Page 103 of Cash

“Where’s Kimberly’s money?” I asked.

“There’s a safe,” he blurted. “It’s…there’s a BMW on the far side of the garage. It doesn’t… it doesn’t run. Move it, and there’s a floor safe under it. I’ll give you the combination, but not all of it’s hers. The money. Some of it’s…”

Reno stuffed the rag into Marvin’s mouth before he could finish speaking.

Without provocation, Tito and Goose turned toward the garage. After pushing the old-school BMW out of the way, Tito was in the safe within a matter of minutes.

He began handing Goose stacks of hundred-dollar bills.

Incapable of seeing in the safe, I tried to see over Tito’s shoulder. “What’s in there? Is it all there?”

“There’s stacks of ten-thousand-dollar bundles of hundred-dollar bills,” he said.

“How much was on that spreadsheet?” I asked. “From the investment place?”

“Her account had two million, three hundred sixty thousand, and change.”

I edged Goose out of the way and peered over Tito’s shoulder and into the safe. Stacks and stacks of hundred-dollars bills lined the interior of the large safe.

“Jesus.” My eyes bulged at the sight. “How much does he have in there?”

“Hard saying,” Tito responded.

After piling the ten-thousand-dollar bundles into stacks of ten, we counted the hundred-thousand-dollar bundles. Thirty-one bundles equated to three-point-one million dollars, or roughly six hundred and forty thousand more than Marvin had taken from Kimberly.

“You fellas load up the money and head out,” I said. “I’ll get this mess cleaned up with Marv.”

“Nobody’s going anywhere unless everyone goes,” Baker said from behind me. He nodded toward the open safe. “How much was in there?”

“Three-point-one mil,” Tito said. “Roughly seven-hundred-forty more than was taken.”

“My take of the extra cash goes to the girl,” Reno said.

“Ditto,” Ghost said.

“Give her mine, too,” Goose said.

“Mine, too,” Tito chimed.

“We follow the rules,” Baker said. “Club takes the club’s cut. She can have what’s left. It’ll be more than she had in the beginning.”

“Fair enough,” I said. “The rules are the rules.”

Within fifteen minutes, Reno and I worked out the details regarding Marvin’s future. The process went much easier than expected, allowing us to reach an agreement that he’d never show his face anywhere near me, the club, or Kimberly again.

If he did, his life would promptly cease to exist.

It may have been the ten pounds of plastic explosives that Reno rigged to the inside of the safe – before we welded it shut – that convinced Marv to agree so promptly.

Personally, I’d always believe it was my charm that coerced him. Either that, or my groovy new haircut.