Savages

hotel bars—the St. Moritz, the Montage, the Ritz-Carlton, the Surf & Sand. Apple martinis and O grabbing glances everywhere, she’s so hot with her two men.
    “It’s like that movie,” she says, standing on the patio of the Ritz looking out at the moonlight hitting the breakers.
    “What movie?” Ben asks.
    “That old movie,” O says, “with Paul Newman when he was alive and Robert Redford when he was young. I was home sick one day from school and it was on cable.”
    “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,”
Chon kicks in. “If I follow O’s drift, you’re Butch and I’m Sundance.”
    “Which one was Butch?” Ben asks.
    “Newman,” Chon answers. “Which fits, because you’re into the philanthropist thing. I’m the sexy shooter.”
    “I’m the girl in it,” O says happily.
    “Didn’t they get killed at the end?” Ben asks.
    “Not the girl,” says O.

79
     
    Lado gets tired
    Following these rich spoiled
gueros
up and down the Gold Coast.
    Them in their limo.
    Good to get a look at them, though. The one moves like a killer and they’ll have to be careful with him. This is the one that said “Fuck you” to Elena (and we already know how this kind of thing goes down with Lado).
    The other looks soft and easy.
    No problem.
    The
puta, la guerita
?
    What Lado can’t figure out is, whose woman is she? Which cock does she suck? They both treat her like she’s their woman—an arm around the shoulder, a peck on the lips, but the men don’t look like they’re going to butt heads.
    Could it be that she does them both?
    And do they know?
    And not care?
    Fucking savages.

80
     
    After the bar crawl they take a walk on the boardwalk at Main Beach.
    Laguna.
    A gentle arc anchored by the Inn at Laguna on the north and the oldHotel Laguna on the south. Tall graceful palm trees, tropical flowers, moon sparkling on the small waves. The basketball courts, the volleyball courts, the playground.
    The old lifeguard tower.
    One of Ben’s favorite spots on earth and probably why he always eventually comes home.
    So they walk, a little drunkenly, and talk about retirement from the dope business. What he and Chon are going to do, who they’re going to be. O is geeked by the energy idea, wonders if maybe there’s a place for her and the answer is of course. This business is different from the last business, no risks legal or otherwise, all aboveboard, transparent in the open air.
    Launder the dope money, it comes out sunshiny clean as energy.
    They’re happy about this.
    Even Chon is happy about this now he’s thought a little and drank a lot. Might be nice to let the adrenaline level drop a little. Will take some getting used to, but it might be a good thing. Swap the hardware of guns for the hardware of turbines, blades, and panels. Shoot electricity around like streams of bullets.
    Light it up.
    Ben is happy.
    Walking on this beach he loves with these people he loves.
    The arc of the coast wraps around him like their arms.

81
     
    Elena lies in her big lonely bed and looks at a soap opera.
    Watches other people’s passion.
    Magda calls from school.
    How are you? I’m fine. How are you? Nothing new, really …
    Elena knows that the call is meant to conceal more than it reveals but she understands and even approves. Good for the girl to get out and have her own life. As much as she can, anyway, shadowed everywhere by bodyguards. She has told them to be discreet and that they are security, not spies—she does not need to know what she does not need to know.
    The light from the television flickers on the grenade screen outside the window and Elena watches that for a few moments. Then the two lovers on the screen start to yell at each other and she turns her attention to that and the argument resolves in an embrace and a fiery kiss.
    When the phone rings it’s Lado.
    The two
gueros
went out with a girl and they all went back to the same house.
    “A whore?” Elena asks.
    “Not a professional,” Lado answers. “I don’t think.”
    She looks and acts like a rich girl.
    Elena hears this and wonders about Magda. Does she look and act like a rich girl? Probably so. I should have a word with her about toning it down.
    “Whose girlfriend is she?” Elena asks. “Does she belong to Mr. Let’s Cut the Shit or Mr. Fuck You?”
    “I don’t know,” Lado answers.
    He explains his difficulty.
    “You’re there now,” she says.
    “Outside the house, yes.”
    “And the three of them are still