The Parking Lot Attendant Who Controlled the Stock Market

chapter 5

Chapter Five: The Borrowed Suit

I did not sleep again.

Not because I was scared this time. Because my cousin's floor was hard and my mind was loud and every time I closed my eyes I saw Victor Kensington's smile. That smile said I own you now. That smile said you are a toy and I will play with you until I get bored.

I did not like that smile.

At six in the morning I got up and took a shower. Cold water. The only kind my cousin had. I scrubbed my face until the dried blood from Derek's slap was gone. Then I looked at myself in the mirror.

Same face. Same tired eyes. But something was different. I could not name it. Maybe it was the way I stood. Straighter. Like my spine remembered that I was not nothing anymore.

I had no nice clothes. Everything I owned had a stain or a hole or both. You cannot walk into Victor Kensington's office looking like a homeless man. He would eat you alive before you sat down.

So I did the only thing I could think of.

I called Derek.

He answered on the first ring. "Felix. You still have my money."

"I have one point two million dollars," I said. "Two hundred thirty of it is yours after I pay your debt. The rest is mine. But I need a favor first."

"What favor?"

"I need a suit. And shoes. And a watch. Something that says I belong in a room with Victor Kensington."

Silence. Then Derek laughed. Not mean this time. Just tired. "You want me to dress you up so you can go work for the man who almost killed me?"

"Yes."

"That is crazy."

"You called me crazy yesterday too. And yesterday I made you a millionaire."

More silence. Then: "Be at my apartment in one hour. Do not bring the coin. Just bring yourself."

I did not tell him that the coin never left my pocket.

Derek's apartment was in a building I used to deliver food to back when I had a bicycle and a dream. The doorman looked at my dirty jeans and almost did not let me in. But I said Derek's name and the doorman's face changed. Funny how a name can open doors.

Derek opened his apartment door wearing a robe and a confused face. His place was huge. White floors. Big windows. A view of the city that made my chest hurt.

"You look terrible," he said.

"You look scared," I said.

He was scared. I could see it in his hands. Shaking. Not from cold. From something else. Something inside.

"You should be scared too," he said, walking me to his closet. "Victor Kensington does not hire people. He collects them. And when he is done collecting, he throws them away."

"Then I will make sure he never gets done with me."

Derek pulled out a suit. Dark blue. Expensive fabric. It felt soft like butter when I touched it.

"This was my father's," he said. "He wore it to his wedding and to my mother's funeral. Do not ruin it."

I took off my dirty clothes and put on the suit. It fit almost perfect. Like it was made for me. Derek handed me shoes. Black leather. So shiny I could see my face in them. Then a watch. Silver. Heavy on my wrist.

I looked at myself in Derek's mirror.

The man staring back was not Felix the parking attendant. That man was gone. This man looked like he owned things. Like he had secrets. Like he had never been slapped in his life.

"What time is your meeting?" Derek asked.

"Ten o clock."

"It is nine fifteen. You should go."

I nodded. But I did not move. I was looking at the man in the mirror. Trying to remember his face. Trying to become him.

"Felix," Derek said. His voice was soft now. Almost kind. "Be careful. Victor Kensington has been doing this since before you were born. He has seen a hundred hungry young men with something to prove. Most of them are dead or in jail or working for him for free."

"I am not most hungry young men."

"No," Derek said. "You are not. That is what scares me."

I left his apartment and walked to the street. I had money now. A million dollars. I could have called a taxi. I could have rented a car. But I wanted to feel the city on my skin one more time before everything changed.

The address on the black card was in the middle of the city. A building so tall it had its own weather at the top. I walked through the doors and the security guard almost stopped me. Then he saw the suit and the watch and his hand dropped.

Funny how clothes change people's eyes.

The elevator went up fast. My ears popped. The doors opened on the fortieth floor and I stepped into a hallway that smelled like money and old wood.

The accountant was waiting for me. No briefcase today. Just a thin smile.

"Right on time," he said. "Victor does not like early and he does not like late. You are exactly on time. That is a good first step."

He opened a door and led me inside.

The office was bigger than my cousin's whole apartment. Windows on three sides. A desk the size of a small car. And behind the desk, Victor Kensington sat in a chair that looked like a throne.

He was not alone.

Three other men sat in chairs against the wall. Big men. Hard faces. The kind of men who break things for a living. One of them had a scar from his ear to his mouth. He looked at me like I was lunch.

Victor stood up and walked around his desk. He looked at my suit. My shoes. My watch. He nodded.

"Better," he said. "Much better. You look like someone I would not mind being seen with."

"I look like someone who wants to work," I said.

Victor smiled. That same small dangerous smile. "Good. Because the job I have for you is not easy. It is not clean. And if you fail, I will not just take your money. I will take something more important."

"What?"

Victor walked to the window and looked down at the city. All those tiny cars. All those tiny people.

"I will take your future," he said. "You will go back to parking cars. But not in a garage. In a prison. Because the job I am giving you is illegal. And if you fail, I will make sure the police know everything."

My heart stopped for one second. Then it started again.

"What is the job?"

Victor turned around. His eyes were cold now. No smile. No warmth. Just business.

"There is a man. His name is Marcus Webb. You have heard of him."

I had. Everyone had. Marcus Webb was the finance influencer. The one with millions of followers on every app. The one who told young people how to get rich fast. The one who wore fancy clothes and smiled at cameras and sold dreams to broke college kids.

"He has something that belongs to me," Victor said. "A recording. A conversation we had about Kensington Holdings. If that recording gets out, I go to jail. And I do not like jail."

"What do you want me to do?"

Victor walked back to his desk and opened a drawer. He pulled out a phone. Not a new one. An old one. Cracked screen.

"I want you to go to Marcus Webb's party tonight. It is a big event. Rich people. Influencers. Cameras everywhere. I want you to get close to him. I want you to find that recording. And I want you to delete it."

"And if he will not give it to me?"

Victor smiled again. But this time it did not reach his eyes.

"Then you take it. By any means necessary."

I looked at the three big men against the wall. The one with the scar cracked his knuckles.

I looked at the coin in my pocket.

I looked at Victor Kensington's cold dead eyes.

"Give me the address," I said. "I will be there."

Victor handed me the cracked phone. "This is the only copy of the recording. Marcus does not know I have his phone. Use it to find where he hides things. And Felix?"

"Yes?"

"Do not disappoint me."

I put the phone in my pocket next to the coin and walked out of the office without looking back.

The elevator went down. My ears popped again. When I got to the street, I leaned against a wall and breathed.

I had a million dollars. A borrowed suit. A coin that could see the future. And a job that could put me in prison for the rest of my life.

Tonight I was going to a party with the richest people in the city.

And I was going to steal from one of them.

I flipped the coin.

Three seconds.

I saw myself at the party. A woman in a red dress talking to me. Laughing. Touching my arm. She was beautiful and she was lying.

Then I saw Marcus Webb. Young. Pretty. Fake smile. He was looking at me like he knew my secret.

The vision ended.

I put the coin away and walked toward the subway. A million dollars and I still took the train. Some habits do not die fast.

Tonight everything would change.

For better or worse, I did not know.

But I was done parking cars forever.