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THE RAID

experimented with renting cars using his plastic in Las Vegas, then sending them to Mexico to be fitted with clean VINs.

Chris was thrown in the county jail. His disappearance worried Max, but Chris bailed out quickly and confessed his blunder to his partner. Fortunately for him the police investigation went no further. Chris was sentenced a month later to three years of probation and ordered not to return to the W. He boasted afterward that he'd been a beneficiary of San Francisco's liberal justice system.

It was the kind of bullshit local bust that happened to Chris's girls all the time; that was why Chris kept a bail bondsman on retainer and even let him crash at his Villa Siena factory. But Max was furious. It was unforgivably sloppy for someone at Chris's level to be arrested carding a hotel room.

Max decided he could no longer rely exclusively on his partner. He needed a Plan B.