Shoot Me
By Carrie Knowles
Cover Art: Designs By Rachelle
Published by Mind Wings Audio at Smashwords
This story is also available in audio CD and MP3 formats
Copyright 2010 Carrie Knowles
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for you use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This story is a work of fiction, created entirely from the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Art slapped his brother-in-law on the shoulder and said, “Piece of cake.”
Louis pulled away, dropped the cigarette he had just lit onto the sidewalk, and ground it into the cement with the toe of his shoe. “Feels funny,” he said.
“You getting chicken-shit on me?”
Louis tapped another cigarette from the pack and pulled it out with his lips. He let the cigarette dangle a moment before he struck a match and lit it. Smoking steadied his nerves.
“What are you going to be doing while I’m breaking in and loading the truck, huh? Drinking coca-colas by the pool?”
“Need to make some phone calls, check out delivery plans.”
“What if I need help? What if…”
“What if I fire your ass? What if I call my sister and tell her that her old man is a thief? Seems to me she thinks we’re out here picking up antiques that we’re gonna restore. That we’re putting all that reupholstering skill we learned in the joint to good use.”
“Shut up.” Louis took the lit cigarette from his lips and threw it on the ground. “You sure the old woman’s gonna be gone?”
“Guaranteed.”
“Guaranteed? Like you’re taking her out to lunch so I can just sashay in and take her dining room table and chairs?”
“Just do your job and shut up about it so I can do mine.”
“Sure, sure,” Louis said. “Get in and get it over with so we can relax.”
“That’s right, relax, you and me by the pool. Go after some of that Cincinnati chili everyone’s always blabbing about, like they got something better than everyone else, heh?” Art said, jabbing at Louis’s arm with a fist like they were sparing partners. “Relax. This job will be easy.”
“It better be,” Louis muttered under his breath.
“Better what?” Art growled.
“Better be easy, that’s all.”
“Yeah. Like you ain’t getting paid enough for something to be hard.”
Louis let it drop. The money was good. Sweet, in fact. And the risks weren’t all that bad.
Sterling Dealers Antiques was one-hundred percent legit—if you didn’t count the stolen goods. Their company dealt exclusively in high-end antique furniture and tableware for a clientele of customers who wanted nice stuff, didn’t blink at the price, and never asked questions. What was unique about Art and Louis’s business was that they sold exclusively on the East Coast, but did their stealing in the Midwest.
“You don’t piss in your food bowl,” Art told Louis once when he grumbled about having to haul the stuff from one state to the next. In fact, Art never tired of reminding Louis that he had a whole office full of people working for him who would be glad to drive the truck. “The only reason you’re here is because I love my sister.”
Louis knew Joanna did not know they were still in “the business.” As far as she was concerned, he and Art had gone straight since they’d come out of prison eleven years ago. Louis was pretty sure that if Joanna thought otherwise, she’d leave him tomorrow.