Yes please I need something to calm my mind and ease my pain please.. she smiles and nod the lady who offers her drink.

she sits on the purple couch, puts noodle on her lap and pet him.. a lovely cat. 

music, drink and fur are the best cure for her soul.. she is really enjoying the moment..

After a moment of thought, Nikki grinned at Eugenia .

"I have just the thing," she says, turning to grab a clean glass and setting to work. Two ounces coffee liqueur, two ounces club soda, and two ounces of vodka and she's finished. 

Turning back to Eugenia, she places it in front of the lady with a flourish and a bow.

"This, my dear, promises to pleasantly Erase your Mind. You know what? I think I want one, too," she says, turning around once again and preparing one for herself. 

Frank walks in with a smile on his face as he looks around still standing in the door way he takes a big puff from his cigar as his men move about to secure a table for them to sit.  He walks slowly towards the table and takes his seat.  Look for Little NikkI_Swango the owner of the establishment.   He orders a scotch and continues to look around and nobs with approval at her business.  Frank ask the waitress to let Nikki know that her friend Frank is here.

" Frank-Dicaprio !" Nikki calls across the room when she spies her Vegas buddy taking a seat at a table. She grabs his scotch from the waitress' tray before she can deliver it and places it in front of Frank before taking a seat herself. 

"What brings you to Detroit? Piles of money, I hope," she says with a sly wink. Turning to catch the bartender's attention, she indicates with her upraised hand that she wants another seven and seven. Seemed she always had a drink in her hand when she ran into Frank. Come to think of it, she nearly always had a drink in her hand, period. It sort of went with the job.

"This new guy in New York...shit, maybe it's Chicago? I'm flying too much and can't remember. Anyway. He's got this laundromat fronting a bar, and he's got his hands on this Canadian whisky that's to die for. Not as good as old Irish, but good just the same...and way cheaper and easier to import. Really good stuff," she says as her drink is delivered.

Frank smiles as he hears Nikki yell his name out and stands up as she approaches the table.  He pulls out her chair and she takes her seat.  Again smiling like a young kid as he listens to Nikki_Swango talk about making money.  She a woman after his own heart business, business and nothing but business.  He downs his scotch and orders another.

I don't own a bar but I do have connection to a few large warehouses and I got a friend that can design and print labels.  I have a guy that owes me a few favors that can get us a cargo ship if we need to pick it up across the pond.  So it wont cost us a penny to get it hear.  In fact he's bring over some Irish whisky that he needs my help to off load if you know what I mean.  My cut is twenty percent but I'll split that with you if you can line a buyer up.   

He looks at Nikki and nods as he finishes his scotch and then looks at the people walking in. Then he looks back at her waiting on her answer.

As Nikki listens, her eyes glaze over and her head nods slowly as her mind tracks through her own fronts and how much product she can push.

"Yeah I might be interested there, Frank. I've got two bars myself, and a handful of places I frequent in the other cities where I could maybe find buyers looking for wholesale," she says, her eyes coming back into focus as she smiles at him. She looks like she wants to say something else, but takes a sip of her drink instead. Putting it down on the table, she looks at Frank-Dicaprio again and opens her mouth to speak, then snaps it shut again. Her faces flushes and she sips again, fanning herself with her other hand. 

"Woo, it's warm in here! Hey Sanchez, can you see if the air is working?" She hollers over to her closest, and laziest, bodyguard. He looks back at her in total confusion; it was maybe 72 degrees in here and he was dressed comfortably in a long-sleeve button-down along with a gallon of terrible cologne.

It had been a week or so since Nikki had checked on her very first joint. No crews remained in Detroit and what few customers there were to be had seemed to be filtering down to a newer place on the other side of the street. She could never understand the draw of a business that is opened by its owner and promptly abandoned, but, to each his own. Maybe the folks going in were pilfering, rather than sitting through an interminable wait at the bar. Or maybe it was because they offered whores. Who knew?

Either way, she intended to keep up the personal service as best she could. Without the whoring. Unless it was Frank.

With a deviant smile, she started a pot of coffee and began to dust and carpet sweep the place, just in case someone stopped in for a drink or a book or a chat.

Frank walks in again looking for Nikki as soon as he spots her he walks up behind her and gives her a slow warm embrace.  He whisper to her.

Hello beautiful, I've missed you greatly.

He slowly turns her around and smiles looking into her eyes happy to be in her presence once more. 

You know every time I'm with you my dream comes true.   Now let me make your dream come true.

He waves to John and Frankie and they step outside as Frank takes Nikki to the back door and then the back door opens and several men walk in with cases of Irish whiskey.  Stacking up 30 cases in the corner. 

Next load come at you demand I have eight hundred cases set aside for you.  I have another fourteen hundred cases that will set sail to the U.S from across the pond.  I also made a connection in Canada that will supply us with a thousand cases of Canada whiskey.  whenever we want straight to Detroit this guy deals with a few of my Jewish buddies here in Detroit.  They trust me and I trust them.  Maybe you heard of them the Purple Gang my cousin Al and my Uncle Johnny from Chicago set me up with them.

She can't do anything but stand there blinking as cases are brought in by Frank's men. Finally finding her voice, she turns to him.

"Frank, I don't know what to say. You're a lifesaver. Business everywhere has been so slow that most of my connections have dried up...literally. I think you must own most of the booze on this side of the continent," she says with an astonished little laugh. 

"I'm not sure what I'd do without you, thank you, Sweetheart!" She exclaims, pulling him down to kiss him. Frank's men make some kissy cooing noises until both Nikki and Frank shoot them death glares.

Receiving a kiss from Nikki Frank knows that she is truly appreciative of the supply of whiskey.  He nods because he has connections with the outfit in Chicago and NY from Canada and across the pond.  He has made a ton of cash since the government approved prohibition.

Sweetheart anything I can do for you will be done.  Now lets go celebrate with a little dinner and some light music.  These guys can finish up and your men can lock up.

Husky walked into the coffee shop she used as a front. He shook hands with the schmuck behind the counter palming him a 10$ bill. "Coffee, black." he said with a wink. He knew the man would understand why he was overpaying for a coffee and sure enough he did. Husky tipped his hat to the frontman as he was led into the back room. He took the cigarette tucked behind his ear and placed it in his mouth, lighting it before walking through the door. He felt like he had walked inside an amethyst. There were purple hues everywhere in the decor. He walked up to the bar lightly bobbing his head to the music and sat down. He took off his soot stained fedora and ran his fingers through his hair realizing he had come to the right place . He hailed a waitress and said with a grin , "Get me a double neat whiskey doll. No ice. Keep 'em coming." He sat back , placed his hat back on  his head and took another drag of his cigarette, thinking about all the ideas this place had given him for his own joint . Looking around he saw a foxy young women staring at him. "So that's the broad that owns this place huh? There is something about her , hiding behind thinly veiled propriety." he thought to himself as he raised his glass in acknowledgement meeting her gaze head-on.

Nikki was checking the stock behind the bar, gazing woefully at her nearly diminished supply of Canadian whisky. Her best contact was dead and she'd yet to find another connection. With a heavy sigh, she poured  herself a seven and seven from the scant reserves before turning back towards the open room. A new customer had arrived while she was busy feeling sorry for herself, and he appeared to be sizing her up. With a raised brow and a jaunty smirk, she made her way over to him and took the seat opposite. 

"Is there a story behind that hat of yours, Mister? You don't look like the average chimney sweep," she said, indicating the soot-stained fedora that rested next to him.

At the mention of his hat the memories came flooding back to him. Blood, lead, soot and diamonds. Husky resisted the urge to scratch his fedora knowing it would only make it worse. Instead he focused on the woman in front of him . She was different from the rest The way she smirked at him as he sized her up told him she was used to it. 

"A classic tale of love, betrayal and vengeance. But I keep my cards close to the vest hon, especially around sober beautiful women with a penchant for danger." he replied.
He thought for a moment, chuckled, then pulled out a bottle from his breast pocket. It was the infamous Canadian whiskey from his last score.

"So, let's get you drunk." he said pouring them both a drink.

Nikki's eyes flicked to the Canadian whisky, then back up to Husky's. A grin quickly spread across her face.

"Fair enough, Mister...? I'm Nikki Swango, by the way. A pleasure," she said, offering her hand. 

"An even greater one if you tell me that that Canadian hooch is a steady stream for you, rather than a one-time deal. I can always find Irish, even some crazy Japanese, but Canadian is harder to come by as of late," she adds as she lifts the glass to the light and admires the deep amber hue.

"My friend's call me Husky, but you can call me whatever you want as long as you call me soon. This is business. We'll get to the pleasure later" he replied with a wink. "After the risque affair that was the Fort Wayne whiskey heist, I decided to invest in a much less precarious method of procurement. Took me a while, had to see a man about a horse." Husky paused as he gulped the whiskey down and smacked his lips before continuing "Thanks to the US Coast Guard and some well placed threats and bribes, you are now looking at the only bulk supplier of grade-A Canadian whiskey in Detroit." He put his glass down , stubbed out his cigarette and said, "Question is," he paused to look directly into her piercing green eyes "What can YOU offer me that any other establishment in the district can not?"

Nikki scrutinized him from over the top of her glass as she sipped. Using her best poker face, she tried to look neutral as she drank, but it was proving difficult. The whisky was good. Very good. She preferred it over Irish personally, which was a sacrilege to any Italian, but fuck it, she was Polish anyway.

"I'll be blatantly honest with you, Husky. I'm a powerless nothing these days. Not long ago, I was a Consigliere and Right Hand to a crew leader in New York. He died, I woke up still alive, yada yada yada, I'm now a lowly Wise Guy in the neon jungle of Vegas. So I don't exactly have a finger on the pulse anymore.

But I've got one connection left, one that just so happens to need an influx of Canadian in large quantities. 

Frank-Dicaprio .

Husky saw her eyes shutting as soon as her lips touched the Whiskey. That was all he needed to see right through her feeble attempt at pretending she did not care for the whiskey. Reading people , the subtle unconscious tells they made, the misdirections, the bluffs they tried was what helped him negotiate the right price at his sales. It was a part of his job, a job he was VERY good at. A former Right Hand to a crew leader would have a lot of connections, regardless of how far she claimed to be out of the game. He had to be very careful about how he put forth his proposal.

"Ofcourse, and I'm just a schmuck with a lucky streak, trying to sell off the a couple of crates that fell off the back of a truck. All so I can pay off my gambling debts." he said with a mock grin letting her know she could not fool him.
"If what you say is true," he began while closing the bottle and putting it in his pocket. "I should walk out this door and look for someone else." he said while getting up and dusting himself off preparing to leave. He took a step, hesitated, turned around and flashing his most charming smile said, "I couldn't forgive myself if I left without watching those hips sway. So how about it? Dance with me, and maybe I'll change my mind about the possibilities." Taking a step forward he offered her his hand and said "For instance I might agree to a meeting with your associate and I might even agree to sell you the whisky, if you agree to exclusively use my stock of Canadian in all your establishments across the nation and if you took me to the Opera with your old friends in New York and to a poker game with your new ones out west." He saw her tilt her head and grinned as he could feel the gears running in her head while she thought about his proposal.

Nikki could see one of the most profitable deals of her life slipping away, but she wasn't as ruthless and careless as most of her male counterparts could be in order to stop it. It was accepted, common even, for men to do these things...not so much for women. 

Standing, she smiled. "The 'associate' of mine? He's more than that," she said, holding up her left hand to display the diamond and sapphire engagement ring there. A year ago, hell, a couple months ago she wouldn't have hesitated to seal this deal in a most carnal way and enjoy every minute of it, but she couldn't do that to Frank. He was so damn good to her.

And then, shit clicked. Her eyes glazed over as his words sunk in...all the words.

"Opera in New York?"

Husky had seen the ring. He could have seen it from the moon. That thing was huge. Normally that would not have affected him in the slightest, but the way her eyes lit up when she talked about him was enough to convince him that he was barking up wrong tree. He smiled to hide his disappointment. It was a habit he had picked up while on the run for all those years. He let his hand drop slowly to the side and sat back down, knowing she had taken the bait. 

"I always wanted to go to the metropolitan opera house. You see such ," he paused to take a sip then looking at his glass , continued "interesting people there. " He looked at her reeling in the hook, "Wouldn't you agree?"

Sliding forward in her seat, she tried her hardest to read him. She was so damn transparent it was pathetic, but she couldn't stop freight trains of memories, even when they didn't belong to her directly. 

"Of course. Interesting people, indeed. Do you know anyone that's been there? I hear it's...really something," she said, waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

If it did, everything would change.