The Starlight Club 6: Double Seven Read online

  “You two bums have been swapping aces all night long. Now we’re gonna have a little game of showdown and I’m gonna beat you – you are going to lose.”

  By now, all of the men in Richie’s unit were crowding around the table, waiting to see him beat these two guys. Richie shuffled the deck, setting the cards up so he would deal himself four aces and a king. He was at a point where he almost lost the feeling in his fingers and he was anxious to get this last hand over with. Just as he was about to deal the cards, the auctioneer said loudly, “Hand me the cards. I want to cut them.”

  Richie, in his haste to stack the deck, deal the cards, and get this game over with, forgot about them cutting the deck. A real amateurish move, he admonished himself. He gave the auctioneer a tight-lipped smile as he shuffled a few more times before handing him the deck. During the last shuffle, Richie put a crimp in the deck. From experience, he knew that most people would cut the cards at the crimp. He hoped that was the case now. Richie studied the auctioneer’s hands as he cut the cards and he relaxed a little when he saw that the deck was cut at the crimp. But Richie was shocked when the first card he dealt the man was an ace — his ace. Richie was sweating, nervous now because if the deck was out of sync by one card, the auctioneer would be dealt Richie’s aces. Richie cursed himself for continuing to deal the cards with numb fingers not yet agile enough to handle the intense, sensitive manipulations card handling required. He should have refused to deal cards tonight and waited until his hand healed completely and they were flexible enough to deal the cards the way he was used to dealing them. He breathed a sigh of relief when he turned the auctioneers next card over and it was a ten, Richie’s card was an ace, then he breathed a little easier when he dealt himself another ace and then a third ace. The fourth card was the king he set up for himself, but the fifth card was a surprise…because he dealt himself a card he hadn’t planned on nor expected. It was a lucky king. Richie had dealt himself kings over aces…a full house instead of the four aces and a king he had originally set up to deal himself. Still, a full house was impressive and everyone at the table thought Richie was a genius the way he set it up, but Richie was lucky tonight, only no one watching him deal knew it. Normally, he dealt with the assuredness that the cards would be where he wanted them to be. Tonight, his hand wasn’t ready for the perfection required in a high-stakes game like this one.

  Later that week, Captain Blunck told Richie that he wanted him to deal cards in the friendly officers’ card game, with the purpose of beating a cocky fellow officer. They assured Richie it was nothing more than a prank. Richie could tell by the looks on the officers’ faces that the man they wanted him to beat knew nothing of Richie’s ability with cards. Richie refused, using the excuse that his hand was not quite healed yet. Captain Blunck saw him deal cards at the Monte Carlo night and he questioned Richie on it.

  “If your hand’s not healed, then how come you dealt cards all night with that hand?” Richie leveled with Blunck. He explained how badly his hand hurt that night and how numb his fingers were and even though all the guys thought he was a genius, he had been lucky. Richie explained how he should have dealt himself four aces and a king. And how nervous he was thinking that because he couldn’t feel the cards, he could have dealt the auctioneer his hand instead. Captain Blunck knew Richie was telling the truth and he didn’t ask him to reconsider, but he did ask him for a favor.

  “My wife and I are having a party with the officers and their wives and I would appreciate it if you would entertain our wives. You know…show them some card tricks and all that flashy stuff you do so well with cards. We don’t get many entertainers here and I know that the ladies would enjoy seeing the way you handle the cards.”

  Richie agreed to entertain the ladies. If Richie were a civilian back home in Queens and doing what he was doing now, he would have scored big with the ladies because all of the officers’ young wives were captivated with the fascinating card handling demonstration put on by the good-looking young card sharp. One officer’s pretty young wife fluttered her eyelashes and exclaimed with a charming southern accent, “Why Lordy me, look at little ole you. Why, I always pictured a card sharp as an old man working on a riverboat on the Mississippi River and not some charming, young, good-looking New York Yankee like you. Where did you ever learn to play cards like that? Certainly not in school?”

  If this conversation had been taking place back in Queens, he would have invited the flirtatious young lady upstairs to a private room at the place he was staying and demonstrate to her how proficient he was in other areas besides cards. But he was far away from home in a land called Japan — so instead, he told her.

  “To answer your question, pretty lady, I did go to a school to learn about cards.”

  Hearing him say this aroused her curiosity.

  “And what school would that be, Sergeant Cambria?”

  “Why, it’s called the New York School of Hard Knocks, ma’am,” Richie said playfully, captivating the young lady with a mischievous grin as he said it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Before mustering out of the army, Richie received the Silver Star and a Purple Heart. Now he was about to take a woman he had fallen in love with back to where she originally lived…Queens. His problem was he didn’t know how to broach JoAnne to tell her how he felt about her. Richie was an easy come, easy go kinda guy. He made a ton of money playing cards and dice until the guys he played with forbade him from sitting in the game. He made a lot of dough from gambling, but he also made a lot of money working for Big Red. The problem was that most of the guys spent their money as fast as they earned it and Richie was no different. Now he regretted it. He regretted the way he threw his money away, thinking that there was always more where that came from. It had been almost ten years since he was discharged from the army. He was thirty-one now and no longer a kid. He made a silent promise to himself that he would accumulate a bankroll that would choke a horse — and then he’d ask JoAnne to marry him. Whoa! he said to himself. Richie boy, aren’t you putting the cart before the horse? You have to first get the girl to agree to go out with you before you could ask her to marry you.

  When Bull dropped off Dr. Ben and Frankie the Nose at the airport and returned to the house, Richie pulled him aside.

  “What’s the latest with Carlos’s gang?”

  Bull shrugged. “I don’t know. The last I heard, Civella’s men took over Carlos’s territories. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, you’ll be leaving in a few minutes and after you left, I didn’t want to have any surprises from what’s left of Carlos’s gang.”

  Bull thought for a moment. “Wait a minute, I’ll call Civella and find out exactly what’s happening.” A few minutes later, Bull hung up the phone and turned to Richie. “You have nothing to worry about. The rest of Carlos’s gang will be working for Civella’s men from now on.”

  “Good. That’s a load off of my mind.”

  Bull pulled Richie aside and handed him an envelope.

  “What’s this?”

  “There’s twenty grand in there. It’s your cut of the dough we got from Carlos’s operation.”

  Richie smiled and patted Bull on the shoulder. “Bull, you have no idea what this money will do for me.”

  Bull narrowed his eyes, trying to read into what Richie just told him, but he was anxious to get back on the road again, so he let it slide.

  Richie watched Bull and Joey pull away in their car, and when they turned the corner and disappeared, he went back into the house and told JoAnne that he wanted to talk to her. “Your brother and Bull left for Vegas but don’t worry about anything because from now on, I’ll be protecting you and I’m gonna make sure nothing happens to you, understand?”

  JoAnne nodded and gave him a sad little smile, letting him know that she understood. He took JoAnne gently by her arm and led her to a chair and told her to have a seat, that he wanted to talk to her about their trip to Queens. He sat down opposite her and tried to think of the
proper words to say before speaking to her. He hesitated before speaking and she could tell that he wanted to say something to her, but his silence made her a little nervous until finally, after a long pause, he spoke.

  “Look, JoAnne, I have a lot to tell you, so please just bear with me for a few minutes without interrupting me while I get this off of my chest. If it’s all right with you and you agree, here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to rent a car and drive back to Queens. If you insist, though, we can fly back. I know it would be faster, but by driving we could shake off all the bad stuff that’s happened in the past week and I’m thinking that the trip back could be like a vacation for us.”

  JoAnne was about to say something but Richie put up his hand before she could speak. “I know that you’ve been hurt by your ex-boyfriend and I just want you to know that not all guys are like him. I’ve been watching the way you carry yourself and I want you to know that I’m impressed with you. Even though you try to hide the fact that you’re very pretty, and you try to hide yourself in the clothes you wear. They don’t look right on you and I intend to change all that when we get back to New York.”

  As she listened to him talk, she could tell he was different from the others. She was becoming emotional thinking about her life up till now and an avalanche of tears was about to fall from her eyes. Only now there was something different in the way she looked at him. It was as if she was seeing him for the first time.

  “Why do you care how I look or how I dress?”

  Richie took her hand in his. “I know you don’t know me very well, but believe me, I’ve been watching you ever since I got here. I don’t know when it happened or how it happened, but I have feelings for you. I know you’ve been badly hurt by that rat boyfriend of yours and I know what you must have gone through with him, but like I said, not all guys are like him and I don’t want to see you suffer any longer. Look, when we get back to New York, there’s a place that I’m going to take you to. It’s a place that sells the finest woman’s fashions in the world. It’s called Rene Dumas. I’ve never been there, but Red and Trenchie have and if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. Have you ever heard of it?”

  The tears she had been holding back for days and threatened to spill down her cheeks now began to fall one tear at a time until they became the avalanche that threatened to erupt earlier. Richie took her by her arms and held her close. She pressed her head against his chest, not wanting him to see her crying like this. But he knew her crying would have a cathartic effect on her. Her tears would cleanse her of all the hurt that had building up inside of her, so he let her cry until there were no tears left to shed. It felt good to hold her close and he didn’t want the moment to end, but he knew it couldn’t last. But at least it was a start. They had broken the ice and they now knew one another, maybe not intimately, but it was a beginning.

  “I’ll leave it up to you, JoAnne. If you tell me you’d rather fly, then we’ll take a cab to the airport and I’ll book us a flight to LaGuardia. But if you would rather drive back with me, then I promise you that it’ll be the best trip you’ve taken in years. We’ll stop and see the sights, we’ll take our time and eat in the best restaurants, but most importantly, we’ll get to know one another. What do you say — fly? Or drive?”

  She looked up at him, smiling with tears still streaming down her cheeks, but this time, they were tears of happiness. “We’ll drive back.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tarzan was waiting by the luggage carousel when Doctor Ben pushed a wheelchair with a tired-looking Frankie the Nose sitting in it. Tarzan was pissed off to see Frankie looking the way he was. Frankie was five feet eleven inches tall and, normally, he carried a lot of weight on his large frame. Only now, Frankie had lost a lot of weight and he looked thin and haggard, which resulted in the look Tarzan had on his face.

  “How ya feelin’, Frankie?”

  Frankie looked up at him and gave him a weak smile. “I’m feeling a hell of a lot better now than I did a few days ago, I can tell ya that.”

  Dr. Ben grabbed Frankie’s luggage and pulled it off of the carousel. “Come on; let’s go. I’m anxious to get back to my practice.”

  Tarzan looked confused. “Don’t you have any luggage?” Doctor Ben shook his head. “Didn’t take anything with me because I intended to go there, treat Frankie, and then come right back home. But when I saw how bad he was hurt, I just couldn’t leave him, so I had Bull pick me up some of the necessities to tide me over for the next few days. When I knew I was leaving, I threw everything in the garbage and just concentrated on Frankie’s stuff.”

  Tarzan put his arm on the doctor’s shoulder. “You’re a standup guy, Doc, and me and Red ain’t never gonna forget what you did for Frankie and you can make book on that. Now let’s get you guys back home — and by home, I mean the Starlight Club. Red’s dying to see you.”

  * * * *

  Bull checked the map to see how much driving time it would take to get to Vegas. “Hmm, the way I figure it, according to this map, it’ll take us another eighteen or nineteen hours to get to Vegas.”

  “Are we gonna pull over at some motel and stop for the night, Bull?” Joey asked.

  “No. We’ve been away longer than I expected. I want to get there fast and that means no stopping except to eat and use the restrooms. Tell you what. Why don’t you get some sleep and when I get tired, I’ll wake you and you can drive until you get tired — and then you can wake me and I’ll take the wheel.”

  The two men left Kansas and cruised through Colorado. The roads were empty and the big Cadillac convertible with the additional weight of the bulletproof metal panels installed on the sides and back of the car made it seem as if they were riding on a glass highway as the car glided along the road as if were a magic carpet. When Bull was about seventy miles from the Utah border, his eyes were getting heavy and, being an ex-truck driver, he knew better than to drive when he was tired. As he pulled into a rest stop, the car hit something on the road near the entrance to the parking lot and something seemed to snap. Bull heard what sounded like metal tearing and he got out of the car and walked over to take a look at the damage to the car. The noise jarred Joey awake. Bull noticed oil spreading out on the parking lot’s concrete.

  “Come on; let’s see if we can get someone to look at our car. Meanwhile, we can get a cup of coffee and something to eat while we wait.” An hour later, a tow truck pulled into the parking lot and Bull went out to speak to the driver.

  “This your car?”

  “Yeah, it’s my car. Can you take a look at it and tell me what’s wrong with it?”

  The mechanic got on his back and took a quick look. “A cinder block must have fallen off a truck and in the dark, you hit it and busted your oil pan and damaged your transmission. My station is about five miles down the road. You guys can sit in the car while I tow it to my garage.”

  The mechanic put the car on the lift and examined the damage carefully. “Come on over here. I want to show you what happened to your car.”

  Bull stood under the car and the mechanic showed him the crack on his transmission casing. “I have to order you another transmission. This one is shot.”

  “Damn it. How long is it going to take you to fix the car?”

  “I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to call Cadillac ‘cause I don’t keep transmissions or crankcases in stock. If you boys need a place to stay, there’s a motel about a half-mile down the road. If you want, I could drop you fellas off at the motel and you can either call me or walk over here tomorrow morning and I’ll be able to tell you when your car will be ready.” Bull hesitated concerned about the weapons hidden in the car, but after thinking about it, he decided that the weapons were well hidden and wouldn’t be discovered, so he agreed to leave the car and have the mechanic drive them to a motel.

  The following morning at ten a.m., Bull and Joey walked into the gas station’s garage where the man from last night was busy working on their car.

/>   “What did you find out?” Bull asked the mechanic.

  “Got some good news and I have some bad news for you.”

  “Give me the good news first.”

  The mechanic scratched his head with his greasy hands. “Well, the good news is the bad news too. I ordered a transmission from Cadillac ‘good news’ and they said they’d have it here Friday ‘bad news.’”

  “Friday?” Bull said excitedly. “That’s five fucking days from now.”

  The transmission was delivered on Friday, but it took all that day and all day Saturday before the Cadillac was repaired. Bull and Joey got back on the road Sunday morning and they drove nine hours before Red opened his map to the page with Las Vegas on it. Bull followed the route with his finger and found that Las Vegas was located in the northern part of the state. Bull planned that once they entered Nevada, they would stop for a bite to eat at the first restaurant they came to, and then it would be a short drive from there to Vegas. Joey stretched his arms and yawned.

  “Let’s stop and get a bite to eat. I’m starved.”

  Bull replied, “Yeah, I’m hungry too. At the last stop all we had was coffee. Man, I’m really in the mood for some bacon and eggs. I planned it so that we’d stop at the first restaurant we come to.”

  “I hope the next restaurant is real close because bacon and eggs sounds real good to me right now,” Joey said, leaning his head back on the Caddy’s plush headrests.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Before leaving Bonner Springs, Richie called Red from JoAnne’s house. He wanted him to know that he was driving Joey Bones’ sister JoAnne back to Queens where she’d be safe. Safe was a relative word. Safe from what? he thought. None of Carlos’s men gave a rat’s ass for her…so what was taking her to Queens making her safe from? Richie figured the only thing she’d be safe from was herself. And in Queens, he would see to it that she had a nice apartment near the Starlight Club where the guys would make sure no one bothered her and would check on her every once in a while as a favor to him and Joey Bones. Yeah, he thought she’d be safe in Queens where she had some real friends to watch out for her.