Preview
It was a strip club located in St. Bethany on Cedar Road, just a stone's throw away from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Like the riverboat casinos about fifteen more minutes west on the Missouri River, the Hot Biscuit attracted a great many customers. Unlike the riverboats, the owners and upper management of the club were among the cogs and gears that kept the machine of organized crime working in the American Midwest.
Organized crime in the states of Missouri and Illinois in the heart of God's Country,
like virtually every civilized country, reaped a profit from a multitude of enterprises...many on their face seemingly legitimate. Other enterprises, of course, could only be conducted away from daylight, with ruthlessness and practiced deception. Whatever an accountant with the morals of a rabid wolf couldn't think of, those who had experience in the less sublime arts of coercion, corruption and brutality could; if executed smartly and with enough stealth, they would at least for a time stay beyond the reach of the law. Loan sharking, prostitution, trafficking of controlled substances, extortion...all standard practices of organized crime long before Al Capone fired his first bullet.
Organized crime, no matter where it flourished on Earth, had always been a machine. It was operated by the worst instincts of some, and was fueled by the weakest inclinations of others. It could make its home in places both unsurprising and unexpected. Naturally, that was often open to subjective opinion. That's why some would have been surprised and others would not have to find that organized crime controlled a strip club, used it as a way station for trafficking narcotics.
The only things at the Hot Biscuit that would have been considered legal were the liquor and the dancers...of course, many of the girls were barely so.
Mad Dawg and T-Bone stepped out of the sedan...so did a woman, also dressed in their colors. Dawg nodded to the big man. "'Sup, Ace."
Ace gave them a look and simply said, "You're ten minutes late, guys. Tony don't like to wait."
T-Bone shrugged. "Fuckin' traffic, man."
"Uh-huh." Ace's eyes narrowed as he looked at the woman. These homeboys were just supposed to make a delivery. "Who's this?"
"New girl for the club," Mad Dawg lied. "We're gonna take her to see Tony."
"Since when were you gangstas talent scouts?" Ace couldn't help but look at the woman. She didn't hurt the eyes, that was for damn sure...but something about her
set him on edge. There was something about the hardened set of her face...and in her eyes.
This lady's here for something, Ace mused, something pretty damn important. But if she's here to dance, then I'm Janet Jackson.
Then he noticed that Dawg and T-Bone's running buddy, Beenie or Bennie or whatever his name was, was still in their car. He did a double-take, and he realized he wasn't wearing any clothes. Ace then knew for a fact something was off...way off.
"Sorry, guys," Ace said, suddenly pure business. "One of you can take the delivery in like usual, but this lady stays outside."
Yuki reflected once again on the conversation she had with the homeboys on the way here:
Yuki asked at one point, "What kind of security will be present at this location?"
Mad Dawg: "Mostly security cameras. They got monitors to watch them in a room next to the cashier's window."
"Mostly. Is anyone outside to enforce the perimeter?"
Bennie J didn't get the 'perimeter' part, but he understood what she was asking. "Jus' this big white guy named Ace. He packs a .357 Magnum under his shirt. Always wears the same fuckin' thing."
"He is the only security outside? That is foolish."
T-Bone: "Yeah, but wit' their cameras coverin' the lot and the front and back doors, they'll know if somethin's up right away, whether Ace calls them or not. Inside's where the real security is, anyway. For Fridays, Tony Pucci's always got a dozen guys, all packin'. But honestly, they're nothin' compared to Danny."
"Who is Danny?"
Mad Dawg: "Danny Choi, Yuki. He's death on a fuckin' stick, and that's the truth. When you get inside, watch out for him, girl. You gotta be real careful wit' him."
"Really? Tell me more."
And they did, but Yuki was not concerned with Danny Choi at the moment. What
mattered was how to deal with this man Ace so he would not alert anyone inside. It seemed she would have to make him see, just as she did with the gangstas.