“Well, goddamn you!” he yelled.
“Get up, you old shit, and I’ll knock you down again!”
Cubbin bounced up off the chair and with his eyes closed swung his right fist in the general direction of Barnett’s chin. Cubbin opened his eyes in surprise when his fist collided with something hard that turned out to be Barnett’s left cheek. Barnett staggered back a step.
“Attaway go, chief,” Kelly called to his father, moving his chair around for a better view.
Both men now had their fists up in what each hoped was a rough approximation of the boxer’s stance. Barnett was in far better shape and danced around on his toes as Cubbin, flatfooted, circled to meet him.
“What’s a matter, fuckhead?” Cubbin panted. “You leave your fight in the gym?”
Barnett led with a right again and Cubbin tried to duck, but it landed on his forehead. He roared some wordless cry and jumped at Barnett who blocked a right but forgot about Cubbin’s wildly swinging left that landed with a wet smack on his nose. Blood spurted from Barnett’s nose onto Cubbin’s white shirt. At the sight of blood, both men paused in their fight.
“You broke my fuckin nose!” Barnett screamed and looped a right that caught Cubbin on the shoulder. Cubbin staggered back and then both men moved in swinging wildly, their eyes tightly closed, all pretense of any knowledge of boxing discarded.
“Keep your left up, chief,” Kelly called to his father whose right eye had just run into Barnett’s left fist. Cubbin was nearly exhausted, but he put everything he had into one final blow, a hard left that was something of an accidental hook. It caught Barnett flush on the chin and broke the third finger on Cubbin’s left hand. Barnett stumbled back, tripped over his own feet, and sat down hard on his carpet, blood still streaming from his nose.
“Oh Jesus God, my hand!” Cubbin yelled as the door of Barnett’s office burst open and two men moved in quickly, but not before Kelly was up and out of his chair.
“Throw that son of a bitch out!” Barnett yelled, still on the floor, but now mopping at his nose with a handkerchief.
“Don’t try it,” Kelly said, positioning himself between his father who was sucking on his broken finger and the two men who had started toward Cubbin. “We’re just leaving,” Kelly said. “Come on, chief.”
The two men stopped for a moment to assess Kelly. They were both young, in their early thirties, and they had that calm, slightly preoccupied look that most bodyguards have.
“What the hell’s going on?” one of them said.
“My old man just beat the shit out of your boss,” Kelly said.
The bodyguard who had spoken stared at Cubbin. “He don’t look so good himself,” he said.
“Your boss is on the floor,” Kelly said and moved over to Barnett. “Come on, Jack, I’ll help you up.”
“Lucky punch,” Barnett muttered as he got up from the floor, his handkerchief still at his nose.
Cubbin took his finger out of his mouth long enough to say, “Like I told you, buster, lay off.”
“Aw, you’re already dead,” Barnett said. “You just forgot to roll over.”
“Come on, champ,” Kelly said, taking his father’s arm.
As they went past the two bodyguards, one of them asked Kelly, “What the hell were they fighting about?”
“A woman,” Kelly said and winked.
23
After Sadie Cubbin slipped the dress on over her head she turned to Fred Mure and said, “You should have been with him.”
Mure stretched and yawned in the sex-rumpled bed. “He wouldn’t let me. I asked, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“It’s a wonder they didn’t kill each other.”
“Two old goats like that?”
“Well, Don broke his finger.”
“It’ll teach him a lesson.”
“You’re supposed to look after him.”
“Look, I told you how it happened.”
“You should have gone with him.”
“Kelly was with him.”
“Well, I shouldn’t have left him,” Sadie said as she lit a cigarette.
“You said he was asleep.”
“He might wake up and wonder where I am.”
“Kelly’s there.”
“I think Kelly’s beginning to wonder.”
“What about?” Fred Mure asked.
“About Don and me.”
“Not about us?”
“He’ll get around to that, if we keep this up.”
“Kelly’s a good kid.”
“That’s why I don’t want him to find out.”
Mure yawned again and swung his feet over the side of the bed. “You’ve only been gone an hour.”
“Look at me, Fred.”
Mure turned his head. “You look fine.”
“This is important.”
“What?”
“What I’m going to tell you.”
“All right, I’m listening.”
“This is the last time. It’s over.”
Fred Mure rose quickly and walked slowly over to Sadie. He was naked and conscious of the effect that it usually had on her. He shook his head slowly as he walked toward her.
“It’s not over,” he said. “It’s just starting.”
“No.”
“I told you why I never got married.”
“It’s over.”
“I never got married because I never met anyone that was like you. You’re it, Sadie. You might as well face it.”
“Goddamnit, Fred, I’m trying to tell you that we’re through. No more. Never.”
Fred Mure shook his head again. “We’re gonna get get married, Sadie.”
“And what do I do with Don?”
“You divorce him, just like we talked about.”
“We never talked about my divorcing him. All we ever talked about was why I couldn’t.”
“Well, you can now. You got plenty of grounds.”
“I’m not going to divorce him, Fred.”
“Sure you will.”
“Fred, you’re a nice guy. I like going to bed with you. I like it better than anything I’ve ever done. But I’m not going to divorce Don. I like Don. I like being his wife. Who knows, maybe I even love him.”
“He’s no good anymore.”
“He’ll be all right after the election. He’ll stop drinking and it’ll be all right then.”
“Sadie, you know he’s not going to quit drinking.”
“He’s quit before.”
“But he won’t this time.”
“I’m not going to argue about it. I’m just telling you we’re through.”
“You’ve told me that before.”
“This time I mean it.”
Fred Mure put his arms around Sadie, but she broke away from him. “No,” she said. “No more motel romance. No more chances.”
“That’s when you liked it best,” Fred said, grinning. “You liked it best when he was right in the next bed snoring away. That’s when you really liked it.”
Sadie crossed over to the dresser and picked up her purse. She turned and looked at Mure. “Fred, I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen carefully.”
“I’m listening.”
“I’m not going to divorce Don. I’m not going to marry you. I’m not going to bed with you anymore. Now do you understand?”
Mure grinned. “I’ll give you two days to change your mind. I’ll bet you don’t even hold out two days.”
“No. Not this time. It’s over. Really over.”
“All right, then let me ask you something.”
“What?”
“Why?”
“Why is it over?”
“Yes.”
“Because it’s too dangerous. Too dangerous for you, for me, and especially for Don. They could use us on him.”
“Ah, Christ, Sadie. They don’t care about anything like that.”
“I’m not going to take the chance.”
“Let me ask you something else then.”