Oil of Roses Ch. 12

"The hell they will. Those two boys that watch Phil? Well, let's just say that his lifespan and mine are intimately connected. He'll be going out minutes after I do and the boys will be on their way out of the country for an extended vacation to keep ‘em away from the police before his fat body gets cold. Niccolo will take over the family business. I've been training him for it for years, telling Phil it's just training him to be his consigliore. But Nick, he knows the truth and knows a lot of things Phil ain't never bothered to learn.

"You made my childhood friend Tony Juliana's last couple of years the best they could have been. You stayed by him when he got sick, you sat with him when no one could see him for all the tubes and shit, they couldn't pry you out of that hospital with a crowbar, you held his hand when he died and you kissed him goodbye." Vic's gruff voice was breaking just a bit but only a fool would have commented on it or the moisture in his eyes. "You were better to him than his wife. You were there for him when his own fucking children wouldn't come and see their old man off." He handed her a card with a number on it. "You ever need anything, you call that number. They'll put you through to either me or to Niccolo when I'm gone. He knows about this debt and has agreed to honor it. Tony Juliana was his godfather and treated him like a nephew. Nick always called him Uncle Tony and even if I didn't insist, this debt he would honor. Now give me an address to have his bequest to you delivered to."

Carol wrote out Harry's address on a slip of paper Harry found in his pocket and gave it to the old man.

"I don't think we'll meet again this side of the grave, little Carol. And I don't think we'll meet on the other side either. I expect you to be in a far nicer place than me. I've never understood why your brain works the way it does, why you need this ‘owning' thing, but it makes you happy and that's all that's important. You treat her good, Mr. Grimes, not because I said you had to, but because she's a good girl and deserves it."

"Mr. Philouma, she's one of the two most wonderful things to ever happen to me and the second wouldn't have happened if she hadn't happened first. She is incredibly precious to me. Please don't worry that I'll ever mistreat her."

"I don't Mr. Grimes, although I do worry that you'll do something stupid someday and leave her all alone. Risking your life for a girl you just met…"

The old man turned and rolled towards the door.

Carol ran up and kissed him on the cheek. "Goodbye Vic."

"Goodbye kid."

Harry went to the corner to collect Tamara and he and Carol guided her towards the door.

As they walked down the corridor to the entrance, Harry murmured "Carol Casetti?"

"Yeah, Carol Casetti," she whispered, "did you think Tony would bring a cute little Irish girl in a place like this?"

* * * * *

Margo was almost beside herself with worry. This had gone on way too long but she didn't dare leave, not after the phone call from Harry. She couldn't call the cops. She was about to say to hell with it and call Eddy when she saw the door to the club open and Harry, Carol and a girl she assumed was Tamara came out. Harry was half-carrying the girl who looked like a Japanese businessman's wet dream in her schoolgirl outfit.

They hurried down the sidewalk and Harry gently helped Tamara into the back seat where Carol followed her. He got in front with Margo.

"Harry Grimes if you ever scare me like this again on our engagement day, wedding day, whatever damn day it is, I'm going to strap you down and use that cat o' nine on you till you bleed!"

Harry slumped in his seat, the tension of the last half hour finally taking its toll on him.

"Deal. If I ever do this again, you can beat me to death for all I care," he said as Margo pulled into the street and they drove away.

Carol leaned up from the back seat. "Margo, love, Harry was stupidly brave but for a very good cause so be gentle with him."

"Why, what happened?"

"He almost got shot… repeatedly… in the head."

"WHAT?" The car skidded to a halt by the side of the road. "HARRY WHAT THE FUCK-"

Harry grabbed her and held her, smothering her cries of outrage against his shoulder.

"Margo, Margo, look at the woman in the back seat. Look at her."

Margo slowly turned her head to look closely at Tamara, her physician's eye taking in her condition.

"The fat fuck was going to starve her to death. What was I supposed to do?"

Margo looked at him, seeing the look in his eyes for the first time since he'd returned. Harry was shaking and had a haunted look in his eye. He'd gotten kissed by his mortality and it had terrified him.

"If I was going to close this deal with that fat tub of lard it had to be today. Next week and it would've been a whole new round of games and conditions and price increases. I didn't have enough on me to meet his price and I couldn't exactly write him a check, so I played ‘Cut For High Card' and cheated and won. He was ready to kill me because he thinks everybody cheats him and he's so stupid he may be right. I know he didn't catch me because he didn't kill me right off. Luckily his old man came in and saved the day. He's a nice guy for a mobster, Carol."

"No he isn't Harry; he's a piece of shit."

"What?"

"Harry, he would've sat there and watched Phil starve Tammy to death because he didn't give a shit enough to stop him. He wouldn't let Phil beat her, because that would show and people might talk but he'd let him starve her to death. I won't get rid of his card. Someday we may need his or Niccolo's kind of help and I've never been too proud to worry about where a life preserver is coming from when I'm drowning, but he's not a nice guy. He's a murderer and can be one of the most cold-blooded sons-of-bitches I've ever seen. When he dies I won't be shedding tears at his funeral like I did at Tony's."

Harry turned to Margo.

"My love, you'll get the full story at some point tonight, probably at the restaurant after Carol and I get a few drinks in us. For now, we're all alive and in reasonably good shape, you can take an initial look at Tamara physically when we get there. But first, can we please get there?"

Margo kissed him, put the car in gear and they set out again toward Chez Bubba's.

In the back seat, Carol helped Tamara change clothes into some she had brought with her from the house. They weren't a perfect fit, but they were close enough to look presentable. While Tamara was changing, Carol was looking for signs of physical abuse.

"Margo, I see some bruising, looks like where she's been grabbed but that's it, I'm not seeing any signs of beatings."

"Now Tammy," Carol said, "we bought you but we didn't buy you for us. We bought you for a man named Eddy and I think you and he will get along very well. He needs someone like you and you need someone like him and eventually we want to tell him everything but right at the beginning, we don't want him to know we bought you for him or he might start thinking that the only way a woman could care for him was if she was paid for or some silly shit like that. So, at the beginning, we just bought you to get you away from Phil, that's the only reason, got it?"

Tamara nodded her head.

"Good, now let's get your hair out of those pigtails and brushed out."

They were only an hour late when they pulled into the parking lot of Chez Bubba's.