Chapter 48

Vibrant, loud, smelly, enticing. All words to describe little patches of the street life on South Beach. Pasty tourists mixed with the exotic Brazilian and European models, college students from the University of Miami rubbed elbows with interior designers, drug dealers, and local entrepreneurs

After he pulled up front, Xavier obtained a wad of cash from the glove compartment along with his gun. I stayed in the car because he didn’t want the bellhop to handle his suitcase. I didn’t ask what he had that needed to be safeguarded and just did I was told.

Several minutes later, he returned to the car with one key. I stepped out with my rollaway bag and watched him circle the building to find off-street parking.

I questioned if leaving me exposed in the lobby was protocol as music blared from the lobby band. In the next building over, men with silk shirts slightly open leaned on railings, drinking Coronas, checking out ladies that walked by the street as the women went bar-hopping.