Page 49 of Cash

The panel screen flashed yellow.

Ready To Arm

“What the fuck?” Jules spat. “Nah, hang on. That ain’t right.”

Brick snorted. “Where are the instructions?”

“On the table, but I don’t need no damn instructions.” Jules stared down the panel as if it had deeply offended him and was about to suffer. “I got this shit.”

“Uh-huh.” Brick left Jules to angrily jab at the panel while he went to grab the instructions off the table. He skimmed through them and then rejoined Jules at the panel. He watched him continue to pound the keypad in dismay before asking sweetly, “Are you done now, Daddy?”

Jules growled.

“There are two ways to set the alarm. Away is for when you’re actually leaving the house. You have to hold still for ten seconds, wait for the beep, and then you have thirty seconds to leave the house. After thirty seconds, the alarm is set. It gets triggered, you then have thirty seconds to disarm it or it goes off.” Brick smirked. “Then there’s the stay function.”

“The fuckin’ what now?”

“Stay, as in staying in the house. It arms the window and door sensors but not the actual motion detection ones. You type in the code, press away, hold still until the panel says armed. Then you’re free to move around the house, but if you try to open a door or a window, the alarm will go off in thirty seconds if it’s not disarmed.”

“You got all that from them instructions?”

“Yeah. It’s amazing what you learn when you actually read them. What’s the code?”

“One-two-three-four.”

“Christ.” Brick snorted and pushed some buttons. “Aw, look at that.” He batted his lashes as the panel beeped in reply. “Armed.”

“Motherfucker.” Jules still looked ready to pound the panel into submission.

“It’s okay, Daddy. I got you.” Brick patted his back. “So. Ready to go party it up at the Rialto tomorrow?”

“Huh?”

“If you think you’re leaving me here in my death house, you’re insane.” Brick walked back to the living room to grab his empty wine glass. What was left in the bottle wasn’t enough to fill it, so he headed to the kitchen.

He knew there were still one or two special vintages he had been saving for some unspecified special occasion. He decided that having someone break into his house for the second time and having that someone’s dead body wind up on his floor was certainly special enough.

“You ain’t comin’ with me,” Jules argued as he followed Brick. “It’s too dangerous, and I will definitely have to do some criminaling.”

“I can wait for you outside.” Brick reached for the bottle opener and then gasped in dismay as Jules snatched it away from him.

“No.”

“In the car then!” Brick got out a ten-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon from a cabinet, and he growled when Jules pulled that away too.

“Fuck no.” Jules angrily popped the cork and glared at Brick. With his eyes still locked on Brick’s, he poured the wine, refilling Brick’s glass. Jules took a long gulp from the bottle, never breaking his gaze, as if daring Brick to challenge him.

“What do you propose I do then, Daddy?” Brick demanded. “I’m sure as fuck not staying here by myself, alarm or no fuckin’ alarm.”

“You can go over to my place.” Jules shrugged. “Those dumb fucks don’t know I’m stayin’ there.”

“How do you know they haven’t tried to break in over there?”

“Because I have a fuckin’ alarm system that works the way it’s supposed to when I push the goddamn buttons.”

“Are you sure about that?” Brick taunted, wagging his brows as he picked up his glass to take a sip.

“Tryin’ to be cute right now?”

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