Run Baby Run by Michael Allen Zell Page B

toes, but as she fell, the slits on each side worked like a parachute, and flew up to her hips.
    The eyes of tall and skinny, still standing, bugged out.
    She cursed and swung her purse at him, and its contents emptied to the street, many of which were promptly run over by the passing white SUV. She tried to get up, slipped and fell down again, scooted on her rear, and angrily pulled tall and skinny down to the pavement with her. He tried to shield himself from her slapping.
    The crowd outside Jo-Ro's Lounge erupted in laughter. Eyes emptied with tears. Men fell to the ground holding their sides. Women slid down to the sidewalk smacking their own legs. Catcalls abounded.
    "That juicy tail ain't never leaving the street," one of them called out.
    "Get him, girl," another said.
    "You gonna get it for half price now, Harold!" shouted a smart ass, which sent another wave of people falling down to the sidewalk.
    Hutch and Olson were holding a gambler's lucky hand at the street lights. They hit Esplanade and St. Bernard, both busy intersections, at greens and sped through untouched.
    Just past Elysian Fields, Claiborne going downriver turned into Robertson. Hutch zigged and zagged a bit around traffic at the Elysian Fields dual lights, blew through both at St. Roch, and had a green for both at Franklin. The SUV, though, did the same.
    A deep cough rumbled Hutch to his waist. The recent memory of a plan dissolved in the moldy soup of the present.
    "Right now I should be sleepin' in Houston, dreamin' 'bout drivin' to Galveston and takin' a cruise to Brazil," he whispered, shaking his head.
    The plan was that Olson would drop him off at the cruise ship terminal where Hutch's trip was already booked under the name Maurice Richard. Olson would drive alone to his new place. The money would all be divided up before then.
    Hutch had decided when the cruise ship arrived at port in Salvador, Brazil, he'd disembark normally with everyone else but melt into the city and make it his home.
    "Stay strong. Can still get there. Gotta mission to change my condition," he murmured, standing up again to look through the window.

8
    T wo Russians faced two Sicilians. There was open hostility on each side of the hallway. All of them had the physiques of NFL linemen who were no longer in shape.
    The Sicilian duo was hostile because they were unarmed. Their pieces were removed from the shoulder holsters and taken at the front door earlier. The Russian duo was hostile because they were armed.
    Excessive steroid use had thinned the hair of each man. The gel they all used made each of their heads look like the product of a hasty artist. Simple blocky skulls with a few swept back hairs as if afterthoughts.
    They were standing outside a closed door. The décor throughout the house could only be described as ostentatious. The structure itself resembled those surrounding it along a tony section of Lakeview. Six pillars in front, though, left only comparisons to a well-moneyed frat house.
    The four men were on the job. None of them could emit a minute of charm anyway. Wasn't what they were hired for. The air around them was one giant pregnant pause whose water was about to break.
    The determiner of "if" and "when" was on the other side of the door. His name was Alex Yevchev. He spoke English with a Northern Russian accent. Yevchev dressed and adorned himself with jewelry of the type that newly wealthy young men are given to. Skin was cadaverous. His expression, however, was very much alive.
    To say he was angry would be an understatement. For the time being, it was wrapped in the veneer of a steely falcon waiting out its dinner.
    "Dominic, you are not following me. I do not get fucked. I do the fucking."
    "Mr. Yevchev, I'm telling you. I don't know how they got the combination. I didn't write it down. I told nobody. Just your mouth to my ears. I know it looks bad they got the safe open. But they did." Dominic Cavallari, known as Mr. C to his employees, was in the