Naked in LA by Colin Falconer

perhaps he was drunk. But when he saw me, he stood up, rock steady on his feet and grinned. “Princess!”
    The last time I’d seen him was on the tarmac at Havana airport, the night everything went to hell. He had just thrown two suitcases full of money into the back of the Cessna that was about to fly Papi and me to Miami.
    He walked over with his hands in the pockets of his grey slacks and looked me over. “Well, you’ve only gotten more beautiful since I last saw you, and I wouldn’t have thought that was possible. Still breaking hearts?”
    “Hello, Reyes.” I looked over his shoulder at his two friends who were eyeing me as if I was their dinner. For all I knew all three of them had just gotten out of jail. “Are you going to introduce me to your pals?” I said.
    “Those bastards?” he said loud enough for them to hear. “I wouldn’t let them pat my dog. Let’s grab ourselves a drink at the bar.”
    I was already late for lunch with Angel. I looked at my watch.
    “You got somewhere better to go?”
    I shook my head. “Make mine a mojito .”
     

     
    “What are you doing in Miami?” I asked. “Are you living here?”
    “I wouldn’t live here, it’s full of crooks. I’m living in California. I work for a security consultant.” He stole some of the ice from my cocktail and crunched it between his teeth.
    “So what brings you here?”
    “Business.”
    “With the two men in the lobby? They look familiar.”
    “You probably remember them from Havana. Neither of them are taxpayers. But enough about me.”
    I knew that was as much information as I was going to get from him. He reached out and touched the diamond necklace at my throat. It was one of Angel’s endless gifts. “Expensive.”
    “I have admirers,” I said, hoping to make him jealous.
    “I bet you have. So how’s life, princess?”
    “I get by.”
    “How’s Amancio?”
    “Papi’s not doing so good.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    “He never really recovered from the heart attack that night.”
    “I guess you roll the dice, you never know which way They’re going to fall.”
    “We lost everything. The club. The house. All our money.”
    “I don’t mean to sound heartless, sweetheart, but a lot of people lost everything. Even the mob guys. Lansky had to leave seventeen million dollars behind; Fidel took over before he had a chance to transfer it to a Swiss bank. He didn’t only close down their casinos he emptied their safes as well. Trafficante even had to sell his house. He just about sent them all broke.”
    “Why do I find it hard to cry for them?”
    “Out at the airport, the beards take everyone into a little room and shake them down before they leave. They go through your bags, they even make you empty your pockets. You can’t take out more than five pesos. They take jewellery, wedding rings, cameras, everything.”
    “So you’ve been back?”
    “Maybe.”
    “Don’t tell me - business?”
    He grinned. “Everything is business.”
    “It’s funny, Reyes, the thing I regret most is we left our photograph albums behind. It’s like I lost a part of me.”
    “You may have lost the past but at least you have the present. If you’d stayed, you wouldn’t be sitting in a nice bar with a beautiful necklace drinking cocktails. You look like a million dollars, princess.”
    “Don’t flirt with me, Reyes, I haven’t decided if I’ve forgiven you yet.”
    “What for?”
    “Abandoning me on that airstrip.”
    “Abandoning you? I didn’t abandon you. It’s you that should feel bad.”
    “Me?”
    “I saved that pretty little hide of yours twice - once in the police headquarters, the other out at the airfield, and all the time you had puppy dog eyes for that boy - what was his name?”
    “Angel.”
    “Angel. Right. And what did I get in return?”
    “Do you always have to get something back for everything you do?”
    “Always.” He drank his beer and watched me, his eyes speculating. “So what have