‘This isn’t acceptable, Bucks,’ Paul said.
‘Paul, I’m real open to suggestions. They’re gone. It’s over. They’ve got you over a barrel.’ You. Not we. He wondered if Paul would notice. ‘Chad Channing says you got to recognize destructive behaviors and cut your losses…’
‘You know, Bucks, fuck Chad Channing,’ Paul said. ‘Fuck him and every tape he ever made. Call Kiko. I want a summit meeting. We’re gonna strike a new deal.’
‘You don’t have a negotiating chip,’ Bucks said.
‘I have guns that can be placed at heads.’ Paul’s voice rose, at the edge of a scream. ‘Call Kiko. Get him here. He can bring Jose, but that’s all. Tell them I’ve got the money now.’
‘You aren’t going to whack him?’
‘I am. I am. It’s what Dad would’ve done.’
‘This is an extremely bad idea,’ Bucks said.
‘We kill Jose to show we mean business, we torture Kiko, he tells us where the coke’s at. Then we kill his greaser ass.’
‘And you bring his associates down on you like a nuclear bomb,’ Bucks said.
‘They’re in Florida. That’s tomorrow’s problem.’
‘All right,’ Bucks said. ‘I’ll set up a meeting with Kiko.’
‘At the club, he won’t be suspicious coming there. We’ll bring him back to the house. And do it right, Bucks, because right now you’re the biggest single dumbass on the planet.’ He hung up.
Gooch was laid out on the bed in front of Paul. Unconscious. He roused slightly and Paul turned up the Frank Polo tape somebody had left in the bedroom stereo, letting ‘Baby, You’re My Groove’ thunder down the hallway as he worked Gooch over as though he were a punching bag. Face, ribs, stomach, arms. His knuckles hurt, but that pop of flesh against flesh made him happy, let out his tensions. Gooch seemed unconscious again. Doc Brewer came in and very gently shook his head at Paul.
‘He needs to wake up, I got to talk to him,’ Paul said.
‘He’s taken a bullet in the back of the head.’
‘There ain’t no hole, how bad hurt could he be?’
Brewer gave Gooch another injection. Checked the man’s eyes, breathing. ‘You want him to give you information. Then let him recover enough to talk. Beating him is making things worse.’
‘What’d you give him?’
‘My own home brew of cool-you-downs. Do you need a little shot, Paul?’
‘Smack. Give him some smack or something to hype him up hard. A big dose. I want him talking. I want his fucking mouth running away from him.’
‘Leave him alone, Paul. Please, for a minute, let him recover-’
Paul’s fists hurt but he still popped Doc Brewer a hard one. The doctor fell to the floor. ‘Stimulants. Get him conscious and talking. Now. Or I just start mixing shit in your bag and jabbing a needle in your old ass.’
‘Paul?’ Tasha said behind him. She turned down the Frank tape that was playing, helped Doc Brewer to his feet. ‘Let the doctor do his work. Gooch can’t tell you anything valuable right now. Come downstairs with me. Let me calm you with a little massage, sweetpea.’
Bucks clicked off the phone. He stayed still on the couch, watching Kiko and Jose’s amused expressions, hating them as much as he hated Paul. ‘He’s having a bad day,’ Bucks said. ‘He wants to kill you at a meeting.’
‘His day’s gonna get way worse,’ Jose said.
‘Tell him the deal’s off.’ Kiko jerked his head at Jose. ‘Go get that bitch talking.’ Jose got up without a word, headed back to the bedroom.
Bucks didn’t like to hear screams or begging. It made him remember his friends, briefly pleading for their lives in the little house in Galveston. Unpleasant.
‘I got to settle with MacKay,’ Bucks said. ‘Give a bonus to the Wart, too, so he’ll keep his mouth shut and won’t go work for Paul.’
‘Smart move you made,’ Kiko said. ‘Can this MacKay be trusted?’
‘He could have run to Paul when I told him I wanted his help to grab Eve, not kill her or turn her over to Paul. He didn’t. I didn’t cut a deal with the Wart, but he seems cool. As long as he gets paid for his efforts.’
Kiko slid him a thin brick of cash. ‘We’ll give ’em a bonus when she spills about the money. They did good work. Another thousand for each.’
Bucks reached for the money; Kiko covered it with his hand. ‘Bucks. You picked sides. Ours. Don’t forget that.’
‘I won’t. If she talks…’
‘You want to know where the money is, don’t you?’ Kiko said.
‘Yes.’
‘That money,’ Kiko said, ‘really isn’t your concern any more. Don’t worry. You’re gonna get a nice little cut.’
‘Great, Kiko, thank you.’ Bucks cleared his throat. ‘The film of me and my – friends, um, I’ve done what you asked. Give me the film. You promised. Please.’ He hated himself for adding on that desperate word, but he did.
‘After we have the money. That was the deal.’ Kiko gave a little smile, waved Bucks away with his fingers. ‘You don’t want to change the deal, do you? That wouldn’t be fair.’
Bucks nodded, fighting the red rising in his cheeks. He wasn’t quite out the door when Eve let out her first scream, and he closed it fast behind him.
‘You sure you want to hit Kiko?’ Tasha asked.
‘Yeah.’ Paul rose from the bed, paced around the room, worked his shoulders loose. ‘Yeah. Forget this peaceful-coexistence crap.’
She curled her legs under her rear. ‘Paul?’
‘Yeah?’
‘I’m proud of you,’ Tasha said. ‘Now you’re big and bad. Come here.’ She shrugged out of her top, unfastened her bra. His breath caught, his lips parted at the sight of her breasts. ‘Come be big and bad with me.’
He joined her on the bed, eased her out of the rest of her clothes. She let him take her, savored the vigorous, calculated pistoning of him inside her. Made a memory. All else aside, he was an awesome lay and those were rare in this crowd, and she knew it would probably be the last time between them. She came with surprising intensity, crying out against his throat. He didn’t relent, full of testosterone and blustering confidence, this morning’s tears forgotten. She came again a few minutes later and then he did, with an eager gasp, and lay down next to her, his head nuzzling her breasts, his hand cupped over the firmness of her belly. Groaning the usual about how hot she was, how good she felt.
‘Paul, Paul,’ she murmured. He kissed her, with real tenderness, on her throat, her eyelids.
‘Love you,’ Paul said.
‘Oh, don’t,’ she said. Teasing him. Plus, she knew he didn’t really. He was saying what he thought she wanted to hear because he didn’t know her. And because he was scared and frightened, more than he would admit, and he needed to feel loved. The word was a bribe, shyly offered. She ran a finger alongside his jaw, tickle-gentle, like she really cared about him. ‘You love too quick, babe.’
‘I know,’ he said.
She sighed, curled into his chest. ‘Loving fast can be a curse.’
They lay together, breathing each other’s breath, and then he got up and started the shower. She knew he liked them long and hot, with a blast of skin-prickling cold at the end. She pretended to drowse and counted to twenty, then pulled on her panties and T-shirt and snuck downstairs. Terry Verdine, one of Paul’s men, stood guard out in the yard, Max and Gary sat in the kitchen watching cable and sipping coffee. She ducked into the room where Tommy Bellini lay in his stupor. A camouflaging hum of the monitoring equipment thrummed and Tasha hunkered down behind the bed. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed.
‘It needs to be tonight,’ she said when the phone was answered. She listened for a moment, laughed softly. Then stood up, clicked off the phone.
Tasha Strong patted Tommy Bellini’s wasted legs. ‘No dances for you, sugar pot. Sorry.’
She hurried back upstairs. Paul was still wasting hot water in the shower. She stretched out on the bed, waiting for him to be done.
Paul was out of the shower and toweling when his cell phone rang. Tasha handed it to him. He didn’t say thank you.