Page 95 of Alonzo

But I can’t. I turn my head to see the clock on the nightstand. It’s nine AM. Already midday as far as fishermen go. But I don’t have a client today—it’s the last meeting before tomorrow night’s job and that means we have a lot of loose ends to tie up.

I lean into Tara’s neck and kiss her gently. She’s warm and breathing softly. But she moans a little. “Hmmm?”

“I gotta go to work. I’ll see ya this afternoon, OK, Tare?”

“Mmm.”

I take that as a yes and gently remove my arms from around her body. She moans again. “Where are you going?”

“Go back to sleep, Tara.”

“Mkay.” She rolls over and I just smile at her sexy back end. I have an almost uncontrollable urge to smack it. But that would really wake her up and I’d rather she sleep.

I shower, dress, and twenty minutes later I step out onto my porch just as Tony comes out of his house. I cross the street and join him on his side and we walk down to the end of the cul-de-sac and turn left towards the ocean before we speak.

“What time is he getting here?”

“Should be here now.”

“And did we decide where we’re gonna store the cargo?”

“The hostel, I guess. We can’t bring them here. Not with Tara and Belinda around.”

“Yeah. All we need is them getting suspicious. Do you think Tara suspects anything?”

“No. I highly doubt it. But Johnny Boston might be a problem. He says he’s got business tomorrow night too.”

“Believe me, I’ve heard all about it. I discussed it with Dad.”

“What’d he say?”

“Just… too bad, right? It’s our fucking dock. We pay those assholes down there a lot of fucking money to keep people away. And that includes Johnny.”

“Tara was spying on Jesse yesterday. Trying to figure out their biz. But… we got distracted last night and I never actually got her report.”

Tony makes a grunt of disapproval. “What do you think they’re up to?”

“Honestly, I have no clue. Drugs? Isn’t that what everyone’s into?”

“Could be anything with them. I looked into them too. And there’s nothing but dead ends. Jesse has the most info, but it’s all tabloid shit. Nothing real. Johnny has never even had a fucking job. Ever. Joey’s check comes back with huge gaps in the timeline. He hasn’t been in America much the past ten years.”

“Emma’s coming back from Europe this weekend so Jesse will go home on Sunday. I’m sure Belinda—”

“Jesus Christ, will you stop calling her that?” Tony is fixated on this. I don’t understand why. “Her fucking name is Rosalie.”

“Anyway. She and her little tattoo friend can’t stay here. We’ll make that clear on Sunday.”

“You don’t think she’ll go back to Colorado, do you?”

“Why would you care?” Obviously he’s not over his one-time girl yet. Or maybe he was, but now isn’t? Now that he’s seen her with another man.

“I don’t. I’m just wondering. It’s weird that Vann figured out that the witness protection program up there is bogus. Don’t you think?”

I shrug. “I dunno, Tony. I guess if you look close enough you always find something.”

“I don’t like it. I looked his family up—bunch of tattoo artist bikers. Why did we pick that town, anyway? It’s got a lot of weird shit going on behind the scenes.”

I shoot him a look. “It wasn’t us, remember? It was Dad’s dirty FBI friend. Barlow. Max Barlow. He’s the one who set it up.”