Just a little wordcount to get me ready for NaNoWriMo.
They got me pretty slick, I have to admit. I picked out the first guy in the crowd right away, and I even figured out who his two buddies were. They were keeping their distance, so I wasn’t spooked just yet. But I did figure it was a great time to start moving. Graciela looked at me funny, but she spotted our friends pretty quick once I muttered “We’re being tailed.” Then she was all in.
She knew how to look without looking like she was; it’s a good skill to have. “They sicarios?” Graciala asked. She didn’t whisper or say it too fast, either. Just a casual comment on our way somewhere else. That’s how you do it.
“Nah,” I replied. “Wrong time, wrong place to start something. Not a snatch team, either. At a guess, they’re here to ‘suggest’ I come with them because I suddenly need to talk to somebody important.”
“So you wanna get away from them, Shamus?”
“Sort of. I wanna at least get to an alley where I can hear the pitch without anybody else butting in. I listen, they smack me around, maybe I smack them around. I figure I’ll end up going, either way.” She flashed me a look, and I decided to flesh that out a little. “I’m always talking to people too full of themselves to come to me. It’s a big part of the job. So we do this dance where they lie and I wisecrack. Then we break for lunch.”