and they knew they’d been hit by tat players. Joe was mad but his voice, as always, was cool.
“Tommy, you’re nothing but a wandering hard-on …. All you think about is pussy,” his little brother said to him in cold anger. “Women and clipping guys, that’s your whole routine.”
“Come on, Joe, it wasn’t like that.”
“First, the jewelry store gets hit for a hundred grand. Okay, that’s small stuff; it’s stupid, but I can live with it. But now this … this is over a million dollars, Tommy. You’re down there and the Shift Manager can’t even find you. You got that redheaded flute player stashed in my villa and you’re up on eight with another hooker, while our place gets hummed for a million bucks. … Nobody can find you.”
“Joe … look …”
“What good are you to me if you do all your thinking with your dick? I got problems everywhere. All you do is make ‘em worse.”
“I don’t make things worse. In Jersey last month, wasn’t for me, you’d be upstate, Joe.”
“Hey, Tommy, this is an open phone line,” Joe exploded. “I got people listening … taps everywhere. Use your fucking head for once, will ya?”
Joe almost never lost control, almost never swore. This was one of the few times Tommy could remember his little brother cursing. It sobered him. “Whatta you want me to do?”
“You lost the million one. You either get it back or we make it up out of your end of things.”
“Jeezus, Joe, what the fuck kinda deal is that? You lose money on shit all the time, and you don’t have to make it up outta your end.”
“When I lose money, Tommy, it’s because something unforeseen went wrong, and then I study the mistake and never, never repeat it. You’re losing money ‘cause you can’t keep your dick in your pants or your mind on business. You make the same mistake three times a week. So now, you get the money back or pay it back. Those are your two choices.”
And Joe hung up in his ear.
Buzini had turned and moved to the far side of the office early in the conversation. He didn’t want to witness even one end of this tongue lashing. He hated having to hear Tommy plead, because he knew Tommy would take it out on him. But he was stuck in the room.
“What the fuck’re you lookin’ at?” Tommy said when Buzini looked over at him after the phone was hung up.
“Nothin’ … I …”
“You want a piece of this trouble? I can deal you in, asshole. How’d you let these guys pull this on you? You took the table limit off, what kinda shit is that?” he screamed at the startled Shift Manager. “Didn’t you even see him pulling the loadies outta that chair arm? Whatta you, blind?”
“I … I didn’t …”
“You didn’t think … didn’t do shit! You stood there and watched these sharpers pick our bones,” Tommy yelled. His face was red and he was thinking he’d like to take a ballpeen hammer and club this greaseball casino Manager to death. “Okay, so where’s the bitch, Dakota, who drugged me? Where is she?” Tommy yelled. But he figured she had to be in on it and was probably long gone.
“I don’t know, sir. …”
“You don’t fucking know much of anything, do ya?” He looked at Buzini, seething with anger. Tommy’s head was throbbing; his stomach was sour. He wanted to pay somebody back, hurt somebody. Sometimes that was the only thing that made him feel better. “I’m gonna go t’the villa and change. Send over something to eat. My stomach feels like piranhas’re feeding in there. Send over some yogurt or something to settle it.” Tommy turned to leave but spun back in the doorway and caught Buzini off guard. “You fuckin’ guys can’t keep your mind on business,” he said with disgust. “You’re supposed t’run this shift, but you keep makin’ the same fuckin’ mistakes. You’re supposed t’make decisions, not all the time comin’ runnin’, looking for me to tell you what to do. What the fuck else do I pay you for?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Rina.”
“You’re fuckin’ sorry and you’re fuckin’ one step back from being a dead man. You better be thinkin’ how t’make this up, and how not to make the same mistake ever again,” Tommy growled and walked out of the office, picturing how nice it would be to beat that fucking self-satisfied Buzini’s head flat with a ballpeen hammer.
Tommy cut through