Tarnished Steel by Carmen Faye Read Free Book Online Page A

unless you would enjoy watching me masturbate like a monkey for several hours at a time, I’ll take the coke.”
     
    He came back down the hallway. “Wow, that’s a tough one. Do you make chimp sounds, and the whole bit? That could be real entertainment.” He smiled.
     
    She tossed one of the loose couch pillows at him. “No, and it’s not pretty.”
     
    “Ah, well, then we’ll go with coke and get out of here. We should probably get some things to eat and drink in Lakeside. Fruit and stuff? At the farmers’ market?”
     
    “Sounds good.”
     
    At Lakeside, they shopped at the farmers’ market, picking out things to munch on in their beach cottage. Hank seemed distracted, and she tried to find what was annoying him, but she didn’t spot anything unusual around.
     
    “You alright?” she asked. “The low growling noise your eyebrows are making is a little distracting.”
     
    He gave her a quirky smile. “Interesting description.”
     
    “I make a living reading interesting descriptions. Part of the package, I’m afraid.”
     
    He stopped and searched her eyes, and then said, “This isn’t exactly planned, this thing between you and me, and if it was planned, I would crucify the planner, because it’s horrible planning.”
     
    “Ok, what’s up?” she asked.
     
    “There are things going on right now that you can’t know about. I can’t even curb your curiosity about them. I can’t even tell you why. So, if I say I can’t explain, I really, honestly, can’t explain. But someday, in like the next six weeks or so, I’ll tell you everything, if we make it that far. Otherwise, maybe we should just stop now and try to hook back up in six weeks, when I don’t have all of this crap going on.”
     
    “I don’t like option B, so I’m going with option A,” she said.
     
    “Alright then. So with all that in mind, I need to make a phone call. It would be better if you found some good grapes for us, and maybe a couple of bottles of wine,” he suggested.
     
    “In other words, don’t listen in. Gotcha. Come find me when we can get out of here and back on the road. Will this be a regular event this weekend?”
     
    “No, and that’s why I need to make the phone call now — so it won’t be,” he told her.
     
    Accepting that, she left him heading for the grape display, wondering who was following them.
     

 
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Hank pulled out his cellphone and walked into a patch of shade. He dialed the number and waited for Orlin to pick up.
     
    “Bueno?”
     
    “Hi Orlin, Hank here. I was going to just let this happen, but my girlfriend is a straight, and Ernando sucks enough at following me around that she’s going to pick up on him and start asking me to call the police. I’m sure he’s on his own, right? Because if you still need to keep this close of an eye on me, then maybe we should just call it quits and move on.”
     
    Orlin was the head of a local cartel. It was small in comparison with the great ones in Mexico, but it was growing in strength and power every year. Orlin was quiet for a long time, and then said, “He is there? Ernando? You are sure.”
     
    “Can’t miss that ’67 Chevy truck shell with the racing chaise and track tires. The paint job alone is a dead giveaway. Silver with flames.”
     
    “He’s in his own truck doing this?”
     
    “Yes, Orlin, he’s in his own truck and she’s going to spot him. We agreed that time off was a good thing with the calendar we have coming up, right?”
     
    “Si, yes, in fact I am with my family now. I will take care of this. I don’t know why he does such things. But I will take care of it right now.”
     
    “Hated to call you about it,” Hank told him.
     
    “No, no, it was the right thing to do. Have a good weekend and I will see you Thursday, yes?”
     
    “Yes, Thursday morning, ready for work.”
     
    ***
     
    Ernando Delvalle felt that his luck thus far was perfect. He figured that Lakeside could