Scramble
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 38
Wednesday night, I was sitting at the kitchen table with Dad, eating dinner. Mom had skipped dinner, complaining that she wasn’t feeling well, and Josh had scarfed down his food and run back to his room. He was still mad about being grounded several weeks ago, taking it personally even though I’d caught him red-handed.
He wasn’t even in trouble for the serious thing he’d done, but he acted like it was the most unfair thing possible. Finals had started and I was doing okay, but I still had three left to take, so I was reading through my math notes while Dad was reading his paper, both of us eating but in our own worlds, which is probably why we both jumped when someone knocked on the door.
Dad looked up from his newspaper, checking the clock on the microwave that read 7:43.
“Expecting someone?”
“Not really,” I said, getting up and walking to the front door, peeking out. “It’s Eduardo.”
I opened the door to find him practically vibrating with nervous energy, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
“You okay?”
“We need to talk.”
From the way he was acting, this was a ‘talking in private’ kind of thing.
“Yeah, come on in. My room okay?”
“Perfect.”
He was kind of jumpy the whole way upstairs. Once we reached my room, I closed the door and turned to face him.
“Alright, what’s got you so worked up?”
“Tito called me about an hour ago, angry. Like, really angry.”
“It worked?”
“Ohh, yeah, it worked,” Eduardo said, pacing the small space between my bed and desk. “Tito went to some of the higher-ups in the gang the day after I talked to him, starting to set up his big score, and Raf found out immediately. He pushed Tito completely out of the picture, and took control of the whole thing, Tito said.”
I sat down on the edge of my bed, watching Eduardo pace. “Great!”
“I know. I honestly thought this was a long shot and didn’t have a chance in hell. Tito is furious, though. Apparently, Raf acted like he was doing Tito some huge favor, that he was just ‘helping him out’ even though he took over completely.”
“I swear, half the call was Tito venting instead of just telling me what I need to know to keep Mateo out of Raf’s plan. He was so angry about getting betrayed, that he wanted someone to listen to him complain.”
That made sense. I got the impression that Tito didn’t have a lot of guys in his corner. So, when everything went upside down, he wouldn’t have anyone to go to. Eduardo coming to him with the info must have made Tito think that Eduardo was on his side. I’d almost feel bad for him if his whole goal wasn’t to get back into the good graces of a violent gang.
“Please tell me he vented about Raf’s plan in specifics?”
Eduardo stopped pacing and nodded. “Ohh, yeah. He went on and on about it, saying it was so much worse than his original plan of robbing the Great National Bank one block from both the city hall and the police station. Which was a terrible plan, which is probably how Raf got it away from him so easily.
“So what’s Raf’s new target?”
“The B&W operations building. You know, that oil company facility right on the edge of town.”
I knew it. Their logo was butt ugly, and I’d passed it a few times when I’d gone with Dad to work over the years. The building sat on a piece of land where the residential area gave way to industrial space, maybe half a mile from the high school. It was one of those nondescript concrete structures that looked like it could house anything from a warehouse to administrative offices.
“That’s not what I’d expected. I’d thought he’d go for ATMs or cars or something.”
Eduardo sat down on my desk chair, finally still enough to have a real conversation. “Apparently, it’s a big deal. That’s the main admin office for all the remote sites around West Texas, and one of its functions is to handle the payroll. A lot of the workers are kind of vagabonds, moving from one job site to another around the country, so most of the money is paid out in cash. Tito says Monday is when the cash will come in for next month to get counted and sorted before it’s sent out to different locations by Friday.”
“How does Tito know all this?”
“Raf’s been talking about this place for years. Apparently, some guy who used to work for B&W told Raf about the payroll setup and how much cash moves through there. Raf’s been wanting to hit it forever, but they have a direct alarm line to the police station.”
That explained why Raf hadn’t moved on it before. Most businesses had security systems that contacted private companies, who then called the police. A direct line meant units would be responding within minutes of any breach.
“The police training changes everything, though. Raf figures with most of the force tied up in those sensitivity sessions, he’ll have way more time to complete the job and get away. They’ll have to be fast, but Raf was told response times were normally about three minutes, which isn’t enough time to clear out the cash and run. He figures they will have eight, maybe nine minutes with most of the guys in the office and not on the road.”
“There will still be patrol cars out. Not every officer is going to be tied up in training.”
Eduardo nodded. “Raf thought of that, too. He’s planning to create distractions around town before they go in.”
“What kind of distractions?”
“Small incidents that need police response, but nothing big enough to make them cancel the training sessions. Raf wants to tie up whatever officers are still on duty before the main job begins.”
“It’s actually not a bad plan,” I admitted.
“No, it’s not. And that’s what makes Tito so angry. This could really work.”
“How much money are we talking about?”
“Almost five hundred thousand dollars in cash will be sitting in that building on Monday.”
I let out a low whistle. That was serious money, especially for a small-town gang operation. No wonder Raf had muscled Tito out of the picture.
“Tito’s pissed because Raf was bragging that this would be the biggest job in the gang’s history.”
“It is going to be a big day in the gang’s history,” I said, smiling. “But not the way he’s hoping.”
It was the last day of the school year and the cafeteria was a madhouse. Kids were going around passing yearbooks to each other, getting everyone to sign them.
“Mine first,” Li said, sliding her yearbook across the table to me.
I was surprised. For how quiet and stand-offish she had been at the beginning of the year, her book was already filled with signatures. She really had come a long way.
I found a good spot next to Li’s student government photo and started writing. Thanks for being the smartest person I know, and for keeping me from doing stupid things ... most of the time. - Blake
“What did you write?” Li tried to peek over my shoulder.
“Classified information. Read it later.”
The table next to us erupted in laughter as someone apparently wrote something hilarious, and I found myself watching the whole scene play out. Last day of school always felt surreal, like everyone suddenly remembered they actually liked each other.
“Blake?”
I turned to find three freshman girls standing behind me, yearbooks clutched against their chests. I recognized one of them from my biology class but couldn’t remember her name. The other two looked familiar but I couldn’t place them.
“Could you sign our yearbooks?” the girl from my class asked, her cheeks turning pink. “We’re all excited to watch you play varsity next year.”
“Sure.” I reached for the first book. “What’s your name again? I know we’re in bio together but...”
“Stephanie,” she said quickly. “And this is Jennifer and Ashley.”
I started signing Stephanie’s book. “Have you guys gone to any games?”
“All of them,” Jennifer said, then immediately looked embarrassed. “I mean, we usually go to the home games anyway.”
Ashley nudged her friend. “Just say it.”
“Say what?”
“That you think he’s cute,” Ashley whispered, but loud enough for our whole table to hear. “She was hoping that since you’re single now...”
Eduardo snorted into his drink while Li raised an eyebrow at me. Miguel tried to hide his grin behind his yearbook.
“I appreciate that,” I said, finishing signing Stephanie’s yearbook and moving to Jennifer’s. “But I think I’m going to stay single for a while. Focus on football and all that.”
“That’s probably smart,” Stephanie said. “I heard about what happened with Melanie. She’s kind of...”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.