes, Monday night Vlad give Harry fiery redhead to keep dick warm.”
“Monday night?” Harrison rubbed his itchy eyes. That gave him only three days to either disable the devices he’d been syncing to the laptop, or immobilize the laptop itself. He’d rather deactivate the devices, which, according to Santiago, were high tech security cameras. But he didn’t buy Santiago’s bullshit. Why in the hell would someone plant and sync security cameras across the country?
During their first two stops, other than worrying about being busted for violating probation, he hadn’t given the job they were on much thought. Actually, he’d been enjoying himself. The fancy private plane that had flown them from Norfolk to San Francisco, then later to Las Vegas where they’d spent the night at the Bellagio. Granted he’d spent the majority of that night confined to the bathroom, but prior to that, they’d eaten, drunk and gambled like high rollers. After being locked in a bathroom in Vegas, things became even stranger. The cities and towns they were delivering the cameras to appeared random. One morning they were in Pocatello, Idaho, and by that evening Ford, Wyoming. The next day Denver, the day after that, Amarillo, Texas. Where the supposed security equipment had been placed was also equally unsystematic. A bar, convention center, funeral home, shopping mall, airstrip, school…
His pulse quickened with anxiety. Yeah, something wasn’t adding up—at all. Because Vlad and Santiago showed no sign of knowing anything about computers, he could, given the chance, easily take care of those cameras . As for the computer, until they reached the East Coast, he’d rather not destroy the laptop.
“Is this the last city?” he asked, part of him hopeful while the other part was concerned. He needed to create a virus, or at the very least leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Should the shit go down the way he suspected, Vlad and Santiago’s boss would need to be stopped.
“Nah.” Vlad shook his head and waved the cigarette. “And miss out on fun? We like Griswolds, no?” He pretended to drive a car. “We travel cross country in search of fun. And we have fun, no?”
No. He was not having fun. He was fucking freaking out. This was supposed to be an easy job. Sync security devices to the laptop he’d been given, make sure they could be activated remotely. Simple. Easy. Only it wasn’t that simple. If the devices Santiago and Mickey had been planting were for security reasons, then why