The Angel and the Outlaw Read online

  “The owner of the plant where we picked up the TVs won’t call the police to report the loss. Right about now he’ll be getting a phone call from Tony advising him not to.”

  “And Tony?”

  “The goods rightfully belong to him. He knows I have them and he’s letting me use them. That’s why technically they’re not stolen, either.”

  She tried to sort through what he had said. Someone in the courier company was letting them borrow the truck. They were taking the televisions the same way her car had been repossessed when she couldn’t repay her loan.

  Was stress muddling her brain, or did this make a strange kind of sense?

  Not that this convoluted scheme they were playing out could be considered completely legal, but from one point of view…

  “Cooper, are you telling me that everything we’ve done so far is some kind of charade?”

  “It’s real enough for our purposes.”

  “But it was all a setup.”

  “The best jobs usually are.”

  “That’s why you were so sure it would work.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “There was never any real risk of being caught by the police.”

  “Not much.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  “Why are you sounding so pissed? Are you disappointed we didn’t really steal anything?”

  “We’re partners, Cooper. You should have trusted me enough to tell me the truth.”

  “That’s what I’m doing now, isn’t it?”

  “Why now? Why tell me at all?”

  “So you’ll quit checking the mirrors for cops every two minutes. So you’ll stop chewing your lip. So for once I can see your eyes without that haze of worry that tightens the lines at the corners and so maybe you can sleep tonight.” He flicked on the turn signal and accelerated to pass a slow-moving station wagon. The truck cab filled with the roar of the engine.

  She let her head fall back against the seat, struck silent by his outburst. He sounded as if he was admitting that he cared about her feelings. He definitely hadn’t sounded pleased that he did.

  Yet that’s how it was between them. He was quick to flirt with her, but he was even quicker to deny any suggestion of decency in his motives. This was a man who was more comfortable having her believe he was committing a crime than having her suspect he had scruples.

  Cooper checked his speed, muttered a curse and brought it back to within the limit. “You’re a smart woman. I knew you would start asking questions so I thought I’d keep you in the dark because it was less complicated that way.”

  She realized that was as much of an apology as she would get.

  She wasn’t sure how she felt about this. She was annoyed that Cooper had kept her in the dark, but at the same time she was relieved. Of course, she was relieved. Technically neither of them had yet committed a crime.

  But now she had a whole new issue to worry about. “Tony seems like a powerful man.”

  “He is.”

  “If he has something against Oliver, then why doesn’t he, well, take out a contract on him or something?”

  “I told you. Tony got out of the business. He might bend the law but he doesn’t break it.”

  “But if he has the connections to set up this pseudo theft, why doesn’t he go after Oliver himself?”

  “Because he asked me to.”

  “Why?”

  He remained silent.

  “Don’t shut me out again, Cooper. I’ve kept my half of our deal. I’ve been willing to share everything I have. Just by being here I’ve proven that I’m committed to our partnership. The least you could do is tell me exactly what it is that I’m involved in. You said Tony financed the Long Shot, so why doesn’t he want you to pay him back in cash?”

  “Because it was more than cash that he gave me.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He squeezed his jaw. Beard stubble rasped against his palm. He raked his hand through his hair again and rubbed the back of his neck.

  “It’s another two hours back to Latchford,” she said. “I’m not letting this go.”

  “Geez, you could talk a man to death.”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  The wheels sloshed along the blacktop. The wipers thumped rhythmically. It was a full minute before he finally spoke. “The real thing that Tony gave me was a chance, Hayley. He gave me a break when no one else would. His loan made it possible for me to turn my life around. That’s what he does. He finds people on the wrong side of the law and helps them move to the right side.”

  This was the last thing she expected. She had been thinking of Tony in terms of some type of loan shark, not a…benefactor. “People? There are more?”

  “Tony’s been at it for ten years, so there must be a hundred people in the network by now.”

  “Is this a charity?”

  “It’s no charity, Hayley. Tony hasn’t changed that much. Every person who joins the Payback network knows going in that Tony Monaco’s no saint. If they don’t pay up when he asks, he’ll make sure they lose everything he helped them build. He puts them right back where they were when they started.”

  “Payback. Is that what he calls it?”

  “That’s what it’s all about. He gives people like me the chance to choose the straight road. In return he expects us to even things up. We have to promise to pay back the favor by righting one wrong in the future.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Sometimes the law isn’t that good at bringing the guilty to justice.”

  “The guilty. Like Oliver Sproule?”

  “Oliver’s had a free ride in Latchford for years. The law hasn’t been able to touch him. Even when he killed your brother, he was acquitted of the crime. Like you told me, that verdict was wrong.”

  At last, the connection clicked. “Oliver’s acquittal is the wrong that you have to set right.”

  “That’s the task Tony chose for me. Once I do it, my debt to him will be paid in full.”

  “And Payback’s been going on for ten years? Do the authorities know about it?”

  Cooper moved his head in a slow negative. “In his early days Tony made a lot of enemies on both sides of the law, so he needs to keep a low profile. Most of the time, he gets Payback members to do his work for him.” He tipped his head toward the back of the truck. “That’s why we have those TVs.”

  “You’re collecting on a loan that wasn’t repaid.”

  “Right. If I don’t pay up, he’ll make sure someone else from Payback pays a visit to my bar. One way or another, he’ll put me out of business.”

  “That sounds like extortion.”

  “It’s no worse than bankers who work with a pen. The end result is the same.”

  He had a point, she realized. Still, she was torn between admiration for what Tony was doing and revulsion over the way he did it.

  Tony Monaco’s never been real particular about methods. He’s more interested in results.

  She pulled her heels onto the seat, hugging her legs to her chest as she mulled over what she had learned. She didn’t know what to say. If Cooper was to be believed, he was part of a clandestine network established by a former criminal in order to rehabilitate other criminals and ensure that justice was done, even if it meant they operated outside the law.

  It was all so unbelievable.

  Yet she didn’t doubt for one second that Cooper was telling the truth. As strange as it seemed, it fit. It explained why he was so determined to bring Oliver to justice even though he acted as if he had little respect for the law. It was as contradictory as everything else about this complex man.

  She leaned her chin on her knees as she looked at him. His jaw was clenched so firmly a muscle in his cheek twitched. His gaze was fixed straight ahead on the road, yet she had the impression that he was conscious of every breath she took, as if he were waiting for her reaction…although he would never admit that it mattered to him.

  Di
d he realize how much he had just revealed about himself? Tony’s network was unorthodox, but its aims were honorable. Cooper had made a conscious decision to join it. That had to mean he was honorable, too.

  But she had suspected that much from the start. It was all rolled up in that odd chivalry she had sensed in him. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

  Without taking his gaze off the road, he drew off the gray Pack Leader Express jacket one arm at a time, then hung it from a hook behind his seat. He wore a black sweatshirt beneath. He pushed the sleeves to his elbows. “I’ll save you the trouble. I sleep in the nude.”

  An image of the large unmade bed that she had seen in Cooper’s loft flashed into her mind. She couldn’t help picturing how he would look with his black hair tousled against the pillow and his long, lean body sprawled boldly across the sheets…his ice-blue eyes with those sinfully thick, spiky lashes crinkling into a smile of invitation….

  “Anything else?”

  She realized he had effectively distracted her. This wasn’t the first time he’d tried to throw her off balance with a suggestive comment. “You know perfectly well I didn’t mean a question about your personal habits. I meant a question about you.”

  “Damn, it’s going to be a long two hours,” he muttered.

  “Where did you learn to hot-wire a truck?”

  He glanced at her sideways. “Why?”

  “I’m curious. You seem…skilled.”

  “It’s not that difficult if you know which wires to cross,” he said. His tone was matter-of-fact. It seemed this was one topic he wasn’t uncomfortable discussing. “Cars, trucks, vans, they all run on the same basic principle.”

  “I imagine they do.”

  “Same with the door locks. All you need is a flat piece of metal and ten seconds of privacy and you can pop most factory locks without any problem.”

  “Did you figure it out on your own?”

  “Nope. My old man taught me.”

  That surprised her. She had assumed he might have fallen in with a bad crowd or chosen the wrong friends, but his father? “How old were you?”

  “He showed me on the day I turned fifteen.”

  “Do you remember what happened?”

  “Oh, yeah.” He lifted one eyebrow as he looked at her. “Everyone remembers their first time.”

  “Well?”

  “We were living in an apartment over a 7-Eleven in the north end of town then. My mother had taken off for good by that time and Donny was between girlfriends, so it was just the two of us. Some kid who worked at the store had parked this brand new red Mustang in the alley. It was Donny’s idea of a birthday present.”

  “Donny?”

  “I never called him Dad.”

  “Oh.”

  “It was a real sweet little car. Too bad I hadn’t learned how to drive yet. I went through the guard rail where the highway crosses Latchford Creek.” He shook his head. “Rolled twice before I hit the water. Totalled the Mustang.”

  Her stomach turned over. “You could have been killed, Cooper.”

  “I wasn’t.”

  She thought of the tough kids under the bleachers. Had Cooper bragged to his friends about his reckless joyride with that red Mustang? Then she thought about her fifteenth birthday. Adam had given her a new CD player and a pair of in-line skates, her father had given her a book on the history of Latchford, and they had gone out for sundaes at the Dairy Queen.

  The life that Cooper had sketched with his brief description was completely foreign to Hayley. The only thing they had in common was the lack of a mother’s presence, but other than that, his childhood couldn’t have been more different from hers.

  It made the fact that he’d accepted Tony’s deal and had turned his life around all the more admirable. “What happened after you, uh…”

  “Stole my first car?”

  “Yes,” she said. “What happened then?”

  “I learned to steal other things.”

  “Oh.”

  The rain eased to a drizzle. Cooper adjusted the wiper speed and checked the dashboard clock. He leaned over to reach between the seats and picked up the ball cap he’d dropped. “Here. Take this.”

  She took it from his hand. “What for?”

  “You better tuck your hair inside it. Even in the dark a man would have to be blind not to notice you.”

  She gave him a smile. “Thanks, Cooper.”

  “Hayley…” He hesitated. “There was another reason I didn’t tell you this job was fixed.”

  “You mean besides not wanting to explain about Payback?”

  “Yeah. Besides that. I wanted you to have a taste of what being scared felt like.”

  “Why? Did you enjoy seeing me terrified?”

  “No, I already told you that I didn’t.”

  “Then why?”

  “So far this has been a dry run for you. When I drive this rig through the door of Sproule’s warehouse, it’s going to be the real thing.” He tapped the rim of the steering wheel with his fist. “I wanted you to know what to expect so you can decide whether or not to go through with it.”

  “I already told you I would.”

  “That was before. It’s not too late to bail.”

  “I’m not going to fall apart the way I did when I tried to shoot Oliver. I’ve already explained to you that I wasn’t thinking clearly then. I wasn’t myself. I’ll do better this time.”

  “I’m not trying to make out that you can’t do this, Hayley. You’ve got guts and you’re stubborn. I’m just trying to give you an option.”

  “Don’t you want my help getting into the Sproule computer system?”

  “Sure, I do. I don’t know anything about that stuff, but I want you to understand that if you don’t feel like going any further, we’ll find some other way to get what we need.”

  She wound her hair into a twist and fitted the hat on top of it. “If I didn’t know better, I would think that you’re trying to be noble, Cooper.”

  He snorted. “Noble?” He looked at her upraised arms, then boldly dropped his gaze to where her sweater stretched across her breasts. “It’s a damn good thing you do know better, Hayley.”

  Chapter 6

  Cooper hated being wrong. The Latchford Marine warehouse should have been dark and practically deserted at this time of night. Okay, Sproule might have put on a few extra people as a show of power because this was Cooper’s first job with him, but at most, there should have been maybe three or four men. They wouldn’t have been too much to handle. He could have cleared out some of the guys with free handouts of the merchandise and diverted the attention of the others while he unloaded.

  Yet the instant the overhead door rolled up and Cooper eased the rig inside, he knew he had miscalculated big time. He never should have brought Hayley with him. No way was anyone going to move around here unnoticed. The place was lit up like Christmas and crawling with guards.

  It was too late to get her out. Through his side mirror, he could see one of the men who stood by the control box hit the button to lower the door as soon as the back of the trailer had cleared it. Another man walked in front of the truck, swinging his arm to guide Cooper toward an empty space near the left wall. Like the others, he had an Uzi slung over his shoulder.

  The warehouse was bigger than it looked from the outside, with more space than Cooper thought that an outboard-motor plant would need. Most of the floor was covered with stacks of cartons. Some were cardboard and bound together with shrink wrap, others were printed with pictures of motors. It was a pile of wooden crates near the back wall that seemed to be drawing most of the attention. He counted six men working on them with crowbars.

  Damn, he wasn’t just a little wrong. He was up to his ears in some serious trouble. No one needed armed guards to unpack outboard-motor parts.

  Cooper dug into his jeans pocket for a stick of chewing gum, unwrapped it and folded it into his mouth. “We’ve got a problem, Hayley.” He pitched his voice as low as
he could and timed his words to the rhythm of his chewing for the benefit of anyone who was watching him through the windshield. “Your job is off. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound. Don’t look out the windows.”

  Her whispered reply was barely audible above the rumble of the engine. “Why is it so bright in here?”

  “Something major’s going on.” His palm slipped on the knob of the gear shift. He realized it was slick with sweat. He eased the truck to a stop. “Get under a blanket and keep your head down. Whatever happens, don’t come out.”

  “Cooper?”

  He set the brakes and killed the engine. “Not for anything, you hear that? You’re going to have to trust me on this. I got you into it, I’ll get you out.”

  There was a soft rustling from behind him, then silence. “Okay.”

  He unwrapped another stick of gum, popped it into his mouth and reached for the door handle. “I won’t be nosing around tonight. I’ll just get rid of this load and—”

  The door was wrenched open. “Hey, Webb!”

  Cooper felt his pulse spike. Using every ounce of his control, he managed to restrain the impulse to glance behind him to check if the curtain over the bunk was closed. He turned to his left.

  A square-built man with a shaved head stood in the angle of the open door, one foot propped on the bottom step and the other hand on the stock of his Uzi. He looked familiar, but it took a second for Cooper to place him—he’d had a full head of brown hair the last time Cooper had seen him. It was Isaac Pressman, a small-time numbers runner. They had been on the same cell block during his last year in Joliet.

  “Dammit, Izzy. Don’t point that thing at me.” Cooper swiveled on the seat and swung his legs out of the cab. “You’d be better off shooting whoever gave you that haircut.”

  Izzy grunted a laugh as he ran a palm over his scalp. “You should try it yourself, Webb. The chicks love it.”

  “Yeah, right.” Cooper caught the grab bar and hopped to the warehouse floor. He landed so that Izzy had to step back. “So, how long have you been out?”

  “One month, three days. I been meaning to look you up.”

  Cooper was glad he hadn’t. He’d never trusted Izzy. “You working for Sproule now?”