Page 17 of Stand By You
“Yeah, man, I guess you’re right.” Slinking down the hallway, Wizard went back to the living room and plopped down on the couch.
Slick went into the kitchen and fixed two sandwiches for them along with chips and sodas before joining his pal. “At least we can have a satisfying meal while we wait. And enjoy being in this fine abode. Dude, have you have seen a place so nice?”
“No. Too bad we can’t see our mom in a place like this,” Wizard said. “It’d be so much better than the walkups we both grew up in they still live in.”
“You can say that again,” Slick called from the kitchen.
They were almost finished eating when the front door opened and a broad-shouldered man entered. At six feet Carlton was an imposing figure. Slick and Wizard called him ‘Little Italy’ because of his dark curly hair and olive skin. And they didn’tmind doing odd jobs for him for extra cash on the side when he needed help. But this was the first time he’d asked them to do anything of this nature.
“Hello, fellas,” Carlton greeted. “How has it been going?”
“Good,” Slick said. “The kid is still sleeping.”
“Excellent,” Carlton replied. “Just as he should be. That patch has a time-release element which is making him sleep.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of bills, counting out the precise amount for each of them. “Fifteen hundred for Slick and fifteen hundred for Wizard. I know where to find you both if I need your services again.”
“Let’s hope you won’t,” Wizard said.
“Come again? Don’t you like doing this kind of job?” Carlton asked.
“But I’m not so sure about this whole diabetes thing and the patch. I don’t know if the kid should be sleeping so much,” Wizard said. “Are we sure he is okay?”
“He’s fine,” Slick said. “I checked his pulse when I was in there earlier. It’s good and strong.”
“See,” Carlton said and patted Wizard on the shoulder. “Nothing to worry about. You are too kindhearted, that is a good trait to have.”
“Thanks for the bucks,” Slick said.
“You guys go ahead and get out of here,” Carlton said. “I’ll take care of cleaning up the place and see to the kid.”
“Thanks,” Wizard said. “I have a shift I can’t miss. Don’t want to lose my job.”
“Make sure you have everything you brought that is yours before you leave because you can’t come back for it later,” Carlton warned.
“We brought nothing but ourselves,” Slick said.
“What are you going to do with that gaming system?” Wizard asked.
“Return it to the rental place where I got it,” Carlton said.
“Oh,” Wizard said before he followed Slick out the door.
The sun was shining brightly when they stepped outside, and they hurried down the street to where they parked the Subaru. They rolled down the windows to air it out as they left and headed toward the interstate, following the signs back to North Miami to the location where they’d left their messenger bikes and they could ditch the car.
CHAPTER 6
“I’m sorry Nick,but I was unable to get any feed on the car,” Swede said. “I even wrote a program to keep a watch out for it, but I haven’t had a notification since.”
“I understand. I thought I’d check in with you since Jillian is determined that we go out and search for Travis now,” he explained.
“I’ll call you if anything turns up,” Swede said.
“I appreciate it,” Nick told him as he heard beeping coming over the phone line.
“Wait. I can’t believe this,” Swede exuded excitement.
“What?” Nick asked.
