Page 132 of Dock

“Not a negotiation.”

“You wanna see your bitch?”

“You wanna get paid?”

An unhappy grunt escapes prior to him commanding, “Show me the money.”

I drop the bud.

Stomp on it.

Squat and unzip just the top of the duffle to reveal the first layer.

“Move,” he tries to instruct. “I need to see more of it.”

“You’ll see more of it when I see proof of her.” One sharp motion seals the bag again. “Alive.” My glare cuts up to his. “In front of me.”

The kidnapper releases a thoughtful hum. “What’s stopping me from killing you now and just taking the money?”

“Business.” Snatching the container up occurs next. “That would be bad for it.”

Another vile, villainous beam becomes exposed. “You are much smarter than you look.”

And he’s much deader than he probably figures.

“Alright.” He returns his gun to a concealed status. “Remember the rules. You have us followed, you have any sort of outside interference, you try any surreptitious shit, and she’s dead before arrival.”

“Understood.”

Slowly, his frame backs up towards her home; however, he never breaks visual contact with me or the cash. Instead, he rings the doorbell twice, a signal for a peach skinned, square headed male accomplice to exit the house with helmet in hand.

The man in charge tosses the object for me to catch, makes a hand motion that indicates he wants me to follow, and begins walking towards a vehicle parked outside a nearby neighbor who likely has no fucking clue any of this is happening.

Which is what we want in any Misfit city.

Beats panic.

Panicking innocents are much fucking harder to protect.

I secure the duffle and myself on Nigel, thankful their leaving for the main road doesn’t take too long.

Because too long would leave me anxious.

More room for shit to get fucked up.

Me to fuck up.

And I can’t have that.

Teach needs me.

She’s counting on me.

Our exiting of the subdivision is done on the predicted route making it easy for Tags to discreetly trail us in his cop car.

We gotta keep shit under the radar.

Who better to help do that than the legal eyes and ears of this city?