The Vulture's Game by Lorenzo Carcaterra Read Free Book Online Page B

the how the hell did you let it happen?”
    “How?” Collins asked. “Let me tell you how, Frank. You tried to pretend you were tough. Only you were up against guys who don’t need to pretend. The old man
and
the college boy. In this match, you were the kid up against the pros.”
    Scanlon glared at Collins. “How do you know all this?” he asked. “Have you been talking to them?”
    “I wasn’t at first,” Collins said. “Though I had a feeling none of this would go your way. The casinos, racetracks, airports, call girls—hell, even the drug business. We don’t belong in any of those fields, neither you nor me. And then that old man gets burned to death in a tenement fire. A fire you ordered set.”
    “The building was supposed to be
empty
,” Scanlon said.
    “But guess what?” Collins said. “It wasn’t and an old man died because you didn’t have the money to pay him out.”
    “You were part of this, too,” Scanlon said. “Don’t start playing altar boy with me. I’ve known you for too long a time. I may have lost everything, but not you. The house on the beach. The condo on the East Side. The money in the bank. They’re all still there waiting for you. And none of that would be yours if it wasn’t for me.”
    “That’s true,” Collins said. “Every word. All I have I have because of you. And because of that fact, I’m going to do you one last favor. Probably the biggest favor of your life.”
    “And what’s that, ‘friend’?”
    “Take your losses and walk away,” Collins said. “Don’t try to go out and pay someone to take out the kid or, even dumber, the old man. And don’t try to do it on your own. If you do anything foolish like that, one of your dreams will indeed come true.”
    Scanlon looked at Collins. “What?” he said.
    “You will finally end up on Page One of the tabloids,” Collins said. “Or at least photos of your body will.”
    “You planning on doing a disappearing act, too?”
    Collins shook his head. “No,” he said. “I signed on with a new firm. I start working for them next week.”
    “Anybody I know?”
    “They’re a new company,” Collins said. “Small, family run outfit, out of Westchester County.”
    “What are you going to be doing for them?”
    “What it is I know how to do, Frank,” Collins said. “Managing buildings and construction sites. It seems they’ve acquired a few new buildings and sites over the last week and they needed an experienced hand to come on board. They made me a fair offer and I accepted.”
    “You’re leaving me to go work for the devil himself,” Scanlon said, shaking his head.
    “It won’t be new to me,” Collins said. “I’ve had a lot of practice in that area.”
    “This isn’t over yet, you know,” Scanlon said. “Give me a few years and then you’ll see.”
    “It’s over for me,” Collins said.
    Collins looked at Scanlon one last time and then turned and walked north up Madison Avenue, alone on a dark and empty street.
    Scanlon watched him leave, stared at him until he was long out of sight. He put his hands in his pockets and began to walk toward the corner. A black sedan pulled up next to him and came to a slow stop. The tinted back window came down and a hand with a semiautomatic handgun stuck out, barrel pointed at Scanlon, who stood frozen in place.
    I stepped out of the passenger seat and walked over toward him, my hands in my pockets. “Nice night,” I said.
    “You won the first round,” Scanlon said. “But this fight is far from over.”
    “Oh no, it’s done,” I told him. “
You’re
done. I own you now. Any move youmake, anything you try to do, won’t get done unless I give the go-ahead. You belong to me.”
    “And how long you think that will last?”
    “Until I decide you’re worth more dead to me than alive,” I said.
    Behind me, the man holding the gun leaned forward in his seat, his face barely visible in the darkness. “That gun that’s behind us,” I said.