Uptown Thief Read Free Page B

said. “Just this once. You need to start paying on time.”
    â€œGreat,” Marisol said. “Now you and I have a verbal contract. Which I recorded on my phone. Is nine a.m. good for you?”
    * * *
    The tow guy lowered the van off the truck. Marisol put her shoes back on and handed the baby back to his mother.
    Nalissa, the young hothead with dyed-red hair, approached Marisol. “You remember how I been looking for business opportunities?” she asked.
    â€œI’m rushing right now,” Marisol said. “Talk to my assistant, Serena. Tell her I said you’re a priority appointment.”
    Marisol and Tyesha watched Nalissa switch back into the clinic on high-heeled sneakers. With her extreme curves and long red hair, she was popular with the escort clients.
    â€œWhat does Nalissa want?” Tyesha asked. “Better bookings?”
    â€œShe can smell some more hustles going on besides the escort service,” Marisol said. “I think she wants in.”
    â€œYou considering it?” Tyesha asked, handing Marisol a duffel bag.
    Marisol shook her head. “That first award heist was a fluke, but it taught me I could trust you, Kim, and Jody,” she murmured. “The last seven or eight jobs taught me to stick with a good thing. After we get these two final ‘donations,’ we’ll be home free.”
    She said good-bye to Tyesha, and ducked back into the van with the duffel.
    Jody took a drag off a cigarette and blew smoke out the driver’s side window. Marisol reposted the papers that the baby had pulled off the van’s bulletin board. On top were two press clippings. One, dated over a year before, was about the Mexican sex trafficking scandal. It carried the photo of the eleven CEOs on the board of the fraternity Ivy Alpha, who were allegedly involved. The other article, dated eleven months before, reported that one of the Ivy Alpha CEOs had been robbed at an award after-party—details were sketchy as to what had been stolen. However, it did mention that security was able to recover the award, which had been “damaged” in the chase.
    â€œI haven’t had time to check my phone,” Marisol said. She stripped out of her office clothes, exchanging them for a black turtleneck, yoga pants, and sneakers from the duffel bag. “Is Kim at the ‘donation’ job already?”
    â€œWe just talked,” Jody said. “Since it’s snowing, she was going to move—”
    â€œTell your girlfriend to stick to the plan and stay where I put her,” Marisol said, holding up a hand. “I’m already fourteen minutes behind schedule. Can you stay with the van until the outreach crew arrives?”
    â€œNo problem,” Jody said. “I hope some dick does come for the van. I haven’t given out a good ass-kicking since I left the dominatrix biz.”
    Marisol said, “Tell Kim that Tyesha will be there to relieve her momentarily.”
    Jody pointed to a pudgy, graying man in the newspaper clipping. “Give the tech CEO my love,” she said and lit another cigarette.

Chapter 3
    M arisol looked out of the sixth-floor window. Snow obscured the visibility across East Seventy-second. She could barely discern the outlines of the windows on the building across the street, and she had no way to see whether anyone was standing on the sidewalk below. She and Tyesha had arrived in separate cabs, while Jody stayed with the van at the clinic.
    U in place? Marisol texted to Tyesha.
    All clear, Tyesha texted back.
    Marisol picked up her worn tool bag and got to work.
    Out in front of the opposite building, Tyesha made eye contact with Kim. The young Korean woman wore a hooded parka and high-heeled boots. After their eyes met, Kim walked away, letting Tyesha take over as lookout. The doorman came to shovel the curb, so Tyesha paced back and forth between two piles of snow.
    Three tourists exited a nearby