Read Online All Through the Night by Davis Bunn - Free Book Online Page B

Wayne, meet Julio.”
    “Ease up on the flesh there, sis.”
    “You pay off your bet in two parts.”
    Wayne was already backing away. “Hold on there. One bet, one pay.”
    Eilene thrust the ear forward and the kid followed. “The first part is, find some way to get through to Julio.”
    “Hang on …” Wayne stopped talking because his sister was doing her steam-driven shunt across the lot and toward the center. She slammed the door hard enough to punctuate everything that had gone unsaid.
    Wayne glanced at the kid. Julio was doing a professional job of pretending he could not have cared less about anything.
    Foster waited until Wayne turned back around to say, “I’ve got a favor to ask.”

    Foster went all silent after that. Just made his request and went so still Wayne assumed he was irritated. Probably over having to share the truck’s seat with this barrio kid. Julio, though, he acted like this was totally in the realm of normal. Having a woman pastor dump him into the hands of two strange men, who take off in a pickup and don’t speak a word.
    Wayne put the kid down as a very strong fifteen. Julio was big-framed, muscular, and far too well padded for his own good. Not handsome, but he might have been if he could get his weight down by about a third. He was dressed in what probably passed for studly teen gear in the barrio—pants hanging low, baggy shirt, heavy silver chain on his neck. Semi-new Nikes, worn loose. Leather wristband with fake gemstone studs. And carrying a whole truckload of attitude.
    Wayne did what Foster asked, which was to drive them to Orlando’s international airport. The multi-story parking lot sported a different cartoon animal for each floor, as though the operators assumed a family overloaded on Disney would find it assuring. Julio gave the grinning camel a sideways look, as in, he hadn’t expected this kind of twist to his day.
    Foster didn’t speak until they were inside the terminal. “Give me an hour, will you?”
    “No problem. Long as you need.”
    “It used to be a sort of hobby, coming here. Back before they decided I was too old to drive.”
    “You don’t have to explain.” Only then did Wayne realize Foster had been silent out of shame. Wayne pointed at the giant departures board. “Rendezvous here in an hour.”
    He found Julio standing in a space all his own. The tide of pastel parents with their Snow White daughters and Darth Vader sons gave Julio a wide berth. These folks had traveled to Orlando for a break from reality, only to find themselves facing a kid who, if he wasn’t packing, at least knew where to arm himself faster than they could find the Disney exit. For his part, Julio watched the crowds like he would a herd of wildebeests.
    Wayne walked over and asked, “You ever been to Disney World?”
    “You kidding? Man, just getting in that place costs sixty bucks. I look like I got sixty bucks to you?”
    Wayne spotted signs for the food court. “You want something to eat?”
    “I won’t say no.” Julio fell into step beside Wayne. “So you were in the army, right? I heard your sister say that once. Where you been, man?”
    “Kabul, Kandahar, southwest frontier.”
    “That’s like in Iraq?”
    “Close enough. What do you want to eat?”
    The Orlando airport was designed to swallow crowds. Every open space was huge and high ceilinged. The food hall was a two-acre dome encircled by takeouts. “Pizza and a smoothie.”
    “Go for it.”
    When they had their orders and were seated at a table, the kid asked, “So you ever been shot at, man?”
    “That’s a question you never ask a soldier.”
    “Sure, I hear that. Don’t ask, don’t tell. Just like the joint.”
    Wayne had to smile. “You know prison speech?”
    “I oughtta. My old man’s doing ten to twenty at Raiford.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    He took a massive bite of the pizza. “My brother. An uncle. Lessee, two aunts. And a cousin.”
    “They’ve all been in