Page 4 of The Devil's Dilemma

And I had a feeling I was going to need all the help I could get with this next job.

“If you really need it, it’ll show itself to you. That’s all I got.”

“How will I know?”

“You just will.” He drank his tea and stared off into the distance, his mind elsewhere.

Fat lot of good that did me. I was none the wiser.

He said no more, and I busied myself preparing my lunch for the next day. Not wanting to raise suspicion with Grandpa, I worked at a local pub as a barman. That way, he wouldn’t query where I got my money.

The others gave me stick for working, but I wasn’t like them and wasn’t willing to live off state benefits and our ill-gotten gains.

It all helped in staying under the radar. Why would I need to commit crimes when I had a job? That was my thinking anyway.

We ate in silence, despite me encouraging him to tell me more about The Magic Shop, and before long, it was eight in the evening. Time for his bed.

Since his fall, he could no longer climb the stairs, and we’d converted the front room to a bedroom. So that was where I took him once he’d completed his nighttime routine.

I tucked him into bed, kissed his forehead, and said good night. I loved the old goat, as stubborn as he was sometimes.

I double-checked the doors were locked and went to my bedroom. Not much had changed since I was a child. I slept in the same single bed, only the covers had changed. I looked at the same jaded posters stuck to the wall, the same blue curtains hanging precariously from the rail.

I gazed with sadness at the picture on my nightstand. Mama and Dad smiling. A sign of happier times. I tamped down my emotions. No time for that. I had work to do.

I turned on my laptop. What the fuck I should search for?

Magic shop? Old magic shop? Nah, that brought up too much stupid shit.

Magic shop that disappeared? Could it be that simple?

I perused the results, seeing nothing of interest, until there, almost at the bottom, was an entry.

“Looking for something? We have what you need, even though you don’t know it yet. Find us at the junction of Somerset Road and Glyne Place. What are you waiting for?”

Was this it? Was this the place I’d been looking for?

It couldn’t hurt to check, right? It’d have to wait. No way I would leave Grandpa alone, but I’d have time to check it out before work tomorrow.

But what did I need? I didn’t know, but we couldn’t afford to fuck this one up. There was too much at stake.

My phone rang. It was Joel.

“What? You missing me already?”

“Ha ha. Hilarious. No, I wanted to check you were all right with this. You didn’t seem as enthusiastic as the last couple of jobs.”

What could I tell him? That I’d got a weird feeling when he told me which casino it was? He’d say I was being fucking stupid, and I probably was, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

“I don’t know, Joel. If this goes wrong…”

“It won’t. We’ll do it the same as the other two. You go in there, play your games, and walk out with all the money. Simple as that.”

And that was the thing. It was all on me. All of this relied on me being able to win. What if I couldn’t this time? Worst of all, what if I got caught?

To be fair, this was the first time we’d done something like this on such big a scale. Usually, we concentrated on stealing goods rather than cold, hard cash. The last two jobs had been a breeze. I hoped the third time was the charm.

None of us wanted to be career criminals, and this way, we’d have enough money to see the back of Liverpool and, for me, the terrible memories it held.

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