Page 8 of Sleeper

“I think I can, I think I can, I think I—” Sac kicked me underneath the table, cutting me off. My hand rubbed my shin and I glared at him.

“We have nothing but love for you, brother.” Spider smiled at Sac.

“I don’t like the slimy fuck either, Sac. Fucker is nasty and calls his cock adicky doo.” His pointer and middle finger made air quotations. “I’ll never trust a man who refers to his junk as that. Shit isn’t natural.”

“Hammer, we don’t all have an anaconda between our legs.” Spider shook his head. “What happened to club business? We’re not here to compare cocks, are we?”

“Spider’s right. Sleep, you, Sac, and Sledgehammer head down to Cat Call, seeing as you all are his number one fans,” Ghoul ordered. “Tin, Spider, can you see what you can dig up on the girl?”

“Sure thing, Ghoul,” Tin Man answered. “I’ll track down Hop, see if his nosy ass has anything new to tell.” Hop was a local know-it-all who didn’t mind telling anyone’s business, ours included. The problem with getting information from him was, sometimes it was the truth and other times it was complete bullshit. He came through for us the last time we needed intel and it actually checked out. Ghoul having Tin Man talk to him was a good idea. Who knew? Hop might be able to give us just what we needed.

“Does she have a name?” Spider asked.

“Shit. Yeah, that’s important, huh?”

He nodded in response.

“Guinevere Potasnik.” I took the last drag off my smoke and snuffed the embers out in the ashtray. “She goes by Vera, though.”

Spider jotted her name down on the piece of paper in front of him with a pencil. He was old school, and we were damned lucky he was still around. If his health hadn’t taken a shit, he’d still be in the Prez position, not Ghoul.

5

SLEEPER

“The Bastards in the flesh,” Monty Cat announced before all of us were through the door of his strip club. “Speaking of flesh, is this a visit for business or pleasure?”

“Business.” I got straight to the point, hoping we didn’t have to spend a lot of time with him. We hadn’t been there more than a few seconds and I already felt like I needed a shower. The fucker was slimy as hell.

“What can I do you for?”

“Something of ours is missing, wondered if you heard anything or knew the junkie we’re looking for.”

“Oh, that.”

“You been holding out on us, Monty?” Tin Man eyed him.

“I was just getting ready to call you all.”

“Yeah, I bet you were,” Sac slowly stated.

“Really. It’s the truth. I just woke up, see?” He nodded over to a pillow and blanket still laying on his bar. Each time I came here it seemed Monty got weirder. Cat Call was at our club’s disposal when we needed it, but sometimes, I wondered if it was worth having to deal with him.

“What do you know?” I asked.

“One of my girls didn’t show for her shift about two months back, Kenzi. Didn’t think much of it.” He shrugged. “That was until two of the others were talking this morning, when they didn’t know I could hear them. Seems Kenzi poo is in the wind with Vera Wang with a large sum of money. If I had to guess, whatever you’re looking for, they’d know where to find it. You find them, you find your missing shit.”

“What makes you think they have anything to do with what we’re looking for?” I exhaled to remain calm after hearing the name Vera. He was probably onto something, but there was no way in hell I was telling him. We kept him on a need-to-know basis. Spider and Ghoul might trust him, but the rest of us brothers didn’t.

“Sleeper, I didn’t want to say anything, because he begged me not to. It seemed innocent enough. Your dad had been spending an awful lot of time in here. He was Kenzi’s best customer. At first, I thought it was business as usual. They did a little blow, she’d shake her ass, and then he gave her money. Nothing out of the ordinary for Cat Call. I assumed he got his monthly check so didn’t question the amount of money he was blowing.”

“I’m going to kill you. A fucking month and a half. He’s been gone that long, and my sister was living on her own!” I lunged at him, and he ducked to dodge me.

“I didn’t know he was gone, Sleeper. I don’t keep tabs on him or any of my customers.”

“But you noticed when he stopped spending money?” Tin Man asked in an irritated voice.

“Eh. Willie’s never in one place for very long. I didn’t think anything of his absence.”

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