Page 17 of Wicked Tricks

I was alone and scared, just like Grace, when Diana found me.

Though Bea and I had survived together for a long time, when Diana took us in we could actually live. We stopped wondering where dinner was coming from. We stopped wondering where we would sleep. A smile crept onto my face when I thought about the home that we shared now. The glamorous apartment among the skyscrapers was more than I would ever let myself dream of as a kid.

I straightened my shoulders, thinking about how far we had come. We had clawed our way up from rock bottom, and I had no plans on stopping.

Which was just another reason why I would not be intimidated by a little rich boy playing mob boss on daddy’s dime.

6

Chapter 6

Rome

My office door opened and snapped me out of my trance.

I glanced at the time at the top of my screen and noticed that I had been on the computer for over three hours. Livie slipped in, closing the door behind her. She had her laptop bag slung over her shoulder, and her pastel purple hair tied back into a low bun.

“Are you ready?” she asked, taking out her computer and setting it up on the opposite side of the desk.

“Yes,” I smiled, double clicking on the document we would need. It opened on my screen, and I leaned back and rubbed my eyes.

Livie handled the more technical aspects of what we did. She was able to access the back ends of websites and manipulate the information stored within it. This was key to our entire operation. She slipped on her glasses, toying with something on her own computer as we waited for the other girls to arrive.

Mina, Sierra, and Bea showed up soon after with takeaway coffee cups in hand, one for each of us. I hated Melbourne sometimes, but the coffee alone was reason enough to stay in the cloudy grey city.

Bea put mine down in front of me, and sat in the other free seat. Mina perched on the arm of Livie’s chair and Sierra leant against the desk.

“So,” I said, turning my computer screen so that everyone could see, “this is the manifest that Louis got this morning, and this is the load plan,” I said, pointing to the badly scanned images on the screen.

Louis was an old truck driver who we had befriended that worked for Belkin’s Transport, the same company that the Santino’s used to move most of their inventory. The Family owned a lot of local businesses, and had their hands in a lot of the stalls at the City Markets. They transported guns and drugs in crates amongst different fruits and vegetables, along with thousands of dollars in cash to pay off the people involved.

Diana had Lilith’s bugged years ago, when The Family started intruding more and more.

A few months ago, it paid off.

Two of the elder members let slip the name of one of the vendors they used at the markets, after that, it was easy enough to find out the name of the transport company they used. Not long after that, we met Louis. He was an older guy, a veteran truck driver who was sick of having to do The Family’s dirty work.

“Like last time, the two pallets for Vivielli’s and one for Marchel’s are right up the front, so this time we’ll snag Marchel’s.”

“Why don’t we just take all three?” Sierra asked, sipping her coffee.

“Because we took Vivielli’s last time, we don’t want to leave any patterns that they could catch onto.”

“We could just take the whole trailer,” Mina perked up, lacing her fingers together excitedly.

“We could, but that would be the last chance we ever got,” Bea rolled her eyes, rubbing her temples.

She was right.

If they figured out what was going on, they had the resources to pivot their whole operation overnight.

We did not.

“Remember what we’re doing here, okay?” I sighed, “We always knew that this would be a slow play. We need to be patient.”

They nodded and the energy in the room calmed down.

“Okay,” I continued, “it’s going to be in back trailer 152, and truck 1943. It’s booked in to be unloaded on the side dock at six a.m.”

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