Eli shoves away from his desk, chest heaving, rage filling his eyes as he looks at the three of us. “I had the misfortune to cross paths with her in Vegas. She stays at the MGM Grand more often than not when she’s in country. I was hired to follow a guy by one of the MCs in Los Angeles. The guy met with Maria Rosa and ended up losing the skin off his back. Safe to say I didn’t hang around to find out why.”
Jamie looks to me, as though wanting some sort of confirmation that maybe Eli’s telling the truth. Eli’s never had occasion to lie to me before. I doubt he would lie to Jamie and Cade, especially after being on the receiving end of Cade’s temper. The risk of the deception backfiring would be deterrent enough. I give Jamie the nod—yeah, it’s probably true—and then both he and Cade pull back, attack dogs called off.
They exit the office without even sparing a glance for the stunned guy they’re leaving behind. Eli shoots me a disgusted look. “Don’t expect to be doing business with me again, Michael. I don’t want to see you around here again. I don’t care who sends you.”
I slowly pace up to his desk, taking my leather gloves from my pocket and sliding my hands inside them slowly, first my left and then my right. “I can’t think of how, but you seem to be a little confused about who’s higher on the food chain here, Eli. Let me refresh your memory.” I slam my fist into his face, sending him reeling back into his chair. The thing seesaws, groaning under his weight. “You’re small fry, Eli,” I tell him. “And I am a motherfucking Great White. I’ll come back as and when I please, and you’d better be smiling when I do. Otherwise I might just decide to stay a while. Better for you if I’m in and out of here as quickly as possible in future.”
Eli clasps both hands over his busted nose, making a pained growling sound, bleeding profusely down his shirt. “Jesus, man, okay! I’m sorry! Please, just leave.”
“It would be my pleasure.”
FOUR
Jamie and Cade don’t stick around. They’re already making plans to head off to Colombia by the time they’re starting their engines up again. Jamie shakes my hand, worry creeping across his face. We speak in hushed tones while Cade makes a phone call to let their hacker friend know what’s going on.
“You think you’re gonna find her down there?” I ask.
“I have no idea. I hope so. Neither of us are going to start living until we lay eyes on her again.” He fixes me in an unwavering gaze, cold blue eyes locked on mine. “You should be careful working up here, Michael. You know that, right?”
“I’m always careful.”
“Good.” He nods, eyes narrowing slightly. “I don’t know anything about this guy you’re working for. What’s his deal? I’m assuming he’s the kind of trouble you should be avoiding at all costs.”
“Maybe. He’s not someone to be fucked with. He also has morals, though. He thinks before he acts, unlike the guy he works for. I said it before and I’ll say it again: Charlie Holsan’s not going to be any help to you. I can’t tell Zeth I went there today or he’ll knock my front teeth out.”
Jamie looks unimpressed. “You have any problems with this Zeth guy, you give me a call, okay?”
“What he doesn’t know can’t hurt him, right?”
Cade hangs up his phone and slides it back into his pocket, joining us. “It’s done. Tickets are organized. We leave tomorrow morning. Gotta get our asses down to LAX for sun up, though.”
“We’d better get moving, then,” Jamie says. He throws his arms around me and pulls me into a hug that nearly squeezes the air out of my lungs entirely.
“Be careful. Take care of yourself,” I tell him. “I’m not entirely sure you know what you’re getting yourself into. You have to be clean certifiable or a rebellious son of a bitch to get mixed up with these guys, and I’m hoping you’re just feeling like a rebel right now.”
Jamie grins, laughing softly under his breath. “If that’s who I have to become then so be it. Though, I’d rather be a rebel than a crazy bastard any day of the week.”
******
The smell of gasoline has so many associated memories for me. I spent a summer pumping gas in Alabama when I was a teenager. That was the summer I lost my virginity to Janice White in the back of her father’s Ford pick up. And then, eight years later, I got a job working as a driver for a syndicate just south of Boston and I was doused head to toe in lighter fluid during a bank robbery gone bad. I shot my attacker straight through the heart and that, as they say, was that, but I had chemical blisters all over my arms for weeks.
As a result, in my head, whenever I smell gasoline these days I’m either getting my dick sucked or I’m about to go up in flames.