Page 38 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
I sent Nonno a side-eye.My father taught me every bad thing I knew, including how to make bodies disappear.“Yeah?”
His eyes traced the movements of the stripper on stage.“He never fucked around or missed a deadline.”
“I didn’t miss it.”
“Shock says his wife is missing.”
I snorted.“Which wife?”He’d replaced Kate almost as soon as she disappeared for the first time.Rumor had it the current squeeze was a hot little Puerto Rican chick.
Nonno slanted his gaze at me.“Thewife.”
I screwed up my face, hoping it looked like confusion.“Didn’t that one go missing like… two years ago?”
His gaze lingered on me too long.
I held my hands up to nudge him into an answer.“Well?”
“She resurfaced.Jersey, he says.He’s looking eastward to see how she slipped his net.”
A little huff came out.Whether it was the right thing or not, I couldn’t help it.“East, huh?He stopped by Skilletsville with that girl once.That’s the night hiswifepuked on his shoes.”I danced around Nonno’s unspoken accusation.“She was a sack of trouble.”
He squinted at me.“If I recall, you like trouble.”
I tsked.“Not like that.I like good trouble, not bad.”I pointed to the stripper, who was upside down on the pole.“That’s good trouble.”
It was a brilliant distraction and broke Nonno’s hard stare.“She’s available.”
My heart skipped.But I plastered a shit-eating grin on, anyway.“Really?How much?”
I licked my lips, hoping he’d name an outrageous amount, so I’d have to beg off.I’d done this job as a “favor” to Nonno, which meant I had to be strapped for cash.
“Consider it a perk of a job well done, even if it took longer than expected.”He slapped my back and motioned the girl over.
She made the mistake of looking around the audience rather than coming directly after being called, and Nonno turned his angry glare toward her.She faked a grin and shimmied her ass off-stage to swagger over to the private table.
I wiped any traces of food from the scruff on my face and smiled, acting as if she was a rare treat.Because, face it, she was.Nonno liked cash.He hated giving stuff away for free.Even getting road money to off a narc for him was like pulling teeth.But it was a good thing I’d been watching the nearby chapters for holes to exploit.Because when Kate asked for help, it took just a few days to arrange a hit, figure out an escape plan, and trick Nonno into letting me take the job.“That’s a pretty bonus.But…”
His sharp glance skewered me.
Think fast.“…I was hoping for a promotion, not pussy.No offense, baby, but I can get gash any time I want.Maybe not as fine as yours, but…” I grinned at her with one eyebrow tipping an appreciative nod of approval her way.I let my eyes linger on her crotch for long enough that Nonno’s death glare fizzled.
“You keep doing good work, I’ll think about it.Meanwhile,takewhat you’re given.”His hand landed heavily on my shoulder as he used it to stand up.Before he let go of me, he leaned over, squeezing hard, and whispered in my ear, “And stay away from what isnot.”
Aha.That deserved a true One-Eyed Jack sneer.The kind that started fights and make the guilty damn uncomfortable.“Nonno?”
He turned, his attention piqued, and his hand curled into a fist.“Yeah?”
“I’m One-Eyed Jack’s son.I’ll take anything that’s not nailed down.”I held his eyes and let some of the violence I’d grown up with shine through.“Including roles you needoutsidehelp with.”I licked my lips again, showing him I was hungry for power.Maybe too hungry.
Then again, I had to convince Nonno that we were talking about two different things here.On my side of the conversation, it went like this.“I want to be president of my own chapter.And I will kill anyone and anything that stands in the way of that.You’ll reward me for being your dog.Got it?”
On Nonno’s side, he was silently warning me not to make waves.To play the good biker brother and keep the peace internally.What that told me wasthat he was a scared man.One who was almost as hungry as I was but also one who had to be much more cautious.He wasn’t the top dog yet.
I sent him a nod to tell him that I heard his fear loud and clear, but also that I could be counted on to do the hard thing when it mattered, maybe even help him become top dog.Because he was a coward with a lot to lose.I wasn’t.I was a dead man with a lot of life to pack in the span between now and a knife to the back, and I wasn’t going to let anyone cow me into submission when there was too much I desired.“Don’t forget that.”And don’tforget me.
“Take what you’re given.Faye?Make sure he takes.”
Damn.Maybe Nonno wasn’t as cautious as I thought.Or maybe I’d betrayed myself somewhere in that exchange.I didn’t think I had, but any slip now would put the cross hairs on me.Somehow, Nonno knew I had secrets.And one of them was Kate.I’d have to do a better job of acting to prove she meant nothing to me and that Shock was delusional.
