“You don’t want any cream or sugar,” Clancy asked Chuck after being served coffee by a waitress at Mike’s Diner off the Ditmars stop in Astoria, Queens.

“I like my coffee like I like my women,” Chuck said.

“How’s that?”

“Hot and black.”

Clancy chuckled, and said, “I guess I like my ladies sweet and creamy then… But seriously what the hell are we going to do?”

“I know,” Chuck said blowing on his coffee, “we have to come up with fifty large by Saturday night and all because of that douche Milos fucking us over.”

“That doesn’t matter now,” Clancy said, “we’ll deal with Milos if we get out of this hole. Getting 50k to the Denali Brothers is what is going to keep us alive and that’s all we need to think about doing. I don’t know how we’re going to do it.

“So what can we do to get that kind of money? Who, what, where can we score fifty grand from quickly?” Chuck asked before taking his first sip.

“I got nothing,” Clancy said.

“My cousin Jermaine has a security job at the Museum of Modern Art. We could see if he would let us in and maybe we could take a piece of art that’s worth some money and sell it.”

“What do we know about art? And besides art is the kind of stuff you have let cool, lay low. That would be a big heist in the news at a place like MOMA. And we’d have to look for a buyer.”

“I got my boy Trevor who is hustling over in the Diamond District, maybe he knows how some jewels could go missing.”

“Everyone knows everyone over there, and we’d have to go up to Canada or somewhere far to sell whatever we get so no one in the city knows and there’s no time.”

Both took sips from their mugs and contemplated.

“What about a bank?” Chuck said.

“Nah, I’ve robbed banks before,” Clancy said, “if you want to do a quick and easy in and out robbery with one teller, you get like what? Usually a few grand at most. That’s too many banks we’d have to rob. If we go for the big score with heavy guns and everything for the kind of cash we need, then we’d have to worry about cops giving a damn and being all over our asses in no time. Plus there’s the risk of the whole dye pack shit and I don’t want to have to kill anyone over this bullshit, except Milos maybe.”

“All right,” Chuck said putting down his cup. “I know this guy Carlos who is in pretty deep with this Mexican crew that slings meth and coke. I bet we could like give him a bit of cabbage to get his fix and he’d show us like a safe house and look the other way. Those safe houses always got mad money in them. We scope it out and hit it up.”

Clancy took a big gulp of his coffee and then said, “Do you want to get in trouble with another crew that we don’t even know about or who they are in order to pay the Denalis? We don’t know what they are in to or who they are connected to? Those bastard Denalis have their fingers in everything. For all we know, we’d be robbing one of their outfits to pay them back, and we’d be even more fucked than we are now, which is already fucked.”

“I saw on the news that there’s going to be a big party at Cipriani’s with a lot of singers and celebrities for some fundraiser for kids with cancer. They must all have some cash and jewelry we could take.”

“Too big and high profile. It would be hard to control the crowds and not get noticed. Plus it’s kids with cancer.”

“Fine Mr. Morality,” Chuck said and drank deep.

“There’s got to be something we are overlooking,” Clancy said.

“What about that strip club where Linda works? She could let us in at the end of her shift and we get the manager to take us to the safe. He’s a dummy anyway right? There’s got to be some serious loot moving in and out of that club.”

“Absolutely not,” Clancy said. “I don’t want Linda involved. I owe her two months child support and she won’t be in to robbing her boss. Plus they got some heavy bouncers on Friday nights that I wouldn’t want to mess with. They are some mean sons of bitches. Once I saw them break a guy’s nose for rubbing up against some stripper’s titties too long.”

“I got a guy I’ve known since high school who’s out at the Aqueduct, Cowboy Bill. He usually has a good line on the horses. We could talk to him and get into the horses good you know and see what we can win on. Maybe hit a few trifectas. Plus they got that casino out there now.”

“I feel like my luck is decent, but it ain’t that good. Christ with the odds of any bets working, we’d be better off buying a bunch of lottery tickets.”

“Damn son, what’s with the negativity? I mean Clancy here I am coming up with all of these ideas to get us out of this shit, which ain’t easy. And all you’ve got is negativity with everything. Stop it now man. We need some positive waves up in here or we are screwed. Don’t be so negative and say no to everything. Besides what the hell kind of ideas do you have that are so great to be shooting down every damn one I come up with?”

“You know I know you’re right man, but I don’t know,” Clancy said looking at his empty cup.

“Well we best get thinking,” Chuck said finishing his cup.

“I need another coffee,” Clancy said and nodded to the waitress for a refill.

“Me too.”

“Black, right?” the waitress said to Chuck.

“You know it.”