Overkill

by Dylan Rust

  There was a knock at the door. One of the guards opened it. A topless woman walked into the room up to the table with drinks on a plate. She gave each player a martini. “Courtesy of Igor,” the woman said.

  Sasha grabbed her glass and downed the martini in one gulp.

  The tassels on the woman’s nipples jangled as she walked toward Jack. “Hey, hot stuff,” she said. “It’s on the house.”

  Jack picked up the martini and shook it in his hand.

  “Shall we proceed with the game?” the dealer asked.

  Both players nodded.

  The dealer moved to the flop. He flipped over the two of clubs, seven of spades and jack of spades.

  “The jack of spades,” Sasha said. “A fitting card for you to lose to.” She raised another ten thousand. “Are you man enough to match me? You’re almost all in. You could lose a lot this hand.”

  Jack looked at the cards he was dealt and then looked at Sasha. Her eyes were aversive. He pushed ten thousand in. He raised another one hundred.

  “I just want to talk,” he said. He placed his martini glass on the table. “I feel like I’m beginning to really get to know you.”

  “You know nothing. You’re just an arrogant American.”

  “You came here in the early two thousands,” he said. He looked Sasha up and down. “The stains on your red high heels are from gun powder. The earrings you’re wearing, those tiny Russian flags, they were gifts from someone important. They’re encrusted diamonds.”

  “If you say one more thing, Mr. Spade, I’ll have one of these guards shoot you.”

  Jack smirked. “It took me a few rounds, but I think I’ve finally figured you out.”

  “You don’t know anything about me.”

  Sasha matched Jack’s raise. She pushed all her chips into the center of the table.

  “I’m done playing around,” she said. “I want this game over with. Do you care to match?”

  Sasha was nervous. Her leg was shaking. She looked at the guards once more. Her eyes widened. One of the guards walked over to her. He leaned in toward her. “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  “I need another drink,” she said.

  Jack had gotten inside Sasha’s head. She wasn’t thinking straight. She was paranoid. She didn’t like being vulnerable. She didn’t like being analyzed.

  “Are you scared?” she said. “You think you have me all figured out. But that doesn’t matter. I’m still winning. You won’t match. I know you won’t.”

  That was all Jack needed to hear. He matched.

  The guard came back with a drink for a Sasha. She took the vodka and shot it back.

  The dealer flipped over the turn, revealing a queen of diamonds.

  Sasha eye’s lowered. She stared at the dealer’s deck.

  Since there was no more betting to be done, the dealer flipped the river.

  He flipped over the seven of diamonds.

  Sasha looked at her cards, then the cards on the table.

  She smiled. She had something. She looked at Jack.

  He wasn’t smiling, he wasn’t frowning.

  “Something the matter, Mr. Spade?” Sasha asked. “You may have thought you were in control but at the end of the day this is a game about luck.”

  Jack said nothing.

  The dealer interrupted the exchange. “It’s time for you both to reveal your cards,” he said.

  “Good,” Sasha said. “You’re lucky, I’m lucky.” She revealed her cards.

  She had the queen of hearts and jack of clubs. A good hand. She had two pair.

  The dealer pulled the cards toward the center of the table.

  “With the queen of diamonds and jack of spades that the house played, you have two pair.” He looked at Jack. “You’re turn, Mr. Spade.”

  Jack flipped his cards over one at a time.

  He revealed the queen of hearts.

  Sasha tensed up. She leaned forward.

  Jack flipped over his final card.

  It was the seven of hearts.

  He had three sevens and two queens. He had a full house.

  He won the game.

  “You motherfucker,” Sasha said. “You cheated. You cheated.”

  Jack pulled the chips in. “You lost,” he said.

  “You son-of-a-bitch! How did you know all of that stuff about me? How did you know?”

  “The power of observation,” Jack said.

  Sasha’s face went red. She lunged over the table toward Jack. The martini’s, cards, and chips that had been resting on the table flew in all directions.

  Chaos erupted.

  “You cheated! You cheated!” she screamed. She clawed at Jack’s face.

  Jack grabbed her hands and controlled her. The guards sprung into action. They grabbed hold of Jack and pulled him down and pulled Sasha off of him.

  “You’ll die!” she said.

  Jack didn’t fight back against the guards. He remained calm. If he overreacted, he’d get kicked out or shot.

  Sasha pulled a gun from her purse and aimed it at Jack. The players who had stuck around to watch the rest of the game hid behind the poker table. They didn’t realize that the gun Sasha was holding, the M&P 40C, fired bullets powerful enough to shoot through the trunk of a small tree. They weren’t safe behind the table. The girls working the room screamed and hid behind the guards.

  As if on que, the lights in the room went out. The door swung open. Six guards walked in and shouted for everyone to keep calm. One of the guards fired three shots into the air.

  The chaos died down.

  Everyone went quiet.

  The lights turned back on. Igor Grekovitch walked into the room. He clapped.

  “Sasha, my darling,” he said. “What is the meaning of this? You’re aiming your weapon at our champion?”

  “He cheated,” she said.

  Igor laughed. “Sasha, my dear. Don’t be silly. No one cheats in The Dacha House. There are cameras all over this room. We have a time of highly professional in the security room watching every game, making sure that no one is cheating. This man did not cheat.”

  Sasha put her gun away. She screamed and left the room. She didn’t like to lose.

  Igor snapped his fingers.

  Two guards picked Jack up off the ground.

  “Bring him upstairs,” Igor said. “I want to meet with the winner.”

  23

  Tom and Claire were back at the warehouse. They were both scared. Nothing about the night had gone as they’d planned. Everything had fallen apart. The only one who was in control of their situation was Jack, and he, according to Agents Wright and Clarkson, was waiting in hallway outside of Igor’s office.

  “Is Luka going to make it?” asked Wright.

  Claire looked at Agents Wright and Clarkson and tried to smile, she tried to be strong, be hopeful, but she couldn’t. Luka had lost a lot of blood. Three bullets had pierced his stomach. If any had hit a vital artery or organ, he’d be dead. The fact that he’d survived for as long as he had suggested that major arteries and organs had been missed. “The doctor’s are hopeful,” she said.

  “Are we sure they were Igor’s men who attacked us?” Tom said. “There are lots of gangs roaming that neighborhood.”

  Claire shot Tom a stern look. “We shouldn’t have parked that close to The Dacha House. Jack told you to park farther away. You didn’t listen. We’re now compromised.”

  “It didn’t matter how close we were to the club,” Tom said. “They would have found us.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Whatever.”

  Tom sat down and slouched. He looked at the monitors. The streetview entrance of the club looked normal. Status quo. Two new bouncers were out front guarding it. There was a long line of people waiting to get in.

  “Whatever?” Claire said. “You handed over your badge and gun. You should have stayed in the van. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I didn’t think they’d threaten me.
”

  “They’re Russian gangsters. They don’t give a shit about your badge. And because of your stupidity Luka was shot and Igor will most likely know that a van full of federal agents was creeping around his neighborhood. Let’s hope that he doesn’t connect us to Jack.”

  “We don’t know if they were Igor’s men,” Tom said.

  “You’re unbelievable.”

  “We can’t tell Edward about this,” Tom said. “He’ll have my head.”

  “We will discuss that later, for now our priority is Jack.”

  Wright and Clarkson were going over security footage from the club. They were looking to see if they could spot the two black SUVs who’d confronted the agents via one of the cameras on the streets around the club that they were monitoring. They couldn’t find anything. They kept rewinding tape.

  “If Igor connects Jack to my badge,” Tom said. “He…”

  Claire interruped him. “We’ll be in deep shit. We just have to hope that Igor doesn’t hear about our fuck up tonight. His men are loyal, but the hierarchy of a Russian gang is complex. It might take days for Igor to get the information about us.”

  Tom pulled out his gum and started chewing. He threw three sticks into his mouth.

  Claire felt dejected. She felt stupid. She was blaming Tom for everything, but deep down she knew she was partially responsible for what had happened. She should have been more prepared. She should have known that Igor’s men would be aggressive. She slumped down in one of the chairs and rubbed her brow. This night had been too long.

  Tom was about to speak up but Wright stopped him. Chatter inside the club was picking up again. He shushed the agent.

  “Quiet,” Wright said. “Jack’s about to meet with Igor.”

  Claire shot up and walked to Wright’s station and picked up a pair of headphones.

  “Fuck.”

  “What is it?” Tom asked. “Are things getting worse?”

  He picked up some headphones.

  “Yes,” Claire said. “Much worse.”

  Their ears inside the club were about to go dark. Jack’s phone had been confiscated. They wouldn’t be able to hear a thing.

  Jack was on his own.

  24

  Igor’s office smelled of Fuente cigars and cologne. The mob boss sat behind his desk, his feet up. A giant portrait of his father was on the wall behind him. He exhaled a large cloud of smoke when Jack and two club security guards walked in.

  Jack was forced to sit down in a chair in front of Igor’s desk. The guards stood behind him. One held a Makarov, other a Tokarev. If Jack made a wrong move, click. His brains would be splattered along Igor’s Persian rug. Their only concern would be Igor’s patience during the cleanup. They were told to do this with every winner. Igor didn’t want to take any chances.

  Igor studied Jack. He didn’t look like the usual winner of his tournament.

  “Congratulations,” he said. “You beat one of the best. Sasha is a very good poker player. She doesn’t like to lose. When she plays, I usually reward the man who comes in second place.”

  “She works for you.”

  “You could say that,” Igor said. “She is a friend. A very good friend.” He chuckled. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?”

  Jack didn’t respond. He just stared at the man who was responsible for his sister’s kidnapping. He wasn’t in the mood for simple conversation.

  Igor shrugged. He looked at his guards.

  “Did you remove his cellphone?”

  “Yes,” one of the guards said.

  “Was he carrying any weapons?”

  “Yes.”

  One of the men pulled out Jack’s GLOCK 17 and handed it to Igor.

  “Good,” Igor said. “Good.” He looked at the gun. “A practical and dependable weapon. Interesting.” He placed the gun on the table. “I’ve just met you so you can understand why I don’t want you carrying anything that could harm me.”

  Jack nodded. “I understand.”

  “And in terms of the cell phone, I don’t like technology. Too much technology around and I start to feel sick. I don’t like the way it distracts us. It makes us uncomfortable. I don’t like that. I want you to be comfortable here. That’s the whole point of The Dacha House.”

  “It’s a nice club,” Jack said. “But for someone who doesn’t like technology, you sure have a lot of security cameras around. Are you paranoid?”

  Igor stared at Jack intensely. “No,” he said. “I’m not paranoid. I’m just not stupid. I record everything. It helps me sleep at night.”

  “You get a lot bad men in your club?”

  Igor laughed. “There are no bad men inside my club, Mr. Spade. There are only weak men and strong men.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  Igor didn’t like Jack’s indifference. Most of the winners he’d met grovelled at his feet. He wanted to get this over with, but he wanted Jack to cower first. He wanted Jack to know who was boss.

  “I bring the winner of the poker tournament up here to give them a reward,” he said “It’s my way of saying thank you.”

  “How gracious of you.”

  “Are you not pleased?”

  “I’m thrilled,” Jack said dryly.

  Igor felt it was time to teach the man a lesson. He pulled out his Desert Eagle Mark VII. He aimed the gun at Jack and looked through its iron sights. He mouthed the word pow and then burst out laughing. He placed the gun on his desk. “Perhaps, you don’t quite understand,” he said. “You caused a bit of a stir tonight. Two dead bouncers and a dead girl were found in our back alley. My men tell me that their deaths were the result of a game of Russian roulette gone wrong. They said you were the winner.”

  “The girl went crazy,” Jack said. “Had your bouncers not got a couple in her, I would’ve been next. Check your cameras.”

  Igor chuckled and looked at his gun. “My men did. Unfortunately, the light in the back alley went out. They couldn’t really see a thing.”

  “That’s unfortunate,” Jack said.

  “You also pissed off the warden.”

  “The warden?”

  “The man who drew his gun on you in the first game. He’s the warden of Rikers Island Prison.”

  Jack heard there was a new guy in charge of the prison. And just like the old one, it appeared that he was a corrupt piece of shit.

  “I have many friends,” Igor said. “Some in high places and some in low places. You should be careful.”

  “I was just trying to play to win,” Jack said. “It’s not my fault he couldn’t take it.”

  “And Sasha drew her gun on you, too. You seem to be attracting trouble everywhere you go.”

  “It must be my lucky day.”

  “Of course it is.” Igor placed both hands on his desk and smiled. His smile wasn’t pleasant, however. He exposed his teeth. His smiled was threatening, hostile.

  “So what’s the reward?” Jack asked.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  “You’re Igor Grekovitch.”

  “Do you know who my father was?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “My uncle worked for him.”

  “Really? Who was your uncle?”

  “The Blade.”

  Igor knew that name. Every crime boss in New York City knew that name. The Blade took no sides. He was ruthless, merciless, and, most importantly, good at his job. His father had used him for a variety of hits in the seventies and eighties.

  “Your uncle was The Blade?”

  “Do you need me to repeat myseld?”

  “Didn’t the Italians kill him?”

  “It was the Irish.”

  “He should have picked a side.”

  “He got what was coming to him.”

  Igor laughed. “Is that why you came to my club? Did you want to tell me who your uncle was? What do you want from me?”

  “I just came here to win some money.”

  “I’m not stupid,” Igo
r said. “You don’t just drop something on me like that and expect me to ignore it. What do you want from me?”

  “Okay,” Jack said. “You got me. You’re right. I didn’t come here to just play some poker games. I came here because I want to work for you. Word on the street is you’re looking for some men who have a talent for killing.”

  “Are you a killer?” Igor asked. “Are you like your uncle?”

  “I’m better.”

  “Your uncle once took on an entire club full of Polish gangsters with a shotgun and an axe.”

  “I heard the story. He told it to me when I was fourteen. I think he exaggerated a few bits.”

  “Why should I trust you?”

  “You shouldn’t,” Jack said. “But should you trust anyone in this club?”

  “True,” Igor said. “So you want to work for me? I’ll have to think about it. How about I mull it over while you have fun with your reward. When you’re done, come back to my office. I’m sure there are a few jobs and errands I can have you run.”

  “Just what I always wanted,” Jack said.

  “If you don’t have fun with your reward, I’ll consider it an insult. I’ll just kick you out of the club. If you refuse to leave, I’ll kill you.”

  “Like I said, I came here to talk to you. I want to work for you. I don’t need a reward.”

  “It’s mandatory,” Igor said.

  Jack wanted to get down to business. He didn’t need to spend some time with some hooker. He wanted to find Elaine. He resisted the urge to grab his gun from the table and empty an entire clip into Igor’s chest. If the security had not been standing ready, he might have tried it.

  Igor got up from his desk and walked to his liquor cabinet.

  “Before I give you your prize, how about we drink?”

  “Sure,” Jack said.

  Igor poured Jack and himself a drink. “Drink,” he said.

  Jack grabbed the glass and shot it back.

  Igor drank his then snapped his fingers.

  Security picked Jack up and took off his jacket. They unbuttoned his shirt. They were looking for a wire. When they didn’t find one, they sat him back down.

  Jack buttoned up his shirt and put back on his jacket and sat back down.

  “I’m a cautious person, Mr. Spade,” Igor said.