Havana Hustle (Coastal Fury Book 6) by Matt Lincoln

Author:Matt Lincoln [Lincoln, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 24

Yoani pretended to be excited for Ethan and Robbie, or Ted and Liam, as they handed over the cash in exchange for the promise of owning those cars. From the time it arrived the night before, the Americans behaved as the large sum of money was not a big deal.

To Yoani, it was. If she had that much money, she would hire someone to stay with her mother whenever she wasn’t home. Or even better, she could find a place for her mother to live where she would thrive while receiving the care she needed for the time she had left.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This was business as usual for these people. Next to them, she was a nobody who happened into their lives. In a few months, they wouldn’t remember her, and it was in her best interest not to forget it.

Someone touched her arm, and she jumped.

“Are you all right?” González asked in Spanish.

“Yes, just tired.” She smiled at him even though she wanted to cringe. If only she knew why he bothered her so much. “I’m excited for my friends.”

“May I speak with you in private?” he asked.

Yoani glanced at Ethan and Robbie. They were looking through the cars again with the appreciation of a child who has received a bicycle as a gift.

“Of course.” She switched to English. “Ted, Liam, I will be right outside.”

González walked out, and Ethan raised a brow.

“You okay?” he whispered.

“Yes. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Stay within sight,” Holm told her. “We’ll keep an eye out for you.”

“Thank you.”

Yoani joined González under the blazing late-morning sun. He led her out of earshot but not sight from the Americans. His expression changed to one of deep concern.

“You are very quiet with these men,” he said. “Have they hurt you?”

The question surprised her. He hadn’t seemed like the kind of person who cared as long as he made money.

“They have been perfect gentlemen,” she answered. “As I told you before, we have friends in common.”

“You said your friend who escaped Cuba had friends who visited,” he reminded her. “I had the impression that these men weren’t those friends.”

She grasped for an easy explanation, but a handful of words jumbled together between the Spanish and English for a moment. It happened when she got stressed. She used to think it was her, but she’d heard of other bilingual people having the same difficulty. That was it.

“I sometimes get my wording confused when I switch back and forth,” she told him. As Ethan told her the night before, working as close to the truth as possible made lies more believable.

González nodded. “I understand. That used to happen to me as well.” He glanced toward the barn. “Do they know how your friend fled the island?”

This, she had been prepared for. It was also aligned with the truth.

“No. She refuses to speak about it. People died.”

Yoani thought back to that night, back when she was a child. She’d always

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