Page 35 of Diamond in the Rough

“You’ve never looked at me like you wanna kill me.”

Carl snorted. “Bit dramatic.”

Sam continued to glare, and Carl did too until Jake cleared his throat.

“Customer,” he said.

Carl tore his gaze away and greeted the woman with a friendly hello.

“Something’s not right,” Sam said under his breath.

****

Jake looked over to Carl in the driver’s seat. “Sam’s suspicious of you.”

“Is he?”

“Yeah, what happened to acting normal?”

Carl pulled the belt across himself. “Your normal and my normal are a little different.”

Jake shook his head. “Sam’s a nice guy.”

“I know he is, but he’s not my boss, and my boss needs me to get a job done and fast. This is the end game we were talking about. The Boss thinks the guy in the shop is our main guy.”

“Main guy?”

Carl bobbed his head. “The one who calls the shots.”

Jake scrunched his face. “That skinny guy?”

“Looks can be misleading. If some huge muscular guy came in and made a beeline for you, I would’ve noticed, but not him. He passed under my radar.”

“But I approached him, he didn’t come to me, and he certainly didn’t say anything threatening. You still don’t know for sure.”

Carl started the engine. “Yes, I do.”

“How?”

“Tom recognised him.”

“What?”

“He’s met him before, and so has the Boss.”

“Who is he?”

Carl sighed and pulled away from the curb. “The Boss intercepted a gang of arsonists, three of them. He took them to the cooler to get information. Tom says the long-haired one was the only one who spoke. He said his name was Billy, acted all bumbling, sweating like he was a junkie.”

“That doesn’t sound like the same guy.”

“As I said, he was flying under the radar.”

“Or Tom got it wrong.”

“Tom’s certain of it. Billy played them, and the Boss took pity on him and let the three of them go unharmed. A few bodies got dragged from the lake, the two that were with Billy, and another body the Boss assumed was him.”

“But it wasn’t.”

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