An Accidental Affair by Dickey Eric Jerome

Author:Dickey, Eric Jerome [Dickey, Eric Jerome]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781101561782
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2012-04-16T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

The elevator was out and there were over a dozen people crowding the stairs. It looked like rush hour at Ellis Island and the borders at Tijuana. That was why no one’s anger stood out. Not the frowning man in the sagging pants. Not the six women yakking violently at each other in Vietnamese. Not the irritated man in a pinstriped suit and presidential-looking tie. Not the arguing East Indian couple. As usual, I would rush by them all and make no eye contact, keep to my side of the crummy hallway as if it were my carpool lane on the 405.

But the man in pinstriped the suit did a double take and shouted, “James Thicke?”

Hearing my name crippled my livid pace. I slowed down and directed my scowl at him. He had a black Tumi messenger bag hanging over his shoulder. He had an equine face with a bulbous, hawk-like nose. The kind of guy who had to put on a thousand-dollar suit to get a dime-store hooker to notice him.

The suited man repeated my name. Then he snarled, doubled his fists, and exploded. He ran at me with violence, the same fast and furious way that I had gone after Johnny Handsome.

He swung fast, threw an impatient roundhouse punch that was meant to separate my head from my neck. My world was set on fire, red with pain. The gun and jacket that I held, both fell and tumbled to the dull brown carpet in the hallway. Another blow came my way. The blow hit my forearm and the impact sent pain up my arm, from my hand to my shoulder. He threw a third blow before the second one had finished doing its damage. I bobbed and felt his knuckles swish past my nose. He had thrown all of his weight into that blow. It was a hellified haymaker that took him off balance. Unrelenting, I did my best to knock him galley-west. My blow missed the side of his head. He came at me like he’d been waiting for this moment all of his life. He swung another roundhouse punch. This time I countered. My blow exploded into his chest. Pain registered in his eyes. He staggered. I charged at him, aimed for his throat, but my next blow caught the side of his face. That knocked him away from me.

My world on fire, pain rising like a flood, I snapped, “Who the fuck are you?”

He barked, “You sonofabitch. You didn’t think that you could ambush a Bergs brother and just walk away without getting your clock cleaned, did you? You sneak attack one of us and you attack all of us. I’m here to set the record straight, motherfucker. I’m here to beat your motherfucking ass then put your head on a stick and take it back to my brother.”

Apartment doors opened on the fight. Neighbors spied or stepped out into the hallway.

Now we were both blocked in and the slender hallway had become our narrow ring.

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