Page 52 of Saving Bonnie

“Don’t go getting all butt hurt,” I say, blowing him off. Last thing I need is Iz acting like a jealous little bitch.

We’re at the edge of greatness. Soon, I’ll have a place like this, only bigger, and some of those pallets will be stacked with cash. I’ve seen it done. Well, I’ve seen stacks on TV and the Internet, but they find those pics somewhere.

A hard whistle has me checking around us. Sergio’s calling from the back of the building, by the emergency exit.

He cups his hands around his mouth. “Come here.” He waves us over.

“What the hell is that?”

Iz cranes his neck, trying to see where I’m looking. “The trailer? That’s their office, man.”

“Their office?” I ask, making a face.

“A lot of warehouses use them,” he says, like he knows what he’s talkin’ about. “So whoever rents can rearrange the setup on the cheap.”

I start cracking up. No way I’m going to have no trailer at my place. I need an actual office. With a big-ass desk and a leather chair where I can sit and have these guys workin’.

“Rick is on the way.” Sergio comes down the metal stairs for a fist bump.

“He got the box?” I cross my fingers.

“No.” Sergio shakes his head. “He checked and didn’t find anything.”

“So what are we doing?” I demand, stretching my arms in question. Because I’m not going in her place if she has cameras.

“He’s bringing Bonnie,” Sergio says, sounding like his mama put him on time-out.

“Oh shit. Why bring her here?” I ask, wondering what I missed.

“So he can ask questions without no one around. He knows she has a guy sitting in the café overnight now.”

“I thought he had a plan,” I shoot back.

“She wouldn’t go out, and he’s got a deadline.” Sergio checks the area behind us, all nervous. “So he’s gonna bring her here, get the deets, and get rid of her.”

“Get rid of her how?” Iz goes all stiff, turning to me.

“I didn’t ask,” Sergio admits.

They don’t want to talk about it, but how else does he expect to take care of a problem? Man, Iz has been my boy for years, but I can’t work with him if he ain’t fly.

“He’ll distract her, grab the phone out of her pocket, and put her in the truck,” Sergio explains. “Once they get here and he’s done, he’ll call an Uber from her phone. Later, when the cops come by and he gets questioned, he’ll say they were going to go out, but he had to come back to work, she got pissed, and went home. They’ll find her phone in the street tomorrow morning. Her picture will go up on a poster, and eventually people will forget about her.”

Okay, well that’s on him. “Didn’t have no problems? Because I didn’t think he could pull off taking her.”

“Nah.” Sergio grins. “He took her some of the stuff he held onto, and he was going to have her help unload.”

“And you think she’ll fall for that?”

“Yeah.” Sergio shrugs. “Bonnie’s always trying to do everything herself.”

“I don’t know, man.” I run my hand along the back of my neck. “Sounds too easy.”

“He has a backup plan. He was taking flowers in case she was playing hard to get.”

“Yeah, I see how he rolls.” These bitches love flowers.

“Come on.” Sergio waves for us to go us intothe office.