Page 143 of Player

Finn

I’ve got to hand it to Hayden. He may be a fella of few words but he can provoke a reaction out of you that feels like you’ve been lacerated by a sharp, curved knife. I resume my position up front a few minutes before the shite show begins.

O’Brien charges out of the back room, bellowing at the top of his lungs. “Stop. Don’t load one more goddamned crate.”

His men exchange worried glances.

“Thought O’Brien told us to wait while he was fleecing the suit?”

“That he did,” someone answers. “Barely loaded a thing.”

“Unloadeverything.” O’Brien is in rare form. “We no longer have an agreement.”

My colleagues pretend confusion, playing their parts perfectly.

Hayden returns with a white hand-towel slung over his shoulder. Went and wash then dried his hands, did he? Casual. Unaffected by O’Brien’s threats.

I’ve got to say, he’s handling the mob boss beautifully.

“No deal, this arsehole says,” O’Brien continues to rant. “Going to South Africa, he says. Wants to deal directly with Barrington, he says.”

“With the exorbitant, overinflated prices you’re offering?” Hayden calmly states. “I prefer to deal directly with the source.”

“Get the feck out of here or you’ll be getting a taste of what the South Africans got.”

The boss turns his back on him to address the others. “I’ll negotiate a better deal with Ogdenhayer on your behaves? How about we take a quick trip to South Africa, even take a tour of the mine. Are you with me?”

Heads nod.

O’Brien’s eyes bulge. “Think yer so fecking smart, eh?” Quick-like, he points a gun at Hayden’s head. “Got a real Einstein on the premises, we do. A dead one.”

Everyone stills.

I step forward and hold up my hand. “Wait.”

Slowly, everyone’s attention turns my way.

“Can’t die twice, can you?”

O’Brien is the first to respond. “What the bleedin’ hell is this eegit going on about now?”

“Einstein. Didn’t he like die a few decades ago?”

Complete, utter silence. You’d have thought I’d tossed Einstein’s head onto the warehouse floor.

O’Brien explodes. “Shut yer trap or you’ll be joining him.”

I hide my smirk, knowing I bought Hayden a few seconds just in case he needed them.

Everyone snickers. Everyone that is, except Hayden and O’Brien.

“You believe this fella? Think you can trust him? I’ve got two reasons why you shouldn’t. That mine he’s going on about is in central Africa, not South Africa. Couldn’t even get that straight and he’s going to negotiate a better motherfeckin’ price?”

Ever so slightly, Hayden shifts on his feet. You would have to be watching for it to see it. The same sensation I get when Diego is mucking about with his explosives washes over me.

O’Brien laughs. It’s not a pretty sound. “And two, never trust—”

“—a dead man.”