Genuine Lies

road.
    “He’s ready for you,” Joseph said, and led the way to the greenhouse.
    Drake followed, feeling superior. Thugs, he thought derivisely. The old man surrounded himself with thugs. Soft brains and well-defined bodies in Italian suits that wouldn’t show the bulge from a shoulder holster. A smart man could always outwit a goon.
    Oh, Christ, they were going into the greenhouse. Behind Joseph’s back, Drake rolled his eyes. He hated the place, the moist heat, the filtered light, the jungle of flowers he was expected to show interest in. Knowing the drill, he fixed a smile on his face as he entered.
    “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
    “Not at all.” Delrickio checked some soil with his thumb. “Just tending my ladies. I’m pleased to see you, Drake.” He nodded to Joseph, and the other man melted away. “Pleased that you’re prompt.”
    “I appreciate you seeing me on a Saturday.”
    Delrickio waved the thought away. Though his temperature control was the best on the market, he checked one of the six thermometers he had stationed throughout the long room. “You’re always welcome in my home. What have you brought me?”
    Smug, Drake set the case on a work table. After opening it, he stepped back to let Delrickio inspect the contents. “I see.”
    “Ah, I’m a little short on the payment.” He smiled, a young boy confessing to squandering his allowance. “I think the tapes might make up the difference.”
    “Do you?” was all Delrickio said. He didn’t bother to count the money, but moved on to examine a particularly fine example of an
Odontoglossum triumphans.
“How short?”
    “I have seven thousand.” Drake felt his armpits begin to leak and told himself it was the humidity.
    “So, your opinion is the tapes are worth one thousand apiece?”
    “I—ah … It was difficult to copy them. Risky. But I knew how interested you were.”
    “Interested, yes.” He took his time, moving from plant to plant. “So, after weeks of work, Ms. Summers has only three tapes?”
    “Well, no. Those were all I could copy.”
    Delrickio moved from plant to plant, examining, cooing, scolding his little darlings. “How many more?”
    “I’m not sure.” Drake loosened the knot in his tie and licked his lips. “Maybe six or seven.” He figured it was time to improvise. “She’s been on such a tight schedule, we haven’t had a lot of time to spend together, but we’re—”
    “Six or seven,” Delrickio interrupted. “So many, but you bring me only three, and a partial payment.” Delrickio’s voice was growing softer. A bad sign. “You disappoint me, Drake.”
    “Getting the tapes was dangerous. I was almost caught.”
    “This, of course, is not my problem.” He sighed. “I will give you some points for initiative. However, I will require the rest of the tapes.”
    “You want me to go back, to break in again?”
    “I want the tapes, Drake. The method of getting them is up to you.”
    “But I can’t do it. If I were caught, Eve would have my head on a platter.”
    “I would suggest you not get caught. Don’t disappoint me again. Joseph.”
    The man slid into the doorway, filled it.
    “Joseph will show you out, Drake. I’ll hear from you soon, yes?”
    Drake could only nod, relieved to step out into the breezeway, where the temperature dropped considerably. Ittook Delrickio only a moment to give his order. He held up a finger, bringing Joseph into the room. “A small lesson,” he said. “Don’t mark his face, I’m fond of him.”
    Drake gained confidence with each step. It hadn’t been so bad, really. The old man was a pushover, and he’d find a way to copy the other tapes. Delrickio might even forgive the rest of the debt if he managed it fast enough. When it came down to it, Drake figured he’d been damn clever.
    It surprised him when Joseph took his arm and yanked him off the path into a grove of pear trees. “What the fuck—”
    It was all he got out as a fist the size and weight of a bowling ball rammed into his gut. The air whooshed out of his lungs as he doubled over, his breakfast threatening to follow.
    The beating was passionless, methodical, and effective. Joseph held Drake upright with one beefy hand and used the other to bruise and batter, keeping the area confined to the sensitive internal organs. Kidneys, liver, intestines. In less than two minutes, with only the sound of Drake’s wheezing grunts to punctuate the thud of fist against flesh, he was done