Page 7 of Easy Steal

Growing up, I envied Toni.

Now, not so much.

He was always the golden boy, of both our mother and father. Dad put all of his time and effort into preparing Antoni for taking over, and Mum had never been discrete about her favourites. They were always busy, either fussing over Antoni, fighting with Valerie, or doting on Zarina. I was always quiet, and kept to myself, and that made me easy to forget about. I didn’t mind any more, because that meant that I got what I wanted - to be alone.

“That’s not a horrible idea,” Toni said slowly, snapping me out of my train of thought.

“What?”

“Their cars, the bikes. We could target them somehow.”

I laughed once, “you want me to stealallof their cars andallof their motorbikes? That’s going to stop this war?”

He shook his head, “not steal. Target. Maybe we can track them somehow? Find their suppliers and safehouses?”

I nodded slowly, “that could work.”

“Is that something you could do?”

I laughed, “you insult me, brother.”

“Think it over, let me know what you come up with.”

“You know I am busy, right?”

“I know, Sam. I don’t have much choice right now. Ren’s gone. Dimitri is still recovering from the shoot-out. Angel is working 24/7. I need someone else I can trust. We need an angle that they won’t expect, and that won’t result in too much death on our side. I won’t put my wife or any more of my men in danger. I want this handled cleanly.”

“Well you gotta give me a few days, Tone. I already got five cars in the shop that I need to get rid of.”

“Five at once?” Toni scolded, “if you push it too far, Sammy, you’re gonna get caught. You know the cops are cracking down on rebirthing.”

“Which is exactly why I need to get them out,” I sighed, letting my head fall back so he wouldn’t see me roll my eyes.

“They just busted a ring of guys doing the same thing-”

“Except,” I stood, “those guys were amateurs. I’ve seen their work. I could tell that it was a rebirth from a mile away.”

The rebirthing of cars was still a fairly new practice.

It involved stealing a car, finding an identical one from a wrecker and fixing the identification plates from the wreck, onto the stolen one - therefore, there is no evidence that the car was stolen.

No one is looking for the wreck, and the stolen one technically no longer exists.

Then it was just a matter of selling it on to the highest bidder.

The other option was to strip the stolen car, and fix the wreck with the brand new parts. This was not quite as profitable.

Of course, I was not just a car thief.

Unlike other criminals, my business front was perfectly legitimate.

I did work on cars. I did take normal, everyday customers. To anyone else, I was just a mechanic. No one ever batted an eye at a workshop filled with cars. A customer could see a car on the hoist, one of my boys stripping it to pieces - and never know that it was stolen. We were hiding in plain sight.

“Just be careful,” Toni warned again.

I nodded once, and turned to leave.

“Think about it,” he called after me, “let me know if you get any ideas.”

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