Benjy came to me one night after the Veils closed. He had this real worried look on his face. “Lou? Can I talk to you?”

I wondered if Eyeball might be giving him shit again, but Eyeball knew better than that after his tattoo shop beatdown.

“What’s up, kid?”

“You know Ali?”

I had to think for a second. “You mean Venus, the stripper.”

“Yeah. I think somebody might be tryin’ to hurt her.”

That piqued my interest. Never fuck with a man’s primary moneymaker.

“Oh? What makes you say that?”

“I heard her outside the club on her phone, and she was sayin’ stuff like ‘I don’t wanna do this’ and ‘I’m not a narc.’”

Four-alarm fire bells started going off in my head. When a cokehead tells somebody she doesn’t wanna be a narc, there’s a big fuckin’ problem.   

“Why don’t we go talk somewhere private?” I said, and put my arm around him.

I guided him back to my office, gave him a tumbler of my next-to-best scotch, and sat down opposite him. “Start from the beginning and tell me everything you heard.”

“Okay. Thanks for the drink, Lou.”

“You’re welcome. Go ahead, I’m listening.”

It was a pain in the ass sifting through his ramblings for the important parts, so I’ll save you the agony. Apparently he went off looking for Venus like he always does, hoping for a scrap of attention, but he couldn’t find her. One of the other strippers said she went outside for a smoke – which was another red flag. I don’t give a shit if my dancers smoke in the club, so Venus obviously wanted some privacy for something.

 She was out in the parking lot behind the dumpster. That’s why she didn’t see Benjy walk up on her.

He couldn’t follow the conversation exactly, but he heard scraps of her conversation. He said she went back and forth between scared and angry.

Look, I don’t want to do this.

There was a long pause while whoever was on the other end said something.

I’m not a narc.

Pause.

Please… they could kill me…

Pause.

God damn you to hell, you son of a bitch… fine. Fuck you.

Then she looked around the dumpster and saw Benjy.

I gotta go, she said, and hung up the phone. Then she walked right over to Benjy. He said she was pissed – and a little bit nervous.

Benjy, were you spying on me?

No… I just wanted to tell you you danced real good, Ali…

Did you hear any of that when I was talking on the phone?

Just a little.

Benjy, you can’t tell anybody.

Is somebody tryin’ to hurt you, Ali?

No, it’s not like that. Benjy, promise me –

Somebody’s tryin’ to hurt you, aren’t they? Is it Eyeball?

Benjy, stop it –

I’ll kick his ass for you, Ali – I will, I swear I will –

No, Benjy – it’s – look, it’s an old boyfriend, and he wants to come see me, and I don’t want to see him. That’s all.

Is he comin’ now?

No. No, honey, he lives in LA. He’s nowhere near here.

I’ll kick his ass for you, Ali. I will, I swear to God I will.

I know, Sweetie. Look, this is between you and me – you can’t go telling anybody about this, okay?

He didn’t say anything.

Benjy? Promise me.

…okay.

Pinky swear! and she held up her little finger.

…pinky swear, he mumbled, and curled his around hers.

“But I crossed my fingers behind my back, Lou, so it didn’t really count,” he informed me somberly, just like a fuckin’ five-year-old would. Then he got a dumb animal look of rage on his face. “I wanna kill whoever’s bein’ bad to her. If it’s Eyeball, I wanted to let you know, Lou, cuz now I gotta beat him up.”

Yeah. Good fuckin’ luck with THAT.

“It ain’t Eyeball, kid,” I said.

He scrunched up his face in confusion. “How do you know?”

I wasn’t about to go into the whole thing with Jack and the tattoo shop, so I simply said, “Because I told Eyeball to leave her alone, and he obeys my fuckin’ orders, or he knows I’ll kill him.”

“Oh… then who is it?”

That was the question, wasn’t it?

“Lemme think for a second, kid.”

I ran through the options in my head.

Was she talkin’ to somebody in the Richards police department?

Hahahahahaha – sorry, couldn’t help myself. That was funny.

So it wasn’t the Richards PD… and it wasn’t a rival club she was talking to, either. She would never use the word ‘narc’ if she was talking to another gang.

So it had to be law enforcement of some kind… which probably meant the Feds.

We hadn’t been involved in a murder for years, so I could cross the FBI off the list.

We occasionally bought guns through back-alley deals, but it was too small-fry for the ATF to bother with.

That left the DEA.

Which, considering that the club was still trafficking in weed, and I’d just started my side deal with Einstein, made perfect fucking sense.

Shit.

I had a mole in my operation.

“I don’t know,” I finally said. “Lemme see what I can dig up, and I’ll get back to you.”

“But Lou – ”

“Nobody’s going to hurt her, kid. Not on my watch. And you better not tell Venus about this, you hear me? Or anybody else for that matter.”

Benjy got a look on his face like a duplicitous kindergartener. “Okay, Lou.”

I noticed he had both hands stuffed in his jacket pockets.

“Let me see your hands, Benjy,” I said.

He looked guilty as he pulled them out. Two of his fingers were crossed. Christ – he didn’t even have the sense to hide his dumbass lie.

“Benjy, I ain’t fuckin’ around with you,” I snapped. “If you ever want to get in the Midnight Riders, you listen to me: you do not fuckin’ tell anybody about this, you hear?”

He got all butt-hurt and sulky, just like a spoiled fuckin’ brat. I wanted to ram his head through the wall, but I knew a different approach was called for.

“You wanna know why?” I said. “Because if you tell anybody before I find out who that bad guy is, Venus might get killed, and then it’s gonna be all your fault. You hear me?”

He went wide-eyed with fear. “She’s gonna be okay, though, right?”

“If you keep your fuckin’ mouth shut. Are you gonna keep your fuckin’ mouth shut?”

“Yeah – yeah, Lou. I pinky swear,” he said, and held up his little finger.

Jesus fucking Christ.

“NO, you give me your word like a man.”

He dropped his hand, all dejected-like. “…okay.”

“Let me hear it.”

“I give you my word, like a man.”

“Like a fuckin’ Midnight Rider,” I said, and he brightened up at that.

“Like a fuckin’ Midnight Rider,” he repeated, and that was the end of the conversation.