“Yes!” Dante stared at the three men with terrified eyes. “I know El Muerto, Payaso, and El Kabong! Please… kill me quick, Muerto! Don’t do it with the bleach.”
El Muerto patted Dante’s arm with his black gloved hand. “Let’s talk about that, Dante. El Muerto is here for another man who you have been working for. If you help El Muerto, I will let you live. I want Chino Salermo.”
Dante became excited. “I know him, Muerto. He orders us around like slaves, telling us we will be rich and part of the Lino Verducci family.”
“You don’t believe him?”
“He will get us all killed or in prison. I can tell. We only exist as a gang if we don’t disrupt the tourist trade. Chino wants to run everything. He cares for nothing. I have been in the Suren?os since I was a kid. It’s just me and my Mom. Suren?os will kill us if I quit.”
“There’s a million stories in the naked city, kid.”
“Muerto!”
“Okay…okay… Payaso wants Muerto to help you, Dante. Do you know any places where Chino likes to hang out?”
“There is a bar on Ocean Street called the Jury Room. He goes there late at night with his bodyguards. He made us meet him there a few times. It is where he holds court. Chino thinks it is funny to conduct business in a place called the Jury Room. It’s Friday night. He will stay until closing all weekend. His men are killers, Muerto.”
“Did you just insult me, kid?”
As Payaso and Kabong laughed, Dante shook his head violently in the negative. “No Muerto! I merely meant to warn you.”
“Good info. We’re going to take you home. Stay in tonight with your Mom. Is she home?”
“Yes. She cleans motels on the boardwalk during the day, but she will be home tonight. You are really going to let me live, Muerto?”
The masked man reached back and Payaso gave him a small briefcase. Muerto cut Dante free of his restraints and gave a packet of money to the stunned teen. “This is five thousand dollars. Stay home and call no one. Don’t answer your door. Don’t let your Mom call anyone. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Muerto!”
“Drive us back to Dante’s place, OG.”
The van began moving. After five minutes driving, the van slowed to a stop. Payaso opened the sliding side door, and Kabong helped Dante to the door and outside. “Don’t look around, kid. Go home.”
Dante nodded without turning, and walked straight to the apartment he shared with his Mom. He smelled dinner cooking. For the first time in a long while, he thought of his Mom’s pleas for Dante to get out of the Suren?os. He knew better than to flash the money anywhere, including in front of his Mom. She would not believe his story, but perhaps he could change things now in secret. He went in the kitchen and sat down.
“Mom. We must stay inside tonight and lock the doors. We cannot call anyone. I heard something bad is happening tonight possibly with the Suren?os.”
Dante’s Mom quickly sat down opposite her son, grabbing his hand. “You are not in trouble are you? Please tell me you didn’t do something foolish.”
“No Ma. I did something right, and now I am here to keep us safe. We must stay in as I have explained. Do you think I could get a job cleaning with you?”
“Yes! We need good workers all the time. Let me get you some dinner.”
“Sure, Ma. Thanks.”
She returned to her stove preparations. “Who is it that warned you of this danger?”
“Someone named El Muerto.”
His Mom spun around. “The dead one?”
“He is not dead, and he showed me the light.”
His Mom made the sign of the cross in a quick reverent motion.
*
“You were going to kill that kid, Muerto,” Gus said as the van drove away from Dante’s house.
“Was not,” Nick lied. He worked assembling his Barrett sniper rifle. Once finished with the assembly, he used his portable bore scope to check the rifle’s accuracy. “Would I have given Dante five grand after we spent the day checking him out on the police blotter if I meant to kill him?”
“Yep,” Gus answered.
“Yes,” John agreed.
“Ditto, and don’t give me any of that ‘Et tu, Dan’ shit either.”
“El Muerto is hurt by these unfounded allegations. The compassionate El Muerto prays every day to be able to help the poor and downtrodden gangbangers of the world.”
“Gag.”
“Barf.”
“Ditto,” Dan called out in turn while driving toward the Jury Room bar. “How do you want to handle this?”
“Feel like sipping a few brews in the bar and watching TV while the Unholy Trio find a good spot for a killing?”
“That sounds right down my alley,” Dan answered. “Someone else will have to drive home though. “So, you want me to go in this Jury Room bar, make sure Chino is there, and clue you in when he leaves?”
“That’s the plan. The three of us will network with each other. Wear your ball cap the whole time in the bar low over your forehead, and keep your windbreaker on. When Chino leaves, you leave, and walk in the opposite direction along Ocean until we swing by to pick you up.”