People like me aren’t meant to be happy.
I’d had one glorious weekend and was rich for a short time.
Now, it was all going away.
* * *
I helped my father to bed, then cleaned his wounds as best I could. It looked worse than it was, but it was bad enough. Ice packs would take the swelling down around his bruised eyes and split lips, but his nose was broken and needed to be set, and his right cheekbone stuck out more than it should. He promised to let me take him to the hospital the next day and I reluctantly agreed.
I gave him a couple of extra-strength Tylenol and sat next to him until he fell asleep. Then I went down to the bar, pulled the ice-cold briefcase from the beer cooler, and went to face the man who had done this to my father, and to me.
Katrina
I had never been inside Gino’s Gentlemen’s Club; or any strip joint for that matter. I knew nothing about the place other than what Bethany had told me. She had worked there a few months and was fucking the son of the owner, a guy named Tony. She had never told me his last name and I had never been interested enough to ask.
I took a cab to Gino’s and walked through the front door holding the briefcase tightly in my right hand. Bethany was working the floor, serving drinks to tables filled with rowdy men. When she looked up and saw me standing near the entrance, she did a double-take, as if she thought that her imagination was playing tricks on her.
She came to me with her bare tits bouncing on her chest and a round drink tray between her hands. She was wearing a sheer thong and high heels, and nothing else. I glanced at her when she waved, but then let my eyes continue around the room searching for the man I had come to meet. The place was dark, but not so dark that I couldn’t see who was there.
“Jesus, Kat, what are you doing here?” Bethany asked, clutching the tray to her breasts as if she were trying to hide them from me. “Is something wrong? Did something happen?”
“Your friend Tony,” I said calmly, still scanning the room. “What is his last name?”
She frowned and blinked at me. “D’Angelo,” she said warily. “Why?”
“Is he here?”
“Yeah, he’s in the VIP area like always.” She stepped in front of me, forcing me to look into her eyes. “Kat, what the fuck is going on?”
“Take me to him,” I said. “I have something for him.”
“Kat, seriously, what the hell…”
“Take me to him now, Bethany,” I said forcefully enough to make her blink. She stared at me for a moment with a confused look on her face, then turned and started making her way through the club with me following close behind.
I had never met Tony D’Angelo before. I wasn’t aware that I had ever even seen him. But when I saw him sitting in the booth with his arms around the shoulders of two naked dancers, his hands squeezing their tits as he nuzzled his nose into their necks, I recognized him immediately from the auction. He was the man who was standing next to Nicky, the guy who looked like a character from The Sopranos. He was the cousin Nicky mentioned. And the man who had beaten my father senseless and threatened our lives.
There was another man sitting at the table. The muscle head I’d seen him with at the auction. He was sitting at the end of the booth with his elbows on his knees, nonchalantly picking at the scrapes across his knuckles, the result of hitting my father over and over in the face with his fists.
“Uh, Tony, this is my friend, Katrina,” Bethany said, stepping aside when we reached the table. Poor Bethany had no idea what was happening, but there was no time to explain. The muscle head took one look at me and got to his feet as if he thought he had to put himself between me and his boss. Tony D’Angelo grinned at me for a moment, then pulled his arms away from the girls.
“Ladies, take a hike,” he said, pushing them out of the booth. He stared at me while he spoke. “Bethany, another round for the table. And bring your friend, Kat, something. She looks like she could use a drink.”
“You want something?” Bethany asked quietly. She turned her back to the table and lowered her voice. “I don’t know what’s going on, but be careful. You do not want to mess with him.”
“I will,” I said. “And no, I don’t want a drink.”
“What are you doing here?” My heart sank when I heard Nicky’s voice coming from behind me. I turned to find him standing less than a foot away with a confused smile on his face. He held out his arms, but I didn’t move. I realized I had the briefcase clutched protectively to my chest.
“I’m here to give your cousin this money so he won’t kill me and my father,” I said, forcing the tears back from my eyes. Nicky frowned as he looked at me, then glanced at Tony. He came to stand next to me and put his hand on my arm. I jerked my arm away.
“Don’t touch me,” I said.
Nicky held up his hands and turned to Tony. He had a wary smile on his face, like someone who had missed the punchline of a joke. He said, “I’m a little confused. What exactly is going on here?”
Tony sighed like he was bored with the entire scene. He waved a hand at me and rolled his eyes. “Sweet cheek’s dad owes me money for a gambling debt. I guess she’s here to pay it off.”
Nicky turned to me. “Is that right, Katrina? Does your dad owe Tony money?”