Tea Leafing: A Novel (18 page)

The man sputtered,
thinking about the tables he had already booked in the room, “Uh, sir . . .”

“I will pay, just keep
this room empty.”

Sweat beaded on the
maître ‘d’s brow as he gave a single nod and turned to leave.

“I have azzociates who
vill join me at six forty-five sharp. Please show them in.”

Red faced, the maître
‘d managed a weak smile and hurried off to try and rearrange his seating plan.
Tonight was going to involve a lot of ass kissing for him, thanks to this
Russian fuck.

Nikki stared at Fedya
for a moment then flipped through her menu.

“I don’t understand why
my menu never shows the prices, Fedya.” She ran her hand along her sun kissed
shoulder and down her arm. Pressing her tongue against the back of her lips to
make them seem fuller, she blinked several times as if this would help elicit a
response from him.

Smiling, Fedya said,
“Because the beautiful woman does not need to worry about such things.”

Nikki returned the
smile, satisfied that he’d acknowledged her beauty. She shook her mane of blond
curls and pressed the toe of her bare foot into his crotch.

Jeffrey, their regular
waiter appeared with a flourish, placing chilled Vodka in front of Fedya and a
flute of champagne in front of Nikki. He’d been careful to remove the stems
from the three cherries resting at the bottom of the flute so she wouldn’t have
to dirty her hands with the task.

“Always a pleasure to
see the two of you!” he said, straightening the waiter’s towel on his left arm.
They chatted briefly, exchanging pleasantries before Jeffrey took their orders
and moved to the guards’ table.

“So who are we
meeting?” Nikki sipped from her glass as she studied Fedya’s face over the rim.

“Just some old friendz.
Nobody you know.” He stared back at her. “When they come, the car will take you
home.”

Nikki gave a displeased
squeak. “Can’t we ever just have a dinner that’s not all about business, Fedya?
GOD! I’m always in second place with you! Do you do this to your wife?”

Fedya’s eyes grew cold
and he held completely still like a hunter waiting for his prey to wander into
range. Nikki knew the moment the words were out that she had gone too far.

“I’m sorry baby, I
didn’t mean to say that. It was stupid. I just want to know I’m important to
you. And I miss you when you have to spend time with these people for
business.”

Fedya remained
motionless. Unblinking.

Nikki started to rub
her nose nervously, wanting desperately to have a little bump of coke from the
vial in her clutch purse.

A few moments passed as
Fedya stared through her. “I will say this only once. My
wife
never cross
your lips again. Ever.”

Nikki dropped her gaze
to the clear liquid in Fedya’s glass and nodded. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered,
hoping she wouldn’t have to pay for her indiscretion later. She excused herself
to the bathroom to find comfort in the magic powder she’d been longing for.

Fedya rolled his eyes
and thought about whether he was ready to trade her for a newer model.
Sometimes she was just so unnecessarily difficult. He bought her clothes and a
condo, gave her a nice car and a large enough allowance that she didn’t have to
work. All he expected in return was availability, monogamy (on her part), and
silence.
Is that too much to ask?
He
wondered.

“Fucking American
women,” he muttered under his breath as he turned his vodka in place at the
table. He studied the bluish jailhouse style tattoo of two lightening bolts on
the web of his right hand between his thumb and index finger. This was a badge
of honor for Fedya. It symbolized his loyalty to the brotherhood of thieves. It
meant he’d never given up information on anyone. He never rolled up his sleeves
in public, not wanting to expose his most personal work of art. The one that
told his story in a full suit of ink that covered every inch of his body other
than his hands, feet, neck and head. He was what’s known as Sinie, or a “blue”
in Russian mob circles, because of the color of the ink used in the tattoos.

Nikki returned looking
antsy. She slid into the leather booth next to him and wrapped her arms around
his thick neck. Her eyes were glassy and she began to chatter happily about
nothing in particular. It irritated Fedya when she got high around him and he
pushed her away gruffly. He’d have to punish her if she wrecked his mood before
he had his meeting tonight with Mr. Cortez from the Colombian Medallin
consortium.

CHAPTER 35

Christmas came and went
without event. Sam and Grace both returned to the Midwest to spend the holidays
with their families. Dodging questions about work was universally dreaded with
exotic dancers.

Birdie and Mary Jane
celebrated the season together at Birdie’s loft, which now sported a fully
decorated tree, complete with wrapped packages, in the middle of the living
room. Most of the gifts the girls had bought on a shopping trip, paying for
each other’s goodies. A few of the boxes held surprises from customers.

Christmas morning was
spent indulging in rare treats — a few joints rolled in strawberry
flavored paper, and lots of cartoons on TV. Both worked on Christmas night. Sadly,
the club was always packed on holidays. People were tired of the family thing
and flooded into the club in droves. Regular customers who hadn’t made it in
prior to Christmas showed up bearing gifts, with pocketfuls of cash.

* * *

On a brisk Saturday night
at the end of December, it was business as usual at the Pink Pussycat. Chaos
reigned supreme. Sam was still out because of travel. Grace had returned from
her week away. Gio ambled around the club in his usual way, pretending to check
for improprieties. He was doing nothing more strenuous than schmoozing.

Inclement weather tends
to slow most clubs and bars down, but for the Pussycat it was the opposite. In
the dead of winter, hopping from bar to bar loses its appeal. Scantily clad,
tanned bodies were what pulled the crowds. School shopping was over, Christmas
was over and expense accounts were on the verge of being replenished, so the
money rolled in.

When the club started
to slow down around 3:30, Gio sidled up to the bar and tapped his keys twice in
front of Mary Jane. It was his demeaning way of letting her know she could
close out her till. She watched him turn and head for the steps leading to the
office.

Nikki scurried over to
him and huddled close while they exchanged words. This wasn’t something that
would have normally caught Mary Jane’s eye. Conversation in close proximity was
necessary because of the noise level. Nikki touched the sleeve of his jacket
and let her eyes wander down his chest. A slight smile played at the corners of
Gio’s mouth as he lowered his head to hear what she said.

“Boilermaker!” One of
the new waitresses slammed her tray down at the waitress station.

“You’ll have to go to
the other end, I’m closed out.” Mary Jane said, distracted by the girls’ brash
demeanor.

The waitress gasped and
stomped toward the far end of the bar.

“Bitch,” Mary Jane
muttered under her breath.

“What?” She hadn’t
noticed that Bunny, the other bartender, was facing bottles behind her.

“Nothing. Just the chip
on the new girl’s shoulder.”

“I’ll make her wait a
little bit then.” Bunny smiled.

Mary Jane grinned back
and mouthed “thank you.”

Turning her attention
back to Gio and Nikki, she squinted at the crowd, but they were gone.

She poured cranberry
juice over the ice in a lowball glass and garnished it with two cherries.
Waving down one of her favorite waitresses, she slipped her a five and asked
her to take it upstairs to Grace in VIP 16.

Quickly tapping her
log-out code on the touch screen, she slid the locking tray cover for her money
drawer from its nook below the ice bin. The register popped open. Mary Jane pulled
the till from the drawer, locked it and grabbed her tip jar from the ledge in
front of the top shelf liquor bottles. She turned back to the floor just as one
of the bouncers glided up to the bar.

He offered her his arm
as if he were escorting Queen Elizabeth, “Madam?”

Mary Jane smiled and
maybe even blushed just a little, “Be careful how you use that word around here
or someone might get the wrong idea!”

He took the locked till
from her. She accepted his arm with her free hand, “Thank you sir.”

They chatted about the
evening as they rode up the glass elevator to the second floor.

Outside the office, the
bouncer handed Mary Jane her till and stepped off to the side as she twisted
the knob to enter. She could hear shuffling as the door started to swing open.
Nikki was standing directly in front of Gio. The two were almost touching, but
not quite. Without any exchange Nikki turned and pushed her way past Mary Jane
out of the office. Mary Jane turned her head just in time to catch a backwards
glance intended for Gio.

The smile faded from
Gio’s face, and he pointed at one of the chairs on the opposite side of his
desk.

“OKAY!” he barked at
the bouncer, dismissing him.

For Gio, arrogance
wasn’t just directed at the girls. He was an equal opportunity asshole.

Mary Jane settled into
the scratchy armchair as Gio began keying information into his laptop. She
flipped the lock on her till and began sorting through the stacks of money.

“Nice job, Mary Jane.
It shows you rang $34,337.25 tonight.”

Mary Jane jotted the
number down on her pad so she would be able to match her final count to what
the club’s mainframe system had calculated. Everything the club sold was
calculated to the nearest quarter. Nobody had time for pennies in a strip club
and the fewer coins they had to deal with, the better.

Gio swiveled in his
chair and twisted the safe’s dial to two of the four stops needed to open it
when he stopped dead in his tracks.

“AAAWWWWW
MYYYYY GAWWWWWWDDD! AAAAAAAAAA!”

It might as well have
been a dog whistle for poor Gio because he leapt from his chair so quickly that
it bounced off the wall and toppled with a clatter. He raced out the office
door and the hydraulic arm pulled it closed.

Without hesitation,
Mary Jane flipped to the back of her tablet and swiveled Gio’s laptop on the
desk so it faced her.

She could still hear
Pietra’s shrill screams coming from the balcony outside. What luck! Pietra
hadn’t been part of the plan. How kind of her to present herself as a target.

Mary Jane only needed a
few seconds. She quickly navigated to the hard drive information and scribbled
the make and model on the cardboard backing of her tablet. She made notes about
the disk capacity, operating system and the list of programs. Righting the
laptop to its original position, she grabbed Gio’s keys from the desktop.

Producing an egg of
Silly Putty from the folds of her apron, she cracked it open and pressed the
flesh colored material around the office door key. She was almost finished when
she heard Gio’s muffled voice just outside. He’d obviously managed to get
Pietra’s wails down to a low moan as he opened the door.

Knowing the noise from
the club would buffer at least some of the sound in the office, she stayed
where she was seated and slid his keys down her outstretched leg with her right
hand, trying to dampen the clatter. She scooted the keys under his desk with
the toe of her shoe as she picked up a stack of money with her left and resumed
counting.

Gio held the door open
for a moment as if he could smell foul play. In fact, what he smelled was
Grace’s cranberry juice puke all over the pant legs of Pietra Maria Speranza
DiFrancesco’s gold silk Dupioni pants.

Bull’s-eye!
thought
Mary Jane.

CHAPTER 36

“Brilliant!” Birdie
grinned
“I didn’t know if you hens were up to the task but
I’m happy to eat me wards.”

Grace was clearly
pleased with their luck. “I was just getting my finger down my throat behind
the ficus on the second floor when I got a waft of Ben Gay. I turned just in
time and POW!”

Tears were rolling down
Sam's face as she laughed. “Oh my GOD! I bet she shrieked like a feral cat.”
She covered her face with a napkin and her whole body shook with laughter.

One of Grace’s odd but
exceptional talents was projectile vomiting. This was a sure fire way to get
out of work.
More effective than mentioning your period.

“What’s your record?”
Mary Jane asked as she raised a mug to her lips.

“Five and a half feet,
but I’d eaten three chili dogs that time, so I think the extra ammunition
helped.”

Grace looked like a
little girl, a blonde haired angel with a nasty gift. She seemed totally
unaffected by the ordeal, other than being pleased with the results and feeling
good about being able to contribute to the quest. The four chatted about
Grace’s hidden super-power until Tanya set the plates down.

Mary Jane looked over
at Grace, “Was that shrimp you’d eaten?”

“Okay, enough.” Grace
didn’t want to repeat the performance.

The restaurant was
hopping and Tanya was hustling around trying to keep up with the demand.

“I’d love to know
what’s goin’ on with
ya’ll
. Four cats. Four canaries.
All eaten.”

“We’ll fill you in when
things slow down.”

Tanya gave a quick nod
and turned to go.

“Oh, I think Tyrone,
Tyrese, and their harem are supposed to be in. They were askin’ after ya’ll.”
She smirked and headed toward the kitchen.

“Did’ja get what you
needed, Mary Jane?”