Tracers by J. J. Howard

Author:J. J. Howard
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-11-11T22:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

@%&#!!!

There it was, parked outside the fish store: Cam’s GTO. Or at least what used to be his GTO. Now it was all fixed up—new paint (silver instead of black), fourteen-inch rally wheels, new rims shining in the sun.

Of course. The bastard didn’t just take the car, he didn’t just sell it. No. He had to twist the knife.

And it hurt. A lot.

“Hey!” The knife twister was getting out of the car, hailing Cam like an old friend. “What do you think, man?”

Cam was thinking about getting behind the wheel of the GTO, running over Jerry (and then Hu, for good measure), and driving away as fast as those new rally wheels would take him. So he chose not to answer the question; he just handed Jerry the envelope. Hu emerged from the storefront, stone-faced as always.

Jerry thumbed through the stack of bills. “Uhhhhh . . . there’s only two grand here, man. Where’s the rest?”

“Give me a few more weeks. I’ll get it to you.”

“That’s past the deadline, Cam.”

Hu sidled up to his partner and crossed his arms: the nonverbal equivalent of adding “yeah” to the end of Jerry’s sentence. In a way, that was Hu’s entire function: being nonverbal.

With difficulty, Cam tore his eyes away from the GTO in all its renewed glory. “I was hoping we could renegotiate. I have a new job. Look, you can raise the vig if you want to. But this is all I can do right now.”

“I can raise the vig?” Jerry repeated, as though Cam had said something unbelievably stupid.

Hu continued to be nonverbal and then punched Cam in the gut.

Cam doubled over; he couldn’t help it. The guy knew how to deliver a hit that made it seem extremely challenging not to hurl. Hu followed up with a choke hold. Next Cam got to check out the car’s new paint job close-up, as his face was smashed into the hood.

It was one thing to beat on him, but Hu was really crossing the line mistreating the car like this.

“The vig’s already raised. Go ahead and add another five percent. You keep acting like I’m the boss, Cam.” Jerry put his head down close to Cam’s. “I’m not, all right? Chen is the boss. The money you owe me, I owe Chen. You put me in a tight spot here.” Hu’s hold slackened a bit, enough that Cam could turn his head. Jerry had stepped back a little; he was smiling down on Cam, pretending to be a concerned friend. “I don’t want to see anything happen to that friend of yours and her little boy,” he said softly. “But if you don’t make this right, it will. Those are the rules.”

Hu released Cam, giving him a push as a parting shot. Cam lay on the sidewalk and watched the two of them drive away. In his car.

“Two weeks. Get us the money, Cam,” Jerry called out the window.

Cam tried to get up, but he was feeling the combined effects of the sucker punch and choke hold.

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