Take Down

FIFTY-TWO

As Billy followed Shaz to the pool area, a group of bikini-clad young things strolled past. Weekends were his favorite time in Vegas. On Friday nights, cars with California plates pulled into the hotels, and throngs of girls climbed out clutching overnight bags and pillows. These girls often stayed five to a room, sleeping on floors and sharing food they brought from home. The casinos were cool with it because they drew men the way honey draws bears.

Shaz pulled out her cell phone and stopped by the pool. It was a replica of the magnificent pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel, with pink cabanas and striped lounge chairs.

“I’ve got Cunningham with me-where are you?” she said into her phone. “You’re having lunch? We’ll be right in.” She turned to him. “Rock has some business to discuss with you.”

“What kind of business?” he asked.

“Our business.”

The café had a checkerboard tile floor and metal tables and catered to the pool crowd. A hostess escorted them to a doorway with a velvet rope stretched across it. The rope came down, and the hostess led them into a second dining room, where Rock sat at a corner table, eating lunch. The drug kingpin wore ridiculously small bathing trunks and could have passed as a chocolate Buddha. His bodyguards wore bikini bottoms and T-shirts with long sleeves to hide the knives they kept strapped to their forearms.

“Leave,” Rock said to the hostess. To Ike and T-Bird he said, “Stand in the corner.”

The punishers moved away from the table, and the hostess disappeared.

“You two pull up a chair,” Rock said.

Billy and Shaz made themselves comfortable. Rock resumed eating an artery-clogging double-bacon cheeseburger. When it was gone, he picked at a mountain of french fries covered in ketchup. The conversation would not begin until he was ready for it to begin. Back home, Billy had known drug dealers who’d drag a subject into a bathroom stall and make him watch while they crapped. It was a form of intimidation, designed to remind you who was boss.

“I hear you killed a woman last night,” the drug kingpin said. “That your first time?”

Billy realized he was being tested and grew rigid in his chair.

“Yeah,” he said.

“How did it make you feel?”

He shrugged, not sure what to say.

“Answer me.”

“I was numb, but then it wore off,” he said.

“What did you do after you buried her?”

“Had dinner.”

“You were hungry?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not bullshitting me, are you?”

“No. We were hungry, so we went out for a late dinner.”

Rock gave him a cold stare. “Which restaurant?”

“We went to a Brazilian steakhouse called Fogo de Chão on East Flamingo. You should try it sometime. The steaks are great.”

“You don’t say.” Rock addressed the punishers. “Is pretty boy telling the truth?”

“Uh-huh. Best steaks in town,” Ike said.

“Don’t fuck with me, asshole. Did you eat there last night?”

“Yes, suh,” Ike said.

Rock crossed his hands over his enormous belly and belched. “I once had a guy working for me went by the name Freeway. Freeway’s deal was that he sold bags of coke at exits off the freeway. Freeway wanted to move up and become a lieutenant in my organization, so I decided to test him. I needed a rival killed, so I ordered Freeway to take the guy out. I drove Freeway there so I could watch. He walks up to the guy on the corner, caps him, and jumps into my car. As we’re leaving, he pukes on the upholstery. The blood upset him.”

Rock shook his head at the memory. His Mexican bodyguards laughed to themselves.

“Freeway was a weakling, so I got rid of him,” the drug kingpin said. “You, on the other hand, have the right stuff to join my organization. You interested?”

It was a job interview. Billy tried to keep a straight face.

“You want me to push drugs for you?” he asked.

“I got a hundred guys selling drugs for me,” Rock said. “I want you to police my casino, keep hustlers from stealing my money. I’ll pay you real good, give you a car, penthouse, all the blow you want, pussy, too. You won’t regret coming to work for me. Will he?”

“Rock’s the best,” Shaz said.

“What do you say?” Rock asked. “You in?”

Billy believed in seizing opportunities whenever they presented themselves to him. Only one person stood in the way of him ripping off Galaxy’s casino this afternoon, and that was his old pal Crunchie. If Crunchie’s grift sense kicked in, he’d blow the whistle on Billy and his crew and bring everything crashing down on Billy’s head.

“The last time I checked, Crunchie was policing your casino,” Billy said. “Is he staying? If he is, then my answer is no. I won’t work alongside that prick.”

Rock was not a man to be challenged. He picked up his walking stick from the floor and dropped the handle on Billy’s shoulder, causing the young hustler to wince in pain.

“You got a lot of balls, little fellow. I’ll answer your question, but only this one time. Crunchie’s history.”

“Then I’m in,” he said.

“Good. We’re meeting in Doucette’s office at two to discuss how we plan to deal with these Gypsies trying to rip me off. Don’t be late.”

“I’ll be there,” he said.

“Don’t make me regret this decision.”

“You won’t.”

“Get out of here, and let me finish my lunch.” To Shaz he said, “Hang around for a few minutes. We have some things to discuss.”

“Sure, Rock,” she said.

Billy tried not to laugh as he walked out of the café with the punishers. He’d pulled some major snow jobs in his time, but this one ranked at the very top.

His Droid was talking to him. Another text from Travis. His crew was camped out in the employee parking lot, waiting for Billy to show his face.

“It’s time for you to meet my crew,” he said to the punishers.