Motor Mouth

job,” I told him, “because this one sucks.”
    I sat down on the bench and crossed my legs. Very ladylike. I was there to stay. I was calm. Unperturbed. I looked down at my chest. I could see my heart beating.
Baboom, baboom, baboom
. Everyone on the boat was looking at me. I gave them a little finger wave and smiled. The people on the boat went back to breakfast. Except for Spanky. Spanky kept staring at me. Finally Delores gave him an elbow and Spanky stopped staring.
    I took a couple deep breaths and checked around the bench. Baldy was nowhere to be seen. I sat for about a half hour and Hooker showed up.
    “So,” he said. “How’s it going?”
    “Baldy stopped by and tried to evict me, but I told him I was waiting for you.”
    Hooker put my hat on my head and slid my sunglasses onto the bridge of my nose. “And he wanted to evict you why?”
    “Ray was having a breakfast party and thought I detracted from the scenery.”
    “That man has no taste,” Hooker said. “You always pretty things up.” He handed me my iPod and a tube of sunscreen. He took some lip balm out of his pocket and added it to the iPod and the sunscreen. “Want to keep your lips soft…just in case.”
    “Always thinking,” I said to Hooker.
    He tapped his head with his forefinger. “No grass growing here.”
    I stood and stretched. “I need a break. I’m going for a walk.”
    “If you’re walking in the direction of the deli, you could bring me a soda. Maybe a sandwich. And some cookies.”

SEVEN
    I had a six-pack of diet soda in cans, a bag of cookies, and two ham-and-cheese subs. I was in front of the bench and there was no Hooker. I looked to the boat. No one on deck. Two possibilities. Hooker went looking for a bathroom or he decided to follow someone. Either way, I was surprised he hadn’t called to tell me. I took the walkway to the parking lot and looked for the SUV. The lot was pretty much filled for the day. No one going in or out. I could hear conversation behind a green panel van. It sounded like Hooker. I rounded the van and found Hooker on the ground with Horse and Baldy over him. Horse and Baldy were concentrating on kicking Hooker and weren’t looking in my direction. Baldy was to the side. Horse had his back to me.
    “
Hey
!” I shouted, coming up on Horse.
    Horse turned toward me, and I roundhoused him in the face with the six-pack of soda. There was a satisfying crunch and blood spurted out of Horse’s nose. He stood there, stunned for a moment, and I clocked him again in the side of the head. Then I jumped away before either of them could catch me. I ran to the front of the lot screaming, “Fire! Fire!”
    I heard car doors open and slam shut and an engine catch. I ran back to Hooker and saw the goon car wheel around and speed out of the lot. Hooker was on his hands and knees. He dragged himself to his feet and gave his head a shake to clear the cobwebs.
    “Well, that was friggin’ embarrassing,” Hooker said. “I just got my ass saved by a woman with a six-pack of soda.”
    “What were you doing back here with them?”
    “They said they wanted to talk to me.”
    “And they couldn’t do it by the bench?”
    “Looking at it in retrospect…”
    I broke a can of soda off from the six-pack and handed it to Hooker. “Boy, you don’t know much. You wouldn’t last ten minutes as a woman. I guess Huevo really doesn’t want anyone sitting on that bench.”
    “It’s the cars. He wants his cars. All the while they were kicking me they wanted to know where I’d stashed the cars.”
    “Did you tell them?”
    “Of course I told them. They were kicking me!”
    “Did they do any damage? Are you okay?”
    “Remember when I hit the wall at Talladega and flipped four times? I’m a shade past that.”
    “Cracked ribs?”
    “Don’t think so.”
    “Internal bleeding?”
    “Hard to tell, but I’m not coughing up blood, so that’s a good sign. They could have kicked a lot harder. They didn’t want to kill me. They just wanted to get my attention and tell me Huevo was serious.”
    “We should leave. I wouldn’t want them to think things over and come back to take a shot at seeing what
I
know.” Been there, done that.
    Hooker limped to the SUV and gingerly eased himself onto the passenger seat. I got behind the wheel, hit the door locks and took off.
    “I think we should return to the hotel and regroup,” I told Hooker. “And I’ve been thinking about the chip. There might be people who