Free Playing Dirty by Kiki Swinson Page A

skateboards. I can’t deal with that type of lifestyle. (I was far from a wife and a soccer mom, so I’ve always left the two-story homes with manicured lawns to Maria. I just cross my fingers that one day she’ll find her knight in shining armor who will fuck her to death and give her a couple of kids.)
    Upon my arrival she greeted me at the front door. She was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. “Thanks for coming by,” she said.
    I stepped across the threshold and extended my arms to give her a hug.
    “Wow! You smell good! What is that you’re wearing?” she asked.
    “Agent Provocateur,” I said, making my way through the foyer. “It was something I picked up from Neiman Marcus a few weeks back.”
    “Good choice,” she replied; then we both walked into the living-room area of her home.
    “What’s up with the workout gear? Whatcha just come in from working out?” I asked as I took a seat on the sofa.
    “Yes, I did. Our whole task force had to do a drill today. And guess who had to tag along?”
    I chuckled. “You, huh?”
    She sighed heavily. “Yes! And that shit liked to have killed my ass. I’ve never been worked so hard in my life.”
    “I thought you said basic training was hard.”
    “Yeah, it was, but when you haven’t worked out in a drill exercise in a while, then you’re bound to feel fucked-up,” she explained as she headed over to the bar area stationed in the corner of her living room. “Want a drink?” she continued as she fumbled with a couple of glasses.
    “Yes! Make me a martini, please.”
    “You want it shaken or stirred?”
    “Shaken, please.”
    “You got it,” she said as she started making the martini precisely the way I wanted it. “So, what’s new?” she continued as she fished around in a bowl of olives with a toothpick in hand.
    “It’s the same ole thing, different day.”
    She walked my drink over and handed it to me. “Well, a couple of my agents got a big case that’s about to go down, and the guy that they’re about to bust has money coming out the ass! He has real estate in South America and in upstate New York. The word around the office is he’s running five hundred kilos through the ports once a week. And that much coke coming into the docks without being tampered with leads me to believe that this guy has a lot of people on his payroll. So there will be a lot of people going down when this whole thing blows up.”
    “Who is this guy? What’s his name?”
    “Juan Alvarez.”
    My mouth fell wide open. “Wait a minute, are you talking about the Juan Alvarez who owns the night club La Cienda? The drug lord from Ecuador? The motherfucker who had his daughter killed because she married one of the Gomez brothers?”
    “He allegedly had his daughter murdered. He beat those charges, remember?” Maria corrected me.
    “Whatever! Same damn thing!” I interjected. “So you’re telling me that this guy is about to go down?”
    Maria nodded her head, and all I could see were dollar signs. “Well, when is it going to happen?”
    “I can’t say because it’s confidential. But I will say that as soon as we bring him in, I’m gonna let you know, so you can be the first one on the welcome wagon.”
    “Well, can you tell me if there are any informants who’d kill the case for me if I decided to pick it up?”
    “There are a few, but they aren’t credible. You’d be able to eliminate them at the preliminary hearing.”
    I took a sip of my drink. “It sure feels good to have contacts on the inside, but I just can’t figure out how you guys are going to catch him with his shipment. Normally, men of that caliber don’t come within ten miles of their shit.”
    “I know, but word has it, a lot of his product had been disappearing after it comes through the docks, so he told his right-hand man he’s going to show up at the pier to make sure that his product gets through without any interruptions.”
    “Wow! This shit sounds like I’m