“King, there’s enough business for all of us. Please don’t start any war with Suave,” Danny had begged him. “He will not take it lying down.”
“Suave is a fool. He can’t test the King,” King Kong said arrogantly. “Soon, I’ll put a bullet in that clown’s head. You watch and see.”
“You have to go through Cobra and Daddy Lizard first. You know those two are crazy. King, stop this now.”
King Kong laughed at Danny. “Man, you getting soft on me? I’m not stopping until I ruin or kill that punk, Suave!”
* * *
“Now, look where we are, Danny.” King Kong nibbled on his thumb, a sign that he was very nervous. “What are you going to tell Suave, Danny?” This was eating away at King Kong. He knew that Danny was aware of the operation inside out—every supplier, customer, worker, stash house, and business venture. Danny knew where King Kong lived with his wife and four children. He knew his mistresses and outside kids. Danny knew King Kong like the back of his hand, and this bothered the King. Was Danny going to turn him over to his nemesis to save his own life? King Kong felt sick to his stomach.
Chapter Six
“We’re going to ask you some questions, and we need the truth. Got it?”
Danny was slapped hard across his face, and tears sprang to his eyes behind the blindfold. He nodded. Please help me out of this one, Lord.
“I’m removing the gag, but don’t even think about screaming, or we will kill you.”
A hopeful feeling washed over Danny. He was getting a chance to beg for mercy. The duct tape was ripped off, setting Danny’s mouth on fire. The handcuffs were removed, and shackles were placed on his legs.
“Thank you,” Danny muttered in a hoarse voice, rubbing his numb hands together. “Please don’t kill me. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
“That’s all we ask of you, Danny. Play by the rules, and you just may live to play another day. Cool?”
“Yeah, man.” Danny got more hopeful that he could get out of this alive. “I told King Kong not to mess with Suave,” he blurted out. “But he refused to listen to me.”
The room went silent. Fear began to sneak up on Danny again. “Hello?” Danny turned his head to the left, then the right, the blindfold making everything black. “Anyone there?”
“Danny, we don’t know what you’re talking about with this Suave business, but it’s good to know,” the man said in a very deep, disguised voice. “We just want some information on King Kong’s operation.”
Danny knew what the man just said about Suave was a lie, but he played along. “Oh, my bad. I thought this had something to do with King Kong robbing Suave. What do you want to know? I’ll tell you everything.”
* * *
Phil and Saddam returned about two hours later, bearing bad news.
“Nobody saw or heard anything, King,” Phil reported to his boss. “Bambi only saw an old Honda driving away. No license plate number or nothing.”
“We went around and talked to some people, but they are all closed mouth.” Saddam made eye contact with King Kong. “But we know who has Danny. I say we go over to his headquarters and light it up with bullets. This will let him know we mean business.”
King Kong shot up from the couch. “We can’t make assumptions, Saddam.” He went over to a small, dirty window and looked outside. He saw the dilapidated, abandoned house with missing windows and doors directly across the street. It was home to a few of his customers. “Also, we have to get Danny back before we take action. To act prematurely will end his life.”
The men nodded their heads in agreement.
“You’re right, King. Suave will kill Danny if he hears that we attacked his place. We have to plan this right.”
King Kong turned around and looked at the two men. “We’ll wait awhile and watch Suave’s next move.” Then he stormed out of the back room into the restaurant. “Give me a scotch,” he said to the manager sitting behind the counter. The restaurant, which was a front for King Kong’s drug business, wasn’t open for business yet.
“King Kong! King Kong!” someone shouted from outside. “Come here, quick.”
King Kong ran outside with Phil and Saddam on his heels. His eyes widened when he saw a man trying to pull Danny out of the front seat of a car parked in front of the restaurant. King Kong pulled his gun as did Phil and Saddam.
“Hey! Wait a minute.” The man let go of Danny and raised his hands high in the air. “It’s me, Boogie. I didn’t do anything.” Fear filled Boogie’s eyes. “You know I run my little taxi, King. I was driving down Slipe Pen Road and saw someone staggering. It was Danny. He was blindfolded and shackled.”
King Kong stared coldly at Boogie for a few seconds before he walked over to the car and looked inside. A semiconscious Danny was slouched back in the passenger seat with his eyes swollen shut, his face covered in blood, and his lips were busted.
“I took off the blindfold, but I couldn’t get the shackles off,” Boogie said behind King Kong. “They beat him up bad.”
“Saddam!” King Kong roared, his eyes burning with rage.
Saddam reached into the car and pulled out Danny. He threw him over his shoulder and rushed into the restaurant to the back room. Saddam took care lowering a groaning Danny onto the black couch.
“Get them shackles off.” King Kong entered the room. “Phil, go get Miss Gala.”
As Saddam cut away the shackles with a small ax saw that they kept in the back room, King Kong looked down at Danny with concern.
“You want me, King?” Miss Gala came into the room with a black bag. She looked down at Danny and shook her head. “Poor Danny.” Miss Gala was a retired registered nurse who now worked solely for King Kong. It was her job to patch up his workers when they were injured. The more severe cases were sent to Kingston Public Hospital.
“Take care of him.” King Kong went to stare out the window, deep in thought.
Miss Gala worked on cleaning up Danny without delay. “Dear God, what is this?”
“What?” King Kong walked back over to Miss Gala. “What is what?” King Kong felt like someone kicked him in the gut when he saw what Miss Gala was pointing to. Bitter bile filled his mouth. Danny’s jawbone was opened up with a long cut running from his right ear to his mouth.
“It’s a very deep cut. We need to take him to Public.” Miss Gala stared up at King Kong who looked like he was about to throw up.
King Kong took deep breaths and forced himself not to be sick. “No Public. This will get the cops involved, and most of them know Danny. It will come right back to me. I don’t need that right now. You deal with it.”
“Okay. I’ll stitch it up, but he’ll be scarred for life.” Miss Gala continued to work.
“Danny? Danny, can you hear me?” King Kong asked as he bent over the couch, gazing down at his man.
Danny groaned and mumbled incoherently. Phil and Saddam stood by silently.
“King, look.” Miss Gala had her hands on Danny’s lips. “They glued his mouth shut.”
King Kong let off some curse words that caused the few strands of hair on Miss Gala’s head to stand straight up. “Those fools are dead!” He spat an expletive between each word.
“We’re lucky. It looks like superglue.” Miss Gala went into her bag of tricks and took out a bottle of nail polish remover. She used it to wet a cotton swab and applied it right on the glue