The Rooster Club_The Best Cocks in Town

by N. M. Catalano

  “How do you know Pam and her husband, Vin?” Michael turned to him.

  “Just around,” Vinnie answered him noncommittally.

  “I’ve got to tell you guys, her husband was getting off watching his wife with another man. He was so hard, you could see it from across the room,” Michael told them, which only fed Joey’s ego even more.

  “You’re shitting me?!” Joey couldn’t hide the swell of his pride as his chest puffed up. He wasn’t mad anymore.

  “Dead serious,” Michael replied, shaking his head, smiling. “I wonder what else he’d like to watch.”

  “I’d give them a hell of a show,” Paul shouted from the kitchen.

  Paul had gone wild, fucking everything in sight, since he and Sylvia started having problems.

  “We all would,” Joey smiled lasciviously. “We’re The Rooster Club, aren’t we?”

  “Damn right,” Paul shouted again.

  “The Best Cocks in Town,” Michael added laughing.

  The club had officially been born.

  ***

  They needed more cut for the blow, so Vinnie and Paul were on their way to the mall in Poughkeepsie. Paul wanted to buy some new clothes while he was there. The weather was changing and he was tired of wearing the same old things.

  Paul had become vainer than any woman they knew.

  As they walked past the stores, they came to a T-shirt shop he’d never noticed before.

  “Let’s go inside,” Paul said as a smirk crept over his face.

  They walked in the empty store and approached the counter. The young teenager looked up from his books he was studying from, and asked, “Can I help you?”

  “Yes,” Paul began, “We need six shirts made up with The Rooster Club, The Best Cocks in Town.”

  The kids jaw hit the floor. He stammered as he asked, “How big would you like them? Shit!” he grumbled, visibly cringing. “What sizes?” he corrected himself, unable to resist glancing down at the tall man’s genital area. The now ever-present outline of Paul’s huge penis down the leg of his pants was clearly visible. A wave of crimson shot through the boy’s face, and his Adams apple bobbed in his throat as he swallowed.

  8 CHAPTER EIGHT

  New York was the mecca of the drug business. Much of that was due in part to Mr. Frank Lucas, the one man who’d taken on the Italian mafia, and beat them at their own game. He was infamous for building his empire by cutting out the middle man and going directly to the suppliers in Thailand, paying $4,200 a kilo of heroine versus the $50,000 he would have paid the mob. He’d bought the aid of crooked military personnel and had his product reportedly shipped to the states in the caskets of dead soldiers. By the time he was almost invincible, he’d established such a massive foothold in the heroine industry, that even after his incarceration, it couldn’t be broken. His empire had set a new standard for the new branches of mafia that had sprung-up throughout the city, and nationwide, wanting their own piece of the pie.

  Antoine was a tiny little speck of dust on the links of the black mafia’s chain that was tightening around Harlem. They had both the Crypts and the Bloods on their payroll, and the only loyalties they had were to themselves. The organization was so tight, not one person who’d entered into their domain went unnoticed, from the biggest dealer, to the strung-out runners and watchers.

  Not one.

  “Antoine, my man, how’ve you been?” Paul asked cheerily into the phone.

  “Paulsky, how are you?” the nasally voice answered him, raspy and harsh, but there was a genuineness to it. He was happy to hear from his friend. Antoine called him Paulsky because he was his Polish homeboy.

  “I’m good. Look, I’m coming into the city to see you,” Paul said hurriedly.

  There was a nervous tremor to his words he was trying to keep in check, something he’d always gotten with Antoine. He didn’t know if it was residual nervousness from the job they did, or something else. Antoine always made him feel unnerved.

  “Cool, bro,” Antoine said with an audible snort. “When you want to meet?”

  “About 9:00 tonight, where can I find you?” Paul asked, more short than he would have liked.

  “Meet me at my place,” Antoine answered him, sucking in deeply again.

  “I’m bringing a friend with me, he’s cool,” Paul told him quickly.

  Paul knew that if he showed up with Michael, and hadn’t told him about him first, Antoine would hide and he’d never find him.

  “He’d better be, bro, or we won’t be talking,” Antoine said, then hung-up.

  Paul placed the headset down on the cradle and leaned back on the couch as a slight sheen of sweat began to cover his body.

  “We cool, Paulsky?” Michael asked him with a smirk on his face.

  “Yeah, we’re cool,” he answered him, trying to sound off-handed.

  “It’ll be fine. I’m from the street more than you are, there’s nothing to worry about,” Michael tried to reassure his friend, grabbing Paul’s knee and giving it a shake.

  “I know, getting these little eight balls like we have been is not working. Antoine will hook us up,” Paul replied absently, taking a deep breath to settle himself.

  “Are you sure he’ll be able to get us two ounces?”

  “I know Antoine sells, he probably won’t have that count, but he’ll bring us to someone who does,” Paul answered as his hand swiped across his upper lip, wiping the sweat from his thin mustache.

  “He’d better, or I’ll kick his ass.”

  “Mike, man, don’t do anything stupid,” Paul began.

  Michael laughed at Paul’s obvious discomfort. “I’m just playing with you. Would you relax? It’s going to be fine.”

  “I am fine,” Paul smiled, sighing heavily.

  Paul was apprehensive, it was tightening all the nerves of his body. He tried to shake it and push it aside, but it still grabbed at him. ‘It’s probably just from the job,’ he told himself as he reached for the rolling tray to clean the pot on it.

  ***

  Natalie was on the subway on her way to Joe’s apartment. Today she’d decided to take a Greyhound bus into the city, then the train into Queens, where he lived. They’d seen each other a couple of times since that night at Studio 54. She’d met him in Manhattan and went with him to pick-up a book from one of his professors at NYU, (New York University), then they spent the day together. He took her to a little café in Soho, after that they walked around The Village, went into galleries, and hung out in Washington Square Park. She went home that night.

  Tonight she was planning to spend the night with him.

  “I’m not letting you go and meet some stranger in the city overnight!” Vinnie had yelled at her.

  They’d had a huge fight over this earlier before she had left.

  “YOU can’t stop me!” Natalie shouted back at him defiantly.

  “Mom and dad aren’t here, so I’m in charge! And you’re not going!”

  “Don’t give me that shit! You and Sylvia have always done whatever you two have wanted to do, going wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted, while I sat home with my finger up my ass! Now, I’m doing something for myself. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. So fuck off!” Natalie argued back.

  “Natalie, come on, try to understand, I’m just worried about you. I don’t know this guy, and, God forbid something should happen to you, I won’t know where you are, and I won’t be close enough to help you,” he pleaded.

  The worried expression on Vinnie’s face softened her, and she kind of liked his brotherly protectiveness.

  “Vinnie, I appreciate that, I really do. I know him, we’ve been out a few times, he’s a nice guy, he goes to NYU, and works, and he’s not some drug-dealing piece-of-a-shit. I’ll be fine, I promise, and if I feel uncomfortable, I’ll leave.”

  Natalie tried to soothe her big brother’s concerns, but she could see he wasn’t buying it.

  “Natalie…”

  “Vinnie, I’m not a
little girl anymore, I’m going to do what I want to do. And right now, I’m going to Queens,” she told him finally as she picked up her bag and car keys and walked out the door. She could hear him still yelling at her through the closed door as she walked down the steps.

  As the subway rocked and clattered on the tracks making its way past its stops, Natalie could see the borough of Queens spread outside the window. The line here was above the streets, so this was a scenic ride, especially since she’d never travelled to Queens on the train before. Her nerves were a mess. She was scared about going to Joe’s apartment. Vinnie was right. Although they’d been out a couple of times, she really didn’t know the guy. Natalie must have been crazy to do this. But after Michael, she wasn’t holding herself back anymore. She was tired of sitting around, moping, and waiting for him to come back.

  The train slowed and came to a stop. The doors slid open. Two people walked in, a man and a woman, wearing red berets, army fatigue pants, vests, and combat boots. Even though most of the seats were empty, they moved to hold onto a pole, and remained standing. They turned and Natalie read the words emblazoned across their backs: The Guardian Angels.

  ‘HOLY CRAP!’ her mind shouted.

  She’d read about the group of citizens started by Curtis and Lisa Sliwa. These guys can fight like freakin’ Ninja’s, and have been keeping the subways safe for everyone since the ‘70’s. They were the coolest bad-asses, and Natalie wanted to ask them for their autographs. She thought she must have been staring at them like a star-stuck kid, because she was. When the train slowed at the next stop, and they moved towards the door, the man turned to face Natalie and winked before they stepped off. Her jaw hit the floor. It wasn’t an insinuating wink, but more him saying, ‘It’s cool.’

  She wanted to shout, “Those were the freakin’ Guardian Angels!” but she held her excitement in, even though she wanted to burst.

  This was already turning out to be a great trip.

  Joe lived in a nice building in an upscale neighborhood. He had a corner apartment with wrap-around windows that let in lots of natural light. That helped Natalie relax. When he opened his door, he pulled her in, enveloped her in his arms, and kissed her until she was breathless.

  “I’m so glad you came, I was worried you were going to change your mind,” he told Natalie when he let her up for air, his forehead resting gently against hers.

  “I almost did, my brother and I had a fight,” she replied shyly.

  “He’s just worried about you, but I’m really glad you didn’t,” he squeezed her tightly to him as he brushed his lips against hers.

  She’d been honest with Joe about how old she was and where she lived. He accepted her for her, and for who she was. It was a breath of fresh air to be with someone who was so far removed from everything; she felt free when she was with him.

  “Come in, the bathroom is this way if you want to freshen up. I’m going to order some Chinese food, and I have a bottle of wine, I hope that’s ok.”

  “Sounds perfect,” Natalie said, swooning a little over his thoughtfulness.

  He was sexy in a subdued way, strikingly handsome with a hint of softness, and there were no pretenses with him, he was relaxed and self-assured, everything she’d never been with before. He was as smooth as velvet, and he wrapped her in his warmth.

  They talked and laughed during dinner, he told her some stories about work and school and that helped her to feel even more comfortable. When they finished, he took her hand, and a bottle of honey, and led her to the bedroom. The sun had set and the world looked far away in the lights of the buildings and cars below. And it took Natalie’s reservations and her heartbreak about Michael with it, for those few hours.

  Joe took his time with her, removing each piece of her clothes slowly and deliberately, enjoying her body inch by inch as it was opened to him.

  “You are so sweet, Natalie, so perfect, I could get lost in you, and that is exactly what I’m going to do,” he murmured against her naked flesh, dribbling a trail of the honey down between her breasts, over her quivering abdomen, to finally drip over her quenching sex.

  A simmering fire was burning inside her, and she wanted him to burn her completely. She needed Joe to remove the brand Michael had burned into her flesh and make her forget him.

  ***

  “Thank you for letting us use your car, Vinnie, I owe you one,” Michael told him as they loaded up their bags into his Gran Torino for the trip into the city.

  Vinnie had Joey drive his car while he took his dad’s Lincoln. His parents were in North Carolina looking at some property and a prospective business venture with his uncle now that his father was retired. He was bored, had money in the bank, and his brother took this opportunity to ask him if he wanted to invest with him in an up-and-coming little seaside town.

  “No problem. I just wish I had the address where Natalie went in the city and you guys could drag her ass home,” Vinnie growled.

  He was still fuming because Natalie had disobeyed him and went to spend the night with that fucking stranger.

  Michael froze and spun around to face him.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Michael spat out.

  “Apparently she’s been seeing this guy she met at Studio 54 who lives in Queens. She went to spend the night with him. I told her she couldn’t go but she didn’t listen to me and walked out!” Vinnie yelled.

  Rage and jealousy tore through Michael.

  ‘How could I be so stupid and think she’d be sitting at home?!’

  Fury seeped through his veins at his own recklessness. He was responsible for this. If he hadn’t gotten sucked into this whole situation, if he didn’t have his head up his ass, and his dick everywhere, he would have been there for Natalie. The way he wanted to be.

  “Did you get the asshole’s number and address?” Michael asked, trying to calm down so he could think straight.

  “No,” Vinnie replied sheepishly.

  “What?! Well, what’s his name?” Michael asked, dropping the bag and giving his full attention to Vinnie.

  “Joe.”

  “That’s it? Joe! Goddamn it, Vinnie, how the hell am I supposed to find her if that’s all you’ve got?!” Michael yelled in his face.

  “I didn’t think you would actually go looking for her,” Vinnie shouted back defensively.

  “Fuck!”

  Michael turned his back to him and slammed the trunk closed.

  “Come on Michael, we’ve got to go or we’ll be late. The guy’s not going to wait,” Paul said. “And there’s nothing we can do about Natalie now.”

  “Don’t worry about it, she’ll be fine, she’s not stupid. Like she told me, she’s not a little girl anymore,” Vinnie said, trying to convince himself more than them as he followed Michael around the car.

  ‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ Michael growled to himself as he got in the car.

  ***

  Antoine lived in the Bowery near CBGB’s, the famous punk-rock club where musicians like Sid Vicious performed. His apartment was a one room shit-hole that shared a bathroom with the other tenants on his floor, in a building that should have been condemned. It was likely the owner refused to make any updates or repairs in order to force the degenerate tenants to move out so he could sell the building, or revamp it to rent the units out at today’s market rates, rather than the pennies he was getting for them now.

  Michael hadn’t said a word the whole two-hour ride down, and Paul didn’t want to push him. It was clear Michael would rip someone’s head off if they looked at him wrong.

  This could either work out to their advantage, or ruin the deal they were about to make.

  They were about to find out.

  Michael left the car in a parking garage, to make sure that Vinnie’s car wouldn’t get vandalized. The intercom on the front of Antoine’s building was broken but the door was unlocked. They walked the four flights of stairs, with paint peeling off the walls, and screams and baby cries echo
ing through the hallways, towards Antoine’s door.

  “Paulsky!” Antoine greeted them when he opened the door.

  “My man, Antoine,” Paul smiled.

  They did the whole cool hand-shake, pounding on each other’s backs, male-bonding thing guys do.

  “Man, it’s good to see you!” Antoine said, stepping aside to let them in.

  “Thanks, Antoine. This is a good friend of mine, Michael. We’ve been working together,” Paul introduced Michael as they stepped through the door.

  Michael sized him up with a glance. He was a hood, a wannabe gangbanger, who leeched onto anyone he thought he could take something from. Michael instantly disliked him. But he wasn’t here to be his friend. He was here to make money. And get the fuck out.

  The place was filthy and smelled of human excrements, with empty Chinse food cartons and pizza boxes covering every available flat surface. There was a light scratching against cardboard coming from the other side of the room. More than likely, that sound wasn’t coming from a cat.

  “Sit down fellas, it’s nice to meet you Michael.”

  By the way Antoine received Michael, it gave them the impression that he felt no threat coming from him.

  ‘That fucking guy is probably trying to get into Natalie’s pants right now,’ the thoughts flashed through Michael’s mind, ‘Her innocent, sweet, tight, hot……..STOP IT!’ he yelled at himself.

  He knew he had to focus on the business that was about to go down, not the girl he totally messed everything up with.

  ‘I’m such an asshole!’ he berated himself as he sat down on the edge of the sofa, trying to avoid the springs sticking out of the worn fabric.

  “What can I do for you two boys?” Antoine asked as he pushed the garbage to the floor from a chair across from the couch, before seating himself.

  Michael spoke up, “We need two ounces of blow,” getting right to the point.

  “Do you now?” Antoine replied as he sat back in his chair and glided his fingers along his sparse goatee.

  “Yes, tonight, before we head out of town. And if things go well, and the product is quality, we can continue to do business.”