disappointed?”
“I was amazed.”
“You didn’t mind that I wanted to go in the back instead of the front?” Matt said.
Veronica looked at him. “I loved it, Matt.”
“Are you sure? You’re not just saying that to please me?”
“I loved it. I want you to fuck me like that every day for the rest of my life.”
VII
A RIEL WAS SITTING ACROSS FROM Gabe in a coffee shop close to the warehouse they were working from. The forgery was progressing better than either of them had expected and Gabe was extremely confident that his plan was going to work. Even Ariel was impressed with how it was going. She was proud of it, proud of the fact that she still had the skill to pull off a forgery of that caliber.
“So,” she said to Gabe. “I need a favor.”
The barista called out Gabe’s name and he got up and grabbed the two lattes they’d ordered. When he came back he was smiling and shaking his head.
“So, you need a favor from me ?”
“Please don’t make me regret asking,” Ariel said.
Gabe held up his hands. “What? Me?”
“Just sit down and drink your coffee. Forget I asked.”
“Seriously,” Gabe said. “Tell me what it is. Of course I’ll help you out if I can.”
“It’s not really for me, it’s for a friend.”
“Who is she?”
“My neighbor. Her name is Zola. She’s having trouble with her husband.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Gabe said. “So what can I do?”
“Okay, first of all,” Ariel said, “to put this all in perspective. She’s having more than just trouble with this husband. He’s making her life goddamn unbearable. I mean, he’s a serious pervert. He’s got this forum on the internet where he and some other guys all swap pictures of their wives.”
“Okay.”
“But that’s not all. They go farther. They actually allow each other to screw each other’s wives.”
“Swinging?” Gabe said.
“Yeah, basically. Except that Zola, she’s totally not into it. Jake basically bullies her into allowing the other guys to fuck her.”
“Jesus,” Gabe said. “What about calling the police or something?”
“You know how useless the police are when it comes to anything domestic.”
“So you want me to talk to him? I’m not sure how effective that’s going to be.”
“Well,” Ariel said. “It’s going to be a little more complicated than that. I don’t just want Jake to stop screwing Zola. I want him to let her go. And when she leaves, I want her to leave with a whole lot of his money.”
“I see,” Gabe said. “So how are you going to do all that? Have you got anything on him.”
“Not yet,” Ariel said. “That’s where you come in.”
Gabe was nodding. “Oh, do I?” he said.
Ariel could tell that he was becoming wary. This didn’t sound like it was going to be a small favor. It was sounding bigger and bigger by the minute.
“What did you have in mind?” he said.
“We’ll need to use the painting. The forgery.”
Gabe was already shaking his head. “No way,” he said. “Forget it right now, Ariel. It’s not going to happen.”
“We just need to borrow it.”
“Do you know how much money I’ve spent setting up this forgery? I’m not going to risk it all to help out your friend. She can get a divorce the same way everyone else does it. She doesn’t need me to get involved.”
“She does,” Ariel said. She looked meaningfully at Gabe. “She needs you, and I need you.”
“This is going to screw up our plan, isn’t it?”
“It will delay it, Gabe. It will affect our plan, but it will be worth it.”
“Forget it,” Gabe said. He looked at his watch. “I just remembered, I’ve got to be somewhere.” He got up from the table and grabbed his phone and sunglasses.
“Wait,” Ariel said. She had to stop him from leaving. She had to keep him at the table. “Sit down, there’s more.”
“What?”
“Sit,” she said.
He sighed and took his seat reluctantly. “It’s not just Zola that Jake’s taken
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