Page 22 of The Company We Keep

"Don’t tell me I printed this thing out on 32 pound paper and you don't even wannaglanceat it." Carrow puffed a soft laugh and Dust shook his head. "Things sure have changed since the last time I had a job interview."

"Whenwasthe last time you had a job interview?" Carrow asked. It was as good a place to start the interview as any. He hadn’t purposefully let them sit in silence, but silence had always been one of Carrow’s favorite tactics. It showed him how long it would take Dust to start the conversation himself, and where he'd start it. The kid’s impatience and his straightforwardness produced two more check marks in Carrow’s mental list of wins.

"Probably the last time I had a straight job," Dust said. "And that would've been... hell, Best Buy circa 2000."

"You're not telling me you were old enough toworkin 2000?" Carrow asked, allowing himself to smile. The kid barely looked old enough to drink now.

Dust nodded.

"You don't look anywhere near old enough to be 30."

Dust hitched a shoulder, brushing off the comment.

"I use sunscreen."

Carrow couldn’t help but bark a laugh at that. Dust — practically glowing with pleasure at having made Carrow laugh — took the first draw of the sweet, icy coffee, shutting his eyes to savor the taste and sighing deeply with contentment.

"You familiar with their menu here or is Vietnamese iced coffee a regular thing for you?" Carrow asked, prepping his own glass of coffee.

"I did my research," Dust offered, his smile going crooked. He fixed Carrow with eyes the color of moss. "Does coffee preference figure into whether or not I get the job?"

"You do realize that what you're asking for is more than a job, yes?"

Dust's smile disappeared.

"You answer my question and I'll answer yours," he shot. Carrow hadn’t expected it to feel like such a loaded question, and he respected the negotiation going on before him.

"If I hire you and you want something other than the exquisite pour-over coffee I make every morning, you have the right to make whatever coffee you prefer and I have the right to judge your bad taste," Carrow said.

"Yes," Dust said quickly, smiling. "To answer your question, I wouldn't be here unless I was asking formuchmore than a job. I have jobs — I don't need a job. I need The Company. And for the record, if it's offered, I'll drink whatever it is thatyou'redrinking."

Carrow pressed down a smile.Good answer.

"And why us?" Carrow asked. "Whymycrew?"

Dust seemed to think about that for a moment, weighing things in his head and watching his own hands.

"There are other crews, sure. The way I see it, they've allgot one weakness that makes them less valuable to me. There's something about The Company... you don't have that weakness. It's smart, the way you've done it."

Carrow shook his head.

"What weakness is that?"

"Bland homogeneity. Big groups of skinheads or punks or one racial group — there's no diversity. They're not better than the sum of their parts because everyone comes to the table with the same point of view. But The Company doesn't have that problem. You have diversity and somehow you're all getting along. You made that work."

Carrow nodded. It had been a conscious choice, building The Company that way.

"Why pledge yourself to a crew at all?" Carrow asked. "I've seen your list of scores. Seems like you're doing just fine on your own."

People had given various answers to the question in the past. People joined crews to get protection, to gain prestige, or to make more money through bigger scores.

"I've been on my own long enough to know what I can do on my own. There's somethingelsewhen you work with a crew like yours," Dust said, carefully considering his words. "I don't know what it is — but it made you a billionaire and it gave you the most loyal crew I've ever seen. Whatever it is that the five of you share...I want it."

Dust let the statement hang in the air.

There it was. This was what Carrow could feel radiating off of the kid:want.

Carrow knew he should be cautious. He knew Dust needed more vetting than the weeks of cursory digging that Wayles and Leta had done.

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