Rainey said, “Ready for what?”

Cole tapped Rainey again.

“Get out. We’re waiting outside.”

“For what? What’s he going to do?”

Pike checked the time again. One minute to go.

“This is the part where I sell you.”

Cole climbed out, pulled Rainey out the front, then closed the door, leaving Pike alone with the phone.

On the other side of the parking lot, a family got out of an SUV and went into the diner. The father carried a curly-headed little girl on his shoulders. Fifty feet away, cars crept along Sunset Boulevard, jammed up by rush hour. Pike blocked all of it out and called Dru Rayne.

Chapter 44

44

She answered on the third ring. Pike figured it took one ring for Gregg Daniel Vincent to show her the incoming number, one for her to confirm this was Rainey, and the third for Vincent to punch the answer button and hold the phone to her ear. Her voice sounded tentative.

“Hello?”

“Is he listening?”

Saying it for Vincent.

A full twenty seconds passed before she answered, which was probably Vincent figuring out what to do.

“Yes, he’s listening. Where’s Willie? Willie was supposed to call.”

“Willie can’t call. You good?”

“Ah, yeah, I’m okay. He hasn’t hurt me.”

“Give him the phone.”

“He, ah, he doesn’t want to talk. If Willie doesn’t call, he’s going to hurt me.”

“No, he won’t. I have Rainey and the money, but mostly I have Rainey.”

“Ah, he wants to know who you are.”

“Tell him.”

Pike heard her tell Vincent his name. Vincent said something, but too low for Pike to understand. They were still talking when Pike spoke again.

“What’s his name?”

“What?”

“His name?”

Another mumble in the background before she answered.

“Ah, his name is David.”

The corner of Pike’s mouth twitched.

“You’re a liar, Mr. Vincent. Your name is Gregg Daniel Vincent. Knock off the bullshit, and get on the phone. If you don’t want Rainey, I’ll sell him to the Bolivians.”

Thirty seconds of silence this time, edging to forty before a male voice came on the line.

“What’s your deal, boy? How do you know my name?”

“A friend told me.”

“I’ll kill your fuckin’ friend, you, your family, any motherfucker you’ve ever met. Your friend tell you that?”

“My friend told me you’re the guy the Bolivians send to scare people. I know who you are. None of it matters.”

“I have friends, too. You work Nicaragua or Honduras? You work Ecuador or Colombia? You think maybe we faced off before?”

The corner of Pike’s mouth twitched. He had not told Dru where he worked, so she couldn’t have told Vincent. His name, yes, and that he had been a military contractor, but no more than that. Vincent had checked him out, which meant he saw Pike as a threat.