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“Oh, don’t mind me, your best friend and swimming partner of a decade who cares about your health and well-being. Why would I say a word about your injured shoulder?”
I hopped up to grab two more beers from the mini-fridge. “Zip it, pal,” I said as I popped the cap for both. “I know what I’m doing.”
Darkness had begun to settle as the faded streaks of the setting sun dipped below the horizon. One of the teams scored and the loud horn sounded on the TV.
Filipe was too chill to ride my ass about anything, so I wasn’t worried about him nagging me to have my shoulder looked at by a professional. Still, I wanted to change the subject because if I didn’t, it would lead to other topics I didn’t want to talk about.
“Dad’s going to propose to a woman tonight.”
I filled him in on the rest, to include where Theresa lived and what she did for a living.
I checked my phone but there were no updates from Dad, though Dante had texted me WTF? earlier alongside an image of a guy with an exploding head. Yeah, no kidding.
Filipe had been in our lives for years and was considered part of the family. So he knew my dad really well.
“Mierda!” Filipe had to put his beer down. “The Stefon Vaulteneau is going to marry a deli owner? That’s wild.”
“Dad isn’t sure if Theresa will say yes.”
Filipe considered that. “Well, this is a lot, my dude,” he said, referring to the Vaulteneau way of life. “I’d probably turn him down, too.”
“Don’t be weird.”
He waved a hand dismissively. “You know what I mean, Matty. It’d be like a regular person marrying a king or whatever. It’d be a huge undertaking for someone not used to West Coast royalty.”
Filipe wasn’t off the mark. Whoever the new Mrs. Vaulteneau might be, she’d become an instant pillar of society, with tons of influence and power. It wasn’t something I’d ever had to think about before because, well, I never thought my dad would get married again.
“Yeah, maybe,” I conceded. “Dad hasn’t texted, so I don’t know the outcome.” Filipe’s phone chimed and he sat up abruptly. I knew that look. “Your Customs inside contact?” I asked.
He nodded. “Just got an alert about two interesting shipments arriving at LAX this weekend.” Some shipments were near-extinct reptiles or black-market antiquities. We just never knew what it might be until we showed up and handed the informant a bag of cash.
“Two shipments this time?” I asked. That was somewhat unusual, at least from the informant. “Ask for more details.”
Filipe typed into his phone and waited for a reply. “Friday night’s arrival is a live one, a reptile of some sort.” Filipe paused as another text arrived. “Ah, the excitement appears to be for the Saturday arrival. They think it’s a Brynjulf Falkenberg masterpiece painting from the eighteen-nineties.”
“No shit,” I breathed out. A genuine painting from the famed Scandinavian painter would be tough to offload.
“They want to know if we’re in.”
I mentally consulted my calendar. It was Thursday. We had two practice swim heats tomorrow morning and I had a lab test in the afternoon. I’d probably need to take Zoey out Saturday night.
“Friday is doable, but not Saturday. I have to take Zoey out.” Filipe shook his head disapprovingly but stayed mute on that subject. None of my friends liked Zoey. “How much for each shipment?”
“Ten grand for the reptiles and a hundred grand for the painting.”
I whistled. “Too hot for me, my friend.”
“I’m guessing there is another bidder for the painting,” Filipe added. It wasn’t a good sign if the informant was shopping around. “Wouldn’t be surprised if it was Andy or maybe even Dante. Has your brother said anything?”
Dante and his best friend, Andy, used to run this business years ago before we took over. Dante was partial to artwork, but when ancient artifacts showed up, Andy had a knack for suddenly appearing on the scene to outbid us.
“Dante’s been out of the game for a few years now. Something about trying to go straight. Andy, though…” I groaned because on top of everything else going on, I did not want to deal with Andy. I took a long swig of my beer. “That son of a bitch has a way of reanimating like a corpse on Halloween night.”
“We’ll have to deal with him at some point, Matty.”
“True.” I thought about the amount of cash I had in my safe. I could afford it and I’d feel a thrill sticking it to Andy. I’d feel a greater thrill in pissing him off, though. “But I’m not interested in a bidding war. I’d rather focus on the reptile shipment. Decline the painting and ask when I should show up at LAX for the reptiles.”
“You got it.”
