Fracture(41)
I shrug. “Not much, man. Just going out to pick up a friend. You said I could bring someone to this event, right?” It’s not for another two days, but I have to risk it. It’s the first excuse that comes to mind.
“Sure, sure.” Julio nods. He scratches at his chin, eying me up and down. “Before you go, come chat by the pool a while, huh?” This isn’t the kind of request a man says no to. The fact that he’s even disguised it as a request gives me a glimmer of suspicion that he might not know as much as I think he does. Not yet, anyway. I nod, narrowing my eyes at him. Julio gestures in front of himself, signaling that I should go first. After three days casually wandering the halls, hoping to randomly bump into Alexis, I’ve gotten a pretty good lay of the land within the compound’s villa. I head straight for the pool. Outside, a fruit platter has already been set out along with fresh juice and beer. Julio sits down on his sun lounger, the guard taking up position standing behind him. I chuckle at the ridiculous punk, who glares back at me in return.
“Gonna shoot your dick off with that thing,” I advise him, raising my eyebrows at his gun. I reach for a strawberry, which I chew slowly, smiling a dark smile at him.
Julio makes a tsking sound at the back of his throat. “Come now, Zeth. Be nice to my friends. I’m always nice to yours, true?”
I eat another piece of fruit, rocking my head from side to side—a non-committal gesture, even though I say, “True.”
“I just wanted to ask you something, my friend.” Julio makes a waving gesture toward the guard, who produces a folded over thin manila envelope from the back of his waist band this time. Julio accepts it and pulls out a piece of paper, which he places face down on the table between us. “I was wondering if you could explain a little further about your business here in L.A.? You said you were catching up with some friends on your way to visit family, no?”
“That’s right.” I reply instantly, not blinking at his line of questioning or at the piece of paper he’s pulled from the envelope.
“I see. What kind of friends you got here in Los Angeles, Zeth?”
“All kinds.” Another piece of fruit. I gesture toward the ice bucket filled with beers and raise my eyebrows again. Julio nods, giving his consent. I twist the cap off one and take a long swig. Julio follows suit, though taking only a small sip instead. “Visited an old high school buddy yesterday. Grabbed some lunch,” I tell him. I was careful to make sure I wasn’t being followed, but fuck. Sometimes people are sneaky motherfuckers. Julio could have had me tailed when I went to meet Rick. Better to admit to seeing him before confronted with photographic evidence, if that’s what he’s got on that paper.
“Uh-huh.” Julio rests a hand on his grotesque bulge of a belly, balancing the beer alongside it, too. “This friend of yours. He has a name?”
I give him a confused look. “Yeah, his name’s Rick. Why?”
“Because we found a guy taking pictures of the girls yesterday from outside the compound. He refuses to give us his name or why he’s here. We thought perhaps he might be a friend of yours?”
Fuck. A guy taking pictures of the girls from outside the compound? That sure as hell is someone I know, but it ain’t Rick. It’s Michael. I shake my head, smiling ruefully. “Sorry, man. No idea. Probably just some perve trying get his dick wet, surely?”
With a scowl the guard behind Julio makes a disbelieving grunt in the back of his throat. “You seriously listening to this, boss? The guy’s full of shit.”
“Shut your fucking mouth, Andreas!” Julio snaps. His drooping jowls wobble at his sudden spike of rage. Face almost purple, Julio casts a look over me that would make lesser men falter. Not me, though. I’ve dealt with much worse and come out the other side smelling of fucking daisies. The other guy usually comes off reeking of sweat and his piss-stained pants. Julio knows this about me.
“I’m not accusing you of anything, Zeth,” he reassures me. “I just want to make sure that this man is no friend of yours before I let Andreas and his friends get a little more inventive with their questions. I’d feel bad if I were to hurt someone in your employ?”
If Michael is somewhere in this compound, then he’s keeping his mouth shut tight—one of the reasons I hired him—and I know they have no reason to suspect he’s one of mine. From Julio’s angry reaction to Andreas’s insistence that I’m somehow to be suspected here, I get the impression that he was the one who whispered the suggestion in Julio’s ear in the first place.