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To Joh

Greeting Vince at the front door, Joh

They hugged. Vince didn’t like hugging, but he had worked for Joh

“You’re looking good,” Joh

“A rattlesnake,” Vince said, a little embarrassed to be saying such a stupid thing, but he knew it was the kind of outlaw crap that Joh

“Hadn’t seen you in so long I thought maybe the cops busted your ass.”

“I’ll never do time,” Vince said, meaning that he knew prison was not part of his destiny.

Joh

Joh

Joh

From the foyer, Vince followed Joh

A good-looking blonde was reclining on a silver-and-black chaise longue, reading a magazine. No older than twenty, she was almost embarrassingly ripe. Her silver-blond hair was cut short, in a pageboy. She was wearing Chinese-red silk lounging pajamas that clung to the contours of her full breasts, and when she glanced up and pouted at Vince, she seemed to be trying to look like Jean Harlow.

“This is Samantha,” Joh

Vince felt like a jackass.

“What’s a ‘made man’?” the blonde asked in a high-pitched voice she’d no doubt copied from the old movie star Judy Holliday.

Standing beside the longue, cupping one of the blonde’s breasts and fondling it through the silk pajamas, Joh

“He means I’m no greaseball guinea,” Samantha said sourly.

Joh

She put a hand to her face, and tears shimmered in her eyes, and in a little-girl voice, she said, “I’m sorry, Joh

“Stupid bitch,” he muttered.

“I don’t know what gets into me,” she said. “You’re good to me, Joh

To Vince, it appeared to be a rehearsed scene, but he supposed that was just because they’d been through it so many times before, both privately and publicly. From the shine in Samantha’s eyes, Vince could tell she enjoyed being slapped around; she smart-mouthed Joh

Vince was disgusted.

Joh

Half-sickened by Joh

Joh

The study was the only room in the house untouched by Art Deco. It was strictly high-tech. Sturdy metal tables were lined up along three walls, and eight computers stood on them, different makes and models. Every computer had its own phone line and modem, and every display screen was aglow. On some screens, programs were ru

Joh

Given time and motivation, he could break any computer security system and pry through a corporation’s or a government agency’s most sensitive information. If you wanted to run a major credit-card scam, charging a million bucks worth of purchases to other people’s American Express accounts, Joh