I met up with Everett to get the cash a few days after the robbery. We’d decided to let the heat die down, avoiding one another in the city until then. Everett had never been out to Los Angeles before, and I knew he’d dig it: walking up and down the boulevard at the beach, watching the women as they lay beneath the sun. It was a spectacular town, if a strange one, when compared to New York.

When we did meet up, it was late afternoon. I stood outside my sister’s beauty parlor, itching for a cigarette. I hadn’t smoked in three years.

Ruby had probably already left for England, and it was rubbing me wrong, making my heart ache. A girl hadn’t messed me up in a really long time. Even after all of that incredible passion that existed between us, she’d kicked me out. It was cold. It had felt heartless, and I couldn’t explain it. It was wrong.

Everett pulled up in a rental car, grinning madly at me. A bulging suitcase sat in the front seat. I leaned over the open passenger window, smiling back. We hadn’t had a heist together in a while, and it felt refreshing to be back on the perpetrating end. Out east, we were often protecting the bad guys. Here, we could work on whichever side we wanted.

“Hey, Ev. What’s good?”

“Just five million dollars, is all,” Everett said, tapping the suitcase. “Hope you don’t mind, I took a bit out so I could cover some of my expenses. The hotel, a hooker or four.” He laughed, showing his crooked teeth.

“You’ll get your payout,” I told him, scrubbing at his hair. “Don’t worry.”

Everett leapt out of the car, walking around to stand and talk with me on the sidewalk.

“They didn’t give you any trouble?”

“I knocked the guy out,” Everett said, laughing. “He didn’t even see it coming. He seemed preoccupied. Probably knew you were around.”

“They’ll have linked it to me already,” I sighed. “Perhaps best to skip on back to New York.”

“Weren’t you were thinking about staying in L.A. longer?” Everett asked, digging his fingers into his forehead. “It’s a good town, kid, but you’ve got a great gig back in Brooklyn. I wouldn’t give up on it.”

“I know, I know.” After a pause, I came clean. “There was this whole issue with this girl, out here.”

Everett’s eyes grew light. “A chick, you? Really?”

“She was gorgeous. And she played along when I asked her to. I think I might have messed her up a little bit. She certainly doesn’t want me to be in her life, anymore.”

Everett clapped me on the shoulder, trying to joke. “You know, there’s so many fish in that New York City sea. Just gotta head home and find them.”

“Not like her.” I gestured toward his car, shrugging. “Can we run to the bank real quick? I want to deposit this into my dad’s account before…well. Before I leave.”

“Ain’t gonna tell him?” Everett asked.

“Naw. Haven’t seen him.” I sniffed, glancing back toward the salon. My sister was chatting amicably with a client, an older woman who worked at the nearby elementary school.

Everett drove us the six blocks to my bank. As he waited, the engine still running, I entered the bank and deposited a casual million dollars into my dad’s account. I then deposited one million into mine, another into Ruby’s, and the last into Leandra’s. Everett could do what he wanted with his cash.

I smirked, trying to imagine Ruby’s face when she realized what I’d done. She deserved it. She’d risked everything, to help me.

Back at the car, I peeked in at Everett. “You want to hit up my favorite diner?” I asked. “One I grew up at as a kid.”

Everett shrugged, scratching his chin. “I think I want to hit the road. Make a dent in the cash on a plane ticket and get out of here.”

I sighed, gazing out down the road. The streets in L.A. were bleary in the half-light of the sunset, making it difficult to see the ends of them. They were peppered with palm trees. I’d recently read that the palm trees weren’t native to Los Angeles—somebody had brought them in, about a hundred years ago, and now they were rotting in unnatural soil.

“Hey, next time,” Everett said, smacking my shoulder, “I’ll let you have the vault side of things. Damn, if I didn’t get a rush, opening that thing! Seeing all the cash, so organized, like he spends his long, lonely nights in there, counting it!” He whistled.

Everett’s phone began to buzz—the burner phone. I frowned, muttering, “I thought you got rid of that thing already?”

Everett flipped it open, his eyes growing wide. Something felt wrong. I could only hear his end of the conversation. Even so, my blood ran cold.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you sure?”

Behind us, I watched as a long black car approached, creeping behind us like a snake in tall grass. As it approached, I sensed the world spinning backwards. I sensed that everything we’d plotted had fallen apart.

The black car stopped beside us, taking up an entire lane and forcing other cars to pass it—honking and blaring as they did. Everett turned off the burner and flung it out the window. “Shit!” he hollered. “Knew I should have left town sooner. Dammit.”

“You go. He doesn’t want anyone but me.”

Everett glanced at the suitcase, still stocked with his cash. I could sense his mind racing, adding it up.

I hopped out of the car and stood, glaring at the black car. Everett’s screeched away from the curb, blasting towards the highway and out of sight. If he was smart, he’d just drive back to New York. The black car’s driver’s side window began to crank down. The moment of truth was imminent. Was I ready to face it?