Black Gangster (16 page)

"Don't fool yourself," Ruby answered over her shoulder as she walked into the bedroom. Billy followed her, stopped at the door, and stood back on his heels like a woman.

"If you are referring to what I think, Ruby, I'll have you know that I'm just as much woman as you are, honey-and maybe I might be just a little more."

Ruby laughed harshly. "I'll bet you are," she replied as she pulled out a dresser drawer.

"Ruby, just what are you supposed to be looking for in my dresser, dear?" His voice had become a bit firmer, more masculine. Now there were no more superfluous gestures as he watched her closely.

"Where do you keep the stuff at, Billy? I want a little blow, if you don't mind."

He seemed to relax a little. "Why do you do this to me, Ruby? You know you took everything I had the last time you were here."

She closed the bottom drawer and walked over to the double-doored closet. The large gold-rimmed mirror revealed her flaring black skirt and tight-fitting white blouse. She opened the large door and gasped in amazement. Beautiful gowns, in the latest fashions, hung from every rack.

Billy reached over her shoulder and pushed the sliding doors closed. The larger mirrors built into the closet doors revealed the anger in Ruby's eyes.

Billy smiled disarmingly. "Here, Ruby," he said. "Here's some cocaine for you." He gave her a small package wrapped in tinfoil.

"Thanks," she replied, taking the dope and walking over to the dresser. She removed a ten-dollar bill from her bra, rolled it up, and made a quill out of it. She opened the package, slowly bent down towards it with the quill in one nostril, and snorted deeply. With a deep sigh, she reached across the top of the dresser and picked up a cigarette lighter. Next, she picked up the empty paper that had held the drug and set it on fire, then dropped it into the nearest ashtray.

"Billy-boy," she called, her voice husky. "I've never had a fag make love to me." She put one hand on her hip and turned in his direction. "Wouldn't you just love to be the first one?"

"Ruby darling, you are the most! Really darling, I never expected that coke to react on you that way, dear. I know it makes some people freakish, but not that freakish, darling. My sweet Jesus, no!" He burst out laughing.

Ruby moved over to the door. In one smooth motion she hit the light switch and closed the bedroom door. Billy's eyes widened with revulsion as he watched her remove her loose-fitting skirt.

"Don't come near me!" he screamed in mock alarm as Ruby moved in his direction. The sound of the evening traffic in the street below was the only noise in the room. Billy jumped across the bed and made a rush towards the door. He was already thinking about how he would tell his friends Ruby tried to rape him. He grinned to himself in the dark. The thought of their faces when he related his ordeal filled him with joy.

Ruby, almost naked from the waist down, stepped aside and let him pass. Quickly she removed the teninch knife from under her slip where it had been strapped to her thigh. She leaped upon Billy's back with the lithe motion of a leopardess.

Billy frantically fumbled open the bedroom door and stumbled out into the living room as Ruby clung to his back. Her face twisted hideously as she put one of her small hands over his mouth and stabbed him viciously in the side. Instantly, astonishment and pain wiped the sneering smile from his face. With a manly jerk, he swung her from his back and staggered over to fall across the baby grand piano.

He managed to turn around just as Ruby leaped towards him. The scream that started in his throat died as bursts of pain exploded in his stomach. In desperation he shoved her away and staggered back across the room, falling on top of the white marble coffee table. The long blade did its work again. He felt the intolerable pain in his back; it caused him to fall off the table and clutch at the couch as he slid to the floor.

Ruby used her foot to turn him over on his back. As his eyes fluttered open and he stared up at her in horror, she reached down and stabbed him again and again in the chest and stomach.

The interior of the beautiful living room was ruined. Blood streamed from the tan couch. The coffee table was covered with pools of blood. The cream-colored carpeting was spattered with dark stains. Ruby watched as convulsions shook Billy's body for a moment before he lay perfectly still. She stood over the body and laughed while blood from Billy-boy's wounds ran down her naked legs. Her breasts rose and fell with her excited breathing.

Ruby sat down suddenly and forced herself to become calm. After awhile she was able to hold down the trembling in her legs. She stared around the apartment, detached. It was as though what had happened had transpired in a dream. She felt as though she had only been an observer. She got up and went into the bathroom. After taking a shower, she entered the bedroom and picked out a two-piece outfit that must have cost over a hundred dollars. Then she tried on a pair of heels, but the shoes were too large, so she carefully cleaned off her own and put them back on.

Later, after making sure she wasn't leaving anything, she put her wig on. She glanced at herself one more time in the mirror. As she reached the door, the telephone rang. She waited a second, then opened the door and peeped out. Finding the corridor empty, she slipped out into the hallway and took the stairs down to the back exit.

At the same time across town, Donnie paced up and down in the small quarters of his motel room. For the tenth time he reached for the phone, only to turn away in fear. At last he found the courage to pick the receiver up and dialed a number.

"Hello." He spoke quickly, fearful of what the call might do to his personal health. "Let me speak to Prince, please?" He waited, frightened by his own behavior.

"Prince, Prince," he could hear the unknown voice calling in the distance. Suddenly the extension was picked up and he heard the voice he had been dreading. All the rehearsals he had been going through failed him now.

"Prince," he stammered, "this is Donnie. I don't know how to begin telling you, man, but Roman got me giving him a kickback on all the whiskey money I pick up." He blurted out the story, not allowing Prince to ask any questions. "The paperwork I turn in to Fatdaddy is all wrong, Prince."

He listened to the silence from the other end of the line. Again he wondered if it had all been a frame. If so, he had done the right thing. Prince would already know that he was keeping back some of the money every day.

Suddenly Prince's voice came over the line, sharp and harsh. "How much?"

Donnie didn't hesitate. "We pick up close to thirty gallons of whiskey from each joint, Prince, every day. After disposing of it, we hold back at least five gallons from each house."

Prince did some quick calculation. They owned over twenty joints; five gallons of whiskey from each one was running into big money. At ten dollars a gallon, he was losing somewhere around a thousand dollars a day. "How long has this shit been going on?" he asked sharply.

"Ever since I took over Shortman's job, Prince. He hit on me the second day after Shortman died." There was a quick knock on the library door and Ruby came in. Prince glanced at her quickly, noticing the strange glitter in her eyes. He put his hand over the telephone receiver. "Did everything go all right?"

She nodded her head, then dropped onto the couch, crossing her legs. "Everything is mellow on my end, Daddy," she replied, her voice husky.

More from habit than anything else, his eyes roamed over her thighs; then he forced his attention away from her and spoke into the receiver. "How much money did you make, Donnie, since this shit has been going on?"

Again there was no hesitation. "I got fifteen thousand dollars out of it, Prince, but I ain't spent a penny of the money. I been saving all of it until I had time to tell you about it. I didn't really know if it was something you was trying to test me on or what."

Prince listened to the voice and fought back his anger. It filled him with rage even to think that one of his men was stealing from him. He knew he paid them more money than any of them had ever made in their lives. The real problem was Roman, he reasoned coldly. Without Roman, Donnie would have never found the nerve to take from him.

"Fifteen thousand dollars!" Prince exclaimed angrily into the phone. "Well, I'll be goddamned! I didn't think this shit had gone that far. That's thirty thousand dollars we should have had here to work with. I want you to stay right where you're at until I call you back, Donnie. I'm going to get to the bottom of this shit today. Ruby," he yelled, "take this phone and get his phone number." He dropped the receiver onto the couch beside her.

Prince began to pace the room, his mind working swiftly. There had been too much bloodshed already; he couldn't retaliate the way he wanted to. There was murder in his heart, but common sense told him to move slowly.

Ruby wrote down the phone number, then hung up. She watched her man pace up and down. The phone rang, and she picked it up and listened quietly. Prince glanced at her once or twice but kept pacing. She hung up and glanced at him worriedly.

"What now?" he asked as he sat down on the couch.

"That was Blanca, baby. She says our dope connect dropped off two kilos, then told her there wouldn't be any more dope coming. Seems as though they don't like dealing with women now."

Prince leaned back and stretched out on the couch. He kicked off his shoes and put his feet in her lap. "This thing we got going is bigger than I thought it was, Ruby. We ain't got enough smart people up front helpin' us. It's just too goddamn much for the few we got who are qualified to help us." He rubbed his hands over his eyes, then continued. "We got troubles, baby. If I was smart, I'd take the little bit of money we got stashed away and pull out before this thing gets out of hand."

She removed his feet from her lap and stretched out on the couch beside him. Prince pressed against the back of the couch so she would fit in his arms more comfortably.

"Blanca also said to tell you, daddy, that everything was set for the picket line Friday. You ain't changed your mind about having us picket that A&P market, have you?"

"No, baby. We got to get those goddamn guns as soon as possible. Everything is ready for Friday, I made sure of that myself." He brushed the hair out of her face lightly, then continued. "When you call Donnie back, tell him to start turning his whiskey money in to Fatdaddy. Also, tell him I want ten thousand dollars of that money he took from Roman. The other five grand he can keep for puttin' me up on what was going down."

"You haven't even asked me about Billy-boy," she said as she cuddled in his arms, her breath hot on his neck.

"You said everything was taken care of, didn't you?" he asked slowly, letting his hands roam over her soft young body.

Her breathing became heavy as his hands continued to explore. He twisted his head away as she tried to arouse him by darting her tongue in and out of his ear.

He laughed and held her back from his neck. "Be good now, woman. I got business for you to take care of." As she started to wiggle in his arms, he continued. "I want you to get in touch with Preacher and have him set up a meeting with Roman. I don't want this business handled over no phone, baby. It's too important. Tell Preacher to have Roman meet him at some gas station on the outskirts of town tonight. When they get together, tell Preacher to tell him I want him to take over the dope business. He's got to get a connect somewhere, so by the time he gets it set up I'll have something else for his ass." He added as an afterthought, "Oh yeah, baby. Tell him to tell Roman that he ain't handling the whiskey business no more. It's completely out of his hands. All I want him to do is get the dope connect."

While he had been talking, Ruby had slowly unbuttoned his shirt. Now, she pressed her face to his chest. He could feel her hot mouth searching, then her nimble tongue began to work around his nipple. Slowly, he could feel himself beginning to respond. Her head began to sink lower and lower, her tongue constantly exploring, her teeth nibbling, until he knew there was no avoiding the pleasurable sensations she was stimulating. Her fingers fumbled with his pants. As he felt the buttons being opened, he asked, "Did you lock the door when you came in?"

"Fuck the door, and the lock, too!" she exclaimed.

IT SEEMED AS THOUGH he had just gone to bed when Dot shook his shoulder. Roman rolled over and sat up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stared at her curiously.

"It's time to get up, baby," she said lightly. She grabbed his shoulder and gave him a hard shake. "Come on, baby. You know Prince is going to be waiting for us to show up. Besides," she added, "our plane leaves at five o'clock."

Roman reached over and picked up a pack of cigarettes from the table beside the bed. "I still don't like it," he grumbled.

"Well, I do," Dot replied quickly. "I'd rather be in Chicago than here today. When that shit hops off at that A&P market, no telling who the police will end up bustin'. If we ain't nowhere in sight or reach, we ain't got no problem." She stared at him for a minute, then turned on her heel and walked towards the bathroom, stepping out of her housedress on the way. In a few minutes, the sound of the shower running came to Roman's ears, so he pushed back the covers and sat up on the edge of the bed.