"Pickup is at noon," Evan said, putting the car into park.
"What, like an hour window? During lunch rush?" Vicky asked.
"No, like I said, noon. Twelve exactly,"
"Bullshit. An hour is barely reasonable."
"You're not wrong, but we've got three minutes. Dispatch said we could get away with five, but apparently they weren't sure enough to put it on the invoice."
She sighed, not quite ready to concede. "Half an hour is double rate. What the fuck are they giving us for this kind of risk and... and precision?"
Evan shrugged. "An extra 10% of the sale. Or double. Whichever is more."
She saw so much red it was popping out on her face. "10% OR double? the fuck kind of cheap-"
She stopped for a moment, looking at his faint smile.
"If the buyer needs a half hour window, the snatch costs triple, right? What are they paying for 3 minutes?"
Even grinned. "I can't say for sure, but I believe it's what the sales team calls 'bespoke rates.'"
"Still a little shitty not to give us the double along with the 10%, considering the request," he added.
She smirked. "Bullshit, Evan! That double is gonna be chump change, and you know it."
Evan nodded. "Grab the order out of the glove box. Here's what I'm thinking."
* * * * *
Sana waved at Melissa, the woman craning her long neck to smile back as she pulled out of the drive, giving her dusty pickup giving a fresh coating. Smiling blandly, the petite woman gathered her frizzy hair in a bunch and wrapped it in a scrunchy, turning around.
The moment the truck turned the bend, Sana sprinted towards the little cottage house behind the sprawling ranch, Melissa's poached key in her hand. It was now or never. In ten minutes, Melissa would be back from picking up the buyer in town, and it would already be too late.
The artifact was fucking weird, but apparently people would pay a lot for weird. And God knows Melissa owed her after what Sana had been through for the last week. At least she couldn't fault the girl for a lack of passion. Still, it would take some damn good whiskey and an obliging young man to put that all behind her.
Anyway, if the fertility idols were really as precious as Melissa claimed, you'd think the older woman would treat them with some more respect. It was downright unsanitary.
Sana had her hand on the knob of the oversized wooden door, painted what she considered a tacky goth girl purple with black trim. Then she heard a car door slam.
Something was a little uncanny about the woman walking around the corner. Not only had she parked in the gravel lot behind the cottage house instead of the main lot, she'd also apparently chosen a spot near the back of the lot where Sana couldn't see the car.
And her look was all wrong for this far out in the boonies. The woman wore an expensive looking silk scarf through her curly, black hair; tailored, cream colored pants; and a dark blouse with a handmade and quite expensive looking wrap over her shoulders. She looked more like an East Coast art seller than an antiquities dealer — especially one from these parts.
"Is Melissa there?" she called out with an unmistakable Brooklyn accent. "Hello? I'm looking for Melissa, I've brought her item. It's very special so I need to get it inside for her." Every word was accented, as if she were used to shouting over traffic noise.
Sana wavered for a minute. She really didn't have time for this woman. But if she'd come all the way here to deliver whatever the item was, it might be worth the delay.
"Yeah, I'm her roommate, Vale-"
"Oh, Sana!" the woman interrupted, standing beside the guest house door "She's told me all about you. Would you help me get it inside for her, please, so I can catch my flight?"
Sana sighed. There went her anonymity. "Come on," she said, unlocking the door. "I'll unbolt the back so we can load it in."
She ushered the woman through the house. If she could rush this, she'd have just enough time to load up the artifacts, cash, and art before Melissa got back.
"Oh, you two have a lovely guest house," the woman said, striding behind her and seeming to fiddle with the zipper on her shoulder bag. "It must be so much fun living with Melissa. Can I ask-"
Sana threw open the last bolt and pushed open the back door, casting an impatient glance over her shoulder.
"I get it," the woman said. "Anyway, we're just about done." She pulled out a short black rod, with little metal contacts at the end. It looked like something Sana might own, but not something she'd need this woman to delivered in person."
Sana hesitated. "I thought you were bringing an artifact from the car. That doesn't look like a fertility monument."
The woman smiled, a completely different smile than the shmoozy, ironic, New York art collector grins she'd had moments before. She'd seen a cousin make that smile once as a kid, the moment the claw machine finally grabbed grabbed the teddy bear she'd been aiming for.
"Oh, that's because you haven't tried it yet, dear," she said, reaching out as if to offer it to Sana.
She took a step towards her, reaching out hesitantly. "What does it-"
The woman jabbed her in the stomach, sending Sana crumpling to the ground. The shock made her body spasm in pain, squeezing the breath out of her. She heard the door open behind her as she closed her eyes, focusing on getting up on her feet and away.
"I'll be back in a moment, dahling." the woman said, walking back into the house.
* * * * *
Evan looked at the woman on the ground. Her eyes were closed and she was struggling to stand up, wheezing out a word that sounded like "what?" or "why?"
She was confused more than anything, which was a good sign — it made his job a little quicker and easier.
"Come on, I can get you away from here, but we don't have much time." She looked up, her eyes flickering between the attractive man in the blandly stylish sports coat and slacks, and the car, just 15 feet away out the back door.
He knelt down, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her up, casting a worried look into the house. She didn't resist — as far as Sana knew, she had a better chance with him than Vicky.
He helped her to the car, then shoved her through the open back door, slamming it shut behind him.
"Who are you?" she asked, scuttling towards the other side of the back seat, her body barely starting to respond to her commands.
"Later," he said, reaching into his inside jacket pocket. "We have 30 seconds or so until she's back, so we need to get ready for her. This will help,"
"Get ready?" she croaked. "What do you mean? What is-"