‘We can stay at a hotel.’
‘Naw, Charlie’s cool. He’s actually given up his law practice. He defended major scuzzballs. Wants to go into entertainment. Bet he knows about the Bellinis.’
‘Gooch, I want you to come with me because you’re my friend, not because I want to beat them senseless.’
‘Be honest with yourself,’ Gooch said. ‘You’re asking me because you know I can handle badasses like these. That’s the reason. Quit pretending this is gonna be a cakewalk.’
‘If they’re mob, yes, I’m scared.’
‘You should be,’ Gooch said.
‘But I think I’m more scared of her. Of what she might say to me. I shouldn’t care if she spits in my face and walks away. I shouldn’t care.’
‘But you do,’ Gooch said.
‘Don’t tell anyone,’ Whit said.
6
Thursday morning Eve woke with a start, gasping at the hard dig of Bucks’ fingers in her throat. A memory turned to dream. She got up from the bed early, around six. Frank Polo snored next to her. She examined her throat in the mirror. Bruised, but with sickening precision. Bucks had half strangled her, had been going for his gun when Frank and the Miami dealers walked in, and an unforgivable line had been crossed. She could not be treated this way. There was a hierarchy, an order of respect in the organization, and Bucks had ignored it. In Tommy’s day, it would not have been tolerated.
But Tommy’s day wasn’t ever going to dawn again.
One of the monolith-sized bouncers had told her that Paul Bellini had left the club with Tasha Strong. Walking funny and in a big hurry, the bouncer said with a knowing laugh. While she was nearly getting killed by his pet loon, Paul was screwing a stripper. She had half a mind to call Paul’s mother, tell her. Save for the last moment that Tasha was black, which would kill Mary Pat Bellini on the spot.
But she didn’t; tattling would piss off Paul worse. She washed her face, and when she looked up from the sink Frank was standing behind her. He kissed the top of her head.
‘What if Paul sides with Bucks? Did you sleep on that last night?’ he asked.
‘He’s not gonna side with Bucks after I talk to him. Anyway, he needs us now, he needs mentors.’
‘Mentors,’ he said in disbelief. ‘Paul’s not a summer intern. He’s killed people.’
‘Frank, hush, that is not so.’
Frank rolled his eyes.
‘Anyway, killing a guy is a lot easier than running a business,’ she said. ‘Paul’ll listen to us when he’s not drunk and horny. I’ve got to talk to him before Bucks does. I’m heading down to the club.’
‘Leave it alone.’
‘What a classy boyfriend you are, really coming to my rescue here, Frank.’
‘Because I love you, that’s why you need to forget it happened. You’re not going to drive a wedge between Paul and Bucks.’
‘Hide and watch,’ she said. ‘Hide and watch.’
‘This ain’t never been a bad gig, sweetheart. Follow orders and keep your mouth shut.’ Frank staggered off to drink coffee.
She showered fast, grabbed toast, and eased her Mercedes down the driveway onto Timber. The house wasn’t technically theirs; rather, it belonged in name to Tommy’s sister. Eve liked living in River Oaks, perhaps the most exclusive neighborhood in Houston, even though they lived right along its edge. She took an immediate left onto Locke; stately homes lay on her left and the thin ribbon of River Oaks Park on her right. She turned onto Claremont, then onto the major thoroughfare of Westheimer. It was always busy but it was her favorite street in the city, snaking from near downtown out to western Houston. She drove past palm-lined Highland Village with its high-end shops and restaurants, catering to the old oil money and the new tech money, past the sprawling shopping utopia of the Galleria, then onto a longer, slightly less tidy stretch of road that included nightclubs, strip shopping centers, and Club Topaz.
Leave it alone, Frank had said. In other words, go ahead and paint a bull’s-eye on her back and hand Bucks the gun. Frank grabbed too hard onto the present rather than the long term. Save Paul from a mistake now, earn his undying gratitude. That was the way to solve this problem. Frank couldn’t see that. That same stifled vision was why Frank’s music career died when disco did. He had a voice suitable for the classiest pop ballads, for music with muscle. Instead, he jumped on a ship doomed to sink and complained no boat ever came to save his ass from the ocean of obscurity.
But Frank had a point. She took a deep breath.
Today, if Paul didn’t take her side, she’d act like she’d let it go. Pretend the encounter with Bucks didn’t happen. Get the cash for the deal with Kiko, show she could follow orders, show her unquestioned loyalty. And then quietly get ready to disappear again.
Eve waited around the club Thursday morning and into the early afternoon for Paul, wondering why the lunch-time crowd wanted to ogle strippers while chewing on overpriced sandwiches and then head back to work with an unrelieved erection. She went back up to Frank’s office shortly after one and Paul was sitting behind Frank’s desk, feet propped up on Frank’s papers.
‘Well, hi,’ she said. ‘Been looking for you, honey.’
‘Where’s Frank?’
‘At lunch. With a liquor rep. I’ve been trying to reach you.’
‘So you and Bucks,’ Paul said, ‘had a little spat.’
‘You got my messages.’
‘Yes. I talked with him this morning.’
‘And?’
‘He says you misinterpreted his actions.’
‘I misinterpreted him going for his gun,’ Eve said. ‘What, he wanted to show me a monogrammed clip?’ She pulled the scarf from her throat. ‘You see the bruise. He tried to cut off the blood to my brain. He’s nuts.’
‘You know, I’m under a lot of pressure,’ Paul said, although he looked as relaxed as a cat fresh from a dinner bowl. ‘You and Bucks, being the people in the world I trust the most, don’t need to be snarling at each other.’
She didn’t like the smile on his face, not at all. Too calm. Too sure of himself. And this trust the most crap, she didn’t believe it. ‘If I misinterpreted him, then I’m sorry, but do you think what he did was right?’
He ignored her question. ‘Have you got the cash ready for the transfer to Kiko?’
‘Yes. Richard Doyle from Coastal United Bank is meeting us at the Alvarez office, over by the port this afternoon.’
‘Fine. You can go with Bucks.’
‘Okay,’ she said.
‘It’s amazing how much disapproval you can pack into one word, Eve.’
‘Kiko Grace will gut you from stem to stern if he gets a chance and you’re dead if you forget it.’
‘He’s afraid of me.’
‘You got the transfer set up with Kiko, or is he too scared of you to meet?’ she asked.
‘Bucks and a couple of boys will take the money to wherever Kiko’s got the stash and we do the exchange. The dust is hidden in decorative pottery. They’ll truck it out to a safe place east of town. Have a little pot-smashing party later.’
At least Paul had the sense not to go to the exchange himself, he’d learned that much from his father. ‘When?’
‘Tonight. I want to get that coke on the street.’ He laughed. ‘Lots of depression in Houston these days, everybody needs a little pick-me-up. Even you and Frank. Hey, sit down for a minute,’ he said.
She sat.
‘Frank,’ Paul said. ‘How’s he doing?’
‘Fine.’
‘He spending a lot of money lately?’
‘Not that I know of.’
‘Because,’ Paul said, ‘we’re missing serious funds from Club Topaz.’
She let five seconds pass. ‘Frank’s not a skimmer.’ A little panicky thrum quickened between her ribs. Surely Frank wasn’t that stupid.
‘Because he doesn’t have the brains for it?’
‘Frank’s not dumb.’
‘Be honest with me, Eve.’
‘I don’t know anything about him skimming money,’ she said.