18.

Stepping out into the world all ablaze inside like that was trippy, I admit. We didn’t know what to do with our hands. Or our feet or our feelings—it was hilarious, really.

She kept laughing like a teenage girl. And I didn’t know how to stop watching her laugh. I wanted to keep laughing forever so I could watch.

But life has a way of settling these things by force sometimes. So we almost walked right into Yuri, Maddie’s “man,” on the way to the carnival. He was there leaning against a wall in the alley, almost like he was waiting for me. Well, he was definitely waiting for me. No coincidence, there.

He’s a piece of work, Yuri—looks like that comedian, the blond one with the snarky attitude. Denis Leary, I think is his name. That wiry, wise ass thing Leary has is what I see in Yuri. Well, he actually resembles him, too, so it’s more than just the vibe.

Lemme run this history right quick.

He used to own a couple of decent strip clubs. Pretty popular ones, for a while. That’s how he met Maddie. When JJ sent her into exile, she hit the titty bar circuit—and the pipe. Crack, crank, whatever she could get hold of. She’d been banished for using, so I guess she thought, “What the hell?” And hit it even harder.

Her looks held up for quite a while. And because her porn flick past made her such a big attraction, Yuri decided to manage her. So they hit the road and he started bossing her and everyone who hired her around like he was Hugh Hefner, Jr. or something.

But while he was gone, the people left in charge started doing all kinds of shady deals—that’s how Friendly first got involved with Yuri, too. He was the stereotypical crooked cop already, that guy. Took kickbacks for looking the other way or actually helping people do illegal things for a price.

Unfortunately, Yuri’s people were even dumber and more unjustifiably arrogant than he is. So they kept pissing off the wrong people. Especially the Russian mobsters who were just getting established in the area and made much better deals with the local PD and politicians than Yuri’s people could.

And pretty soon the patrons got skittish, profits dropped and Yuri couldn’t make good on the less than legal loans he got from the shady characters who were actually sort of hoping he’d default. So the bars closed, Yuri became a local laughing stock and he and Maddie comforted themselves with booze and other stuff—heroin, most recently. Because they weren’t fucked up enough, apparently…

So he looked all jaundiced that day. And his slicked back hair was greasy and stringy—the denim jacket and jeans he was wearing were all ripped up and falling apart, too. Could’ve been an extra in one of those walking dead movies--no makeup or wardrobe change necessary.

And he had the nerve to smile at me—that gave me the willies. Yellow skin, yellow eyes, yellow teeth …yeow…

“I know. Restraining order,” he said. His accent was classic movie actor Russian. I almost thought he was putting it on, sometimes. Like one day he’d forget and come out sounding like he came from Jersey or something. But it was probably the only thing “real” about him.

Big Man appeared out of nowhere—always on the case, Big. Thank God.

“Wha’chu doin’ over here, man?” he asked Yuri.

But it was Wyatt I wanted to spare. So I said, “Lemme deal with him—can you get her situated over there?”

“They’re waitin’ on you,” Big Man said. His way of saying something else without getting Yuri all pissed off.

“I know. I promise you—five minutes. Yeah?”

He didn’t like it. I could see it in his eyes and the way he sort of balled up his hands. So I looked at Wyatt and said, “He’ll put you up front, okay? It's gonna be wild.”

She looked as wary as Big Man. But I touched the small of her back again. And got that little shiver that says so much.

Big Man caught that, too. And smiled and said, “C’mon, Pretty, let’s do lunch!”

And as they left, Yuri gave me that Nosferatu leer again and said, “I have message for you.”

“What, from Maddie?”

“Her, too,” he said. “She has done what you ask.”

“She in there? At the clinic?”

“That’s what you ask, that’s what she does. What magical cock you must have, that women will do whatever you say. And that one—very nice.”

He looked off toward Wyatt and Big Man and I bristled.

“Eyes on me, pal. What’s goin’ on?”

“I like that you know real woman when you see one.”

“I like that you always say something to remind me what a sleazebag you are. Get on with it, wouldja?”

He returned his gaze to me and I was almost sorry. He was trying to look all pathetic for me. But it only sort of made me nervous.

“I am in bad trouble, my young friend,” he said. “And another person you know very well, he is also in very bad trouble.”

“Your boyfriend Friendly sent you, right?”

“He cannot be seen.”

“What, here?”

“He is in hiding.”

“What, like…witness protection or something?”

Yuri had a nice, phlegmy little laugh about that.

And then he said, “Not well liked, our friend. By many people. He made life very difficult.”

“Really?” I said. He laughed at that, too.

And then he shrugged, sighed, and said, “But now he is just civilian. No shield. No power.”

“He never had any power. You of all people should know that. How many of those promises did he keep? Name one.”

“I am aware,” he told me. “But I had no choice. I have lost everything.”

“So you sold me for how much? I always wondered.”

“It was not for money. I told you this.”

“Revenge?”

He shrugged and said, “She’s my woman and you give her gun to shoot me.”

“The way you beat her she should shoot you. I’d shoot you myself if I was there.”

He raised his palms to me very gravely, and said, “Please! We have discussed this. She is mother of your children. But when you endanger my life…”

“That’s not the whole story. Gimme the whole truth, for once.”

He stared at me for a long minute. And then his eyes went sort of weird. I think he meant them to look sad, but the just looked…crazy.

“Bobby, he works both sides of the street—you know this! I had to play his game. He could arrest me and put me in with all of those people I had told him about!”

“Friendly’s got no game, man. You pay him to spy on your enemies, he takes money from your enemies to spy on you—you said it yourself! How do you trust a guy like that?”

He sighed and hung his head.

“I could not go to jail,” was his final answer on that, apparently.

“But I could?”

“Please. What chance that you would really go to jail? The little rich boy!”

“More’n’ you thought. I slip up one time, I’m gone—we’re talkin’ felonies here!”

 “Why do you have this guns, I want to know! They are not things someone has in their home, these weapons.”

He actually sounded sincere. It sorta freaked me out.

So I said, “For the Day of Reckoning.”

“What is this?”

“I dunno, this…crazy dude said there was going to be a big race war. Whites against…damned near everyone. So he recruited a bunch of white kids and taught us all this murderous shit no kid should know. How to kill a man with your hands and stuff like that—that’s what got me interested. Learning self-defense, that kinda stuff. But I couldn’t hang with the Neo Nazi shit, so…”

“So he gives you these guns?”

“Wanted us to have serious weapons. Army stuff—said the drug cartels were arming blacks and Mexicans to overthrow the government up here. So he built all this heavy artillery from parts he got from gun shows and online and God knows where all else. Sanded off all the numbers.”

“He was crazy,this guy.”

“Bat shit crazy. Dude had rocket launchers, grenades--those really heinous ones that have, like, nails or something in them. That tear you apart. I’ll never forget the day he showed us his stash, all proud—starts kissing grenades and shit, right?”

I thought about that for a second—what a doofus I’d been to stick around at all. Yeah, it was great training and all, at first, for a kid living pretty much on the streets where the prey on the young and the weak, you know?

But the Nazi race war shit--I hadda get out before I said something that could get me killed as a race traitor or something. I’m an equal opportunity sorta guy. I’m down with anyone who treats me right. Color never enters into it.

“I quit that very day--shoulda quit before that,” I admitted.  “But the guns…well, I mean, you never know, right? World we live in, the girls’n’ me…you can never be too careful.”

“This is true,” Yuri said. “A man must protect what is his.”

I smiled. He was talking about Maddie again. And the gun I gave her.

“So you taught me a lesson, right?”

“It was not like that.”

“What was it like, then? Come clean, once and for all--I’m sincerely asking.”

“You know the answer!” he cried. “I have no papers. I am in hiding, too!”

I’d heard the story. He was supposedly smuggled in through Canada or something—crossed that strait like the first Indians, from Siberia into Alaska. It was probably a load of crap, all that, but after what I’ve told you, you can see why I sort of believed he might’ve had to make a run for it.

“So you said all this to say what, exactly?” I finally asked.

He watched me for a few seconds, and then that vampire smile came back.

“Well, if our mutual friend were, perhaps to…find a new job. In Las Vegas, perhaps—a place where his talents could be put to even better use…”

I saw that one coming. And I squared my shoulders and gave it to him straight.

“You wearin’ a wire, smart guy?” I asked him.

He shuddered a little. Could’ve been the question, could’ve been the dope. Either way, he knew he’d better talk fast.

“Please!” he said, holding up “stop” palms to me again. “Please, hear what I have to say.”

“No, you listen to me. If Friendly needs a legit job, if you need a legit job, there’s ways we might be able to do that. I have to be nuts to even think about it, but—“

“No, you are not nuts. You are good man in your heart,” he said—looked sincere again. He was kind of surprising me, I admit.

And then he went into full theatrical mode.

“So perhaps you can see from where I stand,” he said. “I watch you, a child who owns the world—a child who waves his hand and makes dreams come true! Can you understand how it hurts my heart, the way it has turned out for me? This poison, I take to forget. One day, it will take me, this poison. But better to be dead than living like this. In Hell, like this.”

I didn’t see that coming. I really didn’t. But I couldn’t let him guilt me.

So I said, “Yeah, well, you have to understand me, too. I mean, you two are like this…this little axis of evil in my life.”

The next smile chilled my bones. Like…my skin crawled.

He said, “I hear you have problems. You and the lady. Perhaps, to prove ourselves—“

“Whoa—no, no, no. I don’t want you meddling in anything to do with me. That’s a big no go, you hear me? ”

He smiled and nodded but the little glint in his eyes bothered me.

So I said, “I’m not fuckin’ around here, Yu. You’re like a bad rash. I’ll put out the word. But if you do anything dumb the deal’s off. You feelin’ me?”

“You are very brave boy,” he told me, with this look on his face like he was about to salute me or something.

“I’m a very stupid boy, actually,” I said.

And just then, I saw Big Man running toward me, his two way up to his mouth.

When he got to us, he said, “They’re lookin’ all over for you, man! Git on over there!”

And to Yuri, he said, “All it takes is a phone call, Slick.”

Yuri raised those palms skyward and said, “I will disappear. Don’t bunch up your panties.”

“Nice English, fool,” Big Man said, staring at him so hard it looked like he was trying to make him disappear.

But then he looked at me and said, “What’d I say to you a minute ago?”

“Well, c’mon, then!” I said. And he ran us through the alley and past security and the admission booths and all to get us over to the tent where you lined up for all the big feeds.

Thanks for the read! Come back for more--I'll be updating soon!