“But you did it anyway.”
He nods. “I was saving for a house and that would be the final deposit that I needed.”
I smile in surprise. “You own a house?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Manhattan.”
I clink our glasses together again in celebration. “Well done.” I smirk. “How amazing. Go you.”
He smiles proudly.
“Anyway,” I say as I continue eating.
“Anyway.” He pauses. “On the way to the ship, we got to talking and he asked me what I did and I told him I was a marine engineer. He seemed like an okay guy.”
I sit still, unsure if I want to hear the rest of it. It’s like I am hearing the story of his life unravelling.
“I took him to his ship the next day and I sat in the chopper for two hours while he did whatever he did and then I flew him home. He paid me fifty grand cash.”
I frown.
He shakes his head. “I was gone from home for a total of six hours and I made fifty thousand dollars.”
“God,” I whisper.
“Anyway, I did the job and that was that. No strings, no questions asked, and I went back to working with the other guy and bought my house.”
I smile. “What an achievement.”
He smiles sadly into his glass and I know there is more of the story to come.
“Three months later he called me again.”
A lead ball starts to bounce in my stomach.
“I was living in my house, but it was shitty and needed renovation, and I was scratching for money.”
“So you did another job?” I ask.
He nods. “It started with one and then a week later another and another. It was never actually discussed how long I would work for him. He just gave me the cash and I didn’t ask questions.”
I watch him as he sips his drink.
“You knew he was bad, didn’t you?”
He shrugs. “I knew he had to be involved in some serious shit by the money he threw around and the guards he had.”
I feel sick.
“Usually I would just sit in the chopper and wait for him, but one day when we were on the ship, some shit went down and one of the crew got killed. His guard that flew in the chopper with us shot this guy dead, right in front of us.”
I frown, this is the guy Angela was telling me about.
He rubs his forehead as he remembers it. “I didn’t know what to do.” He hesitates. “I had knowingly taken them there. I had to fly them back to the mainland and then I realized that I was on his payroll. My bank accounts showed huge cash injections for over eight months. If they went down, so did I. Basically, if I didn’t fly them home and shut my mouth, I was either in jail or a dead man walking.”