35
Strategy
I opened the car door and offered a hand to my wife, who seemed like she was about to receive a Latin Grammy.
She was wearing a fuchsia satin dress, with a sweetheart neckline and a deep slit in the floor-length skirt.
She slicked back her hair and wore it in a lovely bun.
I put on a sober black suit with a white shirt. She lifted her darkened lashes and smiled with the power that only a woman like her could wield.
”You look beautiful,” I murmured hoarsely into her ear.
Seeing the state of the Bugatti made me appreciate another angle of my wife, that of someone who doesn”t back down, who fights tooth and nail to cling to life. Every nuance I discovered made me appreciate her even more.
”And you look like you”re about to attend a funeral. Is today the day you”ll kill me?” The game we had started, à la Mr. and Mrs. Smith, was incredibly stimulating. The only difference was that neither of us were hitmen, and I didn”t want her to die, unless it was from an orgasm in my arms.
”We are but dust, and I will sprinkle you with dust until you drown in your own fluids.”
”Keep dreaming, amore.”
She brought her mouth close to mine and kissed me on the corner of my lips, teasingly.
The afternoon passed peacefully, and by peaceful, I mean no one had shot at us.
After spending some more time in the water, we met up with Andrey and Aleksa at a well-known restaurant in Puerto Banús with a children”s area. Adri was thoroughly entertained while we discussed the strategy to take with the port director and the bastard who shot at my car.
Finally, they had the complete report from Arasagasti, where he was described as an exemplary man, Catholic, right-wing, and not easily influenced. In addition to a bunch of extra pages detailing his life and miracles, which Nikita read meticulously.
Our guys worked well as a team, even though they fought like cats and dogs. You could tell just by looking at them that they were pissed off; neither of them liked it when someone peed on their tree.
I bombarded them with questions. I wanted to know every detail, no matter how trivial, of what Segarra had told them. Apparently, our dear cop had a hunch that someone else wanted to pin another murder on my wife. We hoped that the security cameras, the autopsy, the letter, and the copy of Gálvez”s SIM card, which Aleksa requested, would reveal more.
”Did the security guard see anything?” I asked thoughtfully. Aleksa shook his head.
”We think that if someone sneaked into Gálvez”s office, it could have been one of the port”s deliverymen, or someone who entered disguised in a truck; there”s too much coming and going to know for sure.” That was true; it could have been anyone.
”Send a couple of men; I want them there every day, asking questions without being a nuisance and finding out anything that might help us.”
”Yes, boss.”
”And Arasagasti?” My wife was still immersed in the document. ”You don”t seriously see him as someone we can bribe? We could offer him a hefty sum to show him that we mean business. No matter how devout he is, no one can resist a briefcase full of cash.”
”I tried, boss,” my man interrupted.
”Did you talk to him?”
”Yes, to negotiate.” That meant Aleksa tried to offer him one of our ”collaborations.”
”And?” He shook his head.
”Impossible. As soon as I told him I had a very lucrative deal in hand to welcome him to the port, involving figures in the five or even six digits, he looked the other way, didn”t want to hear any more. He became defensive and suggested I leave if I didn”t want to use that figure to pay my bail.” I let out a whistle.
”Okay, he”s a man of honor, and money doesn”t tempt him.”
”His parents are devout Catholics,” Andrey commented. As if that would save him from the flames!
”My family is also Catholic, and look what we do. The Lord”s ways are inscrutable. Besides, the children of the ultra-Catholics always have secrets; they”re usually the worst, the ones Lucifer tempts...”
”Maybe his sin is of the flesh,” my wife murmured, finally raising her face from the documents. She tapped one of the pages. ”Here it says the couple spent three months without seeing each other, not too long ago. She was supposedly in Galicia, and he was in the Basque Country.”
”Maybe she was doing the Camino de Santiago,” I suggested.
”No way. For newlyweds, the first few months are crucial; all they do is screw like rabbits whenever they can,” she emphasized the word screw and looked at me significantly. ”This smells like a crisis to me, and if you ask me... like cheating,” she commented, rearranging the papers. ”Maybe
Arasagasti is a restless candle.”
”Or his wife is off doing the barnacle route. What do we know about her?” If I hadn”t been locked in my wife”s eyes, I would have seen the visual exchange between Aleksa and Andrey. They were both assessing whether what we were saying was more about us or about the Basque couple.
”She has a degree in Fine Arts, belonged to a Catholic sisterhood that worshipped remaining a virgin until marriage. She met the blessed Arasagasti and his loaded family a year ago. They both saw the light.”
”What”s your proposal?”
”Blackmail,” Nikita said firmly.
”You want us to blackmail the new director?”
”No, I want to blackmail the new director,” she clarified to make it clear that she was leaving me out of it.
”With what?”
”Well, a compromising photo could be good to destabilize him.” I narrowed my eyes.
”You want us to hire a prostitute?”
”No, I”m going to be the whore,” she said frivolously. ”For this kind of job, when time is against me, I prefer not to leave it in anyone else”s hands.” My mood turned dark.
”You want to sleep with him?” She moved her hand like a snake over mine.
”Amore, you should already know that I set the limits in my operations.” My zipper twitched, as fucked up as I was. ”I”ll only do it if it”s extremely necessary; I prefer to do it for pleasure than for work. So, I”ll settle for a good performance. Theater, my thing with him is going to be pure theater.” My knuckles turned white. Naturally, the idea excited me minus a hundred, but I understood that it was going to be a necessary performance so that the next day the Colombian cargo could enter the port.
”We have a dinner tonight, and we can”t miss it. You don”t have time to maneuver.”
”I already have everything planned,” my wife leaned back, and I felt her bare foot invading my pants. ”We”ll invite the Arasagastis to your family”s dinner tonight.” Her fingers rubbed up and down, forcing me to respond. ”The director”s wife seems to love international relations and partying, according to this dossier and her social media photos. She”s an artist; it”s in her interest to make contacts.” The sole moved up and down, to distract me, by my engorged member. She did it without disguise, so Aleksa, who was next to me, knew what was going on and looked the other way. ”Think about it, Romeo, she just arrived in Marbella, she”ll be eager to meet interesting people...”
”And how do you plan to invite them?” She smiled, took out her phone, and whispered a ”watch and learn.” The foot left my cock immediately, and she stood up.
If I didn”t see it, I wouldn”t believe it. Nikita asked Andrey to read her a number from the dossier, and, with total audacity, she started talking to the manager”s wife. Sweet, enigmatic, sexy, and convincing, that”s how I could summarize her performance. She even allowed herself the luxury of laughing several times with a glorious cascade of subtle chuckles. Five minutes later, she hung up and looked at me triumphantly.
”She and her husband will be in the suite at nine. Tell your father to add two more covers; it”s on me.”
”No need, there won”t be a problem,” I whispered, amazed.
She licked her lips like a happy cat and returned to her chair so we could continue discussing the day”s second issue: the surveillance strategy around the urbanization and tracking the BMW.