Ivory by Tony Park Read Free Book Online Page A

mean.’
    â€˜Yes, I do. Same here. In fact, everything’s the same here, on the home front.’
    â€˜It’s nice to hear your voice. Why the early call?’
    â€˜Bit of the same, really. I don’t want to seem like a stalker, but I wanted to hear your voice too.’
    She laughed. He smiled.
    â€˜Are you alone right now?’ he asked.
    â€˜Yes, I’m in my cabin. The captain told me this was going to be very important, private business.’
    â€˜It is. What are you wearing?’
    â€˜George! You scoundrel.’
    Â 
    Heinrich sprayed vodka from his mouth and held a lighter to it, sending a shower of fire over the gyrating bodies dancing on the sand.Girls squealed. Novak roared above the wail of the rock music: ‘Here’s to us!’
    Glasses, bottles, and cans were raised. Alex felt rum wash down over his wrist. ‘And those like us!’
    â€˜Damn few of ’em.’ Mitch concluded the toast. ‘Man, that job was a fucking buzz,’ he yelled in Alex’s ear.
    Sarah was beside him and as Alex asked Mitch to repeat himself – they were standing next to the speakers – she slipped a hand into the pocket of his shorts and felt for him. Alex tried to concentrate on Mitch’s words, but his head was fuzzy. Rum did that to him.
    â€˜I said it was a fucking buzz. The car carrier. Major league now, huh? No more coastal rust buckets. How about a goddamned cruise ship next time?’
    Alex shook his head. ‘It’s not an everyday thing, Mitch. It takes planning – you know that. I wouldn’t take on a liner in any case. Too much risk of innocent people getting hurt.’
    â€˜Oh man, don’t be such a fag.’
    Alex laughed off the insult. Mitch was drunk – even more so than he – and Sarah’s hand had found just the right spot. ‘Let’s dance some more,’ he said to her.
    â€˜Don’t tell me Mitch is right?’
    He pinched her bum then held her close as they swayed, barefoot in the sand, to the rhythm. Flaming torches bathed them in flickering orange as they danced. Alex caught a glimpse of Danielle in the shadows and felt bad for a moment. Fuck it, he said to himself as Sarah’s mouth found his. He laid a hand on her arse and she ground against him, harder, and hooked a smooth, shapely leg around him.
    It was after two in the morning, but the music still thundered down the beach and the pirates and their women kept dancing and drinking.
    Lisa, Novak’s wife, had even flown to Vilanculos from Johannesburg and they’d picked her up by boat from the mainland that afternoon. His two children didn’t know what their father really did for a living – as far as they knew he was a diving instructor, though in truth the ex-soldier’s business had gone belly-up months before.
    Heinrich’s Mozambican girlfriend dispensed tequila slammers from a tray while her children and half-a-dozen others from the village chased each other between the dancers and drinkers. Henri, the former Foreign Legionnaire, danced with his half-Mozambican half-Portuguese boyfriend.
    â€˜Take me to bed,’ Sarah said in his ear.
    â€˜Why, are you tired?’
    â€˜No.’
    Danielle pushed her way between Kevin, who was dancing with one of the three coffee-coloured prostitutes Mitch had brought over from the mainland that afternoon, and Mark and Lisa Novak. ‘If you’re not too busy, I need to talk to you.’
    Alex looked at Sarah, who shrugged and said, ‘No worries. I need to find a palm tree. He’s all yours, Danni – for now at least.’
    Danielle frowned and led Alex by the arm to the beach bar. While the hotel’s bar and restaurant were being renovated – one of the many jobs that had fallen behind schedule – the ramshackle thatch and driftwood structure was the centrepiece of social life on the island. A huge stuffed marlin, a moth-eaten relic from the