Page 11 (1/2)

While I tried to take the gun away before it went off again Hoyle got in sorunted and kicked and suddenly he wasn&039;t there any down the alley where a car waited at the far end It was Ruzzo at the wheel Didn&039;t knohich one Hoyle n of Mitchell

Faustine

I turned and choked, for she seemed to be huddled in a vast pool of blood until theher kimono Took a whiff The only bloodsmell was my own

Went to her quick She stirred and cautiously opened an eye "Es over, yesss?"

"You okay, doll?" At a loss to help I plucked at the kiracefully found her feet, slipping the silk wrap around her lithe body in one ney seen-e-ma, yesss?"

About two inches from where her head had been was a bullet pock in the brick "Oh, yeah"

"But Jek, you are heet?" She spotted the bloody graze in my side

"Faustine!" Roland hurtled toward her fro! Jack ! My God, what&039;s going on? Darling, are you all right?"

The last was aimed at his wife, who had a ready explanation, except it was in fast-flowing Russian, which he clearly didn&039;t understand

I went to the alley door, looking both ways as I eed into the cold wind All clear No Mitchell, and no bouncers, either I shoved the door shut, took a chair off a stacked coluled it under the doorknob Randoet a new lock, the kind that only opens frolish by then to provide Roland with the beginnings of a highly dramatic episode of how she&039;d savedmore upset by the second, so I skipped toward the ht I vanished, not inclined to see anyone on my way to the lobby Ito it and kept going

All four bouncers were gone

"Where are they?" I roared at Wilton He looked ready to duck behind the bar, and the hatcheck girl went "yeep!"

and did duck under her counter

"The men&039;s roo a craps game, I&039;d have their balls on a-

I pushed in, loaded for bear, and found them sprawled or heaped on the floor like sothe worst, but one of theroaned To a , they must have been lined up and hit one at a time Even Ruzzo could have done it with no trouble, one to hold the away like Babe Ruth on a Sunday

Checked theroaned opened his eyes and squinted "Boss? Wha&039;

happened?"

Went to the door and yelled for Wilton He caaped "Boss, what happened?"

"Look after theuyup

I returned to the backstage hall the sa solid more slowly to ed the place, all looking in the saain, this tier and thu the pistol Mitchell had left behind That lay forgotten on the floor where it had dropped in ain

" &039;I vill keel you, you dirdy radt!&039; Zen beng-beng-beng off goes de gun, but Jek leaps on de bedt guy like detheir ranks as she flew through the bothrabbed one ofit

"Grand work, sport!" he yelled, as though I&039;d gone deaf

"That will teach those rowdies! You saved her life! I can&039;t thank you enough!"

Teach who? I wondered What had she been telling thelad to have been of help" Iher toward Roland&039;s protective eet back to work!"

"What happened, Boss?"

"Drunk custoone Now, back out there while we still have others If anyone asks, you don&039;t know nuthin&039;"

"But we don&039;t know nuthin&039;," one of theainst the wall and rubbed my face My hands came away red, but it was only Faustine&039;s lip color The vivid red spooked ave me a clean handkerchief "I&039;d like to talk when you&039;re recovered"

He got a vague nod Mopping the war paint, I looked past hi severely at ht He waited until Roland and Faustine went by to get to their dressing rooht," he stated "His lieutenant?" He said lieutenant like it had an "f" in it

"Yeah Mitchell"

"What has he done to upset Bobbi so much?"

"I donno, but he used to run with Slick Morelli&039;she and Bobbi were old friends I warned hiavebusiness"

"It was dark, everyone&039;s drinking, they&039;re welcome to prove it How&039;s Bobbi?"

He frowned a bitsome "She is in a &039;state&039; Extreht my arm "Jack, make her cry, and I&039;ll murder you"

And he kne to do it, too

I shot down the hall to the nu roo on, with Teddy doing his best to fill in Bobbi didn&039;t reply, so I pushed the door open

"Bobbi? Honey, you okay?"

Froed, wobbly, clutching a wad of tissue in one hand like a soggy bouquet "No" Her voice was too high She stared at the blood on my shirt "Are you hurt? I heard a shot, but Charles , I&039;uy He&039;s gone He won&039;t be back"

"You knoho he is?"

"His nauy named Kroun outta New York I heard he&039;d been with Morelli before that and didn&039;t want hi table, back to the mirror "You knew about Mitch?"

Mitch She called him Mitch Why was that? "Only that he left when Gordy took over Strome told me"

Bobbi didn&039;t exactly cry like Adelle, but expressed sie "Did Strome tell you why Mitch left?"

"What is it? He hurt you?"

She shook her head "No" She turned toward the e wasn&039;t too bad I realized she could no longer look at h I could see her fine, front and back Why wasn&039;t she looking at me?

That crap Mitchell said "He told me Mitchell wouldn&039;t play second fiddle under Gordy"

"Nothing more?"

"Listen, if you don&039;t want to talk about it" I wanted to hold her, but so of treading on eggs

"Oh, it&039;s nothing horrible He&039;s-I&039; He just surprisedup so suddenly like that, and then you" She dumped the wadded tissues in a basket and clawed more from a box on her vanity table Blew her nose a lot That see out now She stood andwith stuff, trying very, very hard not to lose control "Anyway, he&039;s long gone, right? You &039;s fine You don&039;t need to be worrying about oh, don&039;t LOOK at me like that!"

I backed off I didn&039;t knoas looking at her "What?"

Bobbinoise and fled into the bathrooot in return were the big, racking,sobs of a full-blown breakdown "Honey? What is it? Bobbi? Come on" I&039;d never seen her like this before, and it was scaringwith Adelle had been so simple, and this wasn&039;t

Well, I&039;d been assured by Adelle that just holding her had been the right thing to do This h, and re-formed Bobbi was on the toilet lid with another bouquet of paper to sop up the outpour My appearance startled her

"Not fair!" she yelled "No! Not fair! You leave! I don&039;t wanna-"

I did what I did with Adelle, arht Bobbi hiccupped and sobbed, stuttering, and finally broke into a steady shower and, oh, God, didn&039;t I hate every minute of it

After forever went by, she wound down to a slow finish, and was a dandyunless they&039;re on a

She blew her nose for the umpteenth time, but still sounded stuffy, and her voice was thick "I&039;m sorry"

"Honey whatever it is it&039;s okay" And I ain, or I&039;d wind up in a booby hatch

"It&039;s about Mitch"

"I kinda figured that Bobbi, whatever it is, it won&039;t make me hate him any less"

"What does that mean?"

"I don&039;t know, but please don&039;t cry anymore Say the word, and I&039;ll make him disappear, but please"

Sniff "Okay, Jack"

"You want hi I just don&039;t ever want to see hiht all the bad stuff back, and I don&039;t want to go through-"

"Okay! It&039;s done He won&039;t get within a mile of you, I promise"

"Oooh, now et you soh she ht vanish like me Halfway down the hall was Faustine, still in her kimono Roland and Escott watched from the far end, hopefully out of earshot They had worried faces and were se, but it wasn&039;t the ti lass of water and a bottle of aspirin "Heerrre Take eet Gif her thrree, lessfool"

"Uh"

She arched both eyebrows "Men! Zo &039;fraid ov leetle tears They are de rain ov lof Now go beck, feex et Don&039;t coain! Go!"

I went

Bobbi settled down after the dosing She apologized soht and unnecessarily held ood

"Can you tell ht that I should have sent Faustine in to do this Woo," Bobbi began

I nodded

"Back then it was like I knew everything, yet nothing at all You kno that is?"

"Several tiht"

"Remember hoith reat, and then it got so he decided he owned et out of it If I did, he&039;d o In order to sing I had to keep myself available and do what I was told"

I nodded so how much it tore her up

"M-mitch was one of the boys there, and he liked ht he could help o to Hollywood We were so careful and it seemed safe and he was much nicer than Slick"

That side of Mitchell I couldn&039;t begin to iured what to pack into two suitcases, and it was hard, because I was leaving soover No mistakes this time then Gordy showed up atto run ae planned to do it, the works; it was like having your mind turned inside out and read like a book I denied it all, but he went real patient like he does and toldto suspect, and if he told Gordy to find out for sure, Gordy would have to tell him"

"Did Gordy talk to Mitchell?"

"No, not then he didn&039;t Only me Gordy was nice about it, but he scared the hell out oflike that, he just told the truth, very quietly If I didn&039;t cool things off with Mitch, I&039;d disappear There was another guy there, Sanderson, and he did whatever Slick told hi a woman if that&039;s what Slick wanted"

"I remember him" It would probably be decades before thethat suddenlyit a little easier

"So Gordy broke me, not with threats, but with kindness He said &039;You&039;re a good kid in a bad place, an&039; I don&039;t wanna see you hurt&039; He ht maybe he wanted the same, that that&039;s why he&039;d come, because he wanted me, too, but Gordy said no I was cute, but it wouldn&039;t work Then I begged hiet out, and he said that wouldn&039;t work, either The only way I&039;d leave hen Slick got bored with me It would take time, but would happen sooner or later I&039;d have to accept that I was Slick Morelli&039;s girl until he decided different"

I&039;d known soh

"So I got real busy with my work and rehearsals and couldn&039;t sneak off with Mitch, and Gordy looked out forhiured out Mitch was only in it to have the boss&039;s twist and a laugh on him If he&039;d really loved me, he&039;d have found a way around all that and" She drew and puffed out a deep breath "And then then one night you showed up"