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Benjy got the fuckin’ deal of the century as far as I was concerned.
Me?
I just got fucked.
105
Itold Jack we needed to check her phone. He fought it, but I reminded him that the fuckin’ club was on the line because he had tried to reform a drug addict and failed miserably.
He came around after that, and badgered her until she turned it over… but there were no strange numbers or texts on it.
Strike three. I was out.
Now I had a suicidal halfwit cokehead on my hands, hanging around my office and crying all the time. I had to let him do a line every few hours just to get some fuckin’ peace.
Jesus.
Life was so much simpler when I just killed people.
106
Benjy went back to his dingy apartment over by the train tracks. That is, when he wasn’t making my life miserable over at the Seven Veils. I told Chuck and Cowboy to keep him shitfaced out on the club floor, which kept him out of my hair… mostly.
Venus stayed at Jack’s for a week. He took a few days off and helped her through the worst of withdrawal. Swore he didn’t fuck her, which I believed. A depressed, paranoid bitch who keeps rocking herself back and forth in the bath tub ain’t exactly sexy, unless you’re into some weird-ass shit.
Once the worst of it was over, he went back to the body shop. He couldn’t watch her all the time; after all, he had a business to run.
She took the opportunity to call Benjy.
“Come get me – and bring something fun,” she said. “I wanna go to Vegas.”
He got high as a kite just from the phone call.
I gave Benjy all the blow he could carry, plus a couple grand spending money.
I only asked for one thing in return: “Don’t come back without something good to tell me.”
107
Jack was livid when he found out she’d split.
“Guess you’re not going to be givin’ the Betty Ford Clinic a run for its money anytime soon,” I said.
He tried calling Venus about a thousand times. No answer.
I hoped she was dead in a ditch somewhere. Or that Benjy was getting some good intel and I could stop this goddamn merry-go-round once and for all. I was getting’ fuckin’ tired of sending Peanut to LA to buy cocaine with nothin’ to show for it.
Strangely enough, Benjy and Venus ended up only staying in Vegas one night. They came back late the next afternoon. I figured the whole trip had been a bust, and she was going back to Jack and climbing back on the wagon.
I was wrong on both counts.
108
Benjy came through. He had something real interesting to tell me when they got back into town.
He came to see me as soon as he dropped her off at her apartment. He was happy she hadn’t gone back to Jack’s place, but he was disturbed about what she’d told him.
Apparently she’d broken down their first night in Vegas, sobbing on the bathroom floor of their hotel room.
