by Les Goodrich
“Who are you?” Dolph asked her skipping Colin and cutting to the source as an instinctive way to flush out honesty with an unexpected question.
“Maria,” she whispered as if it were sacred and as the name slid across the wind Dolph heard in it the slightest Spanish accent. She was magical and Dolph tried to recall where he had seen her before and Colin said, “Maria,” in a decidedly American way. Dolph looked at Colin with a tilted head and wearing his uneasiness more openly now that he thought he recognized the girl but could not remember from where. Colin just smiled and waited to see if his smart friend could remember but they both knew he would crack any second then the girl giggled and Dolph glanced back at her. In that instant he knew where he had seen her and he was relieved not only to know who she was but to finally understand what had taken Colin so long to get there. A kidnapping no doubt or some version of it and Dolph said to both of them, “You are the toll booth attendant.”
“Si,” Maria said.
Dolph was, for a second, taken back to that day and he was flooded with the way he felt then. He wanted to hold that sensation. It filled him in the way that the scent of citrus blossoms fill your car, uninvited but welcomed as you drive alongside a blooming grove. But like the fragrant blooms the feeling vanished and left on his face a distant somber stare. He thought of the perceptions he had of himself and the world and how very drastically those ideas had been altered. Colin recognized his friend’s look and knew the thoughts behind it.
“We got away man,” Colin said.
“I thought we did,” Dolph said sharply breaking his gaze and looking at Colin. “Didn’t you?”
Colin drew a breath to speak but hesitated on the brink of that word. He saw in Dolph’s face a sense of urgency that was impairing his usual composure. He knew in that moment that his friend was going to tell him things he did not want to hear. Colin let go his breath and used it to say, “Yeah,” honestly and Dolph looked away from him at the ground.
Dolph looked back up to the girl and asked her to excuse them for a second and he walked away from the bar and Colin followed. The girl sat on one of the stools and Dolph said, ”Some breakfast for her please.” But the girl shook her head and asked for a glass of pineapple juice instead.
Dolph and Colin walked down the beach of crushed pink coral. Dolph arranged the squall of thoughts and situations in his head and Colin tried to comprehend the reality of a beach made of pink sand. Dolph spoke.
Listen brother. I didn’t want to say anything in front of that girl. Obviously because I wouldn’t anyway but also because I don’t know who the fuck she really is. She could work for Sonzo for all we know.
“That’s impossible.”
“We thought a lot of things were impossible didn’t we? I’m done taking chances.”
“So what if she did. We do. Or have. Or whatever. What’s the issue?”
“I hope you didn’t think this was gonna be a paid vacation because it isn’t. I just got a letter from Sonzo.”
“And?”
“And he pulled some strings and called the cops off of us for the Lauderdale thing with the boats.”
“Sweet.”
“Not quite. He also got us out or disconnected from that whole counterfeit fiasco.”
“Well more good news.”
“Shut the fuck up and let me finish. He has a security video of me blowing Carl away. Or something.”
“Self defense,” Colin said and Dolph just stared at him and Colin knew that was his last chance and he just said “I’ll Shut the fuck up now.”
Maybe self-defense until I hauled ass and Sonzo cleaned it up for me and God knows exactly how. I mean really. A known mob thug comes to kill me so I get the best of him but then there’s four serious boats pirated. A counterfeit deal gone bad. Plus a dead old school Miami gangster I’d be willing to bet because we know Baggy couldn’t wait to kill Carl so I’m sure that’s who Sonzo sent and if he had succeeded Carl would have been history. Then two rich kids disappear and they know we did the boats and the whole thing gets really nasty when a charter boat captain mixed up in it all turns up dead.
“Murphy?”
“Oh yeah that’s the icing isn’t it. That rickety sonovabitch keeled over in the hospital from the beating you gave him.”
“No way.”
Well maybe Sonzo had a pillow held over his face by some nurse but what difference does it make because the guy is stone dead. Can you imagine the wrath of shit Sonzo could bring down on us with a few phone calls. He could fuck us forever. By the time we got out of jail your shorts would be out of style. Oh, too late.
“We could fuck him too. We have options. Go to the cops and tell them everything.”
Colin are you seriously saying that to me right now? This is not the fucking movies. We got nothing to tell them they don’t know already. Everyone knows the guy’s a crook but they can’t touch his ass because he’s all power. Fucking connected. The only time he sees a judge is over drinks at the marina bar so for the last time shut up and listen. You haven’t heard the best part yet. He wants us to fly to Colombia, tomorrow, and kill some freaking kingpin. Doesn’t that sound like a picnic? You won’t be bringing Daisy Fuentes over there with you on that trip I’ll bet. How do you see our options now?
“Grim,” Colin whispered and Dolph said, “Fuckin’ A.”
Colin stood for a long time letting it all soak in and organizing his thoughts.
“Well,” he finally said, “if we don’t do it, we’re dead.”
“That’s likely.”
“If we do it, he owns us forever.”
“He already owns us.”
Colin turned and looked at the ocean. “Well there’s your answer,” he said. He watched two charter boats make their way off the bank headed for deep water. “Now if you don’t have any more good news for me I’d like to get back to Daisy and enjoy my one afternoon vacation.”
“That was funny wasn’t it?”
“Yes it was.”
The two of them walked back toward the bar and Dolph knew in his heart what they would do. He almost began to discuss it but there was no need. Then he almost asked Colin what they would do about the pilot after they paid him to fly them back to Miami instead of to Colombia but he knew there was no need to discuss that either, if it even worked. As they made the bar shade the girl flew from her stool to hug Colin as if he had been gone for days.
“Actually there is one more thing,” Dolph uttered looking through the girl’s shiny hair to Colin’s face, “and this one is really gonna devastate you.”
“What?” Colin asked. “What is it?”
“You left your Rolex in the hotel safe in Key West.”
The girl did not understand so she smiled and walked away from them. She dredged her toes in the sand and spun carelessly around and her white dress spun up with her. The sun had climbed up behind a large cloud that filtered it into red again and the morning reveled and clung to that last moment of colored sunrise. Dolph and Colin both leaned back on the bar and watched the girl. In her white dress she waded slowly up to her waist out into the red water.
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Continue the adventure and see what happens to Dolph and Colin next in Exigent: The Abscond Series ~ Book 2 of 2
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