Page 120 of Guarding Grace

I huddledbehind an SUV in the parking lot behind our old dentist, which Elliot had nicknamed the dentinator. With five thousand in hundreds in a giant wad in my purse, I felt much more vulnerable than I should have. I mean, how could a robber look at me and know that I carried that kind of cash?

He couldn’t, right?

Still, I kept an eagle eye out for bad-looking dudes because logic wasn’t working for me today.

Elliot must have parked down the street, because he appeared on foot, coming from the west. He had on the same clothes as the other day, only dirtier.

I stood up and waved when he looked my direction.

He shifted toward me, and I ducked down again.

He rounded the SUV and looked around. “You come alone?”

“You see anybody else?”

He hunched down to my level. “You got the money?”

“First, you tell me the whole story. What’s going on?”

He checked around again. “I told you, a shipment got messed up.”

“The whole story,” I repeated. “All of it.”

“Uh…I got ripped off.”

“Somebody stole the case from you? Who?”

“Rudi.”

“Your roommate, Rudi?”

He nodded.

“Hey there.” It was Duke’s voice.

Elliot spun. “You promised you’d come alone.”

I stood, and there was Duke, large as life, blocking Elliot’s way out.

“She kept her promise,” Terry said from behind me. “We invited ourselves.”

Elliot tried to run past Duke. He failed.

Elliot squirmed, but it was no use against Duke’s strength. “You’re coming with us.”

“We’re all going to get this sorted out,” I assured Elliot.

“It can’t be sorted out. They’re killers,” he whined.

“And what the fuck do you think we are?” Duke sneered. “We eat pussies like that for breakfast.”

Terry wrapped an arm around me. “Elliot, you’re coming with us. We’re going to fix this so nobody gets killed.”

I walked with Terry. “He doesn’t have the case anymore.”

A couple came around the corner and stopped, staring at Elliot, still struggling against Duke.

Terry noticed them too. “The car’s this way.”