Cole nodded. It was rare that such clandestine activities came from Jim, but if he felt such cautions were required, it was a good bet they were. Besides, Cole didn't have much curiosity in these matters.

 

"Consider it done," Cole told him.

 

"I will and do. I'm really glad you are the one that can help me out with this," Jim said, sounding like a weight was off him suddenly.

 

"I would have broken the date," Cole told him, adding, "If no one else you felt right for the job was available."

 

"I'm glad you don't have to," Jim said. "Payment for this, by the way, is two grand."

 

Normally high pay like that for a delivery suggested high-risk expectancy, but Cole figured the trust level required with closed eyes and a blank slate memory after was reason enough, too. "Nice. I can splurge a little tomorrow after."

 

"After." Jim smiled warmly and then nodded his head as he leaned back in his protesting chair.

 

Cole walked up to Rat and sat down with a freshly purchased beer. "So, what's new in your world?” Cole asked his longtime friend and partner through some serious scrapes.

 

"Same shit, different week. Still not busted. Still making cash as a mule. Still have Angie crying every time I head off for the coke-road, begging me not to go, because she has a real bad feeling about this run. All the same." Rat shrugged his shoulders and looked over at Cole. "Something new with you?"

 

Cole thought about that. Having a woman on the back of his Lowrider wasn't new. Certainly. Why did it feel new? After all, she was a call girl. They would have a good time -- ride some miles together. Maybe they would have sex someday, but, undoubtedly, they would be friendlier. Girlfriend?

 

White noise filled him when he did that -- when he put the term girlfriend in his head at the same time he imagined Nicole's image. The term girlfriend when associated with her and her touch of vulnerability left him without words and uncooperative emotions flooding his body. This blank, static response was certainly new, but he wasn't going to try to explain that to Rat. "Nope, not a thing."

 

"Still on pussy patrol?" Rat asked.

 

"Yep," Cole nodded.

 

"I hear that's major boring shit," Rat told him.

 

"Yep," Cole agreed.

 

"Are you going to start adding more words to your responses or continue to sound like my dad?" Rat inquired.

 

"Nope," Cole said and then took a long drink from his bottle.

 

"What did Jim want with you?"

 

"Can't talk about it. Secret squirrel stuff. Very hush, hush, eyes only, have to kill you if I tell you."

 

Rat was suddenly very interested, "From Jim?"

 

"Don't, Rat. No further or I'll have to leave. Seriously," Cole told him.

 

Rat looked him over and then nodded, "Alright. Just surprising you know? Jim doing the secret squirrel."

 

"So where are Cap and Phil?" Cole asked, changing the subject.

 

"Cap is over at the bar, reliving the fight a few times with some of the youngsters. Phil left to go get his money. Jim is right; the fucker owed it to Cap. He should have paid months ago."

 

"Yep," Cole agreed. "Hard to feel that the job was done right, though, when it included fucking your main live-in girl."

 

"So Phil was taking out a discount for pussy? He still got the deck. The job was done right. Good craftsmanship from Cap all the way around."

 

"Suzy felt so too," Cole added with a smile.

 

"Suzy is a tramp and everyone knows it, including Phil," Rat said disgustedly. "Once a tramp, always a tramp. No dick good enough or long enough to alter their ways. There's no future with them and they will always betray you for money, drugs, or sex. End of story. Phil is a grown man and should have known that. Yet, what's he do? That tramp is still living with him. And she'll pull a dirty on him as soon as she feels like she can get away with it or move on after."

 

Something turned hollow inside Cole's chest at Rat's words. They were tried and tested words. Proven over and over again by multitudes of men. Was he going to be next in line -- walking in, blindfolding himself, declaring that she was different and he was different, and it wasn't going to happen to him?

 

Once a tramp, always a tramp. Cold facts to live by, especially in Cole's world. Fuck her, have a good time with her, take her for a few rides, but never trust her. Never. Trust her and she'll fail you. Every time. No exceptions.

 

"Yeah," Cole breathed and finished his beer in one long pull. "That’s about the size of it."

 

"Damn straight," Rat agreed, and motioned with his eyes and expressive hands, asking if Cole wanted another.

 

"No, but thanks, buddy. It is really good seeing you. Give Angie my best and I'll look in on her for you like always," Cole told him while getting off the stool.

 

"Good. She likes you coming by. And thanks for not fucking her, too," Rat offered with a wide smile.

 

"She'd cut me into hamburger if I tried. That little Puerto Rican scares the crap out of me," Cole told him, only half joking."

 

"Me too; that's why I like these coke runs. By the time she passes through her emotional period of relief and welcome-home sex when I get home, and remembers she’s mad at me for doing them, it is time to leave again. And her happy bed is nirvana."

 

"Nirvana – hell, Lord of Ninth Heaven -- isn't worth the risk. Hamburger man. I'm telling you. Hamburger."

 

***

 

Cole arrived at home and looked around. It wasn't a bad neighborhood. Chicago had plenty of worse. He was likely the worst element for several blocks. Children played in the street without fear or worry regarding what colors they were wearing. Couples sat on their porches, enjoying sunset light. If you thought you heard a gunshot, it was probably a backfire.

 

Did Nicole fit here?

 

Questions like this, when they surfaced as they often did since he began this assignment, bothered him deeply. He didn't even know her! What he knew was her name, if that was her real name, and most call girls didn't use their real names, so it probably wasn't.

 

So, he corrected, he knew she was a call girl. That was what he knew. He knew that the manager, Antonio, who talked to Cole on the phone periodically, placed high value on her safety.

 

That was it! Nothing more.

 

Except that she was vulnerable and deeply human, and felt amazing to him during every drive. There was a connection between them, something nearly visible and almost tangible.

 

"A grown man or not, you are fucked before you even start.  Better hide some money some place for the time she screws you over," he said to himself with a defeated voice and meant every word.

 

Once inside, he bought ten grand in Google stock just to keep the money safe, but available, and then removed his investment software from his computer and ran the safeguard to remove any sign that it had ever existed.

 

After that, he went to bed.