Page 125 of Stuart Woods' Smolder

“How much longer are you going to work for him?”

“Until he doesn’t need us anymore.”

“Buddy, there is no ‘us’ here. After the drop-off, I’m done with him.”

“And then what? You’re not going to find a job that pays as good as this one.”

Sticks snorted. “I already have.”

Benji shot him a surprised look. “With who?”

“Why would I tell you?”

Neither said a word for the next few miles.

Then Benji said, “Any room on that new job for me?”

Chapter 37

The first thing Teddy did when he woke up Thursday morning was check the recording from the audio tap on Simon’s hotel room.

The device was voice activated and had only gone off once, at 12:13 a.m., when Simon received a phone call. Teddy could hear only his side of the conversation, but it was more than enough to confirm Simon was dirty.

“You got the painting,” Simon had said on the recording. “That’s what matters.”

Simon wasn’t tangentially connected to the thefts. He was directly involved. He also revealed that the painting was to be delivered tohimathisgallery in just a few hours.

That sounded like an event Teddy should attend, too.

By 8:15, he was parked a few blocks from the gallery. Dressed as an elderly retiree, he shuffled to a spot where he had a view of the gallery’s parking lot.

Twenty minutes later, a dark gray BMW 530i pulled into the lot, carrying two passengers. The engine shut off, but the men didn’t get out.

Whether they were the art thieves or not, Teddy had a strong feeling they had an interest in the upcoming delivery.

He snapped several pictures.

—

At the same time Teddy was disguising himself for his stakeout, Simon woke to find a voice message awaiting him from Nico Savage.

“Hi, Simon. Mr. Petry has learned that you’ll be receiving the third painting this morning. We want to be there when that happens, so expect us at the gallery at nine.”

Simon stared at his phone.

Only five people knew about last night’s job: himself, Phillip, Benji, Devin, and Sticks. And of that group, only Simon and his brother knew about the delivery time.

Wait, he thought.

Sticks had been in the car with Benji, so he would have heard everything. He had to be the one who’d told Petry.

The son-of-a-bitch pyro needed to be dealt with, but after Simon took care of the more immediate problem of Petry.

Simon had promised him the paintings tomorrow, not today, so the other two were with Rudy Morgan. Simon had planned on personally taking the third one to the forger this morning.

While he could swing by and pick up the originals on his way to the gallery, he was loath to turn them over to Petry.

Screw it, he decided. He’d give Petry the one Benji was bringing this morning but would make up some excuse as to why theother two wouldn’t be available until tomorrow, when he could stick Petry with the forgeries. Saving two out of the three originals was better than saving none.

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