Espresso At The Cafe

Emil and Dan sipped espresso with buttered croissants at the beautiful outdoor Cafe Bleu in the North Bronx. Both men wore dark suits, contrasting the sunny background and warm morning weather. Speaking as gentlemen, Emil recalled Friday night’s events.

“On Friday night you sent those crazy Chinese sisters to see me,” said Emil.

“Yes, I did. I gave them your address,” said Dan.

Emil leered at him, “How did you-”

“Know where you lived?” Dan sipped his coffee. “Like I told Lazlo. I know everything about you three guy’s business. Why? Because all of your books fell under Frank’s books. And when Frank died a whole decade of accounting files and bank statements became mine. So yes, I searched and found receipts on every home you and Leo Varbic purchased in upstate New York.”

Emil put his cup down. His privacy was now violated by Dan, who had access to his financial history and purchases made through credit cards against that shell corporation.

“So you know everything about me? Even how many times I piss at night?” Emil huffed.

“No, I didn’t go that far,” Dan took time to compose his words. “But Emil. When Tara and Kitty visited you on Friday. They were supposed to show you the bank statements proving that Lazlo and Leo were stealing from you.”

Emil sat back with a dark grin, “Mr. Dan, is that what you instructed those sisters to do? Because they showed me no papers. And it was not just Tara and Kitty who visited me.”

Dan gave him a shocked look, “Really? Someone else visited you that night?”

Emil glared at Dan while pushing a plate on the table, “Mr. Dan, four of your women arrived at my house on Friday night. None held any papers, no. They showed me something else. Allow me to share what happened that evening.”

Flashback- Friday Night

In a fabulous mini-mansion in Yonkers, New York. A booming sound stirred Emil in a dream. The second boom, the unmistakable roar of a shotgun shell blasting in his living room, startled him awake. He jolted up on his bed and stared into the dark of his bedroom.

There’s someone downstairs.

Technically incorrect. The intruders were already upstairs. Before Emil could pull off his blanket, a gloved hand covered his mouth, pressing a knife to his throat. “Mmph!” Emil froze on his bed with the blade at his neck. The wielder whispered to him.

“Sssh, don’t make a sound, or I will bleed you right here and right now. Do you understand me?”

He nodded in compliance but recognized the villainous female voice. In front of him, he made out another female figure standing in the dark. A teenage girl, cradling a long rifle with a seven-inch bayonet attached to the barrel end. Ahh, this must be her child. I’ve heard of her as well.

Emil whispered carefully to the person holding the knife, “You must be, The Villain Reyna Rai.” He shifted his eyes to the teenager in the dark, “And this little girl is your precious cub. Which means I am at the mercy of the legendary Rifle Girls, and yet I still live. There must be a reason why.”

The teenager, dressed in all black, raised her rifle and pointed the bayonet edge to Emil’s face. She smiled in the dark as she answered him, “The math teacher has a use for you, Emil. Hee!” she chuckled.

As the girl spoke, Emil’s bedroom door kicked in. Three shouting figures entered, switching on the lights. When the room brightened Emil’s heart jumped at the horrible scene before him.

“L-Leo?” Emil squeaked as one of his fellow partner bosses, Leo Varbic, knelt prostrate in fear on the bedroom floor. Behind Leo, stood Kitty with a gun to his head. In front of Leo Tara smirked at Emil, with a shotgun in her hand.

“Oi Oi!” Tara screamed. “What the fuck are you saying Leo’s name for when I’m the one holding the shotgun, Emil? Hahn?” She waved the menacing pump action in Emil’s face. “Speak up!”

Emil gulped and looked at Tara. “H-How can I help you, Tara?”

“Oh?” she calmed down, “Now I matter to you, right?”

She strolled back to Leo Varbic on his knees. “Hey you, slave trafficker. Tell Emil here how you and Lazlo stole eight million dollars from him, and still called him a partner!” Tara turned back to Emil, “Can you believe that shit, Emil? These assholes, Leo and Lazlo, were stealing your money the whole time, right Leo?”

Leo glanced up at Emil but didn’t speak. Kitty smacked Leo with her gun, “Tell him, motherfucker! Let the truth set you free!"

“Emil?” Leo spoke, almost in tears. “I know what I did was wrong. But we’re partners and I can get you your money back! Just tell these women not to kill me, Emil, please!”

Emil lowered his eyes at the sight of the once-proud Leo, now begging for his life on the floor.

“Answer him, Emil!” Tara growled.

“Leo, I always knew you and Lazlo were stealing from me. I just had no way to prove it.” Emil glanced up at Tara, “But what proof do you have that these men stole from me, Bad Tara?”

Tara gaped at Emil’s response, “Heh heh, you were always a tough egg, Emil. And you damn for sure know that Leo ain’t lyin to you. He stole your money!” She pointed at Leo, sobbing on his knees. “Ain’t that right, Leo?”

“Y-Yes, it’s true,” Leo whined.

“Ai, it’s like a faucet with you, man,” said Kitty, stepping away from Leo. “Tell me, did you feel this bad when you raped all those girls in your slave brothel?”

Leo raised his tearing face and scowled at Kitty, “I’m not a monster, it was all-”

“What, Leo? Just business?” Tara barked.

Leo stared at her, “Dammit, Tara. You know this game, it’s all just-”

“So’s this!”

Tara raised her shotgun and blew Leo’s face off with a Boom!

“Oh for fuck's sake, Tara!” Emil yelped, as Leo's body spun backward, spewing blood all over the walls, floor, and hallway.

“Haha, quit your crying Emil! Hey Kitty, did you see his head split? Hahaha!” Tara laughed.

“Like a goddamn watermelon!” said Kitty. All of the girls in the room laughed.

Emil shook uncontrollably while glancing at the faceless corpse of his shady former business partner, Leo Varbic. He knew he was next.

“Tara, I wasn’t involved in the brothel houses,” he pleaded.

Tara smirked, “I know that Emil. The math teacher said your business was gambling and I like to gamble, but I like to win when I gamble. And the only way to win all the time is to be the house all the time, ya know!”

She rested her shotgun on her shoulder while moving closer to Emil, “And that means I need to be the house of this whole city with no competition, especially from people that want me dead. Do you follow me, Emil?”

“Tara, I’m not your competition!”

“Yeah, not anymore!”

“Be reasonable. I know you want me to tell you where Lazlo is, but I don’t know. He moves around, he moves cash around-”

“I don’t want to hear your fuckin excuses, Emil! So this is what’s gonna happen, you’re gonna find out where Lazlo is, and on Sunday you’re gonna meet a man at Cafe Bleu and tell him the info. Don’t worry, he’ll make it worth your while.” She stepped away from the bed, “Are we clear, Emil?”

With the knife still at his throat and a dead body in his room, Emil answered. “I will be at the cafe, Tara."

“Yeah, I figured you would!” She scowled, pointing her shotgun at his chest, “Now listen, we ain't gonna untie your bodyguards on the way out, that's your problem.” She pointed at Varbic's body, "And you should clean up this mess, it's disgusting."

End of Flashback

Dan sat at the cafe table stunned at Emil’s story. “I um, I didn’t ask them to do all of that. I just-”

“What, Mr. Dan? You only asked those sisters to visit me and show me some papers to prove that Leo and Lazlo stole from me? You didn’t ask them to shoot Leo in front of me?”

Dan looked down, “No, I didn’t advise anyone to do that, particularly.”

“Hahaha! You make me laugh, Mr. Dan. I see you’re new to this business, aren’t you?” Emil snickered.

Dan nodded, “It’s certainly a challenge to remain civil in this type of industry. But I guess Tara and Kitty’s violent display worked to persuade you?”

“Heh, I would say their methods were heavy-handed but certainly effective,” said Emil.

“Right," said Dan. “However, I think, even without bank papers to prove it you believe me when I tell you that Lazlo and Leo-”

“Fucked me out of eight million dollars over five years? Of course, I believe you, Mr. Dan. Now the question is what will you have me do about it?”

Dan waved at his driver who walked to the parked car they arrived in. The driver opened the trunk and pulled out a large black duffle bag. He carried the bag over to Emil’s guards, who inspected the contents. One million dollars.

“That one million is yours as a down payment, Emil,” said Dan. “And I’ll give you another million if you can point me in Lazlo’s direction. So where is he?”

Emil held no reservations about telling Dan. But he truly had no answer.

“If I knew I would tell you,” said Emil, accepting the money and ordering his men to put the duffel bag in their truck, “However, what I can tell you is Lazlo, and all of us, are on the ropes. Many of his men have fled or were bought out by you, via Tara and Kitty. Lazlo is down to maybe ten loyal men who think he can recover after what you did to all of us this weekend, Mr. Dan.”

Dan sipped his coffee but offered no sympathy for Emil’s predicament. “Where is Lazlo now?”

“I told you, I don’t know. But Lazlo knows where you will be today, Mr. Dan. I’d assume that would account for something?”

“Is that what Lazlo said?”

“Yes, it is.”

Dan crossed his arms and stared at the short, heavyset, Emil. “I hear you. But you know what would be better, and worth your while, Emil?”

“What’s that?”

“That other eight million Lazlo stole from you, because you may not know where Lazlo is now. But I think, and this is my opinion. I think if you were to see that eight million again, you’d find Lazlo. And I’m sure you and your boys would take care of my problem for me. Wouldn’t you, Emil?”

Emil paused, “Hypothetically all things are possible, Mr. Dan. But truthfully, are you saying you have eight million dollars to pay-”

Dan pulled a bank statement from his blazer pocket and pushed it across the table, “Emil, I absolutely can afford to pay you to make my problem go away. I mean, it’s your money that he stole from you, anyway. I’m merely offering you an opportunity to get it back.”

Emil’s eyes widened at the balance amount on Dan’s Federal bank letterhead. He pushed the paper away. “Mr. Dan. For eight million dollars, I can do many things.”

“Yeah, I believed you could, Emil.” Dan stood up and walked toward his car, and with a sideways glance, “And that’s why I told those girls not to kill you. Because in the end, I knew it wasn’t personal with you. No, with you it’s just-”

“Business, Mr. Capra!” Emil completed Dan’s statement, “Just business.”

“Yes! I’m learning,” Dan said, as his driver closed his door, started the engine and sped off with him in the back like a boss.

Emil remained at the cafe table watching Dan’s car vanish down the street. He turned to his head bodyguard, Yuri.

“Cocky young man, that Mr. Dan, yes? But let me tell you, Yuri. He should be careful around those women he associates with, or they’ll be the death of him!”

“They always are, Boss,” Yuri growled, leaning next to Emil. “But Boss, he said eight million dollars?”

“Yes Yuri, I know.” He stood up from the table, “It seems if we stay with Lazlo we will be on the losing side. So it’s in our financial interest to secure a winner. No?”

The big bodyguard scowled, “Boss, you get me within twenty feet of Lazlo-”

“Yes, yes. Patience, Yuri,” Emil stood up, “I assure you, we will certainly see my so-called business partner Lazlo Kenny before the day is out.”

 

COMING AUGUST 2020, From Author JayDirex!!

Gutsy twin bounty hunters, Bro and Sis, thrive on snaring high-reward fugitives. With the money earned from catching crooks, they plan on buying a new truck and paying for University in the fall. But one day a high-risk job goes sideways and the twins become the target of two murderous crews out to kill the bounty they're transporting. Now trapped between warring sides, BULLETS FLY as the siblings go FULL METAL JACKET to guard their bounty and stay alive! An action packed shoot-em-up written by JayDirex

The Villainous Lee Twins 

August 2020