Fistful of cash is a good start. I’m gonna need a lot more than that to get back on my feet, though. Fistful of cash, slot machine jackpot, divine intervention… I don’t know what, but as we slide into the back seat of the black town car waiting out front for us, I can’t help but feel like tonight might be the night where I finally get lucky.
3
Serafin:
“He’s a fucking disaster.” Jakub Pawlak paces back and forth, dabbing at his forehead with a bright yellow silk handkerchief. “Nobody can get him under control. It’s only a matter of time before he fucks up beyond belief and ruins it all.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, man,” I say, trying to feign interest as I watch his client, Fillip, the lead singer of the most popular rock band Onyks, wander through the casino taking drinks out of people’s hands and chugging them down. Everybody seems pretty amused by his antics. “It’s not my job to rehabilitate them, Jakub. I just clean up the messes they make. Nothing I’m seeing here suggests he’s doing anything but living like a guy who has more money than God and less brains than a rock.”
I could care less about this cocky little prick making an ass out of himself. It’s what rock stars do. Jakub should know that, he’s an agent. He’s one of my best and oldest clients, though, so I’m doing my best to humor him.
“You want me to have security grab him?” I ask. “Bring him back here and I’ll rough him up a little bit? Is that what you’re asking me to do?”
It’s been a long time since I got my hands dirty. Ever since I inherited my father’s position as a King, I barely have to take a shower and brush my teeth. Jakub asked for me personally though, and I figured I owed it to him. For old time sake. To make sure he stays our client and doesn’t start looking for other options. He’s put a lot of money in our pockets over the last fifty years because the man seems to always represent some of the worst of the worst, and I don’t want to see that go elsewhere.
“No, I’m just asking you to keep an eye on him. Maybe get one of your guys to follow him around? There’s been some disturbing allegations coming from some of my sources lately, and I just want to make sure we stay on top of it.”
“You know how this shit works, Jakub. What sources, and what allegations?” I need to know exactly what I’m working with. We can fix a lot of things, cover up a lot of shit, but there are some things that are completely off limits, no matter what kind of cash gets thrown our way.
“You’ve known me long enough to know I would never put you in a situation that violates your ethical standards, Mr. Mazur.” He rolls his eyes at me, reminding me just how low my ethical standards are. I didn’t invent the game. I didn’t make the rules, I just play by them. “I promise, it will be well worth the effort.”
Putting one of my men on babysitting duty for this scrawny weirdo doesn’t exactly sound like a lucrative gig, but I promise him I’ll make good on it. I watch the wall of security screens for another minute, when something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye.
A woman with long black hair and a dress so short it barely contains her ass approaches Fillip. Janka has been on my radar for a long time. Her history of petty crime has gotten her tangled up with some of my clients on more than one occasion. Wherever she goes, trouble follows.
I just didn’t expect that trouble to come in the form of a woman who looks eerily like Mia.
I move closer to the screen, thinking maybe I’m just seeing things. Even though I have adapted pretty well to only having one eye thanks to that night some goons came and shook me down to get revenge on my dad, I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to believe what I’m seeing. Or maybe it’s because I’ve dreamed of this day over and over and don’t want to admit it to myself that it could truly finally be happening.
She hugs her arms around her body tightly, closing herself off from the conversation going on in front of her, looking over her shoulder like she’s waiting for something to happen while Janka throws herself at the nerdy rockstar. It’s definitely her. I can tell by the way she bites her lip. I can tell by the way she looks exactly like I remembered her that night, like she hasn’t aged a day in the last twelve years.
I want to go and grab her away from that seedy scumbag Janka, but before I can blink, she’s wandering over to a slot machine and fishing around in her purse and pulling out a wad of cash.
Janka and Fillip exchange phone numbers and a dramatic kiss, and she disappears from the view of the cameras, but I’m only focused on one thing. The one that got away. The only woman I ever came close to loving. The woman who broke my heart beyond repair. My little misiu.
*“You ready, man?” Fabian sneaks up behind me, jarring me from my thoughts. “The limo’s waiting.”
“I don’t feel like it, Fabian,” I say. “Not tonight.”
“Yes, tonight,” he insists. “It’s your thirtieth birthday for fucks sake. You never go out with us. We rented Club Taboo for the night. Magda and the girls have this whole fucking thing all planned out for you. Who skips their own surprise party?”
“Who calls it a surprise party when I already know about it?”
“At least act surprised when we get there.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He looks disappointed, and
