Lawrence
Lawrence preenedin front of the mirror, playing with his curls and considering whether he wanted to add a little more lip gloss. He’d chosen a casual crop top for the evening, a long-sleeved teal shirt with a Florida sunset printed on the front that he had cut to reveal his belly. Below, the curve of his hips pointed straight to the hug of his white jeans.
Through the mirror, he glanced at Raiden and Cash, both sitting on his bed. “There’s no way Mr. Rios will turn this down. I look even better than I did six years ago.”
“I’m not worried about the honey trap,” Cash said. “It’s everything else we have to be careful about.”
Lawrence smiled, glad to just look at them together in his condo. When he had moved in, he had filled the place with framed photographs of flowers, painted the walls lilac and aquamarine, and installed a sound system that now piped new pop dance hits in the background. It was a dream for Lawrence to have his own place, somewhere no one else could intrude, but as he looked at Raiden and Cash, he considered that it might feel even nicer to have them stick around.
Even better than that, though, was the sense that he was finally actually doing something. For years, he’d accepted his family’s dirty money just to pass it along. He felt as useful as an ATM, and without his friends, he probably would have disappeared in a depressed, drunken stupor altogether. But with Raiden and Cash, Lawrence was finally fighting back. He felt like they turned his engine on, after years of sitting idle.
He didn’t even mind that he wasn’t allowed to drink, although some annoying voice in the back of his head kept insisting that a shot of vodka would help. The fact that the guys demanded sobriety from him just felt like more proof that they cared.
Cash leaned back on his elbows, then kicked one leg over the other. “Run through the plan for me one more time, sweetheart.”
Lawrence tossed his lip gloss to the table, then turned to the guys. Straightening his back, he repeated the plan like he was giving a polished speech. “Every Tuesday, Mr. Rios gets a haircut at his favorite barbershop at 3:30 in the afternoon. After that, he takes a car to the financial district and works from a satellite office late into the evening. I’ll run into him there, claim I’ve lost my phone and my wallet, and implore on his good graces for a ride, as I, too, am headed to the financial district to meet a friend. By the time we make it across Manhattan, I’ll have flirted shamelessly with him. He always takes his affairs to a discreet bar by the satellite office, where you will both be waiting. I distract him with my impish good looks, Cash picks his pocket and installs a file on his phone, and Raiden keeps an eye out in case anything goes wrong. Ta-da!” He bowed slightly to Raiden, then to Cash. “Did I miss anything?”
“Perfect,” Raiden said with a nod.
“Bravo, indeed,” Cash added. He pulled a tiny device from his pocket, then tossed it to Lawrence. It looked like a thumb drive in the palm of his hand but with frayed wires sticking from the side.
“If you get a minute alone with his phone,” Cash said, “stick that in, and we can skip the last part of the plan. But remember, only if you’re sure he won’t catch you.” He wiggled his fingers in the air. “Otherwise, I’ll take care of it in the bar.”
“You’re sure all this intel is correct?” Raiden asked. “You trust the friend you got it from?”
“Fox? No, I don’t trust him at all. But I do trust the information he sells.”
“Fox and Cash,” Raiden said with a snort. “You sound like a couple of cartoon characters.”
“You’re a man of the underground, Raiden. Surely you’ve heard worse.” He reached out, then tapped Raiden on the nose.
Raiden snorted again and slapped Cash’s hand away. Then Cash caught him off guard with a quick, playful kiss on the lips. Lawrence laughed to himself when Raiden’s eyes popped open. He rubbed the back of his head, looking almost embarrassed by the gesture.
It was nice to see them finding their own rhythm, instead of just relying on Lawrence as an excuse to be together. And listening to them banter had helped Lawrence learn a lot about the men. The extent of their criminal careers surprised him at first, especially once they started exchanging their best stories. But pretty quickly, Lawrence figured out how to put any judgments he harbored aside. He only needed to look to his own family to see that there were limits to what the law could do and who it could protect, and while the idea of Raiden or Cash getting themselves in trouble made Lawrence a little panicky, he trusted their hearts more and more every day, and he admired what they stood for.
Grabbing his fanny pack, he turned to the guys. “Shall we?”
“You sure you’re up for this?” Raiden asked. “Remember, if anything feels unsafe, we’ll be right there at the bar.”
“And we put a tracker on your phone,” Cash reminded. “So we’ll know where you are the whole time.”
Lawrence grinned and jutted his hip to the side. “I’m not thinking about anything except for how we’ll celebrate tonight,” he teased.
They headed out to the street, and Lawrence chatted and joked down the stairs and did his best to keep the mood light. When the guys hopped onto Cash’s sleek green motorcycle, though, Lawrence realized the act was only getting him so far. He wasn’t scared of Mr. Rios. Not in the least, in fact. Even when he was an awkward sixteen-year-old, he’d had no problem shooting the creep down.
But walking alone down the crowded street to the barbershop, Lawrence got a yucky taste in his mouth. The people who had raised him were no better than the man he was after now. Hell, his father and mother almost certainly knew what a creep Rios was, but that hadn’t stopped them from inviting him and the rest of their business circle to family dinners and corporate vacations.
Fuck, did it ever make him appreciate Raiden and Cash even more. They hated to see Lawrence around men like that, even just for a minute.
Right as Lawrence arrived, Rios stepped out of the building. He was wearing a plain black suit, a little out of style, and his thinning hair was buzzed tight. Immediately, Lawrence shook off the other feelings and threw himself into character. He licked his lips and fluffed his curls, then waved his hand in the air. “Oh my god! Mr. Rios! Thank god it’s you!”
He turned with a frown, but when he spotted Lawrence, his smile turned up in a lecherous grin that almost made Lawrence shudder. “Lawrence. What a surprise.”
Lawrence hurried straight to him. “It’s the funniest thing. I guess these jeans are too tight,” he giggled while he turned to the side, showing off his ass. “My phone and my wallet kept popping out of my back pocket here. But I just didn’t want to change!”
Mr. Rios licked his top lip, his eyes straight to Lawrence’s backside. “I can see that.”
“Can you help me out with a ride, Mr. Rios? I’m trying to get to the financial district. I would be so, so grateful if you could give me a hand.” He offered his best watery eyes, even though the man was busy gobbling up his ass.
