“Between you, me, and the wall, I don’t know what to do!”

“Okay, well, the way I see it, we’ve got a couple of options here. Either we wait for them to leave, find the spare key, and wait for them to get back to do it, or we act now and risk potentially getting caught when they come out.”

“Hot-wiring it with them standing twenty feet away is stupid. They’re bound to hear it start. And what happens then? They’ll come running and bang. That’s 20 years in the cell at LEAST. Where’s Dave when we need him! I mean, seriously, what could he possibly have gotten himself into? He has the easiest job. Keep the family where we need them.”

“Dude. I don’t know. This isn’t how the plan was supposed to go.” He sighs and mumbles something under his breath.

“I know that! I’m asking for solutions not for you to state the obvious.” I’ve had enough. “Alright listen Nate, I’m thinking if we can give them a reason to not come out, then we’re in the clear, right? But it’s got to be big, if they hear their car speeding off they’re gonna flip out. Something so urgent, that they could care less about their car.” That’s when I heard the high pitched whine of a small animal, wanting to be let out to pee. The idea hit me like a freight train. Is that too far though? I’m really not sure about this. I don’t know if I could kill a dog if I tried. Seriously, it’s so tiny. Buuuut it would surely cause a commotion. Maybe I didn’t have to kill it so much as hurt it badly enough to get their FULL attention. I sat there for a minute, contemplating the best move. “I know this is messed up. I know. But listen here, you’re going to go over there and hurt that dog, and bad. I’m not saying to kill it, just make it get their full attention.”

“You’ve GOT to be kidding me. Rick, I can’t do that! Absolutely not, you do it! Jesus man. This has gone too far.”

I don’t know if this is going to work at this point. Everything in my body is screaming at me to give up. Just put the guns down and walk away. I’d book a flight for tonight and be on the run from my boss for the rest of my life but it might be worth it to get out of this line of work. No. I have to follow through.

“Just do what you’re told. The faster we get this done, the faster we get paid. Remember who these people are? We’re not the bad guys here, they deserve this.” I think I’m trying to convince myself more than him. For a little backstory, the Turners were awful people. Mr. Turner, well he got caught up with my boss’ daughter, which is a big no-no coming from someone in his 50s with a wife and kids of his own. The eldest daughter is quite something as well. She decided to go ahead and intercept a deal from our company to make her own profit from the merchandise on hand. The boss wasn’t all too happy about that one. And no, it’s really not that big of a deal, but if the big man says to get some payback, you do what he asks.

“ I guess, it just seems too much.” He mumbled as he got out of the van and moved to the back to get out the knives. Is this the right thing to do? I mean obviously I don’t want to hurt that dog, but god. There’s too much on the line right now. If we were to walk away from this, without that car, we both would be killed. I watch Nate go closer to the house, army crawling his way there and maintaining absolute silence. Nates an idiot for sure, but he can get the job done.

Suddenly smoke begins to rise out of nowhere. Then red blazes crash through the windows and a deafening explosion rings out, followed by an excruciating ringing. Glass paints the sidewalks and all alarms ring out. Go time. I see Nate get up and sprint towards me as I hop in the Rolls- Royce (LA Rose Noire Droptail- the most expensive car on the market.) He jumps in the passenger seat and I get the engine to roar from the waxy wires between my shaking fingers. My heart races with anticipation at this point. I floor it out of there and make way for the safety house. I didn’t need directions as every detail had been planned out years ago. We were out. In the clear. I could feel the smile on my face grow teethy as I realized that years of planning had finally paid off. No casualties, and thank god for that explosion. To my surprise, Dave came in clutch after all. I wasn’t expecting him to blow the house up, but hey, he got the job done. He had me worried from day one. He’s never been the brightest bulb in the box. I hear the fire sirens ring out towards the house I’m speeding away from, and I know everything has worked out.