‘Hey, Tom, what happened with that girl in South Africa? Things work out there?’

Tom laughed hollowly. ‘Not exactly the way I’d hoped.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Yeah.’ Tom sighed. ‘Listen, Halo, be careful, okay?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘They don’t think they have any reason to come after you, but that could change. And these guys aren’t fucking around.’

A long, worried pause from Halo before he said, ‘You think they’d hurt Vee, Tom? You think they’d hurt Katy?’ The edge of concern in his voice sharpened noticeably.

‘I think they’d hurt just about anyone.’

*

Kitty made excuses until he challenged her on her lies, then confessed that Pete LaBello had ordered her not to put Tom’s calls through to him.

‘Kitty, it’s an emergency. A matter of life and death.’

She paused. Then she said, ‘Tom, he’s so mad he told me not to put you through even if you said it was a matter of life and death.’

‘But I’m not joking! It really is! My life and death!’

‘I’m … sorry, Tom.’

‘Fuck!’ Tom thought about it for less than ten seconds. ‘Can you lend me a thousand dollars?’

There was a horrible, embarrassing silence. Or, at least, it would have been embarrassing if Tom hadn’t been past embarrassment now – so far past that he’d have tap-danced naked down the 405 freeway if someone had offered him a hundred bucks.

‘Tom, I really can’t. My sister—’

‘It’s okay. Forget it. Sorry I asked.’ And he truly was.

‘Okay, Tom. Take care.’

‘I will.’

He hung up and sipped his coffee. Lucia touched his wrist lightly. ‘I have seven thousand dollars,’ she said quietly.

He was stunned. He couldn’t take her money but, hell, it was good to hear she was prepared to do that for him – that anyone still trusted him that much. His throat was suddenly too tight to speak so he just squeezed her hand and shook his head.

*

As, deep down, he’d always known he’d have to, Tom went back to the tables. Except now it scared him even to walk into the clubs. He knew the events at Lucia’s apartment wouldn’t deter Stanley’s people from coming at him again. Whoever he worked for wouldn’t just write off the theft of $112,000, even if the Yakuza intervention made his own felony almost academic. He was still on the hook for stealing money he didn’t have any more.

The Rubstick was too close to Lucia’s place – they’d be sure to look for him there. His only hope was to dodge them around the several clubs in LA. Lucia had gone back to her apartment for some essentials. She’d understood the necessity to get out, but he’d found it harder to understand why she hadn’t just taken her seven thousand dollars and flown to Savannah. They had schools there; they had strip clubs there; she’d have been safe there.

Instead, apparently based solely on his selfish decision to ask her for help, she was behaving as if they were in this together. It was beyond reason, and it was humbling.

They’d cruised past her apartment building several times, looking for anyone who might have been waiting for them. Then he went in ahead of her, wishing again for a gun. A gun and a gym membership – the past several months would have been immeasurably eased by either or both.

The door to her apartment had been easily opened, splinters of wood showing it had been entered since that night by less careful means.

When Tom had gone in and seen the devastation he’d felt a sharp jab of anger. They hadn’t even been looking for anything. They had the bolt – they had what they wanted. Or they thought they did …

Lucia had passed him with dull eyes and tight lips as she surveyed the ruin of the little home she’d made for herself. Tom wanted to be man enough to tell her to get away from him while she still could, but he was too much of a man to let go of something he wanted so much. She’d packed what she needed – and could still find – into a duffel bag, and hadn’t let him carry it to the car for her.

*

Feeling like a bad actor, Tom wore a fake moustache and dark glasses into the Normandie. He spent twenty minutes just wandering about, looking for familiar faces, before changing up a hundred dollars and sitting down. It represented one tenth of all the cash he had left in the world, and he wished he hadn’t paid his rent when he’d last won big for Ness.

He wouldn’t have had this much if Lucia hadn’t paid for the hotel room. She’d done it with a credit card and a fierce glance that had kept his mouth shut. Used to playing with more money – and recently money that didn’t belong to him – Tom raised too fast and too high and the hundred dollars lasted all of thirty minutes, despite a couple of small wins.

He changed another hundred and played more conservatively. Three hours later he came away six hundred and fifty in profit.

His phone rang in the parking lot and Ness’s name was on the display. He stared at it until she rang off, then flinched when the tone told him he had a new message.

‘Tom? It’s Ness. Please call me. We need to talk.’ She sounded tentative – a little fearful. He almost bought it. Almost felt concerned. But he didn’t call her.

He walked to the Best Western where Lucia had been looking forward to seeing him. He knew that because when he knocked she opened the door and kissed him, then ripped off his moustache and kissed him again.

‘Ow,’ he said, grinning and closing the door behind him.

‘You won.’

‘I won.’

‘How much?’

‘Six fifty.’

‘Woohoo! I earned too!’ She walked over to the nightstand and picked up a fan of tens, smiling and waving it at him. ‘Eighty bucks!’

He tried to smile but felt his face stiffen with hurt. ‘Good,’ was all he could manage.

Realization dawned in her eyes and she lashed out, slapping him hard in the face.

‘Fuck you!’ she said, and followed up with a flurry of blows and ten-dollar bills. He grabbed her flailing wrists and held her against the bathroom door. She writhed in fury, trying to knee him in the balls. He was too tall for her to connect there, and he twisted his hips protectively, but he winced as she gave him a dead leg, and angrily pushed his full body length against hers to keep her from getting any leverage.

This close, he could feel her breasts against his ribs, her angry breath on his throat as she hissed, ‘I won it playing pool!’

Tom didn’t care. He was suddenly so hard he could barely breathe, and the feeling of her struggling against him made him groan and press himself into her belly. He dipped his head to kiss her; she dodged his mouth.

‘Please don’t,’ she whispered, and he drew back to see tears in her eyes.

He released her immediately. She turned and slid into the bathroom.