Page 54
Story: The House of Wolves
“A team I own,” Gallo said without the slightest change of inflection or tone. “The way I will eventually own the Wolves.”
“We understand that, John,” Spooner said. “We’ve understood that from the start.”
“The way we understand that the current mission remains destroying Jack’s sister,” Gallo said, “as a way of arriving at our ultimate goal.”
“I’m frankly not sure we can totally accomplish that in the media,” Jack said. “And I’minthe media.”
John Gallo said, “Oh, yes, we can.”
“So far, so good,” Jack said.
“Just not quite good enough, you cocky bastard,” Gallo said.
Something about him had changed, but neither one of the men with him at the table noticed.
Jack Wolf said, “Relax, John.”
Gallo’s fury was sudden then. He slammed his hand down on the table, making their bowls jump, causing Charlie Spooner’s wineglass to fall and shatter on the floor, the sound like a gun going off.
“Don’t you tell me to relax.”
Jack Wolf and Charlie Spooner stared at him.
“Pretty goodisn’tgood enough!”Gallo snapped at Jack.“Do better!”
The waiter appeared then, Charlie directing him to the shattered glass. The waiter cleaned it up, went away, and came back with a new one. He poured Charlie a fresh glass of wine and left.
When he was gone, Gallo turned to Jack, his voice not much above a whisper, and said, “If I don’t get everything I want, and I mean everything, remember that you end up with nothing. Not even your newspaper.”
“I’m aware of that,” Jack said. “I was just trying to say that we’ve still got time to beat her up a little more before the vote.”
“I don’t want you to just beat her up. I want you to finish the bitch.”
He smiled, as if the last couple of minutes hadn’t happened.
“Is that understood?”
“Understood,” Jack said.
Then John Gallo slapped his palms together and said, “What about some dessert?”
Thirty-Eight
DANNY HAD JUST GOTTENoff the phone—again—with the commissioner, explaining to Joel Abrams that because he was no longer calling the shots with the Wolves, there was nothing he could do to prevent Billy McGee from suiting up on Sunday, and to keep suiting up.
“First she brings in an ultimate fighter to be her coach,” Joel Abrams screamed at him. “Now she hires this skid-row bum to be one of her quarterbacks. What’s next—she tries to find out if O.J.’s got any life left in his legs?”
“There’re three weeks or so until the league meetings,” Danny said. “Her signing McGee actually helps us. She just drove one more nail into her own coffin.”
There was a pause then. When Abrams started speaking again, he seemed to have calmed down.
“When does your brother drop the story about the tox screen?” Abrams said. “He’s got to do it before the medical examiner releases it.”
“He says soon. Right now, he just wants to ride Money McGee’s rap sheet for a couple more days.”
“And what about Thomas being in the trainer’s room with Harmon that day? Is that true?”
“It is.”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54 (Reading here)
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149