Free The Predators by Harold Robbins Page A

but he ain’t that crazy.” I went to the register and opened it. “A hundred and forty bucks,” I said.
    “There has to be more than that,” Buddy insisted. “Press the lever on the side of the cash drawer. It’ll slip out.”
    I did what he told me. He was right. The cash drawer came out. There was nothing but bills there. Quickly, I figured how much. Over a thousand dollars. I slid the cash drawer back into the register. “He’s crazy to keep all that cash here.”
    “He’s a bookie,” Buddy said. “He uses that money to pay off bets.”
    It was almost nine o’clock and a light snow was just beginning. I started closing the glass shutters. Buddy and José were helping me. I was still trying to decide whether I should take the money with me when we closed up. I saw Aunt Lila pull up in their car in front of the store.
    She got out and came over to me. “Where’s Harry?”
    I leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “He went to the agency to get some new Puerto Rican help, because nobody but José showed up for work today. He’s not back yet,” I said.
    A taxi pulled up behind their car at that moment. “Here I am,” Harry called out hurriedly as he got out of the cab.

17
    Now that the war was on, everything was changing. More than ever women were taking over jobs that men used to do. Here, at the counter, Uncle Harry hired young Puerto Rican girls instead of the boys he used to hire. Buddy said that Harry got the better of the bargain. Not only did he pay the girls less than the boys, he was always able to talk one or two of them into giving him a fuck. They didn’t complain. They needed the job. The only other opportunity they would have was to work as cleaning women. That paid even less than Harry paid, and they could only work a day or two a week. At least this was steady work.
    Graduation day for me was on the twentieth of January. When I woke up that morning, Aunt Lila had a big special breakfast prepared for me. I had made a 3.0 grade average. It wasn’t great, but it was better than flunking out.
    Aunt Lila and Kitty were coming to the school for the graduation exercises. Harry had to keep the store open; as he said, without him “nothing would work.”
    Aunt Lila gave me a nice Arrow shirt and Kitty gave me a bulky sweater. She said that would keep me warm, since it was cold at the counter at night now when the windows were open.
    After I got my diploma, Aunt Lila dropped Kitty and me back at the apartment house. She told us that she was going to go by and pick Harry up a little early and surprise him. She said she had gotten Harry an Arrow shirt, too, and she wanted to give it to him.
    I looked at Kitty and she looked at me. We both had the same thought. I ran into the apartment and called the counter. Fat Rita answered at the register.
    “Where’s Harry?” I asked.
    “Upstairs,” she said. I could hear her gum clicking against her teeth. “He’s got one of the spick girls with him.”
    “Get upstairs and tell him that Aunt Lila’s on her way down there,” I said.
    “I can’t do that,” she said fearfully. “He’d kill me if I went up there.”
    “It’ll be worse if you don’t call him,” I said. “There goes your job.”
    “I don’t care,” she said, starting to cry. “I’m afraid. You know his temper.”
    “You call him,” I said firmly. “He won’t be angry. He’ll thank you for it. Believe me.”
    She hesitated a moment. “Stay on the phone,” she said. “Don’t hang up. I’ll go up and knock on the door.”
    I held on for almost two minutes. She came back on the phone. “Everything’s okay,” she said.
    “Thanks, Rita,” I said, and hung up the phone.
    I turned to Kitty. “She got him.”
    “Good,” she said, and pulled an envelope out of her purse and held it in her hand. “This came for you this morning in the mail just before I went to your graduation.”
    I looked down at it. An official draft board envelope. I opened it and took