Never Play Another Man's Game Read Online Free

while.”
    Ruby nodded and crossed her arms. “I heard you went to work for the mob.”
    â€œIt’s not that simple,” I said.
    â€œIt never is, but I hear you don’t work for them anymore. Is that simple enough?”
    I nodded.
    â€œSo you need a job.”
    â€œI’m not broke,” I said. It was the truth. I lost some money with the house, but I still had reserves stashed all over the city. Not enough to live on, but enough to coast for a while.
    â€œI don’t mean it that way. You need a job. What are you going to do? Retire? Get a real job? Settle down? We both know that isn’t going to happen. I’ve lived this life long enough to know that if you aren’t working a job, you’re looking for one. What else is there for people like us?”
    Thirty seconds had passed and I hadn’t moved. The door hit me a third time; a sensor must have been triggered because there was suddenly an annoying buzzer coming from the elevator. I stepped inside and the doors had luck on the fourth try.
    â€œYou don’t know me, Ruby.”
    â€œNo? I knew your uncle, and I see him in you. He couldn’t stop either.”
    â€œAnd it got him dead.”
    â€œSo what was the alternative? You know what happens to the animals at Sea World when they get taken out of the ocean and put in those big tanks?”
    â€œThey get a steady diet of fish and no one ever gets caught in a net again.”
    Ruby shook her head. “They get ulcers. Some of them have to go on a steady diet of antacids. Others start hurting themselves, or picking fights with a fish that will do it for them.”
    â€œBut they stay alive.”
    â€œThey’re not alive, they’re just waiting to die. Some just figure out how to make it happen faster than others. Working is dangerous, sure, but it’s our life. People like us were never meant to dance for sardines three times a day for a little safety. The sooner you come to terms with that, the better.”
    The doors opened on the second floor and Ruby’s purse was still there. I picked it up and pushed the button for the first floor. “We get a cup of coffee and talk the job over. If I think the job has legs, I’ll stick around. If the job is bullshit, no story about Flipper will make me stay. I’d rather jump for sardines than share a cell in the Kingston Pen.”
    Ruby reached into her pocket. I took the cell out of her hand the second she had it out.
    â€œI just want to tell my son what’s going on. He’ll worry.”
    â€œConcentrate on talking to me,” I said.

CHAPTER FOUR
    W e sat in a small coffee house just down the street from a hospital near the mall. There were only four tables and a couch for the patrons. I drank black tea with milk while Ruby nursed a cup of green tea.
    â€œMy son came to me with the job. A friend of his does maintenance for an armoured car company and my son found out that the trucks are going in one by one because of some repairs they need.”
    Ruby paused as though she were offering me a chance to ask a question. I said nothing and kept my face blank. I wanted Ruby to tell the story, the whole story, her way. She hadn’t started the way most people did. Most people start a job proposal with money. They tell you how much you’ll make right off the bat, so that you’re already spending it in your head while you hear the rest of the story. Greed makes people go against their better judgement; it makes people sign on to jobs they should have run from. Telling me about an inside man was a bad way to start. It showed that Ruby had no idea how much money was to be made. Worse, it was an immediate red flag. Inside knowledge meant there was already a civilian involved. Civilians are never part of a good job. Involving them increases the chances of failure exponentially and they are the first to squeal when the police sweat them at the station. Civilians have more to