| |
“YOU SHOULD’VE JUST left,” Andy whispered to Tony as they left the gaming house. “What damn fool thing made you come in here anyway?”
Tony glared at Chance.
“Yeah, we were after her,” Andy snapped softly. “Hope you at least think she’s worth it.”
When they reached the street, it was clear Andy and his compatriot were the only two of Carlos’s men who were about.
“Sent down here alone, were you?” Tony asked.
“Now you know better than that,” Andy said. “If we were after somebody there’d be a buggy near and a couple of others to help escort you and your beloved to the docks. Carlos is always very careful to make sure everyone knows when somebody’s sent to sleep in the river bed.”
Tony nodded. So, Carlos wasn’t seriously looking for either of them. Andy and his companion must have happened along Chance while she was being stupid. Luck again.
“So we’re walking up the hill then?” Tony asked.
“You know better than that too, don’t you?”
“Shut the fuck up,” Andy’s companion snapped.
Tony wasn’t sure who the companion was speaking to.
“Curtis Franko, my compatriot here is an associate of Mr Mendel,” Andy said. “I think it best if you remain silent until we’re at your final resting place.”
That explained why Tony hadn’t seen Andy’s companion before. It also explained Andy’s formal language. The further they walked from The Strip, the less likely an escape could be. Tony glanced at Chance. She looked very pale. He hoped she’d have the wit to follow.
“So you’ve come here with guns, just to find us?” Tony asked.
“Of course we’ve got guns,” Andy said coldly. “You know the arrangement we have regarding The Strip as well as any of us.”
Tony nodded. It was all he needed to know. Of course they didn’t have guns, but Andy would help, so there was hope.
They approached another alley. Before they got there, Tony winced with pain and doubled up. Andy went to grab him but Tony took his arm and flung him into the other man.
“Run!” he snapped to Chance, who just stood there.
Tony straightened, spun her toward the alley and pushed her. “Run!” he said again and started dragging her. She snapped out of whatever trance she was in and started running. They turned at the end of the alley and Tony guided her toward a door. There were two guards at the door who recognised Tony and let him in.
“Let Stan know I need his help,” Tony said.
The guard nodded to the other guard. He closed the door once they were all inside.
The commotion inside was quick and purposeful. The man at the door went into a game room at the other end of a small hallway. The other rapped on a door to the right and beckoned to a couple of others to come. The door opened and one of the men inside the room was tossed into the alley. Tony and Chance went into the small room and listened while a fight erupted in the alleyway behind them.
“Get out and stay out!” one of the men shouted.
“I got my kid’s money in there!”
“I don’t care. You been told to leave.”
“Just a chance to—”
“Nobody comes in this way.”
“Have you seen a man and a woman come past here?”
“I been too busy with this fool to see anyone but you and him.”
“So they didn’t?”
“Don’t know, they could have. I heard something that could be someone running but—”
“So they didn’t go inside?”
“You finished with that fool?”
“Who’re you calling a fool?”
“Who the fuck are these two?”
“Nobody comes in.”
“Let’s go before they get away.” The last voice was Andy’s.
Some seconds later the red-haired mountain came into the room.
“Chance McCall,” Tony said. “May I introduce Stan Mauney.”
Stan nodded his head. “Where’s your hat, Chance?” he asked.
“Can’t wear it while Carlos is after me,” she said.
“You two met?” Tony asked.
“Everybody knows Chance,” Stan said. “What’re you both doing here?”
“I’m getting my fare to the islands,” Chance said.
“And I’m keeping this one from getting herself killed.”
Stan looked at Tony and smiled.
“No,” Tony said. “She’s not someone I’d get entangled with.”
“You seem quite tangled as it is.” Stan looked at him sternly.
Chance huffed. “I’d never tangle myself with the likes of him.”
“What do you need?” Stan asked.
“I need a cabriolet to get us out of here, and I need some things from the Pacific Manor Hotel. I’ve got a room there.”
“And I’ve got a carpet bag of things there too,” Chance said.
Stan looked at her.
“I’ve got a different room,” she said.
Stan looked at Tony’s shoulder. “You’re bleeding.”
Tony looked. “You’re right.”
“Let my boys have a look at it. I got a couple who’re good with knife wounds.”
“It’s not a knife,” Tony told him. “It’s a bullet.”
“I didn’t hear no gunshot. Some fool bring a gun down here?”
“And I didn’t leave home bandaged like this for fun.”
Stan smiled. “How old’s the hole?”
“Four days.”
“Then you’ll need something more than what we can do for you. But we’ll do what we can so you can see the doc. He’s who you’ll see?”
“Yeah,” Tony said.
“I’ll get you to a house on the way. You can go there in the morning. I’ll send your stuff when I got it, but for now, you need to get off The Strip. We square now?”
Tony nodded. “I’ll owe you for this,” he said.
***
STAN’S ‘BOYS’ DID LITTLE more than put some cotton wadding over the wound and retie the bandage so tight it hurt. Every small bump the cabriolet struck resonated painfully.
“Does it hurt much?” Chance asked.
Tony shook his head with disbelief. “You mean you just noticed.”
“Trying to make conversation.” Chance looked at the driver.
Tony looked at Chance. She looked vulnerable without her hat. Tony couldn’t figure if it was the hat that made her seem self-assured or whether she always looked so helpless.
“I guess it’s third time lucky,” she said weakly.
“Carlos is after you,” he said solemnly.
“What about you?”
“Someone else is after me.”
“How do you know Carlos isn’t after you too?”
“Because he owes me. We best not speak of it here.”
They rode in silence until they reached their destination, one of the grubby little four-storey motels along the river east of The Strip. Tony paid the driver and they went inside.
An old man with no hair and no shirt sat at the front counter smoking a cigarette and thumbing a racing guide. “You Mister Mauney’s friends?” he said absently without looking up.
“Yep.” Tony nodded.
The man pushed a key along the counter toward Tony. “You gots a bottom floor room,” he said. “Near the back in case you gots to leave quick.” He looked up to Tony, then to Chance. “Mister Mauney said your bags is comin’ soon so don’t get doin’ somethin’ I’ll be interruptin’ ’til then.”
Chance’s glare was so intense Tony could feel it.
“What do I owe you?” Tony asked.
“Nuthin’,” the man said. “Lessen you want to gimme somethin’ this’s all paid by Mister Mauney. One-oh-six,” he said. “Up the stairs, turn right, then read the numbers on the doors.” He pointed to some stairs.
“How did Mister Mauney get a message here so quick?” Chance asked.
“Telephone.”
“You have a telephone here?”
The man smiled. “Yes Miss. This ain’t some cheap flash house. You gots any other questions?”
“Yes,” Chance said. “I thought you said we had a bottom room?”
“You do. First floor’s the bottom of the floors with rooms.”
Tony took the key, thanked the man and started up the stairs.
Once in their room Tony sat heavily on the bed. “Bastard!”
“What’s wrong?” Chance asked.
“Stan paid for all this,” he seethed. “It means I owe him big.”
“Couldn’t he be just doing you a favour?”
“Not in my world sweetheart.”
Chance sat on one of the wooden chairs at a table beside the window. “You saved my life three times,” she said. “Means I owe you something, doesn’t it?”
Tony shook his head. “That’s not why—”
“Not in your world sweetheart!” She looked at his bandaged shoulder.
Tony looked at her, not knowing what to say.
“You said someone else is after you,” Chance said. “Who is it?”
“Grant Mendel.”
Chance went pale. “You sure?”
“I trust the man who told me.”
“So that bullet hole, that wasn’t intended for me?”
“Carlos wants you dead,” Tony said. “That’s for sure.”
“But that bullet wasn’t my fault though.”
“That’s all you’re worried about is it?”
“What?”
“That all this might be your fault? It’s only about you, is it?”
“About me!”
“Yes, you. Well I got bad news for you precious. It doesn’t matter how pretty you are, this world happens with or without you.”
“Did you just call me pretty?”
“No. I didn’t.”
“Yes you did. You called me pretty.”
“Well that’s not what I meant.”
“I should hope not!”
“You’re perfectly safe from me. I don’t fall for pretty.”
“I should hope not.”
“I’ll find a corner for myself and sleep on a chair.”
“You bloody-well will not! You’ve a bullet hole through you and I won’t have you dying in the night.”
“Well where will you sleep?”
“It’s a double bed,” Chance said. “You said yourself, I’m perfectly safe from you.”
“But am I safe from you?”
“All about you now is it?” Chance smiled and shook her head. “I don’t fall for injured.”
“I should hope not.” Tony smiled.