Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20A | 20B | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25-26 | 27 | 28-29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35-36 | 37 | 38A | 38B | 38C | 38D | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42-43 | 44-45 | 46 | 47 | 48-49A | 49B | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57A | 57B | 58-59| 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68-69 | 70A | 70B | 71A | 71B | 72 | 73 | 74A | 74B | 75 | 76-77A | 77B | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82
PART III
GLADYS
83
“FUCK YOU.”
“Dunham,” Brother John said patiently, “I am not asking you. I’m telling you.”
“You may be able to run that on some other cat, but not me. I am not handing over 1520 to you on your say-so.”
“We can bust up your operation,” Carrollo growled.
“Try it,” Trey snarled at him, then looked back at Lazia. “You will never get Boss Tom’s blessing because I’ll blow this fucker to smithereens before I’ll let you have it and then where’s he gonna get his cut of me?”
That made him pause. “You’d do that? Blow it up? Just to keep it from me?”
“No. I’d blow it up to keep you from taking it from me by force. That don’t work on me. I don’t care if you have it or not, but if you want it, you gotta get it at a fair price. Otherwise, it’s dust.”
Trey’s heart was thundering in his throat. He’d never been so ready to run in his life, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He stared at Brother John until the man looked away, seemingly around, admiring. Trey had won. For now.
“I’ll give you thirty percent of your asking price.”
Trey hooted.
Brother John’s mouth tightened. “I can just put you in the river and take it over.”
That was a distinct probability. “If you could,” Trey said low, happy his voice wasn’t quavering, “you’d’a done it by now and not tipped your hand. Boss Tom told you to leave me be. That hasn’t changed just because I won the bet.”
“I can have you raided.”
“Good luck with that. Plenty of coppers not too happy about half their paycheck going to Boss Tom for ‘dues.’”
Lazia ignored that. “What’s it going to take, Trey? Three times market for your Remus.”
“How many times have we been through this?”
“I am willing to pay a premium for it.”
“Get George on the line and tell him you’re tripling my price. See what he says.”
Lazia’s nostrils flared. Remus had already told him no, and Trey didn’t dare go back on his word to Remus. There were worse things than facing John Lazia down, but Trey didn’t want to find out what they were.
“Get off my back, Lazia,” Trey said low. “I’m not giving you my whisky, you can’t find my inventory, you can’t figure out where it’s coming from, and Remus isn’t going to sell to you because he knows what you’ll do with it and he’s protective of his brand.”
“Is it really worth dying over?”
“My word is worth dying over, yes.”
Lazia blinked and drew back.
“I don’t have a lot of morals, but I gave him my word. He’s been fair with me and I owe him the same.”
“It’s just whisky, Dunham,” Lazia growled.
“No, it ain’t just whisky,” Trey sneered, “since you’ve been after it for the last three years. And now you come in here heavy lookin’ to intimidate me, thinking Boss Tom’s gonna back you. Well, I don’t care whether he does or not, you ain’t gettin’ my whisky and you ain’t gettin’ my speak. It’s the principle of the thing! Even if you bought the speak at a fair price—which I am more than willing to negotiate with you on that—the Remus wouldn’t come with it. It’s attached to me and only me, and I can go back to bootlegging.”
Brother John’s jaw tightened. Trey had him, but he didn’t. Not really. Lazia played by his own rules. He popped another bite in his mouth. “Ah, hell, Trey, look. Forty percent of your asking price, I’ll keep you and your people on. No change from Boss Tom’s arrangement.”
“Naw, I ain’t doin’ ’at,” he said flatly. “There’s a lotta reasons I’ll sell my soul, but I ain’t sellin’ it to you at anything less than full price.”
Lazia grunted. “Well, at least I got a decent meal out of this visit. I need some sweet tea.”
“You can get that anywhere in town.”
“Yours is pure.”
“So what you’re saying is,” Trey drawled with great satisfaction, “you trust me.”
Lazia rolled his eyes. “Just gimme the drugs.”
Trey grinned. “Comin’ right up.”
Lazia had finished eating by the time Trey got back with his drugs and slid a glassine envelope with a generous amount in it. “On me today. So’s dinner.” He glanced at Lazia’s enforcer. “You pay for yours.”
Carrollo’s face went pure evil and he clenched his fist. “Come and get it.”
“Count on it,” Trey snapped.
“Relax, Charlie,” Lazia murmured. “Put it on my tab. Here’s the thing, Trey. I don’t mind doing business with you most days. Today is not one of those days.”
“Mutual.”
“Say, how’s your wife?”
“Still with my grandmama. She needs lookin’ after, with the baby an’ all.”
That was the rumor, anyway.
Lazia nodded. “Smart man. Keep her out of town.”
Trey’s soul hardened to ice and he stiffened.
“That was not a threat,” Lazia said testily. “I’m not the only one with a grudge to pick with you and some folks aren’t as moral as I am.”
“Who?”
“Solly Weissman, for one. Then there’s Seamus and his crew down in Midtown. Something about your heroin supply.”
“Seamus is a coward,” he said, keeping it light. “And lazy.”
“Even lazy cowards find ways to get what they want sometimes.”
“Mm. A’ight. Thanks for the warning.”
Lazia took his pocket watch out and checked the time. “Oh. Merry Christmas.”
Trey watched him leave, then looked at the sad little Christmas tree in the front window. “Merry fucking Christmas.”
83
If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.
Donations can be made here, if you so desire.
The sooner out the better, place won’t be worth a nickel when Prohibition ends.
*looks up sleeve, rummages around*
Trey is going to piss in Carollo’s pocket.
One day.
Kinky.
Thanks for keeping the site alive,
Really
Indeed. Many, many thanks to all the regulars.
And for the rest of you, err, us, bums, put up a post already. I can’t count the number of comments that have the seed of a full-blown post in them.
I could pre-release my forthcoming guide to libertarianism here in Mojo’s chapter-per-week fashion
what should my chapters be titled?
Acronyms
FYTW
TMITE
TMITE
I never knew this one
the media is the enemy
Somehow I had missed last week’s edition and had to read that first. Marina is growing up, realizing that she has to like herself first. We are our own worst enemies.
I always thought that bootleggers only did alcohol, too easy for the runners to dip into the drug area and become non-paying members…
Christmas Eve and both Trey and Marina are alone. Decision making time for both
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=one+is+the+loneliest+number&atb=v198-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D65PcmJRfgl0
Thanks, Moj, Another week to wait
This respite from each other is good for them both.
Lazia took his pocket watch out and checked the time. “Oh. Merry Christmas.”
Trey watched him leave, then looked at the sad little Christmas tree in the front window. “Merry fucking Christmas.”
Christmastime. I wonder what gift Trey gets.
Trey will get NOTHING and he will LIKE it!
Anyone still alive or did the geomagnetic storm monster get everyone else?
all the cool kids went to get malteds
I remember getting my .50 a week allowance on Saturday, heading for Rodin’s candy store to get a serious malt, a once week .15 reward, left me 35 cents for the rest of the week. My brother got his .50 but I couldn’t always convince him to spend it so frivolously.
It was right after WW2 and the Fourscores were living the high life.
You’re not that old. I’d expect to hear “then we wasted our money on a strawberry phosphate!”
Cherry phosphate or GTFO. Harrumph
What?? No sarsaparilla?? You kids and your newfangled candy drinks! 👵
We got snow. Well, at least pea-sized hail. This happened while I was hooking up a 10,000 lb. trailer I rented from a cow-orker.
Tomorrow I drive the trailer south to pick up a John Deere 2010 tractor that is older than I am.
#what’s happening down on pistoffnick’s farm.
https://youtu.be/9YFCZb3rLb8?si
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWu4aynBK7E&ab_channel=KennyChesneyVEVO
The Tractors – Baby Likes To Rock It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0M3LS9n7Ns&ab_channel=TheTractorsVEVO
/saw them live in Wichita
I remember seeing that video on cmt when it came out.
I’m not worried about that storm but net neutrality….
I’m not neutral on butt nets. I am totally against them
That reminds me of the closing segment of this: https://youtu.be/yfB7vF7nCdA?si=hVMrAR8vEclwuP2j
Dammit! They beat me to the punch.
That is is awesome. As is most of steel panther I’ve heard. Even if it is butt metal.
Good morning!
Mornin’ Ted. GT must be sleeping in and NA off to a shoot.
I’m up! I’m up!
Good morning, Ted’S. and JI! Had to check conditions at Tranquility Base. It’s raining lightly and on the cool side, but with a heavier hoodie, I think I’ll be OK.
Cool and sunny this morning in the Blue Ridge.
OK, NOW I’m set up and ready to rock! Just have to fire up the SiriusXM streaming and restart Millennium of Music on the classical channel…
Well, all right – I guess I’m not really ROCKING per se…
*waves at early morning Glibs*
☕😉🌄
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwGO-wwKSjg
🎶🎶
Good morning, Sean! How’s things in your neck of the woods?
Heater is acting funny. Got someone on the way.
How bout you?
I’m out here at Tranq Base. Life is good!
Mornin’ all
Good morning, Beau! How’s tricks up in the Mitten?
Meh. Nothing interesting. We’ve gone from heat back to (relatively) cold. Plus dreary and intermittently rainy. No storms to speak of, thankfully.
Similar here, but probably slightly warmer – 55 at the moment. Thank goodness my Maumee Bay State Park hoodie is a little heavier than my Hueston Woods State Park hoodie!