Urban Renewal (27 page)

“I guess he does, baby.”

“You’re not thinking of—?”

“When Princess and Sweetie go, you go, too,” Cross silenced Rhino.

“Want me to put on an apron, make sure the place is nice and clean when the men come home from work?” Tiger snapped.

“You’re supposed to be in on that part, too,” Cross answered. “But if you want to put on an apron when we get back …”

“You are a pig. You might even be King of the Pigs.”

“Being honest doesn’t make me a pig.”

“That’s true—you’ve got plenty of other qualifications,” Tiger said, maintaining the distance between them in the presence of others, as she always did.

“
YOU GONNA
need a car?” Buddha said to Ace.

“I could
use
one, but only if you put it together. Otherwise, it’s easier to just snatch one over my side of town.”

“We’ll build both cars,” Cross said. “We want them to look the same, like they were part of a fleet.”

“Matching outfits,” Tiger said to Princess. “See how much fun we’re missing!”

Before Cross could again start explaining that Princess would be needed for the final stage of his plan, the Amazon stuck her tongue out at him, grabbed Princess’s arm, and walked them both out of the room, the Akita at their heels.

THE PROPRIETOR
of the junkyard lived in his place of business. The deep-backed booth at the front gate had a
bathroom, a cot, four mismatched sets of wooden chests of drawers, a large flat-screen, and a full rack of DVDs.

When he saw the Shark Car pull in just after dark, the proprietor purposefully went back to scanning his magazine—a combination of nude, nearly nude, and provocatively dressed young women, all handling some kind of firearm.

An hour later, Cross entered the booth.

“Taking two Town Cars. And we need a few hours in your shop.”

The proprietor silently handed over a set of keys. The man with the bull’s-eye tattoo on the back of his hand frightened him in a way he couldn’t explain, even to himself.
What’s the problem?
he asked himself … not for the first time.
He pays cash, never argues about the price, and he’s been taking stuff out of here for years, with none of it ever bouncing back on me. He’s even polite about it. But I heard stuff about him
.…

“
GOT TOWED
away because they weren’t worth fixing,” Buddha said, walking an inspection tour around the two cars. “It’s not even worth swapping other engines and transmissions. This one could use a brake job, and both of them have no-tread tires and lousy shocks.”

“We don’t need them for more than—”

“They don’t
run
, boss. We could borrow a couple from Oscar’s garage. Black Town Cars are all he uses for that fleet of his.”

“You mean take them?”

“From the back of the lot, sure. It’s not like there’s any night watchman to worry about.”

“There’s dogs.”

“So we mist ’em, big deal.”

“We only have a few hours, Buddha.”

“No problemo, jefe.”

Rhino caught Cross’s eye, nodded his agreement.

“
SAME SETUP
as always,” Buddha said, as he passed the glowing sign:

“Oscar
tries
to keep them all on the road, but there wouldn’t be enough calls this time of year. Weather’s too nice, and prom season’s over. We won’t even need the mist, we do this right. The back is nothing but old chain link with some half-ass concertina running around the top. And those cameras are just sorry fakes.”

“Roll around the back,” Cross said. “I know you can muffle this one down to a whisper, but we don’t want to start up those—”

“Who said anything about starting them up? Let us handle this, boss. You take our car—we’ll meet you back at the junkyard.”

“You worked it out?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll just move back and cover you.”

“Sure,” Buddha said, turning toward the back seat of the Shark Car. “You guys all set?”

“Yes,” Rhino answered, speaking for the others.

BUDDHA, TRACKER
, Rhino, and Princess poured out of the Shark Car. Tracker held a long-handled bolt cutter; Princess held Sweetie’s leash.

“You stay, now,” Princess said. “Be a good boy.”

Rhino knelt, grabbed the bottom of the chain link, and pulled gently. “We won’t need to cut our way in,” he said.

“Gonna scratch the hell out of the cars, but what’s the difference?” Buddha said. “All we need is something to prop the fence up a few feet.”

“We can just push them out,” Tracker said.

“You and me?” Buddha said, incredulous at the idea of physical labor of any kind.

“Me and Tiger,” Tracker said, nodding his head in the direction of the Shark Car, where Tiger had been sitting on Cross’s lap to save room. The Shark Car was designed to hold the entire crew, but that was before Tracker and Tiger had been added. Even with Ace absent, Rhino and Princess reduced its carrying capacity considerably. And Tiger herself was much bigger than Ace.

“
READY?
”
Buddha whispered.

“Just like when we do curls,” Rhino said to Princess. When Princess grunted his assent, Rhino added, “Wait for Buddha.”

“Go!”

At Buddha’s signal, Rhino and Princess each pulled the
chain link loose from the bottom and kept pulling until a nine-foot section was the height of Princess’s chest. Tiger and Tracker followed Buddha through the opening.

The pudgy man opened the door of a Town Car and hissed, “Keys inside.” He pulled the gearshift out of “Park,” and released the e-brake. Tiger and Tracker braced themselves, one gloved palm on the headlight cluster, the other closer to the center. Without exchanging a word, they used their legs to push the Town Car out through the back of the fence where Rhino had elevated it to shoulder height.
His
shoulder height. The car passed through without a scratch.

All three returned and repeated the same procedure. When the second car cleared the obstacle, Rhino and Princess slowly let the fence down. With Tracker and Tiger now behind the wheel of the two just-liberated cars, Princess and Rhino shoved them from behind until they were well clear of the lot.

“Sweetie, come!” Princess called softly.

The black-masked Akita hopped into the back of the Shark Car. Then three cars motored away from Oscar’s place of business.