“We need five, an odd number. One more person. The Big Five,” Paul smiled. “You want someone to bring this team together. Say, someone who’s never been able to make their own choices. Someone like you. Whether they’re forced into this life, or whether they’re forcedoutof it?”
Adam narrowed his eyes, forced out of it? Where the hell was Paul going with this?
“We need a driver for our next job, right?” Paul said. Adam nodded. “Then we can kill two birds with one stone. We need a driver and we need a fifth player on our team. Hear me out—I know this girl.”
* * *
FEBRUARY 1991
Adam arrived at the old trailer park lot just before four. He’d left his car and sat down across the road on a park bench. Out of sight, where he could see the old dirt park but could not easily be seen himself. It had been difficult to find a comfortable place to spy from, considering the lot was all but deserted.
The place had been prime territory before it was burned in late 1986. It used to be his home. It was the place that he and his friends went from being five idiots, to a coherent team capable of taking over a whole city. It seemed a fitting spot for a reunion.
At four exactly, Adam watched as Paul entered the ruins and stopped where his old trailer used to stand. Now nothing left, the only structures remaining were crumbling, half-fallen brick walls and rusted tin.
Paul looked nervous, like a gazelle sensing a lion, bouncing from foot to foot, eyes darting left and right. Producing a radio from his back pocket, Paul spoke quietly into it.
That sneaky little shit...
Luckily Adam had come prepared, planting a receiver in the nearby ruins before Paul’s arrival. He tuned the radio and listened in.
“He’s not here yet. I know the deal. I’ll give you the signal when he gets here,” said Paul.
Goddammit.
Adam had doubted it, hoped his old friend wouldn’t betray him, but he needed to make sure.
Adam sighed, holding the radio to speak a direct line to Paul. “So it seems you’re not the loyal companion I remember you to be.”
Startled, Paul looked upward, speaking to the sky as if Adam were the voice of God. “Adam? You caught that, did you?”
“I told you I had a plan. I’m not doing it the stupid way this time round.”
“Well, it’s not what you think, okay?” Paul replied, still searching around the park, but Adam was too well hidden.
“Why don’t you stop me if I’m wrong. To me it looks like every one of our old crew is aligned with Dorian Blake. I followed Carlos to the club, found you at the range, Mercedes is living in his house, and Dan has a very nice new office.”
“I can’t argue with you so far,” Paul said.
Adam stretched his arm across the back of the green wooden bench and held the radio close, eyeing Paul in the distance. “So, what’s the deal then? What have you spilled to Blake so far?”
“It’s not like that,” said Paul. “We did our part to help you disappear. After that... well, you know what we had to do. You really think anyone would go anywhere near Dorianby choice? After... what we did.”
“The others?” Adam narrowed his eyes.
“We’re still a team, the four of us.”
“Five,” Adam said.
“Four,” a female voice said.
That voice sent shivers crawling down his spine.
It was soft like velvet, just as seductive, and sent his head straight into the clouds.
Adam felt her shadow before he dared a look. When he turned, there she was, everything he imagined every night before he closed his eyes.
Mercedes slid next to him on the wooden bench.
