Page 26 of Push & Pull
Samson sounded like a braying donkey when he finally let himself laugh. “She looks like a boy. How thehelldoes she…”
“Even a fat pig can be prettied up for the right occasion,” Petra interrupted. “I clean up pretty well. Although, I need a new wig. My current one’s a bit frayed. Anyway.” She turned her attention back to her uncle. “Ten grand is quite a bit. I doubt he carries that much cash on him.”
“You’ll have to liberate a bank account of his. You can do this?”
“Don’t I always?”
“The easiest way to do this will be to seduce him as a prostitute. Not one of those streetwalkers, though.” Pizza slapped onto the table before Michail. “Gotta be a classy upscale girl. Make him feel special. Tell him it costs three grand for the night, and you want two up front. Fucker will do it.”
“Let me guess. It’s easier if I do the deed and get the other grand, then it’s only seven to go from his various bank cards.”
Samson could hardly contain his boyish laughter. Georgio remained silent while they frankly talked about who Petra was seducing and thieving from next.
“Whatever you can freely get from him is best, of course, but I doubt he has ten grand in cash on him. When he goes to get the money, either snatch his PIN number or, if he wants to wire transfer…”
“Memorize the numbers and grab him after the fact. Don’t worry. I have a burner bank account ready to go.” She always had one lined up for these situations. They weren’t always for her uncle’s gain, either. “So, what’s my cut? I’m the one working for this.”
“What’s there to do?” Samson spat. “You dress up, offer him your pussy, then you either knock him out or have to suffer lying on your back for a whole hour. Oh, noooo.”
“Would you shut the fuck up?” Michail barked at the man beside him. Petra knew this wasn’t for her honor, though. Her uncle always hated it when his associates acted like childish fools. “Your cut?” That was directed at Petra. “One grand of the ten.”
“I want two,” Petra candidly countered. “You know, because that’s what he’ll owe me upfront. Only fair I get to keep it.”
Michail squared his jaw. “Fine, but only because you’re my niece.”
“Yeah, and this is my main source of income. I’ve got bills to pay, too.”
Her uncle changed subjects to a job she had in line for his Raleigh associates. Apparently, Samson was procuring money from some of the old families who had stayed in the area.Everyone owes my uncle at some point.Most of the time, Petra never knew the details of why these people owed Michail so many thousands. She was only called in when he wanted it to look like a random hit to the pocketbook. Sometimes, her planned marks crawled back to Michail with their sorry sob stories about a seductress with a bottle full of sleeping pills and honey-coated fingers. Depending on how he felt about the business relationship, Michail either forgave the debt so the mark would be encouraged to borrow again, or he…
Petra didn’t think about that. She never had. There was no point.
“Georgio,” Michail said to his other associate after some time. “Do you have an update on our situation?”
“Hm?” It was the first time the quiet, lean man had said anything since Petra sat down at the table. “You already know everything I had to tell you earlier. Although, I currently have one of my best men following the lead you gave me. The mark should be contacted very soon.”
Petra yawned. She never cared to parse what secret shit these men were talking about.If I’m not getting a cut to seduce someone, then shit, I don’t care.Sometimes she didn’t have to seduce at all.Sometimes it’s as easy as picking a pocket and tossing the wallet to someone else.She loved those jobs the most, but they had been few and far between as her uncle built a bigger business for himself. The man now had wealthy clients all across the eastern part of the country, from Chicago to Raleigh, and New York to Miami. Petra merely went where she was told to go. If there ever came a day when she wanted out… she didn’t know what she would say to her uncle to let her leave. He loved to remind her how much sheowedhim.
I dunno, I was doing pretty good with that foster family.While she had heard the horror stories, life had not improved when her uncle came into her life. If anything, Petra had missed out on genuine opportunities. Learning how to grift and pick pockets while getting more acquainted with social engineering had not been the dream of her youth.
Yet here she was.I’m alive, I guess.
“As long as we’re all on the same page,” Michail said, louder. “We all have our roles to play in the coming week. Petra…” He acquired his niece’s attention by nodding in her direction. “What did Ms. Lambert tell you when you contacted her in Miami?”
“Hailey? Didn’t realize I was supposed to talk to her about anything in particular.”
“Her father owes me a lot of money. I’m surprised she didn’t bring up giving you some of the money that’s owed to me.”
“To be fair, you didn’t tell me, either.” Petra scoffed. “Can’t give you any money if I was never given it.”
“I didn’t say I expected it right now. It’s not necessarily hers to owe me, but I know the Lambert clan can be close. I am loathed to go through the daughter, but… you’re friends.”
“Yes. I’d like to keep it that way. It’s good to have contacts like Hailey Lambert, and I don’t want to squander that.” Let alone lose one of the only decent friends she had.
“Seems that her father’s gambling addictions are finally catching up to him.” His chuckle was anything but mirthful. “Just because you didn’t talk to her about it, doesn’t mean I don’t have someone else who did.”
Petra didn’t like where this was going.
“There’s a lot of money percolating out there.” Michail poured some hot sauce onto his pizza before picking it up with a paper towel. “In this country alone, most of the cash flow is controlled by the so-called elites. Elite what? Tax evasion, mostly, but they can’t hide their money forever. I know a thing or two about squeezing it out of them. The last time I was in prison, I made contacts that your mother couldn’t dream of making in her Pennsylvanian penitentiary. One of those contacts was the former bookie for Royce Lambert. After we got to know each other and started some business on the inside, we dealt in information. I told him what I knew about some of the wealthy around Chicago, and he told me about New England. Some families havebillionshiding in offshore accounts and tied up in real estate across the world. Many launder their money that way these days, but I know how to get to it.”
