by Taylor Lee
The men around him laughed uproariously as though he had said the most amusing thing. It reminded her of the men who crowded around her at parties, begging for attention like little puppy dogs. It was hard to contain her distain.
She was grateful when Dominic stepped forward. “May I suggest that we be seated, gentlemen. We have a long night of activity ahead of us.” He motioned to the waiters who snapped to attention. As the men began to take their places Ana could see the pecking order. The big man sat down first then one by one the others took their places. The ones sitting next to him were clearly his lieutenants. An older man with a white shirt and string tie stood off to the side. Ana assumed he was the dealer. In minutes, bottles of whisky and glasses appeared. The servant pulled small tables with smoking between each pair of players.
As the men settled in their chairs they began talking and laughing as they had before she entered. Ana eased back against one of the serving tables trying to disappear. There was an empty chair at the table. For one silly moment she wished she could play but she knew without asking that she would not be included.
The big man whose name she learned was Red had already filled his glass twice. He shouted to Dominic. “Where’s the little prick? I thought you said he was coming.” Dominic pulled an impressive watch from the chain at his waist. “It’s not 9:30 yet Red. He may have had difficulty with directions.”
Red glared at him. “You’re leaving a shit pile of money on the table, Dominic, if that fucker don’t show, You know that, don’t you?”
Dominic bowed slightly. ‘I’m quite aware of the agreements.”
For the first time since she arrived Ana was afraid. Without hearing his name, she knew the empty chair was for Gabe. All of her bravado, her promises, deserted her when she thought about facing this night without him. The anguish that swept her would have brought her to her knees but one of the servants behind her grasped her arm and held her up.
At that moment Red turned and glared at her. “What the hell are you doing standing there, girl? Get the hell up on that stage and be quick about it!”
Ana was stunned. He couldn’t mean it. Please god, no. That stage can’t be for me. Please, no.
Red glared at her and raised up in his chair. “What are you? Deaf and dumb? You hear me, girl. And don’t you be swingin that chin at me unless you wanna feel my fist.”
Ana took a deep breath and pictured her father. She remembered stories of him walking down the street between columns of white men shouting ugly curses and epithets but never once bowing his head.
Without looking at the man muttering behind her, Ana squared her shoulders and walked toward the stage. When she reached the steps one of the Chinese men stepped forward. He bowed slightly and held her hand guiding her up on the stage.
Red leaned back in his chair and puffed on his fat cigar. “Now that’s what I’m talking about girl. Get your ass up there so we can all see what we’re playing for.”
A wave of horror swept over her. No, God. Please no. By sheer force of will, Ana kept her knees from buckling.
Red laughed a deep ugly sound. “Hell yeah, that’s a lot better. She don’t look so haughty now, does she men? But hell honey, don’t lose that. I like a little bitch with spirit. Like em when they put up a fight.”
Ana struggled to breathe. She wasn’t sure she could.
Her fear egged Red on. “Now turn around one more time nice and slow. I wanna get a good look at that ass of yours. It’s givin me all kinds of ideas. How about you, men?”
Cutting through their lewd chuckles and outright laughter Ana heard a calm voice.
“I see you’re as big a bully as you ever were, Red. Kicked any puppy dogs lately?”
~~
Chapter 35
Red reared up in his chair. His face flushed a dangerous dark scarlet color. He glared at Gabe, his eyes flashing with anger. With an obvious effort he pasted an ugly grin on his face.
“Well, I’ll be fucked. If it isn’t the little prick himself. Gabriel McKenna. And as arrogant as ever. Come to teach the big boys how to play poker, kid?”
Gabe gave him a brief smile. “I wouldn’t presume, Red, that I could teach you anything. What’s that saying about trying to teach old dogs new tricks?”
Red growled. “You cocky son of a bitch. You haven’t changed a bit in twelve years, have you?”
Gabe gave him an appraising glance. “I imagine there have been some changes, Red. Not as noticeable as yours, however,” he said lifting his head to eye the big man’s protruding gut.
A couple of the men at table chuckled but quickly stopped when Red glared at them.
Gabe looked up with a pleasant smile, nodding to a couple of men across the table. “Greetings, Mike, and you too, Pat. I see you’re still hanging around with the old man here.”
Both men glowered at him and didn’t answer.
Gabe glanced around the table then allowed himself to look at the stage. His heart pounded so hard it was a wonder it didn’t jump out of his chest. He leaned back in his chair and took out his cigarette case desperate to hide the pain flooding him. Using the cover of smoke he glanced up at Ana, wanting her to know that it was going to be okay, that he would get her out of here. She trembled and her face flushed. He thought his heart might break when he saw the shame and embarrassment in her eyes. Jesus, what he would do to put his arms around her and tell her that she was the bravest woman he’d ever known. But he had to content himself with the knowledge that shortly every goddamned one of these sons of bitches would be dead.
He glanced over at Dominic and nodded up at the stage. “Who’s she, Dominic?’
Red jumped in as Gabe knew he would. “Why, Mr. McKenna, I thought you knew. We’re havin ourselves a little celebration. Sort of an auction. It’s what we call in my gang “Virgin Night.”
Ana’s gasp was audible across the room.
Gabe covered for her wanting to give her a chance to recover. “Hell, Red, I don’t know how to tell you this, but it’s been a long time since you were a virgin.”
A roar of laughter filled the room. Even Red chuckled a little.
“C’mon, Gabriel, you gotta remember way back, how much fun it was to break through those tight little gals.”
“Red, really. You know where I grew up. I don’t think there was a virgin among those little Irish lasses over the age of twelve. Including your daughters, if I remember right.”
Red rose up his face verging on purple. “You fucking son of a bitch. I’m gonna kill you for that, McKenna.”
Gabe took a drag off his cigarette. “Why don’t you see if you can beat me at poker first, Red. Which bring me back to my question. What’s she doing up there?”
Mike broke in, “Let me fill the little fucker in, Red. Don’t let him get to you. He’s just tryin to rile you. Throw you off your game. In case you don’t know, McKenna, we’re playin for that little gal up there. But the guy who set it up made it a little more interesting. There ain’t gonna be no losers. Excepting maybe her.” A hearty round of guffaws greeted that remark.
Pat jumped in. “Here’s the deal, Gabriel. Every man who wants a piece of her puts twenty five thousand dollars in the ante pot. For that small piece of change he gets a number. That number is the order we fuck her in.”
Gabe stared at him and took another drag off his cigarette. He didn’t look at Ana. He knew if he did he would be at her side in a moment and probably get them both killed.
Pat continued to drone on as if he was organizing a lottery at a church social. “So you got, that, Gabriel, the person with the highest card gets her second and so on down.”
Gabe flicked the ash off his cigarette. “Who gets her first?”
Mike said with a grin, “The guy who is the big winner tonight.”
There was a growl from across the table. “In case, you don’t understand asshole. That would be me.”
Gabe grinned. “Who’s the cocky son of a bitch now, Red?”
Red eyed him. “J
ust so you know, kid. In twenty years of playin poker with my gang, I ain’t lost yet.”
Gabe chuckled. “Did you ever think, Red, it’s not that you’re a good poker player but that the rest of them are horseshit.”
A loud rumble of angry retorts greeted that remark.
Gabe decided it was time to push the point. It was important that he get them all to commit or get the hell out. He needed to hear from every man at the table that they planned to gang rape Ana.
“One more question, fellows. Who gets the pot of money in the middle?”
Red’s voice was smooth. The ignorant immigrant Irish was gone. In its place was the man who was the scourge of the east coast gangs. “Why, Gabriel, you really are a neophyte. As in any poker game, the man who ends up with the most chips wins. In this case, the chips, the pot, the bitch and the bragging rights, Angel.” His emphasis on the last word was a clear signal. Red knew exactly who he was and had come to take him down.
Mike reached in his jacket pocket and tossed a pouch on the table. “I’m in.” Nodding to the dealer, he added, “Give me a card.” The frown that crossed his face said it all. “I don’t care. I just don’t wanna come after Erick. By the time he finishes they’re bleedin out of every hole so bad, it ain’t sanitary.”
Gabe refused to look at Ana. He couldn’t bare to see the pain on her face. He took his time lighting a cigar and filling his glass. He watched through narrowed eyes as one by one the men around the table threw in their money and took a card. And, not incidentally, dug their grave.
When it came round to Gabe, he shook his head and smiled at the dealer. “Good evening, Charlie. Good to know we have an honest dealer tonight. And no, Charlie, I won’t need a card.”
Mike frowned. “You don’t want a piece of that ass up there, Angel”
The fact that they were all using his moniker underscored that this was as big a set up on their end as it was on his.
“It’s not that, Mike. It’s just that I plan on winning that pot. No need to put in money when I’m just going to be taking it out again.”
All the men at the table looked to Red to see how he was taking the insult. To Gabe’s surprise, Red just nodded at Charlie and said, “Let the little fucker strut around fellows. We’ll see who’s the big man at the end.”
The game took its usual route. By the end of the first round Gabe knew every player’s tells. It wasn’t that these men were bad poker players, it was that Gabe was that good. Three times in a row, he bluffed and took a huge pot, blowing out hands he knew were much better than his. He watched Red and knew he was getting to him. When Gabe took that third hand on a bluff he saw the big man signal Pat. Gabe understood that Pat was to be a fall guy on the next hand if Red didn’t get cards. But he did. Unfortunately for Red, so did Gabe.
When Red reached for the pot without showing his hand and before Gabe showed his hand, Gabe said, pleasantly, “Sorry, Red, Where I come from, my three kings will always take those three ladies of yours.” Red pulled back his hand and stared in disbelief at Gabe’s three kings.
And then the attack that Gabe had been expecting all night began.
“Saw your father the other night, Gabriel. He’s not lookin good, son.”
When Gabe nodded but didn’t respond, Red pressed on. “No, hard to believe Rory McKenna was once a good lookin man. Not like you, of course. You look just like your Ma. Can say what you want, but you damn Black Irish got us reds comin and goin.”
Again Gabe nodded with a polite smile and focused on the cards.
By this time all but Gabe, Red and Mike were left in the game. When Gabe took yet another huge pot, he knew Red was coming in for the kill and the asshole didn’t disappoint.
“Chances are your dad ain’t gonna be around much longer, Gabriel. He’s gettin careless. It’s one thing to screw every society bitch in town but it ain’t smart to take up with the gang molls.” Red chuckled. “You know what them gang leaders are like, Gabriel. They don’t like has beens like your old man stickin their dicks in someone else’s property. Hell, if he ain’t careful, he’s gonna end up like your grandfather. Christ, boy, that’s some heritage you got. Rory McKenna son, and Brendon Doyle’s grandson. Fuckin Christ, kid, you don’t have a chance, do you?”
Gabe smiled but his eyes were hard. “So, I’ve been told, Red. All of my life.”
He reached out to scoop up the last pot and gave Mike a pleasant smile as he picked up the flustered man’s chips.
“That takes the last of Mike’s chips, Red. And your pile is getting mighty small. Are you about to concede or do you want to play one more hand so that I can tell the world that the mighty Red Regan is full of shit. The only people he wins against are his chickinshit gang who’s too scared to tell their over the hill boss that he’s no better at poker than he is with women. That is why you only do virgins right, Red? I hear experienced women laugh in your face but you’re too drunk to notice.”
Dead silence hung over the table.
A panoply of expressions ranged across Red’s face, from rage to fury and finally to anger as cold and hard as Gabe’s.
When Red spoke his voice was soft but there wasn’t a person in the room who missed the threat. “I heard you got one of them photographic memories, Gabriel. Is that right? That somehow you know every card before it’s been played. Is that right, boy? I don’t know what other people call it, but I call it cheatin. Yeah, Mr. Ace Angel, I’m calling you a cheater. Here’s what we’re gonna do, kid. Charlie here is gonna bring out a new deck. I like the look of that green one, Charlie. We’re gonna play one hand, Angel. Stud, seven cards. First two and the last one down. Oh, and Angel, just in case you really do have a photographic memory, we’re makin Jokers wild. Any objections, boy?”
“How much are we playing for?”
“How much you got, kid?”
“A hundred thousand dollars, the pot in the middle and the only one who takes the girl.”
A light dawned in Red’s eyes. He let out a soft whistle. “It’s about her, ain’t it, kid?”
“Yeah, Red. It’s all about her.”
“Christ, boy, you really are just like your father.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Red. I’m not anything like my father.”
~~~
Gabe shrugged off Charlie’s worried frown. There was no question the deck was marked. Hell, so was the one they’d been playing with all night. The summer after they started working together he and Eagle spent a month thinking up card codes until they thought they’d mastered every one known to man. Gabe was relieved to see the deck Red chose had a fairly simple code. He was more pleased that the cards weren’t just talking to him they were singing.
By the fifth card, there wasn’t a sound in the room as the cards hit the table/ When Red’s sixth card was an Ace giving him a remarkable three Aces showing, his gang cheered. The excitement around the table was palpable. Red looked over at Gabe’s cards and laughed out loud.
“Hell, kid, how does it feel? We both know that even if you had a joker which you don’t, the other joker is buried too deep for you to get it. I’ m reading you for a four flush or maybe an inside straight.”
When Charlie dealt them each their last down card, Red jumped up in excitement.
“Here you go, kid. Read em and weep.”
He pushed his three aces in the middle of the table then with a huge smile he turned over his first card, a Joker, that gave him four Aces. Cheers erupted across the table.
Gabe held up his hand. “Not so fast, Red.”
He turned over the three and the five of clubs and laid them beside the four and the six on the table. He took a long drag off his cigarette.
“Strange as it seems, Red, given that they call me the Ace Angel, aces have never been my favorites. I prefer the less assuming deuce.”
With a flip of the cards, he turned over the two of clubs, giving him the lowest straight flush in the deck and the only hand that could beat four of a kind.
In the second of stunned silence that followed, Gabe’s knife flew from his hand landing in Pat’s neck.
Meeting Red’s shocked gaze, then looking around the table, Gabe’s voice was cold.
“You might want to look behind you fellows, or you’ll meet Pat’s fate.
“But, then again, given what we have in store for you, you might prefer Pat’s fate.”
Ana was as astounded as Red and his gang. At the same time she saw Gabe’s knife leave his hand, strong arms grabbed her and pulled her from the stage. She looked up to see Dominic’s supposed butler smiling at her. He wrapped his arms around her, a protective shield. Even more surprising, each of the other Chinese “servants” was now brandishing a gun or a knife and strategically spaced behind the men at the table. She saw Mike’s hand go for his gun but in the next instant the Chinese man behind him whipped out a garrote and strangled him.
She would never forget the next five minutes. Gunnar and Eagle came out of nowhere as did seven more of Gabe’s team. Within minutes the gang members were all bound, gagged and tied to their chairs.
Gabe stood to the side, smoking a cigarette. He had yet to look at her.
When Red and his gang were immobilized, Gabe stepped forward.
“We are waiting for one additional guest. When he arrives we will complete our mission. I suggest that being the good Catholics I’m sure you are, you spend these last moments of your life on earth atoning for your past. You might start by praying for every virgin you raped and the first five or six men you killed. If you’re anything like me, they start running together after that.”
Eagle’s voice was ice. “He here’s, Gabe.”
At Gabe’s nod all of his men flattened against the wall.
When Peter walked in his usual supercilious smirk changed to puzzlement at the sight of the bound men at the table. Seconds later he let out a fearful cry. .
When Gabe stepped forward Peter jumped back only to land in the waiting grip of Eagle and Gunnar.
In moments he was gagged and bound and tied to one of the chairs at the table.
