Chapter 10
TEN
HUNTER
Rincon was out by his pool, a massive rock-bordered stretch of turquoise water that looked as if it was spilling off the side of the cliff that his house sat on. His usual bevy of half naked, beautiful female guests were draped in tantalizing positions across the chaise lounges and pool floats.
Slade groaned inwardly as he gazed out at the number of naked tits bobbing in the heated pool.
The air temperature was a tad cold for a day by the pool, but the sun was out and Rincon had had a lot of heat lamps installed to make the area around the pool feel like a damn tropical island.
Perpetual summer was what he’d instructed his landscape architect to give him.
Rincon had told me his theory that keeping his yard in everlasting summer meant everlasting bikini season.
Guess that’s why he was making the big bucks.
“When I die, I want my ashes spread out over this pool area,” Slade said.
Normally we both looked forward to a quick visit with Rincon.
It always meant expensive booze, good weed, a line or two of coke and, of course, the likely event of a raunchy fuck with one of his pretty pool partners.
But today, I wasn’t in the mood for any of it.
Yesterday’s drop had not gone smoothly, and Rincon would have to be told that his closest partner had betrayed him.
Several of the girls noticed us walk in. “Hey, Stoney hunks,” Bridget, a spunky blonde with gigantic fake tits, said with a wave of her hand. “Haven’t seen you boys in awhile.”
Rincon leaned forward out of the shade of an umbrella and pushed his sunglasses up on his head.
“Hunter, Slade, got your message that you needed to see me. Come on over and get some lines before Penelope and Chloe snort it by themselves.” He smacked Penelope on the ass as she leaned over the small table.
She shrieked and nearly blew away the white powder but then quickly licked her finger to clean up the mess from the table. She rubbed it on her gums.
Rincon waved them away. As they sashayed past, Choe made a point of rubbing against me. Penelope was a little more forward. She reached down and brushed her hand across Slade’s fly.
“If you’re going to tease me like that, sweetie, you better expect me to follow-up with my own tease,” Slade said.
“Oh, I’m always ready for you.” She pursed her lips and blew a kiss at him before strolling away. He shot me a pleading look, but he knew we had business with Rincon. And it wasn’t pretty business. The last thing I needed was him wandering off with Penelope while I broke the news.
I hated having to be the one to tell him.
We’d been on shaky ground lately. But it had to be done.
I didn’t give a damn about the rich asshole stretched out on the lounge.
It was for our own safety. Even though we were all grown up, I still hadn’t gotten past the idea that I was the big brother and I had to protect Slade and Colt.
I didn’t see Nelson’s big head anywhere around. “Hey, do you think we could go inside?” I asked. I wasn’t about to tell him with all his party buddies hanging within earshot.
“Sounds important,” he said with a smirk, a smirk I would have liked to have wiped off his face. He leaned over and snorted two lines of coke and reluctantly got up from the lounge.
We followed him into his living room. One entire wall was glass windows, giving you an uninterrupted view of the ocean from any place in the room.
Rincon liked to strut around like a rich fucker, as if he’d earned all the money himself.
But I knew his father had been a stock broker who died from an alcohol soaked liver.
He’d left behind a small fortune, and Rincon was really good at spending it.
He sat on his white leather couch and motioned for us to sit.
“We’re not going to be here long,” I said remaining on my feet. Slade propped himself up on one of the stools sitting in front of the wet bar.
“You should stay. The women won’t forgive me if I let the infamous Stone brothers slip out of reach.” He leaned back. “Where’s the third musketeer today?”
“He didn’t come with us.” I grabbed a cigarette out of my pocket and held it up to ask permission to light it.
Because Amy had always been bugging me about it, I’d cut my habit down to three smokes a day, but right now, I needed something to take the edge off.
Hell, with the week I’d been having, I was surprised I wasn’t back up to two packs a day.
“Go ahead.”
I lit it and took a long drag. “Don’t know if you heard but the drop yesterday didn’t go too well.”
He’d been leaning casually back against the seat as if he wasn’t really interested in anything I had to say, but now I had his attention. “What do you mean? The deal was completed. I got the payment.”
“Yeah, it was completed after we fought off the guys who showed up to steal the cargo.”
“Why the hell am I just hearing about this now?”
I shrugged and took another hit. “Where’s your man, Nelson? He’d know.”
“What do you mean? I haven’t seen Nelson since yesterday morning.”
“You mean your contact on the other side didn’t mention it?” Slade asked.
“Not a fucking word.” He pulled his phone out.
“Wait,” I stopped him before his finger pushed the button. “They probably didn’t know. I doubt Ace even told them. It would make him look bad. Besides, we already found out where the problem started.”
Rincon lowered his phone. “You did?”
I glanced back at Slade and then turned back to Rincon. “Your buddy, Nelson, is double-crossing you. The men who showed up told us they got the coordinates from Nelson. He was part of it.”
Rincon stiffened, then an unexpected laugh shot from his mouth. “Impossible. I don’t know who these clowns were or how you extracted this supposed information, but you’re wrong.”
“Figured that’d be your response. Someone who knew the coordinates was in on this. Ace was the only person who knew on the other side.”
His jaw tensed with anger as he got up and walked to his bar. He poured himself a shot and then smacked the glass hard on the granite counter. “I’ll talk to him later. Damn, and my day started out so well, but now it’s turned to shit.”
“Sorry about that. We can see ourselves out. But next time, no one knows the coordinates but you. Otherwise, you’ll need to find yourself another boat.” I motioned for Slade to follow me. He looked longingly out at the pool.
“Next time you come, plan to stay longer,” Rincon said. “The girls will be pissed that you left so soon.”
Slade shot me another pleading look like a kid being dragged out of the pet store where they’re giving out free puppies.
“Yep, next time,” I answered. My disappointed brother plodded behind.
We got out to his car and climbed inside. “Don’t know why we couldn’t have stuck around for awhile.” Slade slammed the car door hard. “A week ago you would have been the first to suggest it. This thing with Street has you walking around with your underwear jammed up your crack.”
“What the hell are you talking about? She’s got nothing to do with this. Just didn’t feel like hanging out there.”
“Yeah, right. Nothing to do with it.” He turned the car around and headed down the steep driveway. “You need to take a good long look in the mirror, bro, and see just how twisted up you get when Street’s not around. Reflect, buddy. Reflect on your reflection.”
I looked over at him and took another hit on my cigarette. “Reflect on my reflection? Thank you, Dr. Phil, for that brilliant fucking suggestion.” I leaned forward and cranked the radio. Led Zeppelin blasted through the speakers. Of course it was the song.
Slade laughed and pointed at the radio. “Hey, it’s the song about the street corner girl. I guess even the damn radio is trying to tell you something.”
I slumped down in the seat. “Just drive.”