Page 73 of Cosmo

“Those numbers are easy to fix, and if we rent one in another state, they’ll never guess. Change the plates, temporary paint over the numbers on the truck itself.”

“After Oklahoma City, they’re regulated hard.”

Cosmo smiled and said, “Leave it to me. I’m the vehicle guy, right? Let me stretch my wings a little.”

Everyone stared at him, but Goldie’s detail-oriented mind went wild. “Okay, getting the truck is one thing. Getting it to the restaurant is another.”

“No. No, it won’t,” Hippy suddenly said. “Murphy, if you can buy an old box truck like that, we can paint it for some repair service. We park behind the place, Mims and Cosmo do their tricks and get the car into the back of the van. We’re out of there and heading down the street.”

“What repair?” Cosmo asked.

Goldie said, “Those places always need repairs. Plumbing, refrigeration, gas.”

“Plumbing,” Cosmo said. “One of us can go in there and fuck with the plumbing. Have it set so the problem will happen right when the place is going, like when ourmark is there drinking with his clients. They’ll call a plumber, and Mims can intercept the call.” He turned to Mims and assured, “You can do that, right?”

“Sure, yeah, it’s a little rerouting.”

“We pull in, we plumb, and while you guys are unclogging the place, Mims and I get the car into the truck, and bam, we’re gone.”

Hippy laughed as he asked Cosmo, “We’re not plumbers, so how are we pulling this off?”

Groaning, Murphy said, “Who do you think plumbs this place? It would cost me a fortune to call a real plumber all the time when some queen clogged up the toilets.”

“So, Murph, you’re going along on this trip, I guess,” Hippy said with more laughter.

“Great. That’s just great,” he said, laughing along with Hippy. “I get to do someone else’s plumbing.”

In his glory, Goldie said, “Okay, I’ve got a lot more research to do. I’ll need all the phone numbers from that place, Mims, including the cell phones from all the managers and hosts. Mims, can you come up with a guy to go to that place with? A date?”

“I got a new one on the line, sure. He’s got deep pockets.”

“Good. Make up a card for a fake company called Emergency Plumbers or something like that with the number for my new prepaid. Leave it on the desk, mention it to the cashier, the manager, whoever. In fact, make up a few. Be subtle about it but play along like we’re a new company trying to get clients and we can be at any plumbing emergency in minutes and not hours or days.”

“I get where you’re going with this. Okay, sure. If I can, while on my date, I’ll slip it into the manager’s office, if I can find it empty.”

Cosmo whistled through his teeth. “You guys are superb. This is something that usually would take months to plan.”

“It’s why I recruited the best and brightest. It’s why I wanted you, Cosmo,” Murphy said with a wink.

Goldie saw his family grow at that moment. Cosmo’s holding back and his reservations of being with such a close bunch of misfits. Well, Goldie saw it in his eyes. He finally felt part of them.

The next two days went by fast. Goldie watched the restaurant, took his notes, found the manager and assistant managers were rarely in their offices, which he let Mims know, and they were attentive to their guests.

Mims not only sneaked into the office to plant the plumbing card on the corkboard next to the desk but to also get an idea of the camera placements and security. In the ten minutes he was in the office, he got it all.

Bragging to them, he was very impressed with himself. Goldie kissed him right on the mouth as the others got their individual jobs planned.

Cosmo was antsy, but he made nightly trips to his boyfriend’s place. His boyfriend, the fed. Goldie was still unsure about the guy, but he trusted Murphy with his life. Murphy thought it was good for them to have a couple of iffy feds on the team.

The weekend came before they could get the car stolen. The guy who owned the Bentley got the flu. That knowledge came when Goldie followed him to a doctor in yet another high rise. One of those doctors who only treated the very wealthy.

Calling the guy’s office, Goldie was told he’d be back on Monday, so they planned the heist for Tuesday. That meant more lessons of the bartending variety for Cosmo.

They went to the basement, playing several tunes Hippy listed for them. Cosmo dropped more bottles than he caught before Abs stopped the music and went to Cosmo, holding both his hands as he spoke to him like a father speaking to a small child.

“Your mind is a million miles away, honey. Stop thinking about the Bentley, about the boost. Stop thinking about your guy.”

“I’m not…”

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