Wicked Prey

over his head.
    McCall said, “All set,” but there was tension in his voice. He tended to get more and more stressed until the action began, and then he was fine. He added, “Car’s right where we planned: back of the third floor.”
    Pulled on the latex gloves. Adrenaline starting to flow with all of them now, Cohn could hear them breathing in the enclosed concrete stairwell, as if they’d already climbed the stairs. McCall was wearing the tux and red shirt, his mask rolled on top of his head like a watch cap, an empty FedEx envelope in his hand.
    “Ready,” McCall said. Lane nodded.
    They were fast going up the stairs, their footfalls echoing off the multiple concrete walls that went up nine stories, the smell of raw cement pushing through their masks. They stopped at the door with the red-painted “5” on it, listening. McCall stepped out into the hallway, one hand to his face, like he had a headache. The hall was empty and he pulled the mask most of the way down. He could see the smoked-glass camera dome halfway down the hall. Film only, Cruz had said; no live monitoring.
    She’d better be right. But of course she was.
    Room 505 was nearly at the front of the hotel and they had to move a long way down the hallway, not quite at a run; found it, knocked with a car key. Felt a vibration from inside.
    “Somebody’s coming,” McCall muttered. Cohn stood between McCall and the camera, and McCall rolled up his mask. From inside, “Yes?”
    “FedEx,” McCall said. He held up the envelope, so it could be seen through the peephole.
    “Just a minute.” The door rattled and popped open and McCall turned his face away as a short bald guy in suit pants and a blue dress shirt opened the door, and Cohn was on top of him, flashing the gun, hit him squarely in the center of the chest with his good right hand and the short guy went down and the door banged shut and a young woman in a burgundy dress, sitting on a couch with a carton of chocolate milk, yelped and looked like she was about to scream and she lifted her feet off the floor and Lane was there and he batted the milk away from her like a T-ball, and it splattered across her face and across the curtains and McCall landed on the short man’s chest, and hit him once in the face with his fist, breaking the short man’s nose, and the woman yelped again and screeched, “Don’t do that.” Lane put his face six inches from hers and yelled, “Shut the fuck up, bitch,” and she shut up, but whimpered, and he swatted her in the face and she went down on the couch, bounced, and rolled off on the floor, losing her shoes.
    The short man was stunned and crying and holding the heels of both hands to his nose and Cohn put the gun three inches from his forehead and asked, “Where’s the money?” and before the short man could answer, he started counting down seconds: “Five, four,” and he pulled the hammer back on the pistol.
    The woman blurted, “Behind the bed.” McCall went to look behind the bed, but she said, “Not that bed—in the next room,” and she began weeping. There was a connecting door and McCall peeked through, and then went through, and a minute later he was back with a suitcase.
    Lane was inches from the woman, who was supine on the floor, her side against the front of the couch, and he laughed and said, “Boys, if we got time, I’d like to get a piece of this one,” and he reached out and ripped down the front of her dress. She cowered away and Cohn said, almost absently, “Don’t have time for a fuck,” and Lane said, “She could suck it while we wait . . .” He pressed the muzzle of his gun against her head and said, “Bet you sucked a little dick in your time, huh, honey?”
    McCall was unzipping the suitcase and he said, “Don’t have time for that. We could take her with us, though. Get back to the crib, get her airtight, and when we’re done, we could rent her pussy out. Make even more money.”
    The short guy said, “Please don’t hurt her,” and Cohn snapped and kicked him in the ribs and said, “Say what, fool? Say what? You talking to us? We wanna fuck this bitch up every hole she’s got, that’s what we’ll do, fool.”
    The short guy groaned and rolled away and Cohn kicked him twice more, and McCall looked in the suitcase and said, “Holy shit,” because he’d pulled out two shirts and had found layers and layers of fifty-dollar bills, bound together with rubber bands.
    Cohn said, “Let’s go. Jim,