Who'll Stop The Rain: (Book One Of The Miami Crime Trilogy) by Don Donovan

what I'm
sayin'?"
    Vargas
spoke. "What else you know about the Key West guy? Logan, I mean."
    "Thass
it, man. Just his name and he from the Keys. And him and Chicho were down.
Thass it." Flaco shrugged.
    "How
about the girl? Yanet Santiago. You know her from anywhere?"
    Flaco
shook his head. "Not really. I seen her once with another dude at a party
a couple of weeks ago, snortin' a little blow. I'm telling you, that bitch had
an ass on her! She was smokin', you know what I'm sayin'?"
    Silvana
believed him. Vargas gave her a short nod. She believed she'd gotten everything
she was going to get out of Flaco. For today, anyway.
    "Okay."
She reached into her pocket and came out with a card. "Here's my phone
number, Flaco. Put it into your cell right now. I want you to call me if you
hear anything, anything at all about this whole fucking mess. Who did Chicho,
anything more on this guy Logan, anything about Andrés Borraga. Or Yanet
Santiago. Anything. You feel me?"
    "Yes,
ma'am. I do."
    "Because
if you help me, then I help you. That's how it works. It's a two-way street,
understand me? I can make things very easy for you around here. But I find out
you know something and are holding out on me, you will live to regret it."
    She
head-signaled Vargas, who sucker punched Flaco in the gut again, sending him to
the pavement with a lot of hurt.

10

 
    Mambo
    Monday, June 27, 2011
    1:10 PM

 
    M AMBO'S BAR AND GRILL buzzed with activity. Cuban food
simmered back in the kitchen, its thick, zesty aroma blanketing the entire
place and leaking out into the surrounding back streets of Old Town. Mambo the
Third finished off his ropa vieja at
the bar, downing the final forkful of yellow rice, watching anxious gamblers
surround the pool table, some of them clutching fistfuls of cash. They hollered
bets at each other while the players circled the table one at a time like
vultures, each seeking the perfect shot. The bar was full, attention turned to
flat-screen TVs, all three of them showing the Marlins game. A lively merengue
tune played through the house sound system, whose speakers pointed away from
the televised baseball.
    Mambo
noticed Logan enter and take a seat in a dark corner booth. Actually, all the
booths were dark, deliberately so. Everyone in the place was one type of outlaw
or another, and they didn't require a lot of bright lights on them while they
planned their jobs in those booths. That was Mambo's in a nutshell. Buried in a
quiet neighborhood for over fifty years, no sign out front, liquor license
grandfathered in, great food, a real grifters' gathering ground. Civilians not
welcome.
    Logan
signaled to the waiter for a beer as he took a seat. Mambo took one last swig
from his iced tea and came over to his booth. His cousin Big Felo went with
him.
    "Logan! ¿Cómo estás? You're looking
good."
    "Could've
been a lot worse," he said. "But I'm still here."
    Logan
stood and the two exchanged a hug. Big Felo greeted him with a silent nod and
an iron handshake, the hallmark of the bodyguard.
    Mambo
took a seat. He waved Big Felo away and said, "I heard about that pendejo Chicho and what he did to you
guys, man. I also heard he got what was coming to him."
    Mambo
the Third was the same age as Logan, and with the same sturdy build. Bristling,
short black hair framed a handsome Cuban face. They'd known each other since
grade school, and while they weren't exactly best friends, they'd always gotten
along pretty well. The Original Mambo had taken over this place more than fifty
years ago, named it after himself — never put a sign outside — and
ran it the whole time till he damn near got himself killed in a gunfight in
here one night, a year or so ago. That's when the Third took over. He was no
wimp, but because of what happened to his grandfather, Felo was never too far
away, and always strapped.
    Logan
looked into young Mambo's dark brown eyes. Deepset, a clear family trait, they
could look right through you. Right now, they smiled