Page 40 of Kings Against the World

“Saw Gallagher out earlier… him and some chick.”

“That must’ve been his girl.”

Judd cranks out a laugh. “That must be why it sounded like they were arguing.”

“Arguing? Trouble in paradise, Oz?” asks Boone.

All eyes fall on me. I play off my agitation from Judd’s comment by shrugging and laughing it off.

“You know how it goes.”

“That’s why you keep them for fucking around and nothing else,” Chmura pipes up to some nods. “All women do is give headaches.”

“What woman is fucking you, big boy?” Boone asks and the others break out in laughter.

Chmura does what I’ve done—he plays off the insult by pretending it doesn’t faze him. He takes another shot of tequila and mentions something about how he gets plenty of pussy. Moe, one of Boone’s other cronies, jumps in by telling him it doesn’t count if he has to pay for it.

The whole section’s roaring with laughter, trading barbs. I’m humoring them, mostly observing the group dynamics. The underlying tension that’s unmistakable in Boone’s ranks. It seems there’s some unspoken rivalry between some of them, like Chmura and Moe, who both seem eager to be Boone’s righthand.

Then Benz turns up and there’s a whole new layer added—me and him lock gazes and I can tell this morning’s on his mind. But unlike Judd, who’s clueless about what he possibly saw, Benz is thinking about how I’d cut his threat short.

I’d subtly issued one of my own.

Boone beckons Benz forth. “Benz! Get your ass over here and join us. We were just having a laugh over Chmura’s doughy ass paying for pussy…andOz’s trouble in paradise.”

I scrub at my jaw, doing my best to keep my cool and act nonchalant. The usual Ozzie Gallagher most people expect.

“There’s been a problem,” Benz says.

Shit.

He wouldn’t bring up what happened with Zoe in front of everybody… would this fucktard?

That quickly I forget I’m supposed to be calm and cool. Instead I’m glaring at Benz in silent warning to keep his fucking mouth shut. If he even hints at what he told Zoe earlier, I just might snap and deck him in the jaw.

“It’s McDonald. He’s been caught smuggling in a second set of cards.”

Boone surprises us all with a gruff laugh. He blows out smoke from his cigarette and flicks ashes onto the floor. “Is that right? Before the tournament’s even begun? Bring him here.”

A minute later, Benz is returning with two security guards clutching a struggling Jacob McDonald.

“That was planted on me!” he yells. “This is all a setup! Why would I show up with a cheat set? I wasn’t trying to?—”

“Do you know what happens when I catch someone trying to steal?” Boone asks, his voice drowning out McDonald’s. “I make an example out of them, McD. This tournament was put together with a lot of hard work from the likes of me, Estrada, and Benz. And here you go thinking you can cheat your way to the top?”

“That’s not true, Boone!” he cries out. “I’d never cheat. I play fair and square!”

“Boys, you know what to do. I don’t have time to listen to begging. Show everybody what happens when the rules are broken.”

The guards gripping McDonald knock him down to the ground. One of them grabs hold of a bottle of tequila from the table and shatters it over his head.

We sit and watch as they beat the shit out of him. His screams of protest continue until he’s kicked in the face and several of his teeth tumble out of his bloody mouth.

It’s not the first time I’ve witnessed something like this. Even with the Steel Kings, there’ve been times when somebody got their ass beat for breaking the rules or stirring up shit. Most men in our worlds understand it’s a part of this lifestyle.

But it’s not lost on me how theatrical Boone is about it. That both he and Benz seem eager to carry this out in front of everyone.

Especially me.

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