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chin. “He’s all rugged and
handsome, but you don’t get any laughs out of him. So what are you
going to do with a man like that, Inez?”
    “ I don’t know,” she said.
“Maybe I’d fuck him for several hours and then watch some standup
comedy later. You know, like on a DVD.”
    Tony definitely heard that, and his
fake laugh had more than a little surprise in it. He didn’t really
appreciate this from Inez. He liked to be the headliner. But it
went past that; had Inez just cashed in her chips? Whatever it was
Inez got out of Tony—and Duane could imagine a few things—she was
getting ready to move on. Tony stood up.
    “ What are you drinking?” he
asked Duane. “And, no, you can’t just have cranberry
juice.”
    “ Get me a beer, whatever
she’s been drinking.”
    “ Mademoiselle ?” Tony looked at
Inez.
    “ More of same,” she
said.
    Tony went to get the drinks and Duane
sat down across from one of the best-looking women he’d seen in a
while. There were wings on the table. Some were eaten clean, but
most had only a bite or two taken. Either Inez or Tony didn’t know
how to eat a chicken wing. Duane put all the blame on Tony
Braxton.
    “ How long have you known
him?” Duane asked.
    “ Not long.”
    “ You know him from
work?”
    She laughed.
    “ What, from my workplace? Is
that where I know him from?”
    “ Is it?”
    “ We meet people, you
know?”
    Duane nodded and hated Tony more than
he ever expected he could hate a clown.
    “ You know Tony isn’t
normal,” he said. “I mean when it comes down to it.”
    “ How do you know he’s not
normal?”
    “ Because he cannot shut his
mouth about anything.”
    “ So he tells you about the
army men and the little plastic canoe?”
    “ I haven’t heard about the
canoe.”
    “ It’s pointy.”
    “ That’s what I’m saying.
Toys don’t make a lot of sense.”
    Damned if he wasn’t flirting
hard with this girl. Stop it—right
now.
    “ You make sense?” she
asked.
    Before he could answer, two men
approached the table—the bigger one in the lead.
    “ Get up,” he said to
Duane.
    “ Excuse me?”
    “ I’d like to talk to this
Latino lady. You’re in the way.”
    What the hell? Was this some noise
sent by Tony as a joke?
    “ Let me ask you a question,”
Duane said, still seated, looking up at the bigger man. “Are you
right handed or are you left handed?”
    “ Am I right handed or left
handed?”
    “ That’s the
question.”
    “ I told you to get
up.”
    The man kicked at the leg of Duane’s
chair, and Duane slipped his metal baton into his hand under the
table.
    “ Okay, last chance: are you
right handed or left handed?”
    “ You think this
is—”
    “ I ask because I’m going to
break one of your hands, but I’m going to do you a favor and break
your off hand. So are you left handed or right handed?”
    Inez watched—an interested spectator.
Without her there Duane wouldn’t have done all the talk, and the
man would already be on the ground in pain. But without her there
would these guys have still stepped up to him? Duane wasn’t sure
exactly what was going on, but physically, he was fully
prepared.
    “ Tell Tony I’ll be at the
Denny’s,” he said to Inez. “If there’s anything he really needs to
say to me he should go there.”
    “ Who’s Tony, your
boyfriend?” the smaller man asked.
    “ Okay, here we go,” Duane
said. “Put your hands out on the table, so I don’t have
to—”
    And midsentence Duane hit the bigger
man in the kneecap with his stick. A direct hit—and down he went.
The smaller man didn’t move a muscle. Duane stood and gave the
bigger man a kick to the face then walked to the exit. The word was
moving around the room quickly, but Duane was out the door before
it got anywhere near the bouncer.

CHAPTER 9
     
    “ I’m thirsty,” Willow said.
“Are you thirsty?”
    Willow had Cyril get her a plastic cup
of water from the bathroom. She didn’t really get off on