“What happened downtown, Piper?”
“You tell me. I left a suit worth two hundred bucks in lap dances, drove down there, waited in that creepy neighborhood and you never showed. Who is she?”
“Don’t fucking lie to me, girl.” I wanted to grab her throat. Gripping her kitchen table, I tossed it across the small room. “I’m running crazy, real unpredictable. If I don’t get the truth this whole deal gets ugly fast. Who did you tell?”
Looking into my eyes, I could see fear taking hold of her. “What happened Mo? It’s me, talk to me.”
“Who did you tell?” I kept the intensity up, moving into her face.
“No one, Mo, believe me, no one.”
“Bullshit. Somebody knew and you’re the only one I spoke to.”
“I didn’t tell anyone, only Uncle Manny, he wanted to know why I was leaving in the middle of my shift.”
“Manny?”
“Yes, he told me not to tell anyone about you, that you were in trouble. What’s going on? Mo?” I could tell she was conflicted by fear of, and concern for me.
“I hope to god you’re telling the truth.” I said walking to the door. Mikayla raised palms as if to say what the fuck. “Let’s roll.”
In a flash the razor was in her hand. Piper froze.
“Step out of my way, Moses.”
“No. We’re done here.”
“What? She batted her eyes and you bought her story?”
“Yup. Cut me or walk away.” I balled up my fists. She would kill me no doubt, but I wasn’t going to make it easy. Behind me, I could hear Piper gasp. The razor whipped up, stopped an inch from my eye.
“Is she worth an eye?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.” She held the blade for a moment then retracted it and folded it into her pocket. She walked out without looking back.
Piped leaned against the counter, breathing hard.
“I’m sorry, baby, I had to know.”
“Fuck you, Moses, fuck you. I’ve never been anyplace but in your corner.” She was looking at her feet.
“I know, but things are so sideways.”
“Just leave, Moses. Don’t come back.” Walking out, I knew I had broken a cardinal rule, I had gone against my friend. Chosen fear over her.
In the car, I wanted to ask Mikayla if she would have cut me. But I know she would have. She was hard-wired for destruction. Instead, I asked her why she hadn’t.
“Because she was telling the truth. I knew when I saw her looking at you with the razor to your eye. She loves you.”
“Not anymore,” I said, letting it sink into my bones.
Manny’s Chrysler was the only car in the parking lot behind the club. I knew he’d be counting out the night’s receipts, he never trusted anyone, not even me, to do the final count or the bank drop.
Sliding my key into the back door, I moved in quietly. Motioning for Mikayla to check the lap room, I checked the restrooms. The place was empty, which didn’t surprise me, the cleaning crew didn’t arrive until the next day and everyone else was long off the clock.
The office door was open a crack, leaking a sliver of light into the dark hall. As I moved toward the door, I pulled the Beretta from my waistband.
Uncle Manny looked up from behind his desk. His eyes widened only slightly, a mere flicker of panic crossed his face then was gone. “Keep your hands on the desk, Manny.”
“The cash is in the bank bag,” he said, trying to stare me down.
“You know why I’m here.”
“Yes, to rob me, you ungrateful son of a bitch.”
I slapped the pistol down across his face, opening a small gash in his cheek.
“Wrong answer,” Mikayla said, flipping the razor open.
“You want to cut me? So what?” Manny looked at the blade like it meant no more to him than a toothpick.
“Glendale Adventist,” I said to Mikayla, “Bed five fourteen. You’ll find an Arab there. Kill him.”
“Ok,” Mikayla shrugged and headed out the door. She got all the way down the hall before Manny broke.
“Wait, Moses, wait. Call her back.”
“I’m way past fucking around here, Manny.”
“Call her back, I’ll tell you what I know.” His shoulders slumped and he was suddenly a sad old man. I let her get ten more paces before I finally called out.
Coming back into the office, she looked put out at not getting to kill anyone. She leaned against a credenza behind Manny, flicking the razor open and closed.
“Tell me about the Israelis,” I ordered Manny.
“Who?” He looked genuinely confused.
“The motherfuckers you sent to waste me at the bus depot.”
“No, I called Dimitri Petravich. Moses, you must believe I had no choice. They threatened to kill my family. You saw what they did to my nephew, I had no choice.” Sweat ran down his forehead.
“You always have a choice. You chose to give me up.”
“I care for you like a son, if I thought they could succeed in harming you, I never would have told them. I knew you could take care of yourself, but my family…”
“You knew they had their girls whoring out of the club, didn’t you?” I had to change the conversation away from his sentimental crap before I started believing him. “How did they get their hooks into you?”
“They threatened to have me sent down as a terrorist. They have friends working for Homeland Security. All they need is a suspicion and I would disappear. Guantanamo, Spain, wherever they were hiding combatants. I would be gone. Who would care for my family? What was the harm? A man wants to get his cock sucked, a girl is willing to suck it, what is the harm?”
“The girls weren’t willing,” Mikayla said. Manny turned around to look at her. Slamming my fist on the desk, I caught his attention. I had to keep him from engaging Mikayla and getting his throat slit.
“Bullshit, Manny. Some Russian gangster tells you he has government connections and you roll over? Nah, don’t buy it.”
“A federal agent came to the club, he said it was a routine immigration check. But I knew it was a message from the Russian. He was proving his connections were real. I’m not proud of what I did, but it was what I had to do. Now if you are going to kill me, please make it look like robbery so my wife can collect the insurance.”
“You fucked me hard and dry, Manny. Killing you won’t even this score, not by a mile. No, you stay in play with these bastards. You’re my inside man now.”
I told him to keep his cell on, I’d be in touch. On the way out, I grabbed the bank bag. It was the price he’d pay for fucking a friend.
Manny had been the only father I had ever known. He was a hard, street fighting bastard. I had trusted him. My mistake.
We made it two blocks before the government car hit its siren and lights.
CHAPTER 18
“Where the fuck are the girls?” The fed’s belly hung over a rodeo belt.
“At the mall?” It was stupid, but fuck it, I was tired. I had been cuffed and on my knees for the past twenty minutes. The same question over and over.
Mikayla was gone. When he hit the siren, I jammed on the gas and let the beast roar. We hung a left so tight, I could feel the right tires lift off. He missed the turn but he wasn’t far behind. Left, right, I was running blind through Frogtown, a small area of convoluted streets, pinned between the 5 and the LA river. The last turn was a mistake. Two hundred feet down, it dead-ended into the river. Slamming on the brakes, I gave Mikayla the cash, the Beretta and the name of the motel. Then I jumped out and ran towards the black sedan. Mikayla slipped into the shadow.
“Stuck your dick in a hornets’ nest this time, boy.” I could smell bourbon on his breath as he leaned into me. “I’m tossing you a life line, maybe you should think about taking it.”
“Meet you halfway?”
“That’s all I’m asking.”
“Only one problem, chief.”
“What might that be?”