Chapter 13. Nick's Deal (pt. 1)

 

Nick had what he wanted from Billy. He drove off in an SUV that was borrowed for an indefinite length of time from the car lot. No longer selling real estate, he had to go back to what he was doing before he married Adrienne… back to selling cars. Taking a car was no big deal since Mike, the owner of the lot, had a hole in his heart for Nick after he was kicked out of Adrienne’s house and moved back into Casa Nuevo. Casa was a clean-and-sober living house, but someone was always ready to buy a bit of tar… enough to keep them well. The other car dealers also needed a touch of coke and a hit or two of heroin to keep them closing deals and so on. He could unload half his stash at twenty bucks each half gram there and double the money.

He had a hard time believing he was broke and almost completely out of cash... down to a few bucks from what he’d taken from Adrienne. All he had left was the memory of the good times… so long ago now… long ago… so much had changed. Like it was someone else that had been on top of the world only a few years before at the wedding in Biarritz… someone else who’d reveled in expensive champagne that was toasted at the Fournier estate… someone else that had honeymooned on the Riviera … that had made love on the sands of a secluded cove on Capris.

He thought he’d arrived, … and it was all gone now…. the marriage gone sour… the relationship dead.  It was all over, and all he had was in his pocket, ten wads of tar, and even the money for that was what he had stolen. He had to get back that life somehow. He missed the connections of her family and basking in the luxury of unlimited wealth. Christ, he’d have to sell a lot of cars to get even a little of that back.

He could hardly admit it to himself on dark nights in motel rooms while staring at the ceiling, that he preferred one-night stands with prostitutes; gay or straight, to fucking her, and that he hardly missed her affection at all. Her string of lovers, or what he preferred to call, fuck-mates; Rodney, Billy, and God knows who else, didn’t bother him either, but that fuckin’ Max did. It drove him nuts that Adrienne cared at all for a low-life like Max.

He was halfway up the coast when his cell-phone’s dial tone went off… Caller ID… it was from Scolaries’ pay-phone’s number, “Billy?”

“Yeh, gotta talk… have a good deal for ya.”

“A good deal, eh? What?” He hadn’t gotten this kind of call from Billy for some time. The last time was for a half-kilo of cola… a sizable investment. They only broke even on that deal… Billy, Rodney, and friends, partied most of it away and it was gone before any of them knew it. They were big shots with the ladies at the local Gentlemen’s Club. Big shots, making it rain twenties in the clubs and gay bars; big shots on yachts in the marina; big shots at the houses in Montecito and Hope Ranch; big shots all! Then it was gone, and Billy hardly had enough cash to cover the rent on his damned trailer in the junkyard. Trading the rest for enough tar to hold him over, Billy was okay with it. But shit, Nick still owed Adrienne twenty grand on that one!

“Page me when you get to a pay phone,” Billy said, and hung-up.

Nick pulled over and called the pager at the Gaviota Rest Stop. This rest-stop was known for men’s-room blowjobs. Stress… What the hell, he thought. Entering the restroom and into a booth and, after an elaborate set of signals, zipped down his pants for a little relief from the stress. Yes, stress, that’s a good excuse anyway. The pay-phone was ringing outside but he let it ring. He had to finish what he’d started. Most of Billy’s deals could wait… he’d call back.

He shot his load. It was no good. He felt like shit. Looking down at the kid bent over his lap, he got pissed and slammed the boy against the partition.

“Wha… what did you do that for?”

“Get outa here… get goin’ you fuckin’ toilet fag!”

The kid appraised the situation and Nick’s imposing physique before deciding to take off. Nick casually strolled over to the pay-phone and waited. He knew Billy would call back one more time… enough time for Billy to peddle his butt over to another payphone… if it was important enough. If Nick felt anything like guilt at all it was right after getting his rocks off. It might had been for the shame of most of these seedy sexual encounters. Euphoria of ejaculation usually pivoted into a pirouette of disgust.

Nick contacted Billy again after he parked at a filling station in Buellton. Goddamn, they took the pay-phone out… should I use my cell? Naw. Drive a little further… maybe the phone at work… oh, a little too close…. Shit. Billy is waiting for a call. I’ll take a chance… get a new phone… maybe say I lost this one if the narcs track it.

“Hey…” he shouted into the phone when he heard it get picked up.

“Where were you? I’ve been waitin’ at this goddamned phone an hour!”

“Calm down, Billy,” Nick wasn’t about to let a low-life like Billy push him around, “What is so goddamned important.”

“It’s big… we need ten grand to get in on the deal,” Billy’s voice had sparks of anticipation flying from his side of the phone. “The boys in Tee-Jay trust me with this… if we can come up with it… the other half when we can.”

“Yeh, but I don’t like having my cajones attached to ten-grand,” Nick spoke his mind, but it was already racing… how could he get Adrienne in on the deal? Ten-grand is chump change to her and… maybe I could make up for some of that twenty grand I owe her. “I’ll check it out… how soon do you have to know?”

“By tomorrow, asshole, Honcho is coming up in the afternoon,” … the line went dead. That is the way Billy always did business: brief and to the point.

Sales pitches were a poker game to Nick; whether they were penny ante or high stakes, he played for earnest. He knew Adrienne would hesitate to pick-up the phone once she saw his number displayed on caller ID, but he knew she couldn’t resist if he kept calling.

She answered on the third try, “Yes?”

“We need to talk. Can I … can we… can you meet me somewhere. I’m at work. I have a way of paying you back the money I owe you.”

He was pulling at straws and he knew she knew it. He also knew his only chance would be if he sounded humble enough. It’s the salesman in him… never give up until you close the deal. He told himself, try not to sound so fucking eager.

 “Yes… so, what is it going to cost me this time?” It was never good news but, for curiosity’s sake, she listened.

These pitches, and she had learned the hard way, always came with a price for her. The money didn’t matter as much as it was her distaste for being conned by him.

Nick didn’t like her tone… calm down… better salve her ego, “It would be an investment Adrienne.” Change tactics: second pitch, “I know better than… I won’t try to pull the wool over your eyes.”

“Nick, Damn-it… I don’t know what you mean by wooly eyes… Why don’t you ever call to ask me how I’m doing before you try to sell me on one of your big deals?”

Wooly eyes? He loved the way her French had a hard time translating English euphemisms.

She hung up. He could imagine her leaning against the wall next to her easel, waiting for his call-back. He knew that she would answer out of curiosity if he called back right away.

She picked up the phone, “Make it a good one this time Nick.” She figured that, if he just needed money for another line or balloon, he’d call someone else and pass his hustle on to one of his other marks.

 “I’m, sorry, Hon, I should respect your intelligence… let me explain myself…” He told her of Billy’s big deal and how he wouldn’t ask her for anything if it wasn’t a sure thing and so on, “You can triple your investment as soon as we turn it over…”

“How much, Nick… Just fucking tell me how much.” She was interested, but not for her own profits. It was more of a matter of getting rid of him and maybe even his debt.

“Twenty-five grand…” He knew she wouldn’t go for that amount, but he might as well try for a cushion in case anything went wrong.

“Shit, you asshole, you’re already into me for almost that much.” she sniped back, but was relieved he wasn’t trying to dig into her for more. She too was also well aware that his deal was likely double of half that much. She simply needed to make him grovel if she was going to part with it. “If you can turn it over right away then why can’t you get credit from them… whoever they are?”

“These guys are from Tee-Jay,” He knew it wouldn’t take much persuading now that she sounded somewhat interested. “They can be pretty demanding and impatient if it turns over slower than I’m thinking.”

“Yes, but what do you think I will do if you burn me?”

“I trust that you wouldn’t stuff my cajones in my mouth and a bullet in my brain pan?”

She came through just when he was about to give up. “Okay, I can come up with twenty in cash before the local bank closes.”

“I can’t get you more. Unless, of course, you can take a check from a foreign account,” She knew he’d more than happily take the twenty and wasn’t at all surprised when he accepted without hesitation.