Urban Renewal Read Online Free PDF Page B

means, if you make up your mind to do this, you do it. And if you don’t, you don’t.”
    Since then, Brandi had been working anywhere between thirty and fifty hours a week. The tax bite was close to nothing, despite her diligent declaration of her 15-percent tips. The job was a dream, especially because she was the sole provider for her boy, whose father was a lot better at promises than payments.
    On a bad week, Brandi would pocket thousands in cash as well as her paycheck. Some weeks were much better. She’d been at the Double-X for almost three years.
    “What did he want?” Cross asked.
    “Wanted to know when does Taylor—the new girl—when does she get off?”
    “And you said …?”
    “He’d have to ask the manager.”
    “And the manager isn’t around.”
    “Yep.”
    “Good work,” Cross told her.
    The former ballet dancer spun gracefully, leaving a table for the first time that night without some patron’s trying to squeeze one of her muscular cheeks.
    “This’ll be easier than I thought,” Cross said, pulling a cell phone out of his jacket in response to Buddha’s raised-eyebrow silent question.
    “Get Arabella,” Cross told whoever answered.
    The wait was short.
    “She know he showed?”
    “Yes,” Arabella answered him. “She’s … kind of scared, I guess. But only about leaving. She knows she’s safe here.”
    “Skip your next turn. You and her, both. Go out the back way. Drive over to where she lives. There’ll be a truck and a few guys waiting. Tell her this is a one-and-only. Anything she doesn’t take, kiss it goodbye.”
    “How much time will we—?”
    “All you need. Ring back here when you’re away. That means back in
your
place, understand?”
    “But I’ll never fit all her—”
    “Her stuff goes to a storage unit. The guys in the truck will know where to take it.”
    “I’m going to miss the rest of the time I paid for. Three more turns.”
    “Sell your shifts; there’s plenty of girls who’ll buy them.”
    “Sure. But I would’ve made a lot more if I—”
    “You brought her here. That’s what it costs.”
    “Oh.”
    “Storage unit is five a month. You two want to look for a bigger place, we can find one for you. Or, if she wants to go solo, that, too.”
    “Really? In this town—”
    “I know a real good broker,” Cross said, and pressed the “Off” button on his cell.

    “ TWO, THREE of K-2’s crew for the move?” Buddha asked.
    “Sure.”
    “They get paid a lot more than movers.”
    “We’ll cover it.”
    “All for this new girl?”
    “She’ll be good for it.”
    “Yeah” was all Buddha said, sliding off into the darkness.

    IT WAS getting close to the time the club usually started to empty out when the solitary man who’d asked about the new dancer finally realized she was already done for the night.
    He slowly got to his feet, casually tossed some bills on the table, and walked out of the club.
    Bruno slid into position behind him. Cross waved him off.
    The tall, slender man strolled past the “Valet Parking” area and kept moving toward the back of the building. Ablack man about half his height and twice his width stepped out of the shadows.
    “No going around the back, pal.”
    “I’m just—”
    “You ain’t
parked
back there. Your car’s over in Valet Parking.”
    “That’s right. I just wanted to wait for my girlfriend, make sure she knows I’m here to take her home.”
    “You’re saying
she
told you to meet her back there?”
    “Not exactly. I mean, she wouldn’t be going out the front, right? These kind of places, sometimes a guy will sit out there, waiting. You know what I mean.”
    “That don’t happen here.”
    “Come on, bro. I know there’s got to be
some
way …”
    “Like, say, if I never saw you?”
    “Yeah. Like that.”
    “Only shade that turns me blind is green, ‘bro.’ ”
    The slender man handed over a fifty-dollar bill.
    “When I say ‘green,’ I mean a full glass, not a little