by Carsen Taite
“Your brother?”
“Yep. He’s in town for wedding stuff. He was with me at Maggie’s when Petrov’s guys came calling.”
“Shit, Luca. Looks like that crazy Fed got you wrapped up in a big mess.”
I raised my beer bottle and toasted the air. “Women, can’t live with ’em. Can’t live without ’em. But beer helps.”
She half-grinned and leaned forward to clink her bottle with mine. “Walk away.”
“Excuse me?”
“Just walk away. Seriously, what are the chances Petrov is really going to mess with you? Because you wouldn’t talk to Bingo about doing business with him? He obviously doesn’t get that you’re not that well connected. He’ll get over it.”
“Ouch. Thanks a lot.”
“You know what I mean. He thought Bingo would listen to you. He misunderstood your relationship.”
“What about his threats?”
“I can take care of myself. Besides, Petrov’s about to have his time and attention taken up by another matter.”
“Is that so? Spill.”
“Not a chance.”
“Not fair. Does it have anything to do with his strippers peddling fake prescription drugs? I doubt busting his clubs will keep his attention for too long. He has a ton of other enterprises.”
“Stay out of it, Luca. Don’t you have any real work?”
“Oh, so now bounty hunting is real work?” I took another drink of my beer. “I have had a string of good luck lately, but I’ve got one more case of Hardin’s to do. It’s a big payout, but I’ve been a little distracted. You may know the guy, Otis Shaw.”
She nodded. “Be careful of that one. Word is he’s crazy. Not legal crazy, but no telling how he’ll act when you come calling. And he’s huge.”
“I really should go by there tonight, but I’m not in the mood to wrestle the hulk. Besides, you never know, I might still pick up Vedda’s guys and that would be a decent payout. In fact, I think I might go by Bingo’s place instead. See if he’s ready to talk about what’s bothering him.”
“Don’t be stupid.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s not even midnight. His place will be hopping. He’s not going to want to mess with you when he’s got a full house.”
“I was thinking maybe he’d be less likely to toss me out the door if he had an audience.”
Jess finished her beer and set it on the table between us. “Doesn’t he shut down around three?” I nodded. “Tell you what. I’ll pick you up around two thirty and we’ll go over there together. He’s not going to throw me out. I’ll leave you two alone so you can have a heart-to-heart with him.”
I tamped down my excitement at taking on this adventure with Jess by my side. Pretty strange since I’d usually balk at the prospect of a police escort. “What about…” I let my voice trail off, but I jerked my chin toward the back of the house. I hoped my reminder wouldn’t make her change her mind. The idea of a late night adventure with Jess had my blood going. Even if it wasn’t our usual fare. She didn’t disappoint.
“You let me worry about my business. You have enough of your own shit to worry about.”
Would she ever get that she was a big part of the shit I worried about?
Chapter Twelve
Jess showed up at my door at two thirty on the dot. The minute I saw her, I had a hard time remembering the purpose of this late night visit. Worn jeans hugged her lean frame, a white T-shirt stretched across her chest, and her black leather jacket was a nice contrast to her slightly mussy blond hair. Either she didn’t notice my appreciative look, or my lust had no affect on her. She thrust a white wax paper bag into my hand.
I shook away my lustful haze and peered inside. “Donuts, really? Isn’t that kind a cliché?”
“Only if I eat them. If you eat them, it’s perfectly normal.”
I reached in the bag and quickly found my favorite, chocolate glazed. She did still love me after all, and the realization coursed warmly through my body. But I couldn’t let the good feeling be. “Your girlfriend know you’re gallivanting around in the middle of the night, bringing donuts to other women?”
She grabbed the bag out of my hands and set it on the counter. “You wanna do this or not?”
This. If I knew what this was, I could answer. Was this ignoring the fact she was practically living with someone and fooling around with me? Was this actually talking about it? I wanted to know and I didn’t, in equal parts. My usual MO was to ignore conflict. It would resolve eventually. Or it wouldn’t, but messing around in it only got everyone dirty. But even though Jess and I had experienced conflict before, the core of our relationship had never been in jeopardy. I could count on her and she could count on me. For anything. Now that she was with Deveaux, I could feel the list of things we could count on each other for narrowing. Hated it, but would saying something make a difference? Or would I just be left lonelier still?
Not a gamble I wanted to take. I grinned to cover my aches and pulled a jacket out of the closet. Like Jess’s, it was black leather. Except for my black T-shirt, we were dressed alike, and we looked like thugs looking for trouble. Not far off the mark.
I grabbed the keys to the Bronco from the hook by the door. “Let’s go. And I’m driving.”
Bingo’s house was still lit up when we got there, but a steady stream of folks weaved down the sidewalk to their cars. A well-positioned squad car could probably initiate several DWI arrests in the next half hour, but I knew none would. Bingo’s place was in the zone. Despite operating outside the law, Bingo’s business was considered by many Dallas elite to be a valuable resource in the community. On any given night, you might find an NFL, NBA, or NHL player laying odds in one of his regular games. In addition to the alphabet soup of sports players, Bingo’s house was a haunt for politicians, state and local. And most importantly, a few cops liked to spend their paycheck there. I wondered if any of his special guests realized he had a connection to Vedda. That was likely to be our only leverage with him and I told Jess so.
“Got it,” she said. “How should we play this?”
My mouth fell open. Her badge meant she usually trumped me in situations like this, but I decided not to dwell on the balance of power. “He’s pissed at me for some reason. Enough to ban me and my dad from his games. You take the lead and I’ll hang back unless you signal otherwise.”
“Deal.”
I parked far enough away to see, but not be seen. About five minutes later, the outside lights went dark. We waited until the last car pulled away and then I drove around the corner and parked on the next street. We walked through the alley and eased up to the back door. I stood to the side while Jess knocked.
A few minutes later, Bingo’s tired voice called out, “Closed.”
“My partner left his wallet. He’s halfway home. I live around the block and he asked me to stop by.” Jess gave the name of one of the cops she recognized leaving Bingo’s earlier. Worked like magic. When the door swung open, she signaled for me to join her in the doorway. Bingo’s expression morphed from friendly host to annoyed resident when he saw me standing next to Jess.
“Get out.”
I left the talking to Jess. She smiled at him. Probably half to disarm him and half because she’d never seen a grown man wearing a red wig and a purple satin smoking jacket at the same time. “We’re here as friends. Aren’t you going to invite us in?”
“I don’t know you. And she…” He pointed a finger in my direction. “She’s not my friend.”
Ouch, that hurt. I’d been coming to his place since before I could count. I’d sat on my dad’s knee while he gambled away the phone bill, the grocery money, the mortgage. I’d learned to play poker before I’d learned long division. Bingo even kept my favorite cookies on hand for years after I’d outgrown the taste. I opened my mouth to protest, but Jess intervened.
“She’s your friend or she wouldn’t be here, and I damn sure wouldn’t be here in the middle of the night to help you out if it wasn�
�t for her. Now, do you want to talk about Geno Vedda out here where your neighbors can hear us or do you want to invite us in?”
Pretty sure her threat about Vedda, not the assurances of my friendship, did the trick, but I didn’t care. He waved us in. She hadn’t flashed her badge, but she didn’t need to. Just like last Saturday on the softball field, everything about her demeanor screamed cop. Didn’t matter what she was wearing. When I’d been a cop, everything about me yelled dropout. Glad at least one of us had the authority to command a situation.
We followed Bingo to the kitchen. Ever the perfect host, he offered us something to drink. Jess shook her head and started to say no, but I put my hand on her thigh and squeezed. She got the message and asked for a beer for both of us. Bingo would be more likely to talk if we took advantage of his hospitality. I resisted the urge to ask if he had any cookies.
We sat around the table, nursing our drinks for several minutes before Bingo, apparently unable to withstand the silence, burst out with, “I don’t work for Geno. I swear.”
“We’re not here to talk about Geno,” I lied. We were, but I wanted him unsettled from the start. “Did you know Yuri Petrov wants a piece of your game?”
He didn’t say anything, but I could tell he knew by the way he shrunk when I spoke the name. “What’s up, Bingo? Why all the sudden interest in your operation?” I paused and let a thought sink in. “Or have you always had behind the scenes investors?”
He shredded a napkin into a thousand pieces before answering. “Not always.”
I leaned in, like we were having this discussion one-on-one. “And lately?”
“Lately things have gotten a little out of hand.”
“Whatever it is, we can help.” I was only half-lying now. I’d never seen him be anything other than the friendly host, ready to take our money, but pleasant while doing it. Last week, when I’d lost money at one of his tables, I’d noticed he was a little agitated, but I’d written it off to having a full house. My mistake. “Tell us what you’re in for and we’ll do everything we can to help.”
He pointed across the table. “How’s she going to help? She’s a cop.”
Jess shook her head. “Not tonight. Let’s just say I have a lot going on and I need an extracurricular project to take my mind off my own troubles.”
“You have no idea what you’re getting into.”
“Try me.”
He sighed and brushed aside the remnants of his napkin tearing binge. “I never run short, but last summer, when the market tanked, business started drying up. A couple of Geno’s guys stop in occasionally to play cards. I cracked a joke about getting a loan.”
“Let me guess, Amato and Picone?”
“You got it.”
“They think your joke was funny?”
“Hilarious. They told me they knew plenty of ways I could make some extra cash, but that they didn’t think I had the nerve. I told them they were right. I’m not going to turn these guys away if they want to play a game every now and then, but I know better than to get wrapped up in their kind of business. At least that’s what I thought.”
“Well, obviously that didn’t work out so well. What happened? You got a little greedy?”
Jess shot me a shut-up look, but I didn’t care. I wanted him to get to the meat of the story. Plus, I took personal offense to his remark that he wouldn’t turn mobsters away, but he’d kick me to the curb after years of loyal play. I’d probably paid for a half dozen of his prized Elvis tchotchkes in the past year alone.
“If I was greedy, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you two. I’d have never invited you in. I only want my business back. I told Amato and Picone I wasn’t interested in making extra, but after my conversation with them, I started obsessing about how I was going to make ends meet. So much that when Geno himself stopped by a week later and offered to refi my place, I figured what could it hurt? Wasn’t like I was going to get a loan on my own. What would I list as my job? Assets—one gambling house, a dozen decks of cards, and chips for life.” He hung his head. “I should’ve known better, but those guys flash so much cash, I figured I could get a small piece, get back on track, and pay them back in no time. Of course, it didn’t work that way. I got behind.”
“Holy shit, Bingo. Geno owns your house?” He nodded, and I resisted the urge to rub it in. Everyone knows borrowing money from family is a bad idea, but borrowing from one of Dallas’s first families of crime? Stellar mistake. Huge.
Jess got things back on track. “So what’s the payback?”
“I operate as usual, but they have the run of the place and a guaranteed take. I will say business has picked up. Oh, and I have a place to live. Guess that’s a good thing.”
Business had definitely been booming tonight. And when I last played at Bingo’s tables. But his clientele had definitely changed. More flash. The crowd leaving tonight looked more like a bunch of extras from Jersey Shore than the usual ball players and college students who sat at his tables.
“What about your old customers? They still come around?”
“Some, but they tend to come on different nights than this new crowd. One of them told me he didn’t like the vibe anymore. But what am I supposed to do?”
“Damn shame. Your customers have always been loyal to you.”
He caught the anger in my voice and rushed to respond. “You tell your dad I’m sorry. I didn’t want him coming around. You know he’d feel out of place. And you, well, I couldn’t let you in. You’d mess things up for me for sure.”
“Well, I’m here now. And apparently, whatever Vedda thinks you’re good for, Yuri Petrov thinks is worth twisting my arm and threatening people I care about. You sure this is still a gambling joint?”
“I swear, if something else is going on, I don’t know anything about it.” He stood up. “Wait here, I want to show you something.”
I believed him, but I also believed that if something was going on, he chose not to know. Desperation made for great blinders. I turned to Jess. “What do you think?”
“I think he has no idea how much trouble he’s in. He’s always had an unofficial pass for whatever goes on here, but now that he’s wrapped up with Geno’s crew, I don’t think he’s safe anymore.”
Bingo reappeared before I could reply. He thrust a closed fist at me. “Here, take this.” I opened my hand and he dropped a heavy object in it. I didn’t have to look to know what it was. Yuri must have a huge stash of these rare gold coins.
“You get this from Yuri himself?”
“No, he sent a couple of hulks to give it to me. I tried to refuse, but they forced it on me. I thought about tossing it out the door at them, but I gotta tell you, I was scared. Luca, I’ve never been that scared before.”
I exchanged a look with Jess and she nodded for me to keep at it. “What did Yuri’s guys want?”
“All they said was they wanted me to clean my house. That it was their territory now. Beyond that, I don’t know. They’ve come back a few times on nights that Vedda’s crew isn’t here, but they’ve made it clear they want to be exclusive.” He wrung his hands. “If I clear Vedda’s people out, I’m in hot water with him. If I don’t, then these guys come after me. What was I supposed to tell them?”
I felt his pain. I’d told them to fuck off and they’d threatened Jess. I couldn’t exactly advise him to do the same. “Bingo, I need to talk to Chance alone for a minute. Do you mind?”
“Sure, yeah, I still need to clean up from the night. I’ll be in the living room.”
I waited for him to leave before I spoke, even though I figured he was probably listening at the door. “What do we do now?”
“You? Nothing. Time to let the folks with badges take care of this one.”
“No offense, but you folks with badges wouldn’t even know there was a problem if I hadn’t told you.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.”
“Give me a break.” Her cagey response pissed me off. “I’ve been person
ally threatened by these guys. If you think I’m going to drop this, you don’t know me as well as you think.”
“Yeah, about that. What does everyone in this little bit of chaos have in common? A connection to you. Maybe if you take yourself out of the equation, we’ll all be fine.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” It felt like she was blaming me for everyone else’s troubles. I stood up. I needed to get out of the room for a minute before I did or said something we’d both regret. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
I walked right past Bingo who was cleaning up the remains of a busy night. He looked up, and I pointed to the bathroom. Once inside, I shut the door, flipped on the cold water, and splashed my face. I let Jess’s words roll around in my head for a few. It took a few minutes, but the cogs finally clicked into place.
Diamond. She’d asked me to look for Vedda’s guys. She knew Petrov. Had even been his go-to girl for a while. She’d followed me to Bingo’s on at least one occasion in the last week, and she’d been with me right before Yuri did his best Godfather impression in the parking lot of the Dusty Rose. Somehow, this mobster rivalry circled back to her. I didn’t have a clue how or why, but I resolved to find out. But I had to shut Jess out of it. She and Diamond not only had the natural state versus federal animosity, Jess thought Diamond was up to no good. She didn’t need any more ammunition on that front. Plus, I knew Jess would go after Diamond like a bull in a china shop. Finesse was required, which meant I probably wasn’t the right one for the job either, but I had to start somewhere.
I hunted around for a towel to dry my face. Nothing on the rack, so I opened the door to the cabinet under the sink and rooted around inside. Guy was worse about doing laundry than me. In my search for a towel, I smacked my hand against the back wall. Something was off. I knelt down and looked inside, and then glanced back up at the counter. The back wall of the cabinet was about a foot less deep than the countertop. I sat on the floor and felt around until I located a spring that released a panel of what I now knew was a fake rear wall.
