Mikey Believes Anything

“Listen, Tony," I asked my brother anxiously, "are you really sure about this caper? I mean, a thousand things could go wrong.”

“Mikey, relax. I got it all figured out. Anything that could go wrong, I got it covered. All you gotta do is drive. Bronc and me, we do all the work. We do the heist, we handle the fence, and then we split the cash. Simple.”

Tony and I were identical twins, like peas in a pod, but he was three minutes older and made the most of it. He’d been bossing me all our lives, so I was glad he was finally treating me with some trust and respect.

“All I do is drive.”

“You got it, Mikey. You’re a good kid. Here, hold this a minute.” He had been cleaning a black automatic, and held the barrel in the cleaning cloth when he handed it to me.

I took it gingerly. “Tony, I don’t like guns. You know that. Why you gotta take a damn gun if the job’s so straightforward?”

He dropped the cloth into his gym bag and dug around inside.

“Just insurance, little bro. Planning for certain contingencies. Like I told ya, I got it all covered. Ah, here we go.” He pulled out a cloth sack and held it open. “Drop the gun in here, keeps it from clinking around.” I dropped gun in and wiped my hand on my shirt.

We heard a vehicle outside, a noisy rattle like a loose muffler. “Hey, there’s Bronc in our getaway car. Let’s go make us a bundle of dough.”

Bronc hauled his bulk into the back seat, and Tony slipped into the front beside me. As we drove, Tony made me repeat the address of the hideout. “Don’t forget to leave passenger side window open about halfway. You’ll see why later. Just do what I say.”

I drove until we came to the jewelry store for the robbery Tony and Bronc had planned. Bronc slipped a mask on as they walked calmly through the entrance. It was hard to see through the windows, but it looked like Tony put down the gym bag and took something out. A few minutes later, I heard three shots. I cringed—Tony had promised there would be no shooting, nobody hurt.

The masked Bronc hustled out the door with the gym bag over his shoulder. Right behind him came Tony, bare-faced. A car screeched to a halt behind me and when I turned to look there was some guy driving that I’d never seen before. Bronc was climbing in. Tony tossed the automatic through my front window. “You always were stupid, Mikey. You make a great patsy.”

He climbed into the car with Bronc and they drove quietly away. I stared at the handgun on the seat beside me and knew with a chill that I'd been set up. I was still sitting there seconds later, heartbroken at his betrayal, when the police arrived.

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