“Swell. Just swell. Well, at least…”
“The one thing I couldn’t find out, though,” Guido continued with a frown, “is why he wants her with you. I figure that it’s either that he thinks that you’ll treat her right, or that he expects you to scare her out of bein’ a moll. I’m just not sure which way you should play it.”
This was not turning out to be a good night for me. In fact, it had gone steadily downhill since I won that last hand of dragon poker.
“Guido,” I said. “Please don’t say anything more. Okay? Please? Every time I think that things might not be so bad, you drag out something else that makes them worse.”
“Just tryin’ to do my job,” he shrugged, obviously hurt, “but if that’s what you want. . . well, you’re the Boss.”
“And if you say that one more time, I’m liable to forget you’re bigger than me and pop you one in the nose. Understand? Being the ‘Boss’ implies a certain degree of control, and if there’s one thing I don’t have right now, it’s control.”
“Right, B . . . Skeeve,” my bodyguard grinned. “You know, for a minute there you sounded just like my old B … employer. He used to beat up on Nunzio and me when he got mad. Of course, we had to stand there and take it….”
“Don’t give me any ideas,” I snarled. “For now, let’s just concentrate on Bunny.”
I turned my attention once more to the problem at hand, which was to say Bunny. She was still staring vacantly around the room, jaws working methodically on whatever it was she was chewing, and apparently oblivious to whatever it was Nunzio was trying to tell her.