Young and Violent Read Online Free Page B

chairs at his side. The Kings stand until Gober snaps, “Places!” and then there is silence, while Gober comes around in front of the table and paces silently.
    “All right!” he says finally, facing all of them, “We got a crisis on our hands. Maybe you know — maybe you don’t. We’ll get to it after regular business. Let’s clean up the usual first. Okay. Braden here?”
    Braden stands up.
    “What’s the latest from your end, Braden?”
    Braden is in charge of reporting any arrests made of Kings, of any sentencing of Kings in court, and of any imminent release of a King from a correctional school or reformatory.
    “They picked up D.&D. last night, Gober! Held him over for court tomorrow.”
    “Yeah? What was he doing?”
    “He was borrowing a hub cap from a big yellow Caddy.”
    “Christ, doesn’t he know by now there’s no future in hub caps! So he gets ten stinking cents for one! How many’s he expect to get in one night.”
    Braden shrugs. “He got thirty a couple nights ago.”
    “So three dollars! Big deal!”
    “Yeah, Gobe, but it’s chow for D.&.D. S’gotta eat.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” Gober admits tiredly. “They questioning him about the gang? Anyone with him?”
    “Naw, he was solo, and I don’t think they’re going to question a dummy long, particularly D.&.D. You know him, Gober — they write the question down for him on a piece of paper, and then pass the paper to him. They write something like: Who do you sell your loot to? Braden pauses, shaking with laughter, and then says, “And D.&D. writes back to them, What? Whatta character, huh!”
    Impatiently Gober snaps, “Okay. Okay. What else?”
    “Just Morales,” Braden says. “They sent him out to North Brothers Island for the cure.”
    “That’s a good place for Morales,” Gober asserts. “He’ll get more horse out there than he could get around here, and he’ll be out of our hair. I hate a guy who’s hooked that way. Now, take me. I sniff a little horse now and then, maybe I smoke some tea. I’ve been known to take a cap of the snowy stuff too. But I don’t let it hook me. Or take Bag, here.” Gober turns toward Perrez and Perrez nods and smiles blandly. “Bag’s an addict. We all know that. Bag’s got a mistress and her name is snow. But Bag doesn’t let her make him so goddam daffy he walks off a roof or into the river. Bag keeps her to himself, and that’s the way it should be. But Morales! He didn’t know how to get the stuff. Pretty soon he’d steal and get picked up — and then he’d tell anything he knew if the coppers would promise him a cap of the snow. Morales should
stay
on North Brothers!”
    Braden says, “You’re right, Gober!”
    Other Kings comment: “That’s a fact!” “I’ll buy that.” “I can hear that coming in fine.” “You tell them, Gober!”
    “Okay, okay!” Gober yells. “This is a meeting! You finished, Braden?”
    Braden gives a lazy salute and sits down.
    “Flash, you’re next. What’s on the social agenda this week?”
    Flash pulls himself up from the couch and stands knife-thin and tall, and dressed the way Flash always dresses, in the new “sweet” style of gangland, which has replaced the old zoot suit. He is a symphony in dark brown and tan. Flash dresses six nights out of a week. To support his liking for high fashion, Flash sells numbers, and pimps.
    “Well, Kings,” Flash drawls, “if anyone’s interested there’ll be a midnight revue on Tuesday, around quarter to midnight, here. It’ll cost you two skins, and — ”
    “Two skins, fer the love of — ” someone protests.
    “Who’s gonna shell out two skins for a line-up broad, for Christ — ”
    “You silly! Two skins! Who you pimping for, the Queen of Sheba?”
    Flash holds up his hands for silence; and Gober booms, “Shut up and hear him out. Nobody’s forcing the piece on you!”
    Flash waits until the Kings are reasonably quiet. Then he continues: “Two bucks is a fair price for the