Page 17 of Entranced
“Oh, yeah.” She snorted into her beer. “And I could have me a diamond tiara, too.”
“Can’t help you on that, but I can get you a set.”
“Come on.” She shot him a disbelieving look and let her hand rest on his knee. “How?”
He puffed out his massive chest. “Just so happens, I’m in the business.”
“You sell TVs?” She cocked her head and had her eyes blinking in fascination. “You’re pulling my leg.”
“Not now.” He winked. “Maybe later.”
Mel laughed heartily. “Oh, you’re a card, Sir Eddie.” She drank again, sighed again. “I wish you weren’t fooling. If you could get me one, I’d be awfully grateful.”
He leaned closer. She could smell the beer and smoke on his breath. “How grateful?”
Mel wiggled toward him, put her mouth to his ear and whispered a suggestion that would have made the worldly Sebastian stutter.
Short of breath, Eddie finished off his beer in one gulp and grabbed her hand. “Come on, sweet thing. I got something to show you.”
Mel went along, not bothering to glance in Sebastian’s direction. She sincerely hoped that what Eddie was about to show her was a television.
“Where’re we going?” she asked as he led her to the back of the building.
“My office, babe.” A sly wink. “Me and my partners got a little business back here.”
He took her over a rubble of broken bottles, trash, and piles of gravel to another concrete building, perhaps half the size of the bar. After three raps on the door, it was opened by a skinny man of about twenty wearinghorn-rims and carrying a clipboard.
“What’s the deal, Eddie?”
“The lady needs a TV.” He swung his arm over Mel’s shoulder and squeezed. “Crystal, honey, this is Bobby.”
“’Meetcha,” Bobby said with a bounce of his head. “Look, Eddie, I don’t think this is a good idea. Frank’s going to be mad as hell.”
“Hey, I got as much right as Frank.” Eddie bulled his way in.
Ah, Mel thought, and sighed. For real.
The fluorescent bulbs overhead shone down on the blank single eyes of more than a dozen televisions. They sat cheek by jowl with CD players, VCRs, stereo systems. Tossed in for good measure were several boom boxes, personal computers, telephone answering machines, and one lonely microwave oven.
“Wow!” She clapped her hands together. “Oh, wow, Eddie! Look at all this! It’s like a regular department store.”
Full of confidence, and swaying only a little, Eddie winked at the nervous Bobby. “We’re what you call suppliers. We don’t do any retail out of here. This is just like our warehouse. Go ahead, look around.”
Still playing her role, Mel walked over to the televisions, running her hands over their screens as if her fingers were walking in mink.
“Frank’s not going to like this,” Bobby hissed.
“So what he don’t know he don’t have to not like. Right, Bobby?”
Bobby, who was outweighed by a hundred pounds, nodded. “Sure, Eddie. But bringing a broad in here—”
“She’s okay. Great legs, but not much brains. I’m going to give her a set—and then I’m going to get lucky.” He moved past Eddie to join Mel. “See one you like, baby?”
“Oh, they’re great. Really great. Do you mean I can really have one? Just pick one out and have it?”
“Why, sure.” He gave her a quick, intimate squeeze. “We got this breakage insurance. So I’ll just have old Bobby there put down like one got busted. That’s all there is to it.”
“Really?” She tossed her head, moving just far enough out of reach that she could easily slip a hand into her bag. “That’s great, Eddie. But it looks to me like you’re the one who’s busted.”
