Josh Stallings - Beautiful, Naked and Dead

“That, or I kill you all and call it a day well spent.”

“Obviously that remains a viable option, however, it will only lead to more destruction down the road. So let’s say we put that option to the side for the moment, you can always pick it back up, but for the moment let’s look down other avenues,” he said as cool as a banker working out a loan.

“Do you like scotch?” I said.

“Single malt?”

“Of course.” As an afterthought I bent to pull the sweater boy up, he smiled like I was finally showing him his due respect. Pistoning my arms I propelled him across the room backward. Stumbling over the coffee table he fell sideways onto the floor again. “Kill him first,” I said to Gregor and left him covering the two young thugs, leading the suit man into the kitchen. “Ice?” I said, pulling down my McCallans.

“That would be a crime,” he said. I poured us each a glass and sat down.

“You have a name?”

“Call me Leo.”

“Is that your name?”

“It will do.” He was around fifty with the body of a man who likes to keep in shape, his black suit hung beautifully, hand tailored I suspected. There was nothing off the rack about this man. “As I see it, you have accidentally stepped into a rather large bear trap. Now as for options, the cleanest would be for you to give us the girl. We part friends and all this becomes a sad but soon forgotten incident in your life.” Looking at me he swirled the scotch around in the glass, then took a small sip. “This truly is fine scotch.” I met his gaze, scratching my chin with the barrel of my.45.

“Twice, you and those two clowns have come after me, and twice I’ve handed you your ass. Now I’m supposed to wet myself ‘cause you may or may not be connected. I’m not wearing a skirt, so don’t treat me like your bitch.”

“I meant no disrespect. And you could kill us, but it would solve nothing, and I think you know that.” Again he sipped the scotch, closing his eyes he let it drift over his tongue.

“You want a deal? Tell me who your boss is and maybe I let you and Heckle and Jeckle walk. Or I let my boy go to work on them, see who talks first.”

“My employer is not germane to this conversation. I think you’ll be surprised by the effort we will go to protect his confidence.”

“Do you care who I kill first?” I said, my blood starting to rise.

“Not really,” he said, taking another sip. Rearing up, I toppled the table, sending the glasses smashing into the wall. Swinging the gun across his face he started to bleed but the calm never left his eyes.

“I’m through talking to errand boys. Collect your garbage and get out. Tell your boss, if he wants the girl he’ll have to meet with me himself. And if he sends any more of you cheap suited bastards after me, I’ll send them back in a box.”

“A fair request, I don’t think it will be met with much generosity, though.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think. Tell him I’ll be at The Barbary Coast in two days. I see any goons and the girl goes to the feds. Let them straighten this shit out.”

“You seem destined to cut your life short. And all over a pretty face.”

“Look around, you see anything here worth living for? Now get.” Collecting their guns Gregor and I pushed them out the door. I watched out the window until the Lincoln was gone. Gregor smiled for the first time.

“That was fun,” he said, just when I was starting to assume he was mute.

“Come on, I got one more cage to rattle before the night is over.” Tossing some spare clothes in a bag we headed across town.

It was ten thirty when I parked in the loading zone in front of Figueroa’s. I left Gregor in the car and told him to keep his face in the shadows. Crunching four more whites I placed a roll of quarters into my fist and moved into the restaurant, I was rolling on pure instinct now playing it one move at time and seeing where it led. Eddie the Mechanic stepped up to block my advance. Before he could open his mouth I swung my weighted fist up into his jaw. His head snapped back, I crossed with a left that sent him spinning. He took a chair and small table down with him when he fell. I pulled a revolver from under his arm and slipped it into my belt.

“Eddie still alive?” Don Gallico’s box squawked. He looked only mildly shocked when I sat at his table.

“I didn’t check.”

“Oh, Moses, you really have lost the will to live.”

“Got that right, old man. The punks you set on me fucked up.”

“Who are we talking about?”

“This is bullshit. Look out that window, see that man in my car? See him?” Gallico flicked his eyes past me to the widow then back to me. “He’s a real sick person. I don’t walk out of here, then he fades into the night. And one by one he takes your people off the count.”

“You dumb Mic bastard. You dare threaten me?” His face was dead still but I could see the veins in his neck popping, fighting for sounds his ravaged vocal cords could never produce. “You are a dead man.”

“I keep hearing that. Just wish I gave a rat’s ass. Look,” I said, trying to be reasonable, “you let some boys try to kill me, they failed, I don’t care, I know it’s nothing personal. Damn it Sir, I’ve known you since I was a kid. I’ve never done you wrong. My ass is up against a wall. I don’t want more blood spilled, don’t think you do either. But we both know we’ll do what it takes.” He looked at me for a long moment then let out a sad sigh.

“Mickey Mouse Mafia, that’s what they call us behind my back. LA gets no respect from New York and Chicago. They ask me to allow these punks into my city, I don’t have any options but to say yes or go to mattresses in a war I can’t win.”

“Who’s hunting me?”

“A San Francisco crew, big earners in stock scams… I don’t know what you did to them but they want you and the girl dead.”

“Who’s the boss?”

“Jeffery Sabatini, a college man, he’s got more degrees than a rectal thermometer.” He chuckled at his own joke.

“Can I get a sit down with him?”

“Not in a million years. He wants you dead, he might agree to a sit down but it won’t be one you walk away from. Not like the old days, when I was coming up we had honor. You went for a sit down, you went in light and came out alive. Sure they might clip you the next day, but the tradition of the sit down was respected. You hungry, you want a slice of pie?”

“I’m fine, sir, thanks.”

“First time in thirty years.”

“What is?”

“First time you ever refused a slice,” he said, like it almost hurt him more than my threats.

“Times change. You got an address on this guy?”

“I know, you didn’t hear any of this from me, ah fuck ‘em, he lives on a big horse ranch up in Silicon Valley. “

“Gino Torelli?”

“Never heard of him, truth. If he was one of the boys I’d know. You know if Eddie’s still breathing, he’ll need to square this with you, sooner or later.”

“He knows where to find me. I’ll see you around, Sir.”

“Sure, kid.” He shot me a sad smile and went back to his racing form. I dropped Gregor off in Glendale with a hundred dollars and a promise to call if I had any more fun gigs coming up. I jumped on the 5 and headed north, to the land of microchips and cyber porn kings. But it was about to become the land of blood and retribution or my unmarked grave.

Mediocre scotch and bad speed tilted on the balance beam of my brain as I cruised up the hills, past Magic Mountain amusement park over the Cajon pass and down into the endless straight strip of the central valley. I tried not to think of Cass and was successful for about a hundred miles, but just past Button Willow I tasted her lips on mine. Was she playing me? When this was done if I was alive would she still want to be with me? Then again, what were the odds I’d live to see her again? All my life I’d been used and played by one person or another, that was the way the world worked. Isn’t that what love is, two people with mutual need, two people playing each other and through some scam called romance they believe it’s selfless?