Premonitions Read Free Page A

Greaser was bad news, but if the crew got in with him, this meeting could open a lot of doors.
    Could also fuck us nine ways to Sunday if we screw it up,
she reminded herself. She glanced toward the door. Was Durante coming or what?
    “Good. Then you know not to jerk me around.”
    “Sure.”
    “Your crew’s got a good reputation. Discreet, thorough, and never caught with your pants down. Is it true Ames is psychic?”
    Anna kept her gaze steady. “We don’t talk about that.”
    Greaser’s piglike eyes widened fractionally. His grin followed a second later. It didn’t improve his looks any. “Good. I like that.” He paused. “You have something for me?”
    Anna’s heart sped up a notch. “For you? No.”
    “Mr. Durante is no longer a buyer. Seems he lost interest.”
    Anna ran the options. Could be a bluff, in which case she should hold out for Durante’s arrival. But Greaser knew the client’s name, knew where he was supposed to be. Most likely, then, Durante had been run off. That wasn’t gonna be good for future business. Anna steeled herself. “Price hasn’t changed.”
    Greaser reached into his jacket and pulled out a manila envelope, the motion quick enough that Anna didn’t have to spend more than half a second wondering if he was going to take out a gun and shoot her right there. “Fifty thousand,” he said, and he tossed the envelope on the table. “Now, the object? Unless you want to sit here and count the cash first.”
    Durante she trusted not to fuck her over, but not this guy. Still, she didn’t want to count fifty thousand dollars in the middle of a restaurant, in full view of the handful of people left in the room. She reached under the table, produced the bag, and plopped it down in front of her. Greaser unrolled the top and looked inside.
    “Charming,” he said. He slid the bag out of the way, close to the wall, and produced another envelope. It was large, fat with papers. “Here’s the job,” he said, pushing it across the table.
    “Job?”
    “Yeah. Did you think I was here for the conversation?”
    “What if we don’t want it?”
    The big guy shrugged. “Don’t take it. You guys are good, but for two million dollars, I can get ‘good’ lined up all the way down the block.”
    Anna’s mouth fell open. She knew she looked like a complete amateur, but she couldn’t help it.
    “I’ll be in touch,” Greaser said, and he got up to leave. Anna was still speechless as he took the paper bag and walked away. He didn’t even look back, just opened the door and walked out.
    As the door swung slowly shut behind him, she saw him dump the paper bag in the trash.

Chapter 3
    When Anna came out of her room, satchel in hand, Nail felt his face shape itself into a grin.
Payday,
he thought, and not a single day too soon. Hard not to feel good about that.
    “There you go,” Anna said, dropping the satchel on the table. “That’s what you get for all that clean living.”
    He couldn’t miss the anticipation in the air, but nobody moved.
    The satchel sat in the middle of the cheap card table that was practically the only furniture in the living room of the cheap apartment Karyn and Anna shared. The place was a testament to just how little
stuff
a couple of people could live with. There was the table, a handful of folding chairs, and, lonely in the corner, a black leather beanbag chair. The door to Anna’s room on the left, Karyn’s on the right, and only the stained gray carpet in the middle. The two women had lived like this as long as Nail had known them, going on eight years now. Karyn said it was so there was less stuff to pack if they had to leave in a hurry, and he supposed that was part of the story. She didn’t like to go into a lot of detail about her gift, but he’d seen it in action enough times to understand some of the basics. She saw things, usually things that were gonna happen in some way, and it wasn’t hard to see why she might want to keep things around her