The Frenchman's Revenge (3 page)

Dante brought another bo
ttle of whiskey to the table. Loading
the empties
in the
crook of his arm
, h
e
gave
a
n
appreciative
whistle
.
“
Holy Mother of God, did you hear about what happened on Palmer Street last weekend?
”

“
You mean when
t
he Frenchman took on that
rival Tong
?
Hell ye
ah,
who
hasn’t heard about it?
” Gavino snorted. “
Christ,
word is
he single handedly took down seven men.
”

Freddie nodded
,
daring a
quick
look at Tony’s angry face to see how h
is boss
was reacting to the conversation about his nemesis.

“
That’s the hell of it.
Apparently he always has his men around him
,
but they
stand
back
. Let
that vicious son of a bitch do the killing.
Damn, i
f he doesn’t kick em to death
,
he cuts
‘
em to ribbons. He’s like a goddamn animal
. N
eeds
to
spill blood
to live.
”

Tony
flung
an empty whiskey bottle at the stone fireplace
. I
t shattered with a loud crash,
sending
shards of glass flying through the air just missing
two of the girls
.

He
said
with an incredulous
growl, “
A
nd, Jesus,
the fucker takes heads for trophies.
Think
about
it
!
Seven
goddamn Chink fighters
in an alley
and he bests all of them
. He
beats them
to hell
,
then
slices
off their heads
like some ancient swordsman
outa the dark ages
!
”

Tony
shook his head in wonder
,
his
fat chins
churn
ing
across his neck like waves in a storm
. “Goddamn
, heads
rollin
’
up and down the alley
like fuckin
’
Bocce
b
alls.
Not a single body left with a head.
How’s that for sending a message? Christ, talk about
a
savage!
”

Carlo
’s
mout
h twitched and his eyes twinkled wickedly.
“From what I’ve heard
,
it ain’t just heads he cuts off either.”

Loud g
roans
from
the men
at the table greeted that unwelcome
inference.

“Yeah,
I
don’t think
anyone
t
he F
renchman
takes on
ends up with
all his body pa
r
ts
, e
ven if he lets em live
,
”
Louie confirmed.

The men all nodded
,
muttering in agreement.

“I’ve been thinking
, Tony,” Freddie interjected. “M
aybe
we should cut
him in
on some of our shit
. M
aybe give h
im some of the Chink
cunt
s to get him off our backs.
”

“Hell
,
no!
T
hose sweet little pussies are
our most lucrative business,
our best seller.
Damn
,
we get em by the boatload—those that
survive the ocean
,
that is.
No way
can we
get that many
young
white girls who are honest to God virgins.
”

Tony laughed loudly and raised his glass to the
group of
young
girls
clinging
together against the wall.

“At least for the first week or so we can pass em off
as virgins
. I
f we clean em up in between
johns
, that is
,” he added
,
grinning lewdly at the cowering girls.

“Yeah
,
but they’re not
exactly
sturdy. Hell
,
they’re pretty much goners after ten days or so working for us
,
depending on how many guys take
‘
em each night
,
”
Freddie said
in
exasperation
.

“
What the hell do you expect from an
eleven
year old kid?
” Louie said
,
glaring at him.

Before Freddie could respond
,
there was a series of loud crashes outside the door
.
Sounds of
people running in the hallways shouting and
screaming
echoed through the closed door
.

Tony
glanced
up in annoyance
.
“Goddamn, I’m gonna kick some ass out there if we have another fight tonight.
Christ, that
’s
why I got ten men there to protect the merchandise and keep the fuckin’ customers from killing each other over
the
whores
!”

There w
as
another
loud
crash
close by
a
s
they
heard
more
people running
and yelling as they went by
.
Tony nodded to
Dante, “Find out what the hell is going on!”

Dante threw down his towel. As he
moved
from behind the bar,
the footsteps receded
. I
t sounded as though what ever was happening had moved outside. Screams could still be heard in the distance
,
but all that
they
heard in the hallway was an eerie silence
.
Squinting
over at Tony
, Dante
shrugged
and
moved back behind the bar.

“Whatever it was, it’s over, Tony.”

Tony nodded, grunted
,
and threw back the whisk
e
y in his glass
, reaching
for the bottle to pour another.

At that moment, the door opened and a tall young Chinese
man
entered
.
He wore
a
tailored black silk shirt with pearl buttons
,
fitted black trousers,
a
black cowboy hat
,
and
heavily tooled
black lizard skin boots.
He looked lean—almost slender
; d
istinguished, elegant until you saw his eyes.
They were
hard
, gleaming
,
and a strange amber color.
But it was his voice, soft
and
cultured
,
overlaid
with a
distinct
French
accent, that
brought the room
to
a dead quiet
.

Chapter 2

“Good evening, gentlemen.
I
trust
I’m not interrupting your poker game.”

The young man
reached in his shirt pocket and took out a
silver
samorodok
cigarette case
.
It had a
repousse
wolf’s
head with topaz eyes embossed on the
lid
.
He removed a cigarette,
took a match from the bottom of the case,
lit
the cigarette
,
and took a deep drag
.

He blew the smoke up in the air
. L
ooking
at the
stunned
men sitting at the table
, he
said with
a
slight smile
,
“But, then again, it would appear that th
is
game is a
lmost
over.”

Tony
gasped
a
s
he
stared
in shock
,
seeing
his worst nightmare standing casually in front of
hi
m.

With an involuntary shudder, Tony recognized who held the power. It wasn’t him,
the
three
hundred and
eighty
pound, six foot six
inch
tall
m
ob leader
sitting
at the table.
No,
goddamnit,
it was the lean, elegant man, quietly smoking a cigarette.
Everything about him
–
his voice, his eyes,
the way he moved,
spoke to the contained animal within.
He was
t
he
fuckin’ Frenchman, t
he prize of the pride
, Tony silently conceded. And
the
one who held the power.

Struggling to regain his composure
,
Tony
tried
to speak in a voice meant to be brave, unconcerned
. I
nstead
,
he
choked
,
a gagging sound
rattling up in his throat
.

Trying again
,
he
bellowed, “Well if it isn’t the
g
oddamned Frenchman.
We were just talking about you
,
Frenchie.
You a
lone, Frenchie?
”

The Frenchman
smiled
.
“Not so as you’d notice.
”

The men at the table
froze
a
s
a group of Chinese
men
with their guns drawn came
from behind
t
he Frenchman
,
position
ing
themselves in a row
across the front of the room
.

Dante and Arturo
made a move for their guns but
stopped
at the
Frenchman
’s soft warning
,
“I wouldn’t do that.
”

W
ith a barely perceptible nod at Louie
, he
added
, “
It wouldn’t bode well for Tony.”

The two men jumped back in horror when
Louie stood up
and tucked
the
muzzle
of his gun
in the back of
Tony’s neck
, tight
against the
base of his brain
.

As surprised as his men, Tony looked
up
to see
four
Chinese men with their
guns
trained on the
space between his eyes
.
Staring at Louie in disbelief, h
is
face turned a pasty gray
.