Read Gangsters with Guns Episode #3 for Free Online Page A

 
    Jack was merely shaken because of the crime that had taken place. He was letting his imagination get the best of him. He had no evidence, only suspicions that fear blew out of proportion.  
    The crimes the other night were merely a stroke of bad luck, a once in a lifetime event. The odds of another crime like that one happening here at the nightclub were infinitesimally small. Right?
    What about the rest? Whether or not Aleksei was wrapped up in the crimes the other night, Jack couldn’t forget the weight of his other suspicions.
    Aleksei might be a good uncle, but Jack’s brother-in-law was hardly the partner Jack had expected.  
    When Jack’s own restaurant venture had gone belly up last year, he hadn’t thought twice before jumping on Aleksei’s offer to open up a place together. His brother-in-law seemed to have a Midas touch with his own businesses. After all, Aleksei and Katya lived in a wealthy neighborhood in Manhattan Beach in a large house with a view of the ocean, full of the newest gadgets and luxurious gizmos. Aleksei spent money as if he printed it.  
    Katya came from the same penny-pinching, cost-conscious background as Jack’s wife, Lena. She might make a very decent salary as an attorney, but she would never abide such frivolous spending unless Aleksei hit the numbers.
    Believing in Aleksei’s business acumen, Jack had conceded to him on every decision. If Aleksei wanted the waitresses to wear bootie shorts instead of slacks, that’s what they did. If Aleksei thought they should have scantily clad live entertainment, they did that too. They did everything Aleksei wanted until the party center Jack had envisioned, the kind of family place a person could come to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, had become the sort of sexed-up establishment where a rape could happen.
    Worse still, something in the business did not add up. How could they keep hiring waitresses and turn a profit when they had a straggly flow of customers and few events in the fancy party rooms in which they had invested so much capital?
    The uneasy feeling that had compelled him to plant the camera in Aleksei’s office didn’t ease, no matter how Jack tried to rationalize away his fears about his brother-in-law. He struggled not to look in the direction of the camera recording everything from its hiding place on the bookshelf, but he couldn’t help himself. His eyes flitted nervously past the teddy bear and fixed on the wedding picture hiding it. Katya beamed up at her new husband, her face radiant with love and excitement.
    Jack hadn’t seen his wife’s sister that happy in a long time. Last week, Katya had come to visit, had held the baby in her arms, and then suddenly burst into shoulder-wracking sobs. She wanted a baby, she had said, but she suspected Aleksei was having an affair. He was so secretive, and he was hardly ever home.
    Of course, his in-laws had told her she was crazy. They always discussed Aleksei in hushed, awe-inspired tones, as if he were the perfect man, the perfect husband, the opposite of Jack. How could Katya question Aleksei? Why, just look at how generous he had been with Jack, the American, the outsider.  
    Sometimes Jack imagined a special place was reserved in Hell for his in-laws. Perhaps for Aleksei as well.
    Katya deserved so much better. Hell, so did Jack, when it came down to it.
    “Why don’t we have security cameras in the ballroom and the back hallway?” Jack blurted. “I thought that was the plan.”
    Aleksei hesitated, and Jack braced himself for one whopper of a lie.
    The lie didn’t come from Aleksei, though. Instead it came from his friend Mikhail. Jack hadn’t heard Mikhail enter, perhaps because he hadn’t been as attuned to his surroundings as he had been when he’d been worried about getting caught.
    “An oversight,” Mikhail said smoothly, jumping in to support Aleksei. He was dressed in the high style the Russians favored—fabric with an expensive sheen, pointed