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Grady followed Tall and Silent to a small bedroom next to the bathroom. This one didn’t look like a prison cell as much as a room bare of furniture. More beige carpet, more drapes blocking the windows. His guard shoved him inside. “Get dressed.”
Grady stepped into the center of the room where a pile of clothes waited. The same thrift-store basics as Enrique and Xiang had provided before. Jeans, a size too large, a long-sleeved green REO Speedwagon tee, and a faded denim jacket with frayed cuffs. Sneakers and socks. And, thank goodness, still-in-the-package underwear. He ripped open the plastic, then turned to Tall and Silent, who stood against the closed door, arms folded across his chest. Seemed to be the man’s favorite pose.
Grady glanced at the louvered doors of the closet. Not that he expected to find anything inside—other than a modicum of privacy. What the hell. The goon had already seen him naked. Grady kept his back turned as he dropped his towel and got dressed.
“Do I get a hat?” Grady asked once he was clothed. “It can get cold out there, and now I’m missing my hair.” He thought as fast as his frightened mind would let him. “You know, there aren’t that many bald guys my age. Wouldn’t it make me more obvious?”
Unless that was their design. To make him conspicuous, make it easy for someone to identify him. Get him caught by the cops and out of their lives. No, that didn’t make sense. If he was caught, what would stop him from spilling everything?
When a flash of worry crossed the guard’s face, Grady had a fleeting thought that Tall and Silent might have been acting on his own initiative when he’d shaved Grady’s head. Would that get him in trouble with Enrique and Xiang? Would they care? The word expendable kept rushing through Grady’s thoughts. For both himself and his guard. To Enrique and Xiang, everyone—other than themselves—was expendable.
“Hey, I get it,” Grady said. “I had chemo, right? Playing up the sympathy factor. Help fund my cancer treatment. What kind of cancer do you think I should have?” He tried for a smile.
Tall and Silent appeared to be thinking. It seemed to be a difficult task, but eventually the worry left his face and he grunted. “Come.”
They made a quick stop in the kitchen where his guard opened a cabinet and handed Grady a bottle of water. Given the otherwise empty state of the cabinet, Grady lost hope the kitchen might yield any useful weapons. After that, he was unceremoniously dragged to his prison.
“You wait.” The man locked the door and left.
Grady sipped at the water, eyeing the toilet. Did it smell less bad? Had someone come in and emptied it while Grady was getting cleaned up? Not curious enough to check, he paced the room.
After putting in what Grady felt was the equivalent of a marathon, the latch slid back. He braced himself for whoever was coming in and what they might want. Why hadn’t Enrique or Xiang shown up with their demands that Grady turn over the phone? They couldn’t have forgotten, could they? Had something more important come up?
Both Enrique and Xiang stood in the doorway. Grady’s gut knotted, but he kept his gaze steady, focusing on each man in turn. He rubbed his palm—his sweaty palm—over his scalp. “Like the new look?”
Enrique scowled. Xiang ignored Grady’s question and leaned against the wall, one ankle crossed over the other. Enrique moved in and gripped Grady’s chin. Grady found the control not to squirm away. Enrique gave him an intense stare, as if regarding a statue he wanted to buy. He dropped his hands and pursed his lips. “You do have some of the smart ideas, amigo. But first, where is my phone? This time, the truth.”
So much for them forgetting about it. Grady pasted what he hoped was a contrite expression on his face and moved into the story he’d concocted. “You’re right. I was scared. I wanted to get away from that ranch and those horses. The phone is gone.”
Xiang approached, thumbing the edge of his knife blade.
“No, wait. I deleted all the pictures. Like I said, they were too dark to make out anything. And, like you taught us, I always deleted my call history and didn’t have anyone in my contact list. So, it was a blank phone. I gave it to someone right before the cops picked me up at that convenience store, because I’ve heard cops can find anything on a phone even if you delete it. I was trying to protect you.”
Grady paused, trying to read Enrique and Xiang, to see if they were buying it. Xiang stopped messing with his knife, and Enrique seemed to be weighing each of Grady’s words.
“See, there was this guy sitting outside the convenience store with one of those Will Work for Food signs. Although, you know, they don’t want to work, or want food, even. They want cash.”
Xiang’s impatience was obvious, and Enrique’s fists clenched at his sides.
“You already know that,” Grady added. “Anyway, I dropped the phone into the box he had next to him, and that’s it.”
“You think this person will back up your story?” Enrique asked.
Grady widened his eyes, raised his shoulders. “I don’t know. It’s not like I made a point of telling him what I was doing. I needed to ditch the phone. After that, everything happened too fast for me to check. He might still be there, but I think one of the cops told him to move on.”
Grady was afraid to breathe while Enrique pondered Grady’s fabrication.
When he couldn’t bear the silence, Grady went on. “If the guy thought there was something incriminating on the phone, he’d have turned it in to the cops, right? They haven’t come for you, so if he’s not using it himself, he must have traded it for dope or booze.”
Without another word Enrique and Xiang left, but not until Xiang had brandished the knife blade in Grady’s face. When the door latch snicked shut, Grady exhaled a long, slow breath.
If they’d wanted to kill him, they wouldn’t have bothered with the shower, shave, and new clothes, would they? Now, if only he knew what they had in store for him.