Page 40 of Cosmo

A collective sigh could be heard loudly and Tally laughed a little. “Liam, honey, you had us nervous.”

“Good! But let me tell you all something. I’m not a snitch. Even if I get busted, I won’t say a word. But I have some things I need.”

Nodding, Eazy said, “You’re not the first to make a few demands.”

“I have a cat. He stays, unless he’s got an owner looking for him.”

“Done,” Tally said. “What else?”

He didn’t know how to phrase it, exactly, but he asked a simple question and saw the truth immediately. “Do you know about my family?”

Every eye in the room found other things to stare at besides looking in his direction. The only one with balls enough to answer was funnily enough the only woman in the group. “Yes, Liam, dear. We know. Again, we had to know, in case…”

“Yeah. I get it. You all are close and I’m the odd man out, so you had to know if I’d be close to you, too. I’ll be honest. I don’t know if I have that in me. So far, I like all of you, but for now, you are coworkers and maybe, someday, friends. That’s all I can promise. If that’s a deal breaker, then send me somewhere else and I’ll go and I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

More sighs of relief, and Abs jumped out of his chair after pushing it back and they all grimaced at the horrible sound of the metal legs scooting across concrete.

Abs went to him, hugging him around the neck. “We’ll be friends. I know we will!”

Liam took the hug and smiled a little. “Thanks, Abs.” He told Abs and the others, “I have something else. One more thing I’ll insist on.”

Abs backed away from him, but asked, “What’s that?”

He swallowed and looked around at the waiting faces, all tense with the anticipation of what he could ask. He didn’t make themwait long. “Now and then, we do something good for people. I’m guessing, if you haven’t done a job in a year, you all were pretty well off enough not to be desperate. Maybe we can help around the neighborhood, or…whatever.”

“My god,” Goldie said, laughing. “He wants us to be a mafia.”

“Excuse me?” Liam said, half with humor and half with horror.

Murphy explained, “That’s how the mafia started, Liam. They didn’t get police to help them in their neighborhoods, so they did it, and they…collected favors. They also did it so the people of the neighborhood would keep their secrets.”

“Not just mafia,” Hippy pointed out. “Other kinds of criminals, like Frank and Jesse James.”

“Lord, Hippy, I knew that movie was a bad idea,” Haze groaned.

“Well! It’s true!”

Liam laughed with them but watched Murphy for an answer. Murphy gave it with no hesitation. “That’s a good idea, Cosmo. The neighborhood, though, is mostly gentrified now, but down the street, there are plenty of people who could use some help.”

Liam didn’t tell them, but he’d met one that very day.

“We don’t just have to throw money around,” Mims stated. “We could help with gangs, with other thieves that steal from the people that have little to steal. We know some of them, and they already hate us.”

Murphy excitedly clapped his hands together. “Good! Well, with that out of the way, how about we take advantage of this time and have a meeting?”

“I thought we were doing that,” Hippy said. “Like, aren’t we in the meeting room, like…meeting?”

“Shut up, Hippy,” Tally said, laughing. “I’ll go and I’ll take Eazy with me. My father will have fed the kids a pound of sugar each.”

“God, you’re right,” Eazy said, and they both hurried out of the secret room.

Haze started by saying, “The job we can do first is the Maxfield Parrish Job. It took me a while, but I got his paint strokes down and I am pretty sure my Daybreak is beyond reproach.”

Murphy slapped the table with one hand and said, “Good. Well, we have a goal, gentlemen. What more do we need to do to achieve it?”

“I’ll get on the security system, if Goldie can find out what it is.”

“No problem, and I’ll start staking it out.”

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