Read Online The Carrier by Preston Lang - Free Book Online

a
hooker.”
    The squeaking grew louder and
faster.
    “ Give it to her, Cyril,”
Danny said. “Drop the hammer hard. I got to tell you the truth:
this is getting me aroused. Do you mind if I pleasure
myself?”
    “ Jesus, no,” Marcus
snapped.
    “ You don’t mind. Great—”
    “ No, I do mind. Do not—I
mean, keep your hands away—”
    “ I was kidding, dog. Relax,”
Danny laughed. “Though I will tell you something—if you ever do
time, you will appreciate a roommate giving you warning before
slapping it.”
    “ Okay, but we’re not in
prison, and besides—”
    “ Quiet. We should keep
listening, maybe in the throes of passion, she’ll yell out
something important.”
    The bed started to thump against the
wall and soon there was a building moan.
    “ Here we go,” Danny said.
“Bishop to queen four.”
    Just when it sounded as if the act was
complete, there were three quick yelps. It wasn’t clear if it was
the man or the woman who’d made them.
    “ Someone finished the job
right,” Danny said.
    “ Now what?”
    “ Either he pays her and she
leaves, or they try again in half an hour.”
    Soon they could hear murmuring, and a
few louder sounds. Shortly after that the man and woman came out of
their room—the man walking out ahead, the woman following a few
strides back.
    “ And here comes the happy
couple,” Danny said.
    “ They’re going to make the
pickup?”
    “ You think he’d bring a
hooker to the pickup?”
    “ I don’t know.”
    “ Don’t get me wrong—I’ve got
nothing but deep respect for the professional lady, but you do not
bring her to a drug deal.”
    “ Why is he
barefoot?”
    “ That—I do not
know.”
    “ It’s forty-five degrees.
He’s walking around barefoot.”
    The man sat down near the car, and
Danny adjusted his binoculars.
    “ Now what is that? Why did
he just sit down on the asphalt?” Marcus asked.
    “ Oh, no. Come
on.”
    “ What?”
    “ Oh, just fuck me. Fuck me
with a walrus.”
    “ What is it? What do you
see?”
    “ She’s got a
gun.”
    “ She does?”
    “ Look in her left
hand.”
    “ That’s a gun?”
    “ Yeah.”
    “ So. She’s jacking
him?”
    “ It looks that
way.”
    “ First she bangs him, then
she robs him?”
    “ You don’t know girls like
that?”
    “ Does she even know who he
is?”
    “ It would appear that she
does.”
    “ Does she know he hasn’t
made the pickup yet?”
    “ It would appear that she
doesn’t.”
    The woman seemed to be checking the
inside of the car. They watched her search. The nose of a small
handgun occasionally peeked out from under her sleeve. Marcus had
been promised no guns, and now here was a gun.
    “ She’s a girl—okay,” Danny
said.
    “ I see that.”
    “ What I mean is—if you hit
her from behind, she’s not going to hold on to the gun.”
    “ I’ve never hit a
woman.”
    “ No, of course not. You’re a
gentleman.”
    “ I’m only saying
that—”
    “ You think I go around
slapping women? That’s what I do?”
    “ I don’t know. You’ve got a
history.”
    “ Of caresses. What is on
record is that I touched a lady in an affectionate way. Are you
seriously telling me that you won’t grab a woman who’s
holding a gun ?”
    “ I didn’t say
that.”
    “ And it may not even come to
that. We’ll see.”
    The man and the woman went back into
their room. Danny and Marcus pressed their ears up against the
wall, but again the man and woman didn’t speak loudly. Sometimes
Danny almost felt like he could understand what they were saying,
but the next moment it sounded like they were speaking a foreign
language, tense but not ugly, like an argument between adults who
respected each other. Soon enough, they went back out to the car,
and the man started trying to remove the tracker.
    “ They see it,” Marcus
said.
    “ Yup.”
    “ So that’s it? We’re
done?”
    “ Not necessarily. We just
have to keep them in sight.”
    “ You think there’s any way
they’re