The Frenchman's Revenge (4 page)

“
Loui
e,
I don’t believe it.
Christ, y
ou’re not a Chink
. W
hat the hell
are
you doing mi
xed up
with these
assholes
?
”

Louie ignored him
. Instead
, he
pushed his gun harder
against
Tony’s neck
, exchanging
a nod with
t
he Frenchman.

“
Nianzu
,
Quitin, get their guns
. A
ll of them.
Tie their hands.
Put them up against the wall,
”
t
he Frenchman ordered.

The t
wo Chinese men
next to
t
he Frenchman
walked up
to the men sitting at the table
. They
began taking
the
ir
guns
,
putting them in the saddlebags
they
slung
over their shoulders.
Two other men came
from
behind and jerked Dante
away from the bar
, then
pulled
A
rturo
to
his
feet.
They tied their hands tight behind their backs
,
dragged them across the room and shoved them face first against the wall.

At that moment
,
there was the sound of a soft “
shtick
”
as a
knife fl
ashed
across the room
. A
second later
,
Freddie screamed
a hideous cry
.
Clutching
his throat
, he fell to the floor
, h
is
gun clatter
ed
uselessly
beside him
, a
butterfly
knife
buried in his
neck
.

“J
esus fuckin
’
Christ, did you see that? Goddamn
,
I didn’t even see it leave his hand
,” Victor
gasped
,
staring at
t
he Frenchman in
astonishment
.

The men at the table turned
to the
Frenchman in
shock
. To a
man
they were
visibly
shaking.

“
Mother of God
,
he’s still got the goddamn cigarette in his mouth.
I tell you, h
e
was
smokin
’
the g
oddamn cigarette
when he threw the
fuckin
’
knife
!” Mannie
yelped
,
rubbing his eyes
,
as if
not believing what he had seen
.

The Frenchman nodded to the man he called Nianzu.

Nianzu said,
“
In case you didn’t hear
,
t
he Frenchman
said
, “All
of
your
weapons
’
.
”

Within minutes
,
the
mobsters
were
herded across
the room, their hands tied behind their backs, their faces smashed against the wall
, e
xcept
for
Freddie
,
lying
dead on the floor
. A
nd Tony
.

The Frenchman studied
Tony
. He sunk in
his chair
,
clutching the edge of the tabl
e
. His
face
was
pale
. B
right red spots mark
ed
the
p
ocked
skin
o
n his face and neck.
Sweat ran down his fat cheeks
. W
et splotches stained the underarms of his already
filthy
shirt. He smelled like what he was, a cornered animal.

Clearly making an effort to pull
himself together
,
he assumed a hearty bravado
.
“
Okay
,
Mr. Frenchman
,
you got the upper hand now
. You may be crazy
,
but you
ain’t stupid
. Y
ou know the organization behind me
.
What do you
want?”

T
he Frenchman continued to look at him with a slight smile
,
amused
.

Tony
blu
stered
on
.
“Christ,
tell you what,
we’ll cut you in
. M
ight even
make you
a
partner here in C
alifornia.
Hell
,
I’ll give you every Chink prostitute we got.
They are selling like crazy
!”

Seeing the look in
t
he Frenchman’s eyes,
Tony
paled more,
took a breath
,
then
stuttered, “Look, they
’re our best sellers. I’ll
…I’ll
give them to you--they’re
y
ours
--
all yours
….”

Tony’s
voice trailed off
when t
he Frenchman’s smile died
and he turned away
,
his face tight with distain.

Ignoring the bl
a
bbering man at the table, t
he Frenchman
focused on
the
Chinese
girls who
were
plastered against the
far
wall, clinging to each other
for support
.
Some of them were crying
, most of them
stood
wide-eyed,
dumb with fear.

The Frenchman spoke to them in Chinese and told them to leave the room
—
t
o
go
outside with
his men
.
When they drew back
afraid
,
t
he Frenchman singled out the older girl who was looking at him angrily
,
but without fear.

He
said
in Chinese
,
“
L
ook at me.
”

He paused
,
holding her gaze. “
L
isten to me.
We are here to help you.
We will not hurt you.
Please go
with my men and take these girls outside where they will be safe.”

She continued to stare at him
without moving
. T
he Frenchman nodded to Nianzu. Nianzu stepped up to the girl and took
hold of
her arm.
He spoke in Chinese.

“You heard what
t
he Frenchman said.
We need your help.
Tell these children
we won’t hurt them
. T
hey are safe.
All of you--go with our men. N
ow
!”

The girl
threw him a furious look
,
then
jerked her head at
the young girls behind her
, murmuring
to them to follow her.
Quitin and several other men came up beside the girls and
began
to
shepherd
them out.
One little girl fell to the floor sobbing
,
begging them not to hurt her
. Wattu, one of the largest of the Chinese men
,
his face stricken with a mix of anger and
pity
, bent down and picked her up in his arms
. M
urmuring
soft
comforting
words in
Chinese
,
he
carried her out of the room.

Within minutes
,
all of the girls
were gone
and t
he Frenchman turned back to Tony.

For the moment, Tony’s outrage overcame his fear.

“
Now, w
ait just a goddamn minute here
. What the hell
’s
going on? Look here, Frenchie
. T
hose
sluts belong to us.
I already told you we’d cut you
in
,
but we gotta come to an agreement first
. Y
ou hear me?”

The Frenchman looked at the huge man
who was
sweating like a pig and smell
ed
like rancid meat
.

“
You’ve made your last
dollar
on the backs of Chinese, Tony.
”
He
added with an ironic grin
,
“
But then
you’ve made you
r
last dollar period.
”

Tony said, “
O
kay
,
Frenchie
.
Let’s get real.
Y
ou know
the organization that is
behind us. We’re just a small part of
it
. I
f you’re not careful
,
you’re gonna have the
whole
goddamn
mob
up your ass
.”

The Frenchman took a drag off his cigarette and quirked an eyebrow at Tony.

Tony blundered on,
“All
right
,
Frenchie,
I’ll help you out
.
I’ll tell
the
big boys
to leave you alone
.
I’ll tell them w
e never should have come to C
alifornia.
I’ll tell
‘
em
we need to stay in the East.
Christ, you can take
th
is
whole fuckin state
,
for all I care.
I sure as hell do
n’t want it.
You can fight it out with the Irish.
”

The Frenchman
studied him. A
wry
smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“
Hmm
,
California
,
huh?
I don’t know about you
, Tony,
but that seems
a
rather
limited
option
to me. This table
would appear to have
a great
deal of room.
Especially since you and your men won’t be sitting at it any longer
.”

The Frenchman
’s
eyes hardened
as if tiring of humoring a
repulsive
child.
He tossed his cigarette to the floor and turned to Nianzu.

“
Strip
him.
I want to see
all of
the
man that does what Tony does
.
”

Tony blanched and cried out, “No, no, please, tell me what
you want from me...
”