Even from across the crowded room, in the low light, through the ever-moving half-naked women looking for a lap needing a dance among the seated patrons, he was unmistakable. I didn’t know his real name, the only thing I had ever heard him called was Jax. He was a mountain of a man, at least six-foot-eight and thick. I have rarely been physically intimidated in my life, but Jax was a scary dude. He was the head of Kovalev’s muscle, my direct superior. He stood in the middle of the floor, creating a space around him by his mere presence as he scanned the room. He stopped when his eyes landed on me and then he crossed purposefully toward the bar and sat down onto a stool next to me.

“Alright, Jason?” he asked. “I trust the thing tonight went well.”

I nodded. I knew he wasn’t much for small talk. It was generally best to be quiet and wait for him to get to the point, which he invariably did in short order. He took a bottle of beer from the bartender. He didn’t have to order, or pay for that matter. Jax was well known in just about every den of vice in the city.

“I need you to do a job tomorrow night.” He handed me a slip of paper with a few words scribbled on it. “Got some money needs to be picked up. Courier was bringing a delivery down from Reno and he stopped in to Kerri’s Ranch, brothel out by Pahrump. You know it?”

I nodded. I hadn’t ever been there, but Pahrump was a small town, it would be easy to find.

“Anyway, the woman who runs the place is a friend of the Boss, so when this guy came in with a bag full of cash and started ordering off the expensive part of the menu, she gave us a ring. Their security threw him out and kept the cash. Now, I got somebody out looking for the courier. He won’t get too far. But I need someone reliable to go out and pick up the money.”

I arched my eyebrow at him.

“Jax, I’m not a delivery guy. Don’t you have other people who can do this kind of thing?”

“I need someone I can trust. And now that the courier is in the wind and knows that we are coming for him, who knows who he has told about the money. There might be someone staking the place out, waiting for the pickup. If you pick it up, maybe we can avoid any potential incident. There is about three-quarters of a mil in that bag.”

I nodded and then held up the paper between my middle and forefinger.

“And this?”

“Just say that to the madam and she will bring you the bag. Don’t worry about counting it. She knows not to try anything.”

“And where do I drop it?”

“Boss is going to be at an event tomorrow night. Bring it there. I’ll text you the address tomorrow.”

And with that, Jax stood up, turned on his heel, and walked straight out of the club. I looked over the scrap of paper. I didn’t understand the need for the cloak and dagger nonsense, but whatever. ‘This place is like herring in a barrel.’ I was sure I would feel like a fool saying it, but as long as it got the job done, I suppose I could stomach it.

I looked back at the stage and saw Kyle holding a dollar bill between his teeth, enticing a caramel brown beauty to take it with her breasts. I gritted my teeth. I was tired and wanted to get home, but it looked like my ride was in no hurry. I decided to give him another ten minutes and then I would tell him we needed to go.

When I saw Kyle heading to the VIP room with one of the girls, I knew I needed to make other arrangements. I grabbed him by the arm as he went by and told him I would be taking a cab home. He smiled as if he were surprised to see me still here. He probably hadn’t given me a second thought once we walked in the door and the tits came out.

* * *

Home was a three-story apartment building that Kovalev owned on the west side of town. The units were filled with various people in Kovalev’s orbit – generally girlfriends or hired muscle, like me. I had moved in when he first hired me. I hadn’t had anywhere else to live at the time. I stayed out of laziness more than anything. I could move easily. It wasn’t like I had a lot of furniture. I kept things spare and clean. If I left that night, there wouldn’t be anything in that apartment that told you anything about the person who had lived in it. But moving would require me to have somewhere else to go, and my life was devoid of destinations at that point. Besides, I lived rent free, and the neighbors weren’t too bad.

There was one, the girl in the third-floor corner unit, opposite side of the building from me. I had only seen her a few times and we had never spoken. She seemed shy, withdrawn. But there was something about her that was intriguing. She was Kovalev’s girlfriend. One of them, at least. All of the other girls in the building were girlfriends of his subordinates. I knew that his main girlfriend had a condo next to the Aria right on the Strip. His wife lived at their house outside of town. But this girl was something else. Only Kovalev came to see her. When she left the apartment, she always went with one of Kovalev’s personal bodyguards. It didn’t look like they were there to protect her. Something was strange about it, something didn’t sit right. But then again, it wasn’t really my business.

I sat down in the easy chair that was the one piece of real comfort that I had in the apartment. I slept sitting there as often as I slept in the bed. I flipped on the TV and searched through the channels without any serious intention of watching anything. I just wanted the flickering light and sound to provide a layer of noise, drown out the rest of the world, and let me sleep. I settled on a nature documentary. They usually have narrators with calm, soothing voices. Even when they are describing some wildebeest’s violent death at the jaws of some crocodile or hyena. A lot of the guys I work with, a lot of the guys I was in the SEALs with, thought of the world in terms of predator and prey. They imagined that their violence fulfilled a natural role, a place in some prescribed order. It made it easier, I guess. It let you avoid hard questions.

Was I sure that life wasn’t as simplistic and binary as they believed? And if it was just hunter and hunted, which one was I? I didn’t know which question disturbed me more.