Page 86 of Koroleva

He tossed the phone onto the hammock and, in a flash, he had me over his shoulder, kicking and screaming.

"Let me go!"

"No way, now you're coming with me to the water to drown any potential pests."

He jumped with me into the pool, and when I emerged spitting out the half-liter I had swallowed, he started splashing me like a damn kid. I screamed and felt the need to fight back.

"You won't beat me at this!" I exclaimed, splashing him back. We kept at it until I started coughing, and then I found myself pressed against the wall. Naturally, I spread my legs, wrapped them around his waist, and let him carry me.

"Breathe," he murmured, pushing my wet hair behind my ear. "Are you okay?" His voice was soft. I locked my eyes onto his as I felt the wall against my back and his hardness against my center.

"Yes," I whispered, licking one of the droplets that had trickled to my lips, causing him to shiver. My nails dug into his shoulders. There was no one else in the water. Romeo told me that the pool wasn't used much. People came to the club to play, socialize, and eat at the restaurant rather than sunbathe or swim.

The swaying continued to heat me up.

"Are you sure?" he insisted.

"Yes," I replied. His beard glistened with tiny water droplets. His lips were so wet..., so tempting, getting closer and closer, and I... I...

"Bomb's away!" The childish shout preceded an apocalypse of water and play. Goodbye, heated moment with Romeo.

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.

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