Road Dogs (2009)( ) Read Online Free Page B

whatever pleases you. I can get you numbers to call.
    When you went down, Foley said, how come they didn't take your property?
    I don't own any. Listen, when I was making money out there, buying homes, cheap compare to what they worth now? I sign them over to a guy is my bookkeeper, the Monk. We both come out of Combinado del Este in Cuba, the Monk in there 'cause he embessle money from a company, to buy things for himself. You look at the Monk, Cundo said, you don't see a criminal, not even a white-collar one. He's a good-looking guy, man, but timid, ascared to death in Combinado of these guys want to dress him like a puta, put red lipstick on his mouth and fuck him. I work it with the guardias to put him in my cell and the Monk cried, man, he was so fucking grateful.
    Foley said, He was your wife?
    Once in a while I let him smoke my cigar, sure, but I never care for it much with a guy. The guardias are bringing me ganj and half pints of rum I sell and we split. I tell the cons who want to fuck the Monk, behave yourselves or you don't get stoned no more. Okay, Fidel let us out, I bring the Monk to Miami and get him a job with Harry Arno. Harry use to run a sport book till he retire and marry a stripper, the only one I ever saw wore glasses when she danced, so she don't fall off the fucking stage. Then, after I almost die from being shot that time, we get out of town, move to L. A.
    You bring the Monk along, Foley said, everywhere you go?
    He's become a business partner, Cundo said, for different ways he knows of using money to make money.
    Foley said, Like running a sports book?
    Tha's one of the business where I'm a silent partner. It goes down, the Monk goes down. You understand he's always been an accountant, an expert with numbers, man. He works a calculator, he don't even look at what his fingers are doing. We in another business called Rios and Rey Investment Company. Is like a bank with numbered accounts, no names of investors.
    A real bank? Foley said. Like a Swiss bank?
    Is it real? It must be, Cundo said, they's money in it the Monk invests in bonds and real estate. Have it work for me, not bury it someplace, hope nobody finds it. Do you pay income tax on the money you take from banks?
    Not as a rule, Foley said.
    I do, Cundo said, I pay my fucking taxes. Maybe you like to rob this bank. How you do it? There's no teller you call sweetheart and ask her for money. The Monk say a time will come we won't use cash no more for most things you want. The Monk knows all this electronic shit with the digits. But I have to remind him also to keep an eye on Dawn for me. See nothing happens to her.
    Foley said, You're full of surprises, aren't you? Who's Dawn?
    Dawn Navarro, man, the best thing ever happen to me.
    For two years he'd been telling Foley his life history and never once mentioned he was married. Cundo said he didn't want people to know she was living alone in Venice, California, the Monk keeping an eye on her.
    Foley said, You trust the Monk?
    Why you think I call him that? He's like a monk who took a vow never to fuck a woman. He don't even check them out. Listen, Cundo said, after I was given the sentence I phone Dawn. I say, 'Can you live the life of a saint for seven years or longer? Not fuck any guys, not even an old boyfriend you run into and do it in the car with him for old time sake?' Dawn say she would wait for me her whole life. Not leave the house except she's with the Monk.
    Foley said, He can keep guys away from her?
    He packs, has a guy looks like a fox with a big Dirty Harry gun drives him, he goes anyplace. I was married to Dawn four months before I was return here to Florida. The first time I ever saw her was at a party in the Hollywood Hills. Dawn is laying down tarot cards, telling people their fortune. It becomes my turn and she starts doing my cards. But she don't say nothing to me. I ask her to tell me what she sees. Her eyes raise
    Foley said, She tell you you're going on a long journey?
    How