SOUTHSIDE HUSTLE: a gripping action thriller full of suspense (27 page)

EPILOGUE

Trick jogged barefoot on the warm sand as soft waves lapped the beach and chattering seagulls swooped around, looking for morsels. He stopped and stretched, admiring the five ancient small hotels huddled close to one another and the smattering of tiny whitewashed houses behind them. The flat wall of rock, that rose a couple hundred feet behind the houses, reflected sun onto the quiet little fishing village. The sun-bleached pastel paint of the eighteenth-century hotels was faded but still colorful enough to attract the eyes from passing boaters. One building was yellow, one green, one orange and one pink. But the robin egg blue hotel in the middle was the one he really loved. He had been working at his father’s stone and stucco
albergo
the last two days, doing everything from changing sheets to bartending.

Pat ran up, wet from playing in the water. “Dad, Dad, I love it here. And … Maria’s nice.” Trick scooped his son in his arms, feeling the wetness from the sea on his bare chest. Trick kissed Pat’s forehead, set him down and said, “Have fun playing.”

Trick rolled his tan khakis up above his knees and waded into the shallow water. He grabbed the chrome ladder, climbed on board the
il Ladro
and eased into the deck chair next to Frank.

“Tell me something.” Trick watched as the golden late afternoon sun approached its reflection in the ocean. “If I had turned rat for you, would we be here right now? Would you even have told me you were my father?”

Frank leaned back in his chair, crossed his bare feet on the polished brass rail of his vintage cabin cruiser and pulled a bottle of Moretti beer from the ice-filled cooler between them. Putting the bottle in his left hand, which was in a cast up to his elbow, he popped the cap, then flipped it off his thumb where it hung in the air, turning over and over before it made an almost imperceptible splash in the blue-green sea. He removed a Cuban cigar from the pocket of his white linen shirt, fished a cigar cutter from the pocket of his white jeans and snipped the tip. Lighting the cigar, he looked at Trick with a poker face and said, “What do
you
think?”

Trick grabbed a frosty bottle, looked over at the soft sands and turquoise water of the beach where little Pat splashed in the shallow water with Maria by his side laughing. He breathed in the fresh air laced with the aroma of cigar smoke and said, “I think sometimes you don’t know if a situation is good or bad until some time has passed.”

Frank blew a puff of smoke into the warm salty breeze. “True. And even though everything may seem to point the way, sometimes you have to take a different path to reach your goal.”

Trick ran a thumb over the bump on his nose, then looked at his little finger with the missing tip and laughed. He leaned back in his chair and gazed up at the fluffy white clouds. They reminded him of giant cotton balls decorating the blue sky. He took a sip of cold beer then laughed some more.

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