Member-only story
Signs for Diamonds
Tim Johnsons first act of thievery.
Tim squinted off into the distance where Jose was standing. That couldn’t be right. Tim thought he must not be seeing things clearly and made a mental note to get his eyes checked the next time he was in the doctor’s office. It looked like Jose was throwing him a sign, a few shuffles of the hand and some twisting machinations of the fingers before sliding his right hand down his leg. Was Jose trying to say Tim should try to take it? The group had lots of signs and each man took the time to memorize each one, but this was something Tim never expected. Tim wasn’t the stealing kind.
Tim was honest to a fault and he had never stolen anything in his life. He didn’t see himself as the kind of man who would take something without asking or paying. At 6'4" and a bulging 233lbs, he looked like the kind of man who took whatever he pleased, but Tim was civil. He was a bruiser, no doubt, but an honorable bruiser. That’s why they guys brought him in. He had straps of muscle on top of muscle flexing every time he moved his body, and he had forearms that could wrench a smaller man in half. The guys chose Tim for how his brute strength intimidated other men, but even more so for his ability to follow up on his foreboding promise of violence with the natural ability to unleash chaos with a swing. You put a chunk of metal or wood in Tim’s hands…
