Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20A | 20B | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25-26 | 27 | 28-29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35-36 | 37 | 38A | 38B | 38C | 38D | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42-43

PART II
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS

44

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH you, daddy-o?” Ethel asked from the bathtub when Trey went to take a piss. “You’ve been off all night.”

Trey didn’t answer while he did his business and washed his hands. He dropped the toilet lid and sat on it, then leaned over and wove his fingers behind his head. “I … I don’t know what happened. One minute I’m fucking delighted I got to marry this girl and make her happy with the house and car and whatnot. The next I’m wishing I’d never met her.”

“What’d she do?”

“She lawyered me into a corner.”

“Come again?”

He sighed and slowly relayed the conversation.

Ethel was silent for a long time when he was finished. He peeked out from under his brow to see her lying back, her eyes closed. “How come you’re not workin’? Ain’t your bleedin’ week.”

“Didn’t feel like it,” she said airily.

“You didn’t feel like it?” he growled.

“Even loose women and whores need a day off now and again when they are not bleeding. Wives don’t get a day off. Work night and day and that’s before the kid comes along.”

“Goddammit,” he muttered.

“What do you want me to say?”

“Did you fake it with me or not?”

“No. You really are that good.”

“Now you see why I’m upset?”

“You’re upset because you’re a selfish son of a bitch.”

“What!”

She slapped her hands over her face and croaked, “Oh, God, why?” as if she were dying. “Why did I— I just remembered why I hate you so much.”

Trey pulled back, shocked.

“You walk out with good girls. You work to seduce them. You dump them when they say yes. I’ve always thought that was a lousy thing to do, but I thought when you met the right girl, you would respect her enough not to push her to ‘yes’ at all.”

“Marina is the right girl.”

“Mmm hm. Because you were using her to get the speak. Now you’re married but you’re treating her the same way you did every other nice girl you walked out with.”

“You got what you wanted, too. Everygoddamnedbody here got what they wanted and you can’t see your way clear to sympathize with my situation?”

Her head popped up and she glared at him. “We knew you wanted to marry Marina. We trusted you to make her happy and take care of her. Except you don’t because you’re as much of a prude as half the men who come in here.”

“I am not a prude!”

“You got enough church when you were a kid that you got all that nonsense in your head about pure women, and now it’s coming out. I should’ve seen it before because it’s clear as a bell. So by some miracle you get her where you want her, but she was spiked and she doesn’t remember, so it’s not her fault, but you resent her for it anyway.”

“I … ” I what?

“Change your way of thinking or sleep somewhere else.”

“The hell you say!”

“Then how long will it take for you to go looking for a snatch?”

“I’m not going to do that! I made a deal with her in good faith!”

“With you, ‘good faith’ changes every time a deal doesn’t turn out the way you wanted. Boss Tom’s got more scruples than you do.”

“That is not true!”

“Boss Tom let you have her when he realized what an awful thing that was to do to an innocent girl, but you can’t even go that far. Yet there she is, wanting to be a good wife, doing her best to make your life easier. There is nothing you can do for her except to change your way of thinking about having sex with her. Or don’t have sex with her at all.”

Trey sat silent for a long while, turning that over. Change his way of thinking? He, like Ethel, had assumed that when he met the right one, she wouldn’t say yes to the wrong question. The right question was Will you marry me?

“How do I change my way of thinking?”

“Figure out what you can tolerate from a wife and still respect her in the morning, then teach her that. No more, no less. Slowly and carefully. You’ve made it a lot harder because now she knows you likely won’t respect her in the morning and will lie there like a dead fish until you can make her believe you want her to be your lover too. Hopefully by that time, you’ll want the same.” She opened one eye. “Why did you want to marry her so badly?”

“She’s sweet. Smart.”

“People aren’t all one thing. They’re a lot of things and only need one or two things for any given situation. Did she stop being sweet and smart in bed?”

“No.”

“So the only thing different was that you found out she’s a bearcat, which you like. Just not in sweet, smart girls you want to marry.”

Trey’s mouth twisted.

“Now you’re green around the gills! God, you’re pathetic when you lose.” Suddenly she lunged out of the tub. “You know what?” she said, motioning for Trey to hand her a towel which she wrapped around herself. “I quit.”

“Ethel!” he cried, panicking.

“No, Trey. I’m not going to stay here knowing I—” She stepped out of the tub and stormed to the door, then turned. “You made her into exactly what you didn’t want and now she’s in prison for the rest of her life. Getting beaten by her mama wasn’t enough? Here you are thinking the same thing her mama accused her of? No. You’ve gone too far. Give her her own bed and keep your dick in your pants or I won’t work for you anymore. I’ll be surprised if Alice and Sally don’t walk out too.”

 

45

TREY LET HIMSELF in the back door of his house at six, unable to enjoy the feeling of having a nice place and wife to come home to.

They’d quit. All three of them. They’d packed up and walked out, just like that. Brody had given him the side-eye and Vern was more taciturn than usual. Gio was already pissed over Dot so nothing about his behavior changed.

Three well-heeled clients walked out without so much as a shot of whisky when they found out the girls weren’t available for their standing appointments.

“They come crawlin’ to me beggin’ me to win the bet an’ the second I do they quit?!” he ranted at Gio. “Where they gonna go?”

“Oh, you think we’re stupid too,” Gio drawled.

“What?!”

“Do you see us spending our money?”

Oh. “Then why were you all so scared for your jobs?”

“We want out and we don’t have any job skills to keep steady when the money’s gone. Likely they’ll set up shop amongst themselves while they’ve got a little stash.”

“Not if I can help it,” he snarled, then stormed home.

Trey wearily pulled off his tie and coat, draped them over a chair, and went to the refrigerator. There was a plate waiting for him and, seeing it, realized he was hungry. Nobody at 1520 would make sure he ate, not even Ida, who had kept her eyes averted and her answers soft.

Trey hung his head with a sigh and took a swig of milk, killed the lights, locked the door, and trudged up the stairs. He stopped halfway when he saw a soft light from his bedroom. Was she awake? If so, was she waiting for him? If not, was she sleeping in a chair again?

He climbed the rest of the way and stood in the bedroom doorway. Marina was slumped across his pillow with her back against the headboard, her head on her outstretched arm, her nightgown chucked up to her drawers, a book lying open in front of her. The bedside reading lamp was still on and he wondered how long she’d been asleep.

Shame washed through him, the kind of shame he had over his accent and grammar, because she’d left him a plate and tried to wait up for him. He shouldn’t have been surprised. She wanted to be a good wife.

Earn what he gave her, for God’s sake. That hurt, too.

He gently took the book and straightened her out. He took a shower and climbed into bed with her wondering what would happen if he took her nightgown off and stroked her naked body in her sleep.

His stupid dick liked that idea. So did his mind. She would let him do exactly what he wanted. His dick didn’t like that. Neither did his mind.

What the fuck did he want?

In her sleep, he could see a subtle vibrance that she wasn’t deliberately suppressing for fear of earning her folks’ disapproval. He ran a finger through the hair at her temple and she sighed with a tiny smile. He ventured further and stroked his palm across her soft cheek. She smacked her lips and scratched her face.

He smiled and leaned over to press his mouth softly where she’d scratched.

She scowled and batted him away, then scratched some more.

That made him chuckle, affection welling in his chest. His smile faded. Affection. Sex. There was a whole lot that went wrong when affection and sex got mixed up in each other. He saw it all night long, every night. Men catching feelings for his girls, who turned them out as soon as they started getting possessive. Women catching feelings for cats they were fucking, wearing their hearts on their sleeves so loud even Trey was embarrassed for them.

He simply didn’t see how affection and sex could work alongside each other, even though he had examples: Brother John and Marie Lazia. All the men in his speak who openly lived their lives with their mistresses and genuinely enjoyed their company.

He sighed and leaned across her to turn off the bedside light, then settled in, his arm over his forehead and his body against Marina’s.

Affection. Sex.

They went together about as well as Carrie Nation and bathtub gin.

44-45

If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.

Speakeasy staff.