Cigar Bar (5 page)

Everybody was straight now. Dawn said, “Fuck it!” She then leaned over into Tony’s arms.

As the police officers peered into the car, one officer pointed to Frankie. He told him to pull over, but they heard tires screeching. The car behind them was trying to take off. Frankie, Tony, and the girls were waved through. In an instant, a road block appeared, and the three men in the car were trapped by the police. They were handcuffed and placed on the ground before they knew what hit them.

Meanwhile, the foursome exhaled and damn near passed out. No words were uttered until they got off at the next exit, and then everyone started laughing hysterically. They knew that they were going to jail, but fate had stepped in and saved them. They simply shook their heads in disbelief.

“Let’s sit in the fuckin’ car, and, please, nobody say a fuckin’ word until we get to where we’re going!” Tony insisted.

It didn’t take long, perhaps 15 minutes, before they arrived. “Listen, I don’t know about you, but I have to take a shit,” Frankie said out loud.

“Ew! TMI!” exclaimed Monique. “Well, hell. They scared the shit outta me,” she said to Frankie.

“But I’m not telling every fuckin’ body!
Damn!
We’re here now.”

Tony ran to his car to retrieve his cell. He saw 25 missed calls from his family. He listened to a couple of the messages, then froze. What he heard just ripped his heart right out of his chest.

The message was loud and clear: “Tony, your father is dying! Where the hell are you?”

“Frankie, we gotta go, man!”

“What?”

“My father…something happened to him!” he said to his cousin, excitement and concern dripping from every word.

“Listen, you stupid motherfucker! I’m not going
anywhere
! You go, find out what the fuck happened, and call me to tell me what’s up. All right?”

Tony hugged the two girls and walked away. Dawn looked sad. She stopped and said, “Wait, you’re not coming? Well, maybe I should just go with you. I wanna make sure your father is okay too.”

“Nah, babe. I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. Our family is gonna be there and they’re kinda private. But trust me, girl, I want you to come. How ’bout I come back here when it’s all done?” Tony took her cell phone and dialed in his number. “Call me, Dawn. And make sure that dude over there doesn’t overdose!” Then he leaned in and gave her a tender kiss.

As he got into his scraped-up car, Dawn wondered what happened to it. She could see that it was new. She could also see that it had dents and scratches that also appeared to be new.

CHAPTER 3

• • •

Tony couldn’t believe what the
cell phone messages had made him aware of. He thought that his family and friends were playing a twisted game on him. No, he could not be losing his father, of all the people on Earth. His father was his
main
man. He was the one person who accepted him with all of his glaring faults, and his father always cared enough to help. Tony Senior had put him in rehab about ten times from the age of 15, and now Tony was 26. He truly believed that his father would be there for him always, and now here he was, rushing to a hospital.

Tony had a couple of bags of heroin in his pocket. As he drove, he told himself that the first chance he got, he was going to be sniffing them, but he knew that he couldn’t go in the hospital high as a kite. As he pulled up to the hospital, he ran right into the ER.

He screamed at one of the nurses, “Where’s Tony Santoro?”

She shook her head and said, “Right through that door, down the hall, and to the left. He’s in the trauma unit.”

Tony slapped the desk and trotted down the hall. He turned left through the door and saw someone who made him dive behind the door. It was one of Paulie’s goons. Tony dipped behind the door and squeezed himself deep into a corner. He knew that he was a dead man if he was seen. He held his breath as the man stopped in front of the door and actually turned and looked in his direction. Tony was about to say, “Let me explain,” when the man turned around, got on his phone, and walked toward the exit.

Whew! Close call! I guess he didn’t see me
, thought Tony.

Then he wondered if Paulie and his men were in the room with his father. “Fuck it! If they are, they’d never disrespect the family,” he told himself as he headed out from behind the door.

He stepped into the hallway and looked to his left. When he looked to his right, he saw Uncle Veto in the hallway, shaking his head. It appeared that he was mad. Tony really didn’t wanna hear his anger, not now.

“Hey yo! Where the hell you been, you fuckin’ piece of shit?” He tried to walk past him but to no avail. Veto stepped in front of the man. “What am I, a fuckin’ window or something?! You don’t fuckin’ hear me when I’m talking to you?” Veto barked. He stepped closer and raised his hand as if to give Tony a backhanded smack.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Veto,” Tony said with sarcasm.

Veto looked at him and said, “If my brother wasn’t in there on that table dying, I’d slap the shit out of you! You disgrace this family! You and my fuckin’ son. I can’t believe we put up with this shit! But you listen to me and listen good! If my brother doesn’t make it, you might not be living around here too much longer. I’m gonna make sure you fuckin’ leave town and don’t come back! Go somewhere else and be a fuckin’ junkie, Tony! We don’t need that kind of thing ruining our family’s good name! Capisce?”

Tony looked at him and just nodded his head. “Yeah, I got it, Uncle Veto.” He brushed past him. Tony Entered the room. His mother walked up to him.

She grabbed his face and said, “We’re gonna talk about what I saw later. Right now, your father has been waiting for you. Tony.”

He looked up and what he saw made his heart fall. Tony’s dear father was lying in the bed with a contraption around his head to stop it from moving too much. In the middle of his head was a piece of Rebar, a steel rod, sticking through. Tony slowly walked up to his father, tears streaming down his face.

His father opened his eyes. “My boy,” he whispered and reached his hand up.

“No, wait, Pop. There’s gotta be something they can do. Wait, get the doctor!” Tony began to get a little frantic.

His father grabbed him. “Tony, listen to me, son!”

Tony stopped and got closer to his father. “Yes, Dad?”

“I’ve been waiting for you, Tony. I have to tell you something.” Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke. “Tony, I need you to stop using drugs and become the man I need you to be. I’m going on now and I need for you to become more than nothing! I need you to make sure your mother has all that she needs, and you can’t do that if we have to keep sending you away! Now, promise me, Tony. Promise me you will stop right now!” Tony Senior squeezed his son’s hand as he made his deathbed plea.

“I promise you, Pop! I promise,” Tony said.

“Good,” he said. “You promised me on my deathbed, so don’t let me down. I love you.” Tony Senior reached up for his wife and they all hugged. Then he cried and closed his eyes for the last time. He had a pleasant smile on his face, and his family was in his arms. The heart monitor went
beeeeeep.
The doctor came into the room and pronounced him dead at 9:07 p.m. on June 25, 2014.

Tony began to feel strange as he and his family sat in silence while the priest prayed. That old, familiar feeling began to return. He began to pass gas.
Oh, shit!

He got up and rushed into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him, and the last thing he saw was his father’s smiling face in death. Tony pulled out the heroin that he had in his pocket and stared at it long and hard. He heard his father’s voice: “Promise me, promise me, promise me!” Tony took out the bags and poured the contents into the toilet. Just then, he had an idea. He would go to pick up Dawn and head to Vegas for the weekend to party one last time before the funeral.

Tony felt sick. He rationalized that he would go and just drink alcohol, but wherever he decided, he couldn’t stay in that hospital another moment. He walked into the room looking as if he was about to throw up.

“Tony,” his mother called out to him, “where are you going?”

“Mom, I can’t stay here. I’m getting a little sick,” he responded.

“But, Tony, he’s your father,” she pleaded.

“I know, Mom, but if I’m going to not do what he asked me not to do anymore, I can’t do it here. I love you, Mom, but I gotta get away. I’ll let you know where I’m gonna be.

“Okay, Tony,” his mother said, kissing him on the cheek.

He walked over to his father’s body, whispered something in his ear, kissed his forehead, and walked out of the hospital.

Dawn wasn’t really in the mood anymore. She was concerned about Tony and wondered if she should call him. Frankie and Monique were in the bedroom. He had been giving her oral pleasure for almost an hour, and Monique was screaming out in ecstasy. She turned on the TV at a volume loud enough to drown out the screams. Dawn rolled up a blunt and relaxed.

She decided to call her brother and let him know that she was thinking of coming home in the morning. She wasn’t going to spoil Monique’s good time.

“Hello?”

“Hey, bro. I miss you. What you up to?”

“Well, it’s Friday and I’m at the lounge taking care of business, as usual,” he said.

“Damn, Spaz! You don’t never relax! You work too much and you got a lot of people who work for you. Why don’t you go find one of your lady friends and go have a nice evening? Just relax for a while,” she encouraged.

“Can’t do it, baby sis. Business doesn’t stop, so why should I?”

She replied, “I feel you.”

“Enough about all that. Where the hell are you and are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she answered.
Tap, tap, and tap!
Dawn squinted her eyes as she tried to see.

“Hold on, Spazo. Somebody’s knocking on Frankie’s back window. “Frankie,” she said into the door, but there was no response. “Frankie?” She opened the door and found Monique on all fours with Frankie eating her from behind.

“Sorry, guys,” Dawn interrupted, “but, Frankie, somebody knocking on your door.”

He looked up, face glistening from the girl’s wetness. “Maybe it’s Tony. He was supposed to be coming back, and he doesn’t have a key.”

Dawn got happy at the thought of Tony knocking at the door. A smile crossed her face like a fat kid in a donut shop. “Oh okay, she said. She forgot about her brother hanging on the phone. Dawn ran to the door and opened it but it wasn’t Tony.

Pushing their way into the room were four large men in trench coats. When Dawn screamed, she was smacked hard across the face for doing so.

Spazo heard this through the phone and yelled, “Dawn? Dawn?!” He held the phone closer to his ear.

He heard a man yell, “Check that room!”

With that, Spazo picked up the phone in his office at the back of the club. “Get everybody over here
now
! Bring Brain Boy to me. I need him to run a trace for me!”

Back inside the house, Mr. Y’s men had come to collect their money. Frankie incorrectly thought that he had at least a week before they found out about the double-cross, but it was only the next day. It had been about ten hours since they left the pier, and he thought they’d be in another state by now.

The men entered quickly and quietly with the precision of the paramilitary. They opened the door and saw Frankie deep into some black cherry. He was doing his best to tear her big behind up, but she was more interested when he ate her as she got high.

Monique said, “Oh, yeah, Daddy. Go back down and eat some more.”

Frankie was getting upset because she didn’t want to suck him, but she had promised him five minutes of head, two minutes of fuck. They had a long night ahead of them. Then, suddenly, their lives were interrupted.

Boom! Boom!
Monique was blown all over the walls. Poor girl! She was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong white boy. Just knowing him had gotten her killed. Frankie screamed out in horror as he realized that she was a fucking corpse, and he pushed what was left of the poor girl to the side.

The men cocked their guns and put the barrels to Frankie’s head. “Please, don’t let us disturb you!”

“Continue what you were doing, motherfucker!”

Frankie froze. “Excuse me?”

“No, please, finish.” They made him pick up the girl’s dead body and continue having sex with her bloody corpse.

Frankie did as he was told. He had the dry heaves. The most ironic part about performing this humiliating act was that he was high on heroin, so he stayed hard longer. He began to throw up all over the dead girl.

The men stood around and laughed. They spoke in Ukrainian. One said,
“Vin zakochany!”

“Yes, he’s in love!” another translated with a thick Ukrainian accent.

All the men were laughing hysterically when one of Mr. Y’s soldiers walked in. “Where is the rest of the money, you piece of shit?” He then spit in Frankie’s face and took off his coat.

One man stayed in the room with Dawn. Three stayed with Frankie and what was left of Monique.

As the man closed the door, he vowed to torture Frankie until he got what he wanted.

The mobster said, “I’m just gonna torture you because I
like
to torture people!”

Dawn could hear Frankie’s screams as the door squealed shut. She was sitting on the couch with the big dude just standing at the door like she wasn’t even there. She thought that maybe she should run for the door.
But damn, what if there are more outside? Wait, no. Damn! What should I do?! Shit, maybe the bathroom?

She raised her hand as if she was in school. The man paid her no mind. “Sir, I have to use the bathroom.” Still nothing from the big, silent man. She stood up. The goon popped one shot from the assault rifle right between her legs and into the cushion, without even looking at her,

She screamed, wiped at her bloody lip, and sat down quickly.

Spazo had heard everything and he felt helpless. He wanted to scream out, but he also wanted to keep the line open.

Brain Boy’s real name was Jason. He was one of the cats Spazo grew up with and was part of the crew. He was smart. When he was only eight years old, he took a computer apart and reassembled it in less than an hour. He’d been doing things like that his entire life. The only problem with Brain Boy was that he grew up in the projects with Spazo, and, as smart as he was, he was tough, so nobody messed with him. He was also one of the main generals in the GC Crew.

“What the fuck is happening, Spaz?”

“I don’t know, but Dawn is there. I heard shots and it sounds like some fuckin’ Russian niggas. I don’t know, but baby girl left the phone line open. I need you to trace this shit for me!”

“Cool, I’ll send you the address in about three minutes, man,” Brain said.

Spazo and 18 goons loaded into two Yukon Denalis. As soon as he sat behind the wheel, the address popped up on the screen in the truck. “She’s out in Tenafly, New Jersey.”

“Where? Where the fuck is that?” his men asked simultaneously.

Spazo smiled. “Tenafly is right behind, like, Englewood and shit.” He tried to give them an area of Jersey that they knew.

From where they were in the Polo Grounds, it would take them nearly 45 minutes or more to get there, so Spazo drove like a wild man. Whenever his baby sister was involved, he knew how to make time speed up.

The men were flying across the GWB as if they were allowed to weave in and out of cars. Spazo had opened the phone line over the speaker system in the truck. He thought he could hear faint screaming. One thing he heard for certain was a gunshot and then his little sister’s scream. “Fuck!” he shouted as he and the other truck dipped in and out of traffic.

Back at the house, the man held Frankie’s face in his hand. “Before we kill you, we need to know where the rest of the money is!”

Frankie was bleeding from his mouth after being repeatedly, brutally punched in the face. He was sitting in the chair. “Fuck you, bitch!” Frankie said.

“Okay, Mr. Tough Guy! You win,” the thug said, and he pulled out his gun and put it to Frankie’s thigh.

Pop!
The bullet went right through the bone in his left leg. Frankie screamed out in agony, and then he started to thrash. “Let me fuckin’ go and I’ll kick your fuckin’ ass, bitch!”

The man sent one of his goons into the living room to get Dawn. The girl protested as she was snatched from the couch.
Damn! This nigga strong as shit!

When they walked into the room, she saw her girlfriend’s blood and flesh splattered on the wall. She screamed and cried. The heartless Ukrainian put his gun to Dawn’s head. “If you don’t tell me, Frankie, she’s dead!”