“Don’t sweat it, Ronnie. We got everything we came for. We didn’t get caught and we didn’t have to kill anybody. Besides, it’s not your fault; it’s mine. I should have known that the store manager would have a gun somewhere. I should have anticipated that contingency and planned for it.”

“Come on, Travis, you’re good, but there is no way you could have know that he had a gun and would be stupid enough to go for it.”

“Maybe, but I should have. It was logical for him to have one. Maybe we’re running on too tight a timeline. I don’t know. It would have only taken what, another thirty seconds to check and make sure he wasn’t armed?”

“Now you’re second-guessing yourself. You had the job planned down to the second, Travis. Another thirty seconds could have meant the difference between us standing here kickin’ it with that briefcase full of jewels in your hand or some cop telling you to relax your hand so he can get a good fingerprint.”

“I know, but still-”

“But still my ass, Travis. You said it yourself; timelines are tight for a reason. If we don’t have tight timelines, we get relaxed. Get sloppy, get careless and get caught.”

“Did I say that?”

“Yes, you did. You said it when I complained about the timelines being too tight. Now I can really see why they’re like that. You had the whole thing planned out to the very last detail. When they’d get there, how many cameras. You knew what kind of security and what devices we’d run up on and how to disable them. You knew what to take and how long it would take to get it all,” Ronnie said as Jackie pulled up in the car. “It wasn’t your planning. It was my execution that got us fucked up today.”

Travis was listening but he wasn’t hearing what Ronnie was trying to say. As far as he was concerned, it was his fault. He should have known that the manager would have a gun somewhere in the store. It was his job to know that. That mistake could have gotten them killed or caught. He knew the timelines were too tight. He planned it that way. Tight timelines equal tight execution.