LONNIE BATES WAS furious.

Worse, his pride was stinging.

He’d run Bates Pawn-and-Trade since age seventeen, first for his uncle and now for himself.

Buy for a dollar, sell for two. That was his mantra. It worked. He was rarely taken for a fool.

Except today.

Those downtown brats had swindled him. He felt it in his bones. The punk kids had seen the ad and come for the pirate junk. They’d driven all the way from under their mommy’s skirts, walked into his shop, and swindled him good.

Bates couldn’t calm himself. Anger burned like an ember in his gut.

The black kid had blurted something about a map. He’d tried to cover his slip, but Lonnie Bates was no fool.

Why would rich kids come all the way to the projects for a box of pirate junk?

They wouldn’t. Unless they knew the stuff had value.

Bates thought back. Two years earlier he’d bought the crate from a strange old cracker. Weird dude, obsessed with pirates. Wouldn’t stop running his mouth about Anne Bonny.

Bates should’ve suspected something—dude wore a white tuxedo. In Myers! He’d written the guy off as a lunatic.

Twenty bucks for some fake pirate crap. No big deal.

The geezer had whined, but accepted the price. They always do. No one leaves without selling. Hard cash talks when you’ve got none.

A hundred bucks. Those kids knew something in the box was worth more, had come specifically for it. The papers? Had he been sitting on a gold mine and blown it? That possibility burned the worst.

Don’t sit here feeling sorry, played, and stupid. Do something!

The map. Those papers. Find out.

Bates prided himself on his ability to sniff out money. To know when there was coin to be made. He was feeling that itch now. Full tilt.

He’d screwed up, but wouldn’t just roll over. Not in this lifetime.

Bates reached for his cordless phone. Fat fingers punched the keys.

Two rings, then a groggy voice answered.

“Wake up, slack ass! It’s your pops. Got a job for you boys.”