Chapter 6 #2
“It might be.” Her eyes followed one of the girls as she swung herself around the pole upside down. “Or they’re just playing into kinks.”
The patrons had all stopped throwing money at the stage, and they just stared at us as we walked to the bar at the back of the room.
It was small, and the wood was chipped and worn.
Wooden bowls of candy were spread along the bar, and the place smelled of stale smoke.
When I looked at the patrons, I realized they too were dressed in costumes.
“It’s definitely Halloween.”
“Ladies, what can I do for yous?” Benny walked out from a door just beside the bar. The second he recognized us, he scurried behind the bar, as if the thin plank of wood between us would stop me from grabbing him.
“Bennyyyyy boy, have you been a bad boy again?” Chanel hopped up on the bar and crossed her legs while picking through the bowl of candy. She pulled out a little pink packet that read Laffy Taffy on it and ripped it open.
His face paled. “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Don’t you.” I glanced at the bowl. “Is that a Baby Ruth?”
“Ya.” She chewed her taffy as though it was going to rip her teeth out.
I held my open hand toward her. “Gimme.”
She tossed me three, then continued riffling through the bowl. “That’s not what we heard, Benny. We heard you got yourself in trouble . . . again.”
“Oh yeah? Who’d you hear that from?”
I shrugged. “Tweedledee and Tweedledum.”
His brows furrowed and he wrinkled his nose. “Say what now?”
“Does it matter?” I shoved a piece of candy in my mouth. “All that matters is you’ve been playing fang games with a mortal . . . again.”
“Hey, we was two consenting adults.” He held his hands up and the bartender gave him a side-eye as he polished glasses with a white rag.
I looked him dead in the eye. “Did you kill her, Benny?”
“NO!” His voice rose above the music and people turned to look at us.
“Better keep it down, Benny. How would your customers like to know you were talking to Virtues?” Chanel grabbed a purple-colored candy and offered it to him. “Taffy?”
Benny pressed his hand to his stomach and lowered his voice, “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“Shame, I don’t like the purple ones.” She grabbed another bowl and started digging through it.
“Look, I didn’t kill nobody.” Sweat broke out over his face. “Nobody.”
I wanted to yank him across the bar and beat the answer out of him, but Benny was the type of vampire who would crack with just a little bit of pressure. “So these guys I’m hearing about . . . Who are they?”
His hands shook as he reached for a glass and poured himself a double. “What guys?”
“Don’t mess with us, Benny. We don’t have time for bullshit.” Chanel held a Snickers bar in her hand and used it to jab in Benny’s face. “And I’m sure Clementine would love to meet you.”
He placed the drink to his lips and threw it back like a shot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Let me refresh your memory—” The Monster Mash came on, and I got distracted by the lyrics and picturing people doing the mash dance in my head.
Chanel cleared her throat. “Where’d you go?”
“People dancing the mash to this song in my head.”
“Right, right.” She nodded. “You back with us?”
“Right?” I shook the images in my head away. “Two old vampires, dress like mobsters, and they clean up messes for the highest bidder. Sound familiar?”
“Vaguely,” he hedged while pouring himself another.
“They got names, Benny?” Chanel threw a Reese’s Pieces at the side of his face.
Benny shook his head. “Nope.”
“Benny, if you don’t start talking, I’m going to call our cop friends and have them stationed outside your club every night. That’s gonna be bad for business.” Usually when I used the threat of cops on Benny he folded instantly.
“I don’t know no mobsters.” He ran his hand over his slicked-back inky hair.
It was a nervous tick of his. “Names, Benny.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“I think you do know.” Chanel hopped off the bar and grabbed two more bowls of candy and dumped them on the wooden bartop, searching through the piles and sorting them. “Do you like candy corn?”
“Ew no. No one likes candy corn. It’s only fun because it’s Halloween colors.”
She nodded without looking up. “Facts.”
My arm shot out and I wrapped my hand in Benny’s shirt, pulling him closer. “I’m getting bored, Benny. And once Chanel is done sorting your candy, that means two of us will be bored, and that’ll be bad for you. So, why won’t you give us their names?”
“Because even if you exile me, I stand a chance of surviving.” His wide brown eyes darted around the room. “Well, maybe.”
I dropped my hold on his shirt and shoved him back. “And with them you don’t?”
“Hell nah.” He shook his head. “Those two are straight-up killers. They make as many problems as they fix.”
Chanel’s eyebrows shot up. “What kind of problems do they fix?”
“Psh, anything and everything.” He hesitated. “Or not. Sometimes they let other criminals get caught by yous. It’s really a coin toss with those guys.”
“Interesting.” It’d been ages since we came across anyone half as cunning as these two seemed to be. Hell, they’d challenged us for a night or so. “But I’m gonna need a name.”
“No can do. I like my head right where it is.” When I flinched to reach across the bar once more, he took a step back and held his hands up in surrender. “Look, I can’t give you their names, but I can give you one thing.”
Chanel grabbed all the taffy and shoved it into her pockets. “Give it up.”
Benny wagged his eyebrows and sucked at his teeth. “Cheese and crackers.”
“Son of a bitch.” I slammed my fist on the bar and the candy shot up into the air.
“Yous know them?” He tugged his pants up higher.
Chanel nodded. “We’re starting to.”
“Well, good luck with that.” He started to scurry away. “I ain’t got nutin’ to do with it.”
When he disappeared through the door he’d come out of, I turned to Chanel. “Cheese and crackers?”
She kept her eyes fixated on the door Benny just went through. “Maybe we should’ve beat it out of him.”
“Next time.” I grabbed a fistful of candy and shoved it into my pocket.
She rolled her eyes. “I hate to say it, but I think you’re right. There’s gonna be a next time for Benny-boy.”
I sighed. “There always is.”