Page 85 of Seeley


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Donovan and his eye for business.

Me and my connections.

Each of us had something working in our favor that made the group as a whole stronger.

“You hear that?” Che asked, nodding toward the water a few feet away from us.

“That’s an airboat,” Huck said.

Then, sure enough, one was coming into view, taking its sweet time doing so, but coming right toward us, slowing, and then stopping.

There were two men sitting there. The man driving was a bigger, stockier man with the kind of muscular frame you only got from long hours working your body. He had dark hair and skin with almost startlingly gray eyes, wearing a simple t-shirt and board shirts.

And then there was the passenger.

A tall, long-legged man wearing a black short-sleeved button-up and the kind of dress slack shorts that Donovan was famous for.

All of it was tailored to fit his slim, but fit frame.

The man himself was, for lack of a better way to put it, ethnically ambiguous. He had golden-brown eyes, black hair and a neat, close-cut beard, and golden undertones to his skin. But I couldn’t tell anything beyond that. Middle Eastern? East Indian? I had no clue. But being harder to pin down, ethnically, was probably an asset in his job that had him traveling to many different countries.

“Hello, my friends,” he said, holding his arms out before climbing off the airboat.

He had a deep, smooth voice, but with no detectible accent.

“Zayn,” Huck greeted him, offering his hand. “How have you been?”

“Good. Good. Let me guess,” Zayn said, turning toward us. “McCoy, Che, Remy, Seeley,” he said, looking at each of us. “Alaric, Donovan, and…” he finished, looking at Cato and Levee.

“Prospects,” Huck said. “You’ve done your research.”

“I prefer to know who I am working with,” Zayn said, shrugging. “This is my man, Daniyal,” he went on, waving to the airboat driver. “He doesn’t speak English,” he added. “Is it true what they say about the alligators down here?” he asked, looking around.

“Probably,” Huck said, smirking. “What do they say?”

“That they climb trees.”

“Oh, that, yeah,” Huck said, nodding.

“We saw two in the water on the way over here. That seems… convenient, for many reasons.”

“There’s a reason the mob prefers being close to pig farms and swamps,” Huck agreed. “Though I’m not sure why you wanted to meet near one.”

“Oh, convenience. I am renting nearby for a few nights. And my friend Daniyal has always wanted to pilot an airboat. Isn’t that right?” he asked, looking back at the stony-faced man in the boat. “See? Complete and utter joy,” Zayn claimed. “So, how do you prefer to conduct business, Huck?” he asked. “Standing here like a bunch of criminals, potentially being killed by falling alligators, or in a bar over a few drinks?”

I would have preferred to talk about it exactly where we were because I felt like it would all be over faster then, allowing me to get back to Ama more quickly.

Huck, however, was a family man now, who spent pretty much every night at home with his wife and kids. So given the chance, he was definitely going to go ahead and enjoy a couple of drinks and a bar for a few hours.

“I can go for a drink,” Huck said, and we all started to walk toward the bikes before it dawned on anyone that Zayn didn’t have a vehicle, coming in all dramatic on the airboat and shit.

“Don’t worry about me. Daniyal has it covered,” he said, waving a hand out. And, sure enough, there was Daniyal, walking a motorcycle over toward our gathered ones.

“The fuck?” Levee said, whipping around to look at the empty airboat. “What is he? A fucking magician or some shit? He’s not even wet,” he added, looking at the man in question. “Don’t give me that look,” he said, glaring back at Cato. “That was some crazy-ass shit,” he claimed, getting to his bike.

“You lead the way, my friends,” Zayn said as Daniyal moved away back toward the water.

Huck glanced back at me, and I gave him a nod, then motioned toward Cato and Levee. Years of working jobs with them when we were younger meant that we had gotten good at communicating with one another, sometimes even complicated conversations, without having to say a word.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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