Page 8 of Diamond in the Rough

Carl checked around the car, then nodded. “I’m sure.”

Jake reached for the handle, but Carl’s hand clamped down on his bouncing knee. “Wait.”

“For what?”

“That car…”

The car in question pulled up behind them. Carl straightened in his seat and waited with his eyes fixed on the mirror. The door opened, and a man climbed out. He strolled to the back of the car and lifted the lid.

“Who’s that?” Jake asked.

Carl reached under his seat. “Get down.”

“What?”

Carl cupped the back of Jake’s neck and forced him forward. Jake stayed in the position and didn’t dare speak.

“Stay like that.”

Jake heard the sound of the trunk slamming shut, then Carl blew a breath through his teeth, and Jake risked a peek to the side. Carl had slumped and put whatever was under the seat back again. Jake leaned up hesitantly, then flashed a look back.

The man had grabbed a pushchair from the back of the car and began setting it up on the path. He shook it, kicked it, cursed, then smiled in triumph.

“I don’t think gangsters start down this path that early,” Jake muttered.

“Gangsters,” Carl hissed. “We’re not gangsters.”

“What are you then?”

“Businessmen.”

“Right…”

“We’re the guys that sort out the Boss’s business, whatever that may be. Hence, businessmen.”

“And women,” Jake added.

Carl shuddered. “Yeah, good job Amber didn’t hear me. I would’ve got a slap.”

He rubbed his cheek as if it stung, then shivered. Jake’s own cheek prickled with the memory of Amber’s palm across his face.

The man rushed past with a smiling toddler sat in the seat. The indicator on the car behind flashed, then it drove around Carl and up the street.

“Ah, domestic bliss.” Carl sighed.

“Not everyone likes gunfights.”

“I wasn’t mocking. I was serious. Who wouldn’t want an army of kids running around?”

Jake stared at Carl, waiting for the moment when his serious expression would break, and he would burst out laughing. Instead, Carl lifted his chin and watched the man with the pushchair stroll away.

“When all this is over, I’ll get myself a wife and settle down.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She’ll be some culinary goddess, of course.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

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