Heber glanced at Culver, and Culver laughed. “Okay. Calm down. Sit back down, Heber.”
The man slowly backed off. Travis looked back at Culver. “If you could get this shipment back on your own, you wouldn’t have taken me up on my offer. You people need a man like me to pull this off.”
“Maybe that’s true,” Culver said.
“Five grand. Then it’ll be done.”
There was a tense moment, a pause, before finally Culver laughed again.
“Very well. Guff, go get the money.” Culver shook his head. “You drive a hard bargain. I’m impressed.”
“You wanted the best,” Travis said. “You fucking got it.”
Guff came back a few minutes later with a small black duffel bag. He tossed it over to Travis, who caught it and handed it off to me. The bag felt heavy, and I saw cash shoved in there.
“That’s all?” Culver asked.
“That’s all.”
“Okay then. Get out before I decide to kill you myself.”
Travis turned and strode out. I left on his heels and saw Culver smiling out of the corner of my eye.
We moved through the bar, not stopping, and went right outside. We didn’t stop until we were back in the car and were pulling back out onto the road.
“Well,” Travis said finally, “that went pretty good.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you kidding me? They almost killed us.”
“That was just a bluff, just trying to test me.” He grinned at me as he pulled back out onto the main road. “Now we can pay Janey off.”
“You’re insane.”
“Maybe, but we’re getting there.”
I shook my head and marveled at him. I’d never met a man who could walk into the heart of a gangster’s hideout and bluff money from him, but Travis could pull it off. Any other person and this plan would seem insane.
But I trusted Travis. I trusted that he could play both sides, make this happen.
I felt elated and terrified, the same wave of euphoria I’d been riding since this all started.
I felt wild, free, and crazy. Travis was to blame for it all.
Chapter 16
Travis
We went to bed early that night. After talking five grand out of the mafia and making a deal to go behind their backs with Janey, I was pretty fucking exhausted. Besides, I needed to do more thinking, more planning, before this all went down.
I was up earlier than Hartley, like usual. I made coffee and pancakes again. After breakfast, we got dressed and hit the road.
We drove out to the Caldwell’s place again, though this time we weren’t going out for a fun little ATV tour. The bag with the money in it was stashed in the back, and I was hoping that the deal from the night before still stood. I believed I understood Janey, but it had been so long. Anything could happen, and I had to be ready for it.
We parked in the lot and I looked at Hartley. “What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I grunted. “Just thinking about last night.”
“Which part?”
“The part where I licked that pussy until you couldn’t think anymore.”
She blushed and looked away. “I thought we weren’t talking about it.”
“Just hadn’t brought it up yet is all.”
“Well, I’m glad you had fun.”
I laughed. “You’re the one who had fun. I’ve been fucking hard ever since.”
“Not much I can do about that.”
“With a fucking body like that, there’s a lot you can do for this hard cock.”
She stared at me for a second and then shook her head. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“All right then. Right down to business.”
She opened her door and stepped out. I followed, grabbing the bag from the back. I let her lead the way, enjoying the view of her firm little ass swaying in her short jean shorts. It was taking all of my strength and willpower not to fucking press her up against a wall and take her like I wanted to.
But I knew better. Mixing business and pleasure wasn’t the smartest move in the world. Still, with Hartley I could barely resist wanting that pleasure. She was built for it, begging for it, and I wanted to take her and make her moan my name. Nothing got me harder than seeing that girl come while looking in my eyes.
We went up to the front door and entered into the main room again. Brock, Janey’s dumbest brother, was standing behind the front counter, reading a magazine. He looked up as I approached.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, not even pretending like he didn’t know.
“I’m here to see Janey.”
He frowned. “Why? And you know, I didn’t appreciate you lying to me the other day.”