The henchman in the backseat was not friendly. His neck was wider than his head, and he wore a permanent frown. Billy tried to small talk him.
“You got a name?” Billy asked.
“Ah,” the henchman replied.
“How about your partner?”
“His name Ah, too.”
“Is that short for something?”
“Not short for anything. It means little one.”
The little ones. That’s just great, Billy thought.
Soon they were stuck in traffic, the harsh streetlights bouncing off the limo’s tinted glass. Billy leaned back in his seat and stared at the swirling mass of humanity flowing past. Broken Tooth was a wild card; the rules he played by were different from the code that he and his crew adhered to, and he felt certain that a business relationship would end badly. Pepper dropped her hand on his knee and gave it a squeeze.
“These guys scare me,” she whispered.
“They’re really a lot of fun, when you get to know them,” he said.
“Is that supposed to be a joke?”
“Sorry.”
“Tell me you have a plan, just to make me feel better,” she said.
Getting out of tight jams was his specialty. He’d had guns pointed at him before and managed to walk away intact. But this situation was different. His crew was being threatened, and he needed to protect them as well.
“Don’t worry. I’ll think of something,” he said.
Five
Misty and Pepper shared a fancy three-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac in the Las Vegas Country Club with a couple of mangy mutts rescued from the Humane Society. The dogs were supposed to be protection in case of a robbery, but after taking one look at the little ones, they retreated to a distant bedroom with their tails between their legs and did not reappear.
Broken Tooth had a look around before settling on the screened lanai as the desired spot to have their chat. Broken Tooth had a mean streak a mile long, no doubt compensating for the fact that his right arm was badly mangled and the two middle fingers did not extend fully. Billy had read that the average life span for a gang boss in China was fifty, which meant that Broken Tooth had a few more years of stealing left before he was sent to meet his maker.
Once everyone was settled in, Broken Tooth found the controls for the swimming pool and made colored lights illuminate the chlorinated water while soft rock played over the speakers hidden in the fake rock sculptures. The Chinese gangster still had his lunch box, which he held protectively by his side with his good hand.
“Tell me your names,” he said to the girls.
“Pepper.”
“I’m Misty.”
“Take off your clothes and get in the pool.”
The girls looked to Billy for help.
“Is this necessary?” Billy asked.
“Very necessary. Now tell them to get in the water. Deep end,” Broken Tooth said.
“You’d better do as he says,” Billy said.
Pepper and Misty got naked and climbed down the ladder into the pool. They swam into the deep end and remained there, treading water. They both sunbathed in the nude every day and sported zero tan lines. Broken Tooth smiled approvingly.
Cory, Morris, Gabe, and Leon stood by helplessly. The little ones were eyeing them like hawks, prepared to draw their guns if one of them made a false move. Billy patted the air, and the four men lowered themselves into the plastic chairs beside the pool.
“Much better,” Broken Tooth said. “I hear you’re one of the sharpest guys in Las Vegas. That you are able to rip off the casinos, and they can’t catch you.”
“I’ve never ripped off a casino in my life,” Billy said.
“That’s not what Tommy Wang says. Tommy says you the slickest crook he’s ever met.”
“Tommy who?”
“You going to play stupid with me? Too late for that. Tommy told me all about you, said you helped him rip off a casino at roulette so he could pay me back the money he owed me. Tommy didn’t know how you rigged game, said you were real smart.”
“So he’s just guessing.”
“I don’t think so. You know what Tommy does for a living? He’s an accountant with a big manufacturing company, manages lots of money. Tommy wrote down all the times he won and then figured out what the odds were. Take a stab.”
One of the ways to catch a cheat was to calculate the cheat’s winnings against the game’s percentages. Billy knew he was trapped and did not reply.
“Four-and-a-half-billion-to-one,” Broken Tooth said.
“So he got lucky. It happens sometimes,” he said.
“You trying to be funny?”
Broken Tooth made a chopping motion with his hand. The little ones drew their guns and took aim at Pepper and Misty. They didn’t seem to care if half the neighborhood heard the shots.
“Stop! I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t hurt them,” he said.
Broken Tooth shot him a murderous look. A long moment passed.
“Are you going to play straight with me?”
Billy nodded. “Yes, sir,” he added for emphasis.
“No more games?”
“No more games. You need help, I’m your man. Just don’t hurt my crew.”
“I’ll be nice this time. But it’s the last time. You mess with me again, and I’ll tell my men to kill your friends.”
“You have my word; it won’t happen again.”
Broken Tooth told the little ones to stand down. Then he went to the screen door that led to the backyard and motioned for Billy to follow. Billy did as told and glanced over his shoulder before going outside. Pepper and Misty had swum over to the edge of the pool and were holding on for dear life. Their breathing was loud and frantic.
The full moon cast a long shadow across the neatly trimmed grass. Broken Tooth placed the lunch box on the ground, then took a pack of squares from his shirt pocket, banged one out, and lit up. He tossed Billy the pack. It was a Chinese brand called Double Happiness. Billy had quit smoking years ago but lit up to be sociable. No sooner had the smoke reached his lungs than he started violently hacking. It had to be the vilest thing he’d ever put in his body.
“You don’t like?” Broken Tooth asked.
Billy spit in the grass. “Must be an acquired taste.”
“I know what you’re thinking. What’s this fucking guy doing in Las Vegas? Why isn’t he in China, where he belongs?” Broken Tooth laughed under his breath and sent ribbons of purple smoke through his nostrils. “I’ll tell you why. There’s only so much money you can make selling drugs or killing people. Big money comes from gambling. Problem is, all the casinos on the island of Macau are controlled by government, so there’s no room for me. That leaves fixing sporting events. That’s where I make my money.”
“Fixing sporting events takes a lot of nerve.”
“Shut up. I’m not finished.”
“Sorry.”
“Betting on sports is different in Asia. Everyone and their sister does it. People have bank accounts online and bet on gambling sites. Everything’s legal. You know how many sites there are where you can make a bet?”
“I don’t have a clue.”
“You’re a smart guy. Guess.”
When it came to online sports betting, the good old US of A was well behind the global curve, with legalized betting on a computer years away from being put into law. Because of this, Billy hadn’t paid much attention to it. The day it became legal, he’d figure out a way to rip it off.
“A hundred?” he guessed.
“Try seven hundred,” Broken Tooth said. “You starting to get the picture?”
It was a big number, and Billy nodded. Seven hundred gambling sites translated into seven hundred deep-pocketed suckers who could be fleeced. “With that many, you can take down a site for a huge score and then go to the next, with no one being the wiser,” he said.