The Predators

by Harold Robbins

  She laughed. “You’re not a very tough businessman. Your Uncle Harry would have taken the shirt off their back as well as the business.”

  I looked at her. “I’m not my Uncle Harry. And maybe I’m not a businessman, but I wouldn’t feel good if I ruined them. I told them that you would meet with them later and work out a decent deal for all of us.”

  “That’s work,” she said. “What do I get out of it?”

  I laughed. “How about seven inches?”

  “That’s no money,” she snapped.

  I opened my fly and took out my cock. It was already hard. I waved it at her. “Isn’t this better than money?”

  She laughed and fell down on the bed. She put her hand firmly around my cock. Slowly she began to massage it. “Too bad, we can’t fuck,” she said tauntingly.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “I’ve got the curse,” she answered.

  “So what’s the big deal?” I asked. “You can still suck me off.”

  “Oh yeah, but what’s in it for me?” she said.

  “Don’t act like you don’t enjoy it,” I said.

  “All I get is a mouthful of salty cum, if that’s all we do,” she said.

  “What do you mean if that’s all we do—you said you had the curse.”

  “You can fuck me in the ass,” she said.

  “You gotta be kiddin’,” I said. “I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve heard it’s painful for a girl.”

  “It won’t hurt,” she said confidently, starting to take off her dress. “Just run down to the drugstore on the corner and get a jar of Vaseline.”

  “You’re sure?” I asked.

  “Do you want to fuck or don’t you?” she asked sarcastically. “Yours is not the only cock in town.”

  14

  Kitty was the greatest. It was the first time I really understood how much she meant to me. I would do anything for her now. When I licked her ass, I knew it was the sweetest ass in town.

  We stretched out naked in the bed. I was sweating bullets and I pulled a towel to dry me up. I smiled at her. “I love ass-fucking. It’s the first time I’ve ever done it. It’s really great.”

  She looked at me. “Wash your prick,” she said. “It’s covered with Vaseline and it’s messy. When you finish, we’ll talk about what I get out of the seltzer business.”

  “How come you never told me about ass-fucking before?” I asked.

  “It’s not called ‘ass-fucking,’” she said angrily. “It’s sodomy. And that’s a bigger sin than fucking. I can’t even confess that to my priest.”

  “If it’s that bad, why do you do it?”

  “I’m crazy, I guess,” she answered. “I’m horny all the time and I can do anything I want with you because you’re Jewish and you don’t have to go to confession.”

  “You mean you wouldn’t do it with another Catholic?” I asked.

  “Don’t ask stupid questions,” she said in an annoyed voice. “Clean up and let’s talk about business.”

  I went to the bathroom and stepped into the tub and turned on the shower. A moment later she was in the shower with me. Before we were finished, I heard the doorbell ring. I looked at her. “Do you think that your father is looking for you?” I asked.

  “My father’s out of town,” she answered. “It has to be someone for you.”

  I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my waist. I left her in the bathroom while I went to the door. “Who’s there?” I asked.

  “Buddy, you asshole, open the door.” His voice sounded urgent through the door. “I’m in trouble, let me in.”

  I opened the door. Buddy was standing there, still in his Sunday clothes from that morning. There were also two pretty black girls in their Sunday clothes standing beside him. I let them in and closed the door. “I have some Pepsis in the fridge,” I said. “Give me and Kitty a minute to get some clothes on.”

  By the time we were dressed, Buddy and his girlfriends were at the kitchen table smoking and drinking up all of my Pepsis. Buddy had already met Kitty from the time she had stopped over at the counter when I was working.

  He introduced the girls that were with him, Diana and Arietta. They were daughters of the reverend at his church. “I’ve got a big problem,” Buddy explained. “The reverend told me to take his girls home, and instead I took them over to my place. We smoked a little ganch and it got a little wild and we all screwed.”

  I stared at him. “You screwed both of them?” I asked.

  The girls giggled. “Why not?” he asked. “They both wanted it. Don’t forget, they’re sisters and they are used to sharing.”

  “Oh, brother,” I said. “So why don’t you just take them home? There shouldn’t be any problem.”

  “I can’t do that,” he said. “He’ll kill me. He told me to take them home at noon.” He looked at his watch. “It’s now eight o’clock. He’ll know I was out with them all day.”

  “So what do you want me to do?” I asked.

  “I thought maybe you could take them home.”

  “You’re out of your fucking mind,” I said. “What will keep him from killing me?”

  “You’re a white boy,” he said. “The reverend won’t kill a white boy. He’ll figure that you’re straight.”

  “No way,” I said.

  “Jesus,” he said. “I’m really in trouble now. Man, you got to do this one thing for me. I’m too young to die.”

  Kitty began laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” I snapped.

  “Maybe I can help the girls out,” she said.

  “How?” Buddy asked.

  Kitty turned to the girls. “You both go to school?”

  Arietta nodded. “We both go to George Washington High School. I’m graduating this year, and Diana will graduate next year.”

  “Good,” Kitty said. “I can tell the reverend that I had told them they would have a very good chance to get into Hunter College, and that I asked them to come for a school enrollment seminar.”

  “That’s brilliant.” Buddy’s smile reached clear across his face. “I’ll get the cab fare for you.”

  “How much is cab fare?” Kitty asked quietly.

  “About ten dollars up and back,” he said.

  She smiled. “That’s for cab fare. My service is worth fifty bucks.”

  “You’re out of your mind,” Buddy said.

  “It’s cheaper than getting yourself killed,” Kitty answered.

  Buddy shook his head. “That’s a lot of money.”

  “I know what you do,” Kitty said. “You make a lot of money.”

  “Okay,” Buddy said. “I quit. You’ll get your money.”

  Kitty held out her hand very politely. “Now.”

  Buddy looked at me. “Your girlfriend’s really a ball breaker.” He took out a roll of bills from his pocket and peeled out the fifty and one tenner.

  15

  Buddy sat down at the kitchen table again after the girls had left. He looked down and sighed. I took one of his cigarettes from the Lucky Strikes package. I dragged the smoke into my lungs. They tasted better than the Twenty Grands I smoked. I looked over at Buddy again. He still had his head.

  “You gotta be tired after all that fucking,” I said, and laughed.

  “Nah, not really,” he said.

  “If you’re worried about the girls, Kitty will work it all out. She’s very smart,” I said.

  “For fifty bucks, she better be smart,” Buddy said, and leaned back in his chair. “I’m gonna have to get another job.”

  “What do you mean? I thought everything was fine now,” I said.

  “It is, but I have another problem. I’ve got to get something that will keep me out of the draft,” he said.

  “What are you worried about? They’re not after you, are they?” I asked.

  “I’m twenty years old and I’ve been one-A for over a year now,” he said. “They’re cleaning up in my neighborhood. The local draft board is pulling in us niggers li
ke flies.”

  “So what? There’s no war and I think it’s going to be a long way off, if ever.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “Sooner or later, either way, it ain’t good for me. Twenty-one dollars a month won’t even keep me in cigarettes.” He stood up and looked down at me. “I’m going to quit the job over at Harry’s.”

  “Wait a minute,” I said, shocked. “Do the guys know that you’re leaving the numbers route?”

  “They okayed it already,” he said. “They’ve got me a job over at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I’ll have a numbers route over there.”

  “Harry will go off the wall. He won’t have anybody to stay with me till closing time.”

  “Fuck him,” Buddy said. “Let him give you some more money. Kid, you can handle the whole thing yourself. You’ve got no problem, I showed you how to use the blade.”

  I looked at him. I was eighteen and I had just got my notice to show up at the draft board. I was sure that I would be 1-A. I was healthy and I didn’t have a family to support. “Maybe I should start looking for a defense job myself,” I said.

  “Maybe,” he said. “They goin’ to get all of us. And it ain’t going to be easy for niggers and kikes. None of the services like us.”

  I took a deep breath. “I’m not going to worry about it now. I’m okay.” I opened up another Pepsi. “What the hell! Christmas is coming in a couple of weeks and everything will be peaceful and merry.”

  I never realized I’d be so wrong, so fast. Later, after Kitty had come back and we were in bed together going at it pretty good, an announcer cut into the regular music on the radio and announced that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor that morning and the war was on.

  I looked down at Kitty. Suddenly there were tears in her eyes. And I had lost my hard-on. We both knew our lives would never be the same.

  16

  Everything was screwed up by the time I got to work the next afternoon. It was a madhouse. For the first time I saw Uncle Harry himself working at the counter, because only one of the spicks showed up to work. The others had taken off. There was no way they were going to take any chances of being picked up by the draft board. Most of them were over draft age and had never showed up at the draft board to pick up their card.

  Harry screamed at me. “You’re late! You knew I needed your help today!”

  “I came down after school as usual, Uncle Harry,” I said, tying an apron around me.

  “Where the hell is Buddy?” he yelled. “He’s usually here by this time.”

  “I don’t know,” I answered. “Maybe he went to enlist.”

  “Not that boy,” he said. “I heard a week ago that he was going to get a defense job.”

  “Where’d you get that?” I asked, while selling a taxi driver a pack of cigarettes.

  “I have connections,” he said smugly.

  I looked at him. I knew his connection. His little black girlfriend. I turned to Fat Rita behind the register. “What’s with Eddie?” I asked. “How is he with the draft?”

  “He’s okay,” she answered. “The draft board gave him four-F because his right leg is crooked and shorter than his other.”

  Harry looked at me. “What’s the status with you?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll graduate at the end of the next month, and I know I’ll have to report to the draft board as soon as I graduate. I figure I’ll be one-A for sure.”

  “I remember once that your father told me when you were a kid you had asthma,” he said. “Maybe that will keep you out.”

  “I’m not sure of that,” I answered. “I never heard anything about it.”

  “Maybe we can talk to your draft board.” He looked at me. “A little chicken schmaltz might grease the wheels a little.”

  I laughed. “Uncle Harry, they don’t even know chicken schmaltz in my draft board. The district is all goyim.”

  Harry looked at me. “Money is money. It talks in any language.”

  I shrugged.

  “Can you handle the counter with José and yourself?” Harry asked. “I have to run over to the Puerto Rican employment agency and get us some new help.”

  “We can manage for now,” I said. “But I don’t know if we can handle the six o’clock rush hour when all the factories are out.”

  Fat Rita called down from the cash register. “You get in trouble, I can help out.”

  “I won’t be too long,” Harry said. I watched him go up to his office. I didn’t see him after that. He always left by the back door that was downstairs from his office.

  Things quieted down after Harry left. I looked over at Fat Rita. “Has it been busy all day?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Everyone is talking about the war. Everyone was shocked by the news.”

  “Same for me,” I said. “That’s all we talked about at school.”

  She paused for a moment. “Has Harry ever said anything about letting me go?” she asked.

  “I’ve never heard anything,” I said. “Why should he? He just gave you a raise.”

  She looked at me. “He’s been talking to your girlfriend,” she said. “I know that she is graduating with a CPA certificate this month. I thought he might have said something about her taking over the books that I do. After all, I’m not a CPA.”

  “She’s never mentioned anything to me about it,” I said. “And I’m sure she would have said something. Besides, he wouldn’t be willing to pay CPA prices.”

  “I was just curious,” she said. “She’s been up to his office every morning this week. She always comes in about eleven o’clock.”

  I knew that Kitty had said that she could do Uncle Harry’s taxes. But she hadn’t told me that she was talking with Uncle Harry about it. I thought for a moment as I took care of the customers at the counter. I turned back to Fat Rita. “I’m sure that you don’t have anything to worry about. You know everything about his business.” Then I heard Buddy call back from the end of the counter.

  “Gimme a Pepsi and a pack of Luckys,” he called.

  I brought them over to him. “When did you come in? What’s going on with you?”

  He opened the pack of cigarettes, took one out, and lit up. He took a deep drag and a swig of Pepsi. “I’ve been fucked!”

  I stared at him. He looked down. I had never seen him upset like this. “What happened?”

  “The boss at the navy yard told me since the war had already begun he could not put any new people on.”

  “That seems crazy. With the war on wouldn’t they need more people than ever?” I said.

  “Right,” he said. “But they don’t want niggers.”

  “You check that out with your friends?” I asked.

  “That’s the first thing I did,” he answered. “But they had an answer. The wops control all of Brooklyn’s shipping yards, including the navy yards.”

  “Now what are you going to do?” I asked.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll blow town. I’ve got no family keeping me here.”

  “They’ll track you down because of your draft card,” I said.

  “Not if I go to another town and change my name.” He smiled.

  “You’ll still need a draft card, won’t you?” I said.

  “Yeah, but that’s easy,” he said. “I can get any card anytime I want. Another draft card, even another driver’s license.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “There’s always some way that they can catch up with you.”

  “Yeah,” Buddy said as he nervously tapped his fingers on the counter. “I guess I’ll just have to figure out another angle.”

  It was four-thirty now and the taxi drivers were starting on the new shift. There were two taxi garages down the block from us and we always got busy selling cigarettes and candy bars. A number of them asked for Harry, but I told them he would be out for a while; they said that they would come back later to see him.

  Fifteen minutes later the counter was empty. “Boy,” I said. “Th
ings really died down.”

  “Word travels fast if Harry’s not here to take bets from the cabbies,” Buddy said.

  “It’s not like Harry to miss this time of the day. These are his big bettors.”

  The six o’clock rush hour started and Harry had not returned. Buddy and Fat Rita and José all helped me when we got busy.

  Fat Rita looked at her watch. “It’s almost seven,” she said. “This is my quitting time. I don’t know what to do. If I don’t go now I’ll miss my ride. And I’ll be too late to get dinner for the family.”

  “It’s your time,” I said. “Go on home.”

  “What should I do with the cash in the register?” she asked. “Harry always takes part of it to the night deposit at the bank.”

  “I’ll keep everything here,” I said. “It’ll still be here when he gets back.”

  I watched her waddle over to the subway entrance and go down the stairs. I turned to Buddy. “Where do you think he’s gone?”

  Buddy laughed. “He hates Hitler. Maybe he enlisted.”

  I laughed. “Not Harry. He may be Jewish but he ain’t that crazy.” I went to the register and opened it. “A hundred and forty bucks,” I said.

  “There has to be more than that,” Buddy insisted. “Press the lever on the side of the cash drawer. It’ll slip out.”

  I did what he told me. He was right. The cash drawer came out. There was nothing but bills there. Quickly, I figured how much. Over a thousand dollars. I slid the cash drawer back into the register. “He’s crazy to keep all that cash here.”

  “He’s a bookie,” Buddy said. “He uses that money to pay off bets.”

  It was almost nine o’clock and a light snow was just beginning. I started closing the glass shutters. Buddy and José were helping me. I was still trying to decide whether I should take the money with me when we closed up. I saw Aunt Lila pull up in their car in front of the store.

  She got out and came over to me. “Where’s Harry?”

  I leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “He went to the agency to get some new Puerto Rican help, because nobody but José showed up for work today. He’s not back yet,” I said.